Protein. Fibre Sugar: The Midlife Connection

Hello, Colleen. Welcome, and welcome to anyone who's watching on the replay. We'll get started in a few minutes. Just give it some time to see if anyone else is going to join. In the meantime, how are you doing, Colleen? Everything all well with you? You are actually muted. If you want to unmute yourself, I'd love to chat. I wasn't muted coming in, so it must change when Yeah, it might mute you automatically.

Yeah, I think it does. So I'm happy to be here, and this is my first meeting, so I was— I wasn't planning on it just being me.

Well, I'm— nothing personal, I hope that there's more than just you joining us today, but we'll see.

I just thought I'd sit back and watch how it flows.

And of course, and you don't have to join in. I was just waiting for people to, to come in, so I thought I'd say hello and thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

Sometimes we have a good crowd and sometimes it's just a couple of people, so we'll see how it goes. At any rate, we, we record this so it's always available for the— for a replay.

Yeah, and there is a gym and I had to rush, rush home and thought, oh, I got to make it on time.

Oh well, you know what, it's nice because if you have questions, it's a great opportunity to, to pose your questions, and it doesn't have to be about the presentation. It can about anything. So any— are you currently in the program?

Can somebody— I am in the program. Um, can, can you watch previous meetings, or how would you do that?

So, um, let me see if I can get a copy for you of the— it's, it's all on, um, YouTube playlist.

Would you be sending it to my email?

I can put it in the chat for you with— if that helps, and then you can just save it. Does that—

I'm technology challenged.

Okay, are you part of our Facebook group by any chance?

I am not. I don't do Facebook. I had a bad experience back in the day and I just stay away from it.

I got back to it. Um, I can email it to you.

Um, I'm sorry for the extra trouble.

No, I just want to make sure, uh, I have your email address.

So you may not. So it's drivingteacher23@gmail.com. All right, guess what I did for a living?

Um, gee, I'm not sure, Colleen. Do you want to tell me?

It's the white hair.

It used to be really brown, brown, brown, Oh boy, so that's not a fun job, is that what you're saying?

Actually, it is. It's, it's a safe job and it is fun because you have a break on your side and a very fast left hand.

I guess you would have to have very good coordination too, right?

But thank you for, uh, sending that.

Oh, absolutely, not a problem. Hey Jennifer! Hi Claudia! Thank you guys for joining. We'll get started in a minute.

Hello.

Hello. Would love to hear any updates from anyone in terms of the program or, yeah, like how things are going for you. Jennifer, I know you are active. Claudia, I'm not sure if you are, have been in the, had been in the program and have now finished.

I'm a graduate.

I lost 15 pounds and— oh my gosh, I gained back 8. So I'm back on the release phase just to lose those pounds. Wonderful. Wonderful. So doing a second round. Excellent.

Yeah, it's going— it's going well. I'm I was, I was actually quite tired this week, so I wasn't feeling my best this week, but, um, but I feel really good today. I got a good night's sleep last night and, um, sleep is something that I've always needed to work on. Um, so it's something that I'm really trying to focus on. And, uh, but yeah, I actually went back to the last two rounds that I did and started screen cuz I had so many great meals and I was like, I, I need some inspiration here. So I went back and I started screen capping all of my meals from before. And so I started, you know, really making more and stuff. I love the challenge of trying to make meals that taste and look good, even with all these limitations and restrictions.

I know. And you're so wonderful about sending photos and your meals do look amazing. Let me just say. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. They look really, really good.

Can I ask, is, is Anna Lisa not with the company anymore?

Um, Annalisa is just temporarily, um, paused, paused, taking a pause. Um, we're just doing some new changes into just the overall structure, and then when that's sort of all back in place, that we're hoping Annalisa will be able to come back. Oh, okay, good. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, so just for anyone who hasn't been with us before, we just do a little introductory presentation, a little bit of information, and then open the floor up to questions and answers. They can be presentation, but they do not have to be. They can be about anything related to the program that you might be wondering or struggling with. Um, and yeah, anything and everything sort of goes here. So just a little, uh, preview. And then today we're going to be talking about sort of a continuation from last week. And Colleen, I'll get you the, the replay link so you can watch last week's presentation if you're interested. Um, and last week we talked about sleep and, and stress and blood sugar, and today we're going to continue the conversation on blood sugar, talking about protein and fiber and how those are related to blood sugar. And not only that, but mostly in midlife. And I know I'm sure we're all like very aware of some of the changes our bodies go through as we enter midlife. So 40 and beyond, because it's very real and it's a natural shift. So there are a few things that we can better support our bodies by doing as we age. And we will just talk a little bit about some of those things tonight. So without further ado, why don't I get into our presentation today? I know everyone's time is valuable. I'm just gonna share my screen and then we can get started. Okay, everyone can see that, I hope.

All right.

So as I mentioned, today we're gonna talk a little bit about some of the macronutrients, specifically protein and fiber, and how they relate to, uh, blood sugar in midlife. And why this matters.

So, Laura, yes, sorry to interrupt, but there's something that says audience window. This window is what your audience sees.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Turn that off there. Now we can see it because it was blurry behind there.

Of course.

And blocking some of it.

Sorry about that. That's okay. Thank you.

Yeah.

Now I just have to find my notes section again. Bear with me 1 second. There we go. All good?

Perfect.

Excellent. Thank you. Okay, so why does this matter more in midlife? These, these two macronutrients are very much tied in with our blood sugar and deeply connected in midlife because our body's needs change as we age. This is probably not a surprise to anyone. And of course, supporting our metabolism as we, as we get older is more important than ever. And you may be wondering, you know, or this may— you may have experienced that sort of, um, I feel like I'm doing everything right, you know, I'm eating really healthy, I'm doing well, I've continued on with a lot of the tools that I've learned, yet things are not responding to me in the same way. Or, you know, this— I could do this when I was younger and now this isn't working for me anymore. Why not, right? And that's because midlife brings some real physiological changes and challenges. Our hormones are shifting, and women tend to experience this more than men simply because of perimenopause and menopause. Our muscle mass is naturally declining as we age, and that impacts our insulin and our insulin sensitivity. So that just means that nutrition needs to be a little bit more intentional. So we're going to talk about some of those things today and why what worked when we were younger may need adjusting in midlife. Um, and some of those things include blood sugar, you know, stabilizing blood sugar, why our glucose levels become crucial in midlife and beyond, how protein can impact and influence that, why fiber is essential in midlife not only for hormone balance but for gut health and blood sugar control as well, and how they all work together. And I hope to also give you some practical action steps and strategies that you can use and take way to implement to support your health goals. So let's talk about blood sugar just to begin with. And, um, you may or may not really have a, a great understanding of what that is, but basically blood sugar just refers to the amount of glucose circulating in your bloodstream. It comes mostly from carbohydrates that we eat, and it powers everything from our cellular function to our physical activity. And we sometimes think of blood sugar or glucose as the enemy because we hear a lot of negative things about it, you know, imbalance and spikes, et cetera. But really it's just the fuel that our bodies use as energy. And it's actually our body's preferred source of energy because it's very easy for our body to access. So there is nothing inherently wrong with glucose itself. The issue becomes centered around when we eat in the way of the standard American diet, we tend to create more blood sugar than we can physically use. And that means when our bodies can't use as much as we are consuming, um, we store it as fat and that's what we don't want, right? And that's probably why we are all here. So ultimately our goal is to have a steady, consistent availability of glucose rather than this overload of it that causes spikes and, and crashes. And in midlife, we are susceptible to hormone shifts, particularly declining estrogen and progesterone. This causes our cells to become less responsive to insulin and just makes it a little bit harder to manage our blood sugar levels effectively. So that means that it's more likely for our bodies to store excess glucose as fat. And for women especially, it happens around the midsection, you know, the, or the abdomen. If you've ever heard the term "meno belly," that's what that's all about. It can mean higher spikes and faster crashes. And that leads to those 2 PM slumps in the afternoon where you feel like you're reaching for caffeine or chocolate or you know, sugar, or it can be even a difficulty in maintaining focus and productivity. Of course, it can also increase our hunger levels and our cravings and mood fluctuations. And this is just all ultimately signaling to our body that it's, it's not in a safe mode. It's, it's in that sympathetic state, that fight or flight, and it's not and that it needs to conserve energy. And that, of course, looks like stored fat, which we, we do not want. So some of the common signs of blood sugar can include afternoon energy crashes, feeling that hangry feeling, if you've ever heard that term, where you just feel like slightly irritable or shaky if you miss a meal or if your meal is delayed. It can look like cravings for sugar or carbohydrates that maybe come out of nowhere. It may look like waking up in the middle of the night, you know, that 2 to 4 AM wake-up time, if you've ever experienced that, and of course have trouble falling back to sleep, that's likely an indication that your blood sugar level dropped during the evening. You may also notice it as difficulty losing weight despite eating all the right things, or again, that weight collecting in that midsection area. Or it can just look as like a little bit of mental fog, brain fog, or less mental acuity or difficulty concentrating during the day. And this is just, you know, meant to bring some awareness to those patterns because once we recognize them, we can respond more appropriately with better nourishment and just more supportive structure rather than blaming ourselves that we're doing something eating wrong, or even worse, restricting food, which can have the opposite effect to what we want. And of course, not everything affects our blood sugar in the same way, but every time we eat, we are sending a signal to our body, not just by way of calories, but by way of information. And certain foods impact blood sugar in different ways, or certain behaviors impact blood sugar in different ways. For example, when we eat a lot of refined or quickly digesting carbohydrates, especially on their own with nothing else— so think like a big bowl of pasta with just tomato sauce on it, nothing else in it, or, um, you know, a granola bar or something like that that's just really refined and quickly digesting— our blood sugar is going to get impacted almost immediately and rise very rapidly. And this is in response to the body releasing insulin to kind of move that glucose through our bloodstreams, it can really result in a very, very steep rise and a very, very steep drop, or a crash if you've ever heard that terminology, blood sugar crash. Um, and those crashes are exactly what we do not want. We do not want those really intense spikes and crashes because this is what's going to drive all of those symptoms we were just talking about— fatigue and irritability and cravings— and they can last for hours, actually. So something to keep in mind about, you know, when we are eating carbohydrates, not to eat them alone. We're going to talk about that as well coming up, but that's just one of the, the points here. Another thing is skipping meals, you know, and it's different than intentional you know, fasting where you know that you have a very structured schedule. But if you are in a rush and you are out and about on the road or whatever, and you're not able to, um, to get to your regular meal, it's going to create a different kind of disruption to your blood sugar. It can gradually drop instead, and this is going to raise your stress hormones, and they rise to compensate the fact that you're not eating, right? But by the time we do eat, you're so overprimed to respond that then you can also have other types of symptoms that can look like digestive discomfort. If you've ever skipped a meal and then like your stomach is— you're not really like hungry where it's those very specific hunger pangs, but it's almost like a pain. That kind of digestive discomfort can, it can be an indication. Another is that similar spike and crash cycle. But the powerful part about this, and what we're really going to discuss today, is the fact that when you include some protein and fiber with your meal, it really improves the response to your blood sugar. It allows your digestion to slow because it's decreasing the— how rapidly glucose is entering your blood, your bloodstream. That whole response becomes much more smoother and steadier and allows you for you to have steadier energy responses throughout the day and for longer periods of time. You're going to feel more satisfied. You're not going to feel like you have cravings or hunger. You're going to feel more focused and you're going to be less driven by those cravings. And this is why we want to emphasize really balanced meals. And that's why we do throughout the reset. If you, you know, we make sure you have protein at every meal. Um, and we don't, you know, we're not really all about cutting carbs. That's not the, the thought process behind any of this. It's just about pairing them wisely so you're supporting your body instead of stressing it. And during midlife, as we're just, we have been talking about, this becomes even more important. As we age, we naturally lose muscle. It's a process called sarcopenia. But muscle is metabolically active tissue, and we want to make sure that we do not lose too much of it. And protein is what helps our bodies preserve muscle. It does that by supporting our metabolic rate and stabilizing our blood sugar. And all of these are more, again, pronounced in midlife due to the aging process, due to our hormonal shifts. And adequately intaking intaking protein and eating enough protein really does help protect our muscle mass and keeps our metabolism strong and supported, um, and the body, uh, able to properly regulate our blood sugar. So when you're including protein in your meals regularly, it really slows the rate at which food is leaving your stomach and is digested. And that means that glucose is entering the bloodstream more gradually rather than all at once. It's not creating those spikes and dips that we do not want. Protein stimulating the release of signals to your brain that are telling you, uh, that you've had enough food, right? So it's that appetite control. This is also helping reduce the desire to snack and graze and crave certain kinds of foods, and that feeling of possibly, if you've ever had it, needing something sweet after you eat. And again, in midlife, this becomes more important because even small blood sugar dips can feel more intense than they used to. Again, related to all the changes happening in our body hormonally. Protein helps buffer those dips and it keeps your body feeling nourished and steady. And that's why we often say protein is not just about muscle, it's about metabolic stability. It's helping create that calm, predictable environment your body really wants and needs to feel safe and function well. So what should protein look like in midlife? You know, roughly aiming for about 20 to 30 grams per meal is a really good starting point. This is going to be enough to support muscle maintenance and satiety. But, you know, obviously individual needs vary based on factors, but I think 20 to 30 grams per meal is a really good target if this is new to you. And that can look like 3 large eggs. It can look like maybe 3/4 to 1 cup of Greek yogurt or cottage cheese. A good way to eyeball it is, is using the palm of your hand, and that would be approximately the serving size of a portion of chicken or fish or turkey, an animal-based protein, or around around a cup to a cup and a half of beans or lentils. Always make sure you're choosing good quality, whole food options to ensure you're getting the full amino acid profile, which is really the foundational structure of protein, as well as all the nutrients that you need. And, you know, some of the, some of the concerns we have in terms of protein are like, are we eating too much of it? I don't feel well while I'm eating it, you know, I'm not feeling like I, I'm digesting it properly, or even, you know, what if I don't feel hungry? And that changes as we age as well. But, but getting enough protein doesn't have to mean having like huge portions of it or really large heavy meals. You know, as I was saying, a palm-sized serving is often enough. It can be animal-based, it can be plant-based, whatever you prefer. And if your appetite just feels off or low or your digestion feels a little bit sensitive, the best way to adapt to that is just make sure you're getting smaller portions throughout the day. So you don't have to concentrate on getting all your protein at dinner time, for example. If you have a little bit with each meal throughout the day and spreading it out, you're going to make sure at least you're meeting the, the quantity of protein that you need without feeling overly full or like it's too heavy. So really just, you know, understanding the takeaway here is that regular protein intake is going to create that stability that you need and never to force food. Just give, give your body steady energy throughout the day so that you don't have to compensate for it later on. Switching to fiber, I think fiber is honestly the missing piece that most of us have, especially in midlife. And when we think about fiber, often we think about regularity, you know, bowel movements. And of course that's important, but fiber's role really goes far and beyond that. And especially in midlife, fiber acts as a stabilizer to our blood sugar, balancing it, you know, balancing blood sugar levels and regulating hormones it's very important for good gut health, and it also helps sustain weight loss. So if you've achieved your weight loss goal or are working towards that, and when you, when you hit it, you wanna make sure that you're sustaining it, right? You did all this hard work. You don't want it to, to have to start all over again. So fiber can often be that missing piece that most of us are not getting enough of. And many adults are eating a lot less fiber than we actually need. Highly processed foods, rushed meals, or years of restrictive eating or dieting often have crowded fiber out of the mix, even for people who otherwise felt like they ate well. But fiber is really important in supporting all of our metabolic processes. So even, you know, specifically blood sugar, when you're eating carbohydrates without much fiber, they digest too quickly, right? And again, glucose enters the bloodstream too fast. That rapid rise in blood sugar often leads to a really strong insulin response, and then we get that crash and burn cycle, right? We don't want that. But fiber helps slow this process down and acts as a natural barrier in the digestive tract that delays how quickly that glucose is hitting the bloodstream. So really, really important. And again, you know, making sure you're getting enough fiber over the course of your meals just helps improve that insulin sensitivity and reduce the intensity of any blood sugar swings. It also really is good for your gut and your metabolic health. It's the primary fuel— fiber fuels the good bacteria in our gut. Guts. And if, you know, we talk a lot about gut health in the program, and we know how important the good gut bacteria are. And when these bacteria are well fed, they break the fiber down into compounds that we use that help us reduce inflammation and support our insulin sensitivity and help the body use energy more efficiently. So it's really important to take care of those good gut bacteria as well. Probiotics are a great way to do that as well, but keeping enough fiber in the diet through whole foods is ideal. And a diverse, healthy gut microbiome also influences how we store fat, you know, how hungry we feel, and how our immune system is responding to stress. Even, even midlife can have effects on the gut, making us more sensitive to stress and medications. Hormonal challenges, years of restrictive dieting that have done any sort of damage. I'm gonna get to that. Jennifer just asked, how much fiber should we be getting per day? I'm gonna get to that, I think, the next slide or two. And yes, so fiber helps maintain that good communication between the gut and the rest of the body. So fiber in midlife for women is often, you know, when, or at least, at least when we're thinking about hormonal balance, we're thinking about menopause, we're thinking about perimenopause, the ovaries and the adrenals. But the gut does play a huge role in, in this as well. Inside the gut is a collection of bacteria known as the estrobolone. and this bacteria helps regulate how we metabolize estrogen and clear it out of our bodies. And this is not just for women, this is for men as well. And women have more estrogen than men do, but men need to clear it out as well. And the beauty of fiber is it binds to any excess estrogen we have in our bodies and gets it out of our digestive tract. So if we're not removing excess estrogen from our bodies, we're recirculating it through our bodies. And this is leading to, uh, symptoms like weight gain. It can be leading to menopausal symptoms like hot flashes. It can lead to bloating and inflammation and, you know, changes in our mood. So it's really important to get rid of the estrogen that we're not using, and fiber is the key to doing that. It also supports appetite regulation. It means you stay full longer after meals, so you're not, you know, craving snacks in between meals. And it's increasing our fullness hormones, reducing between-meal cravings, and it's also preventing us from overeating. So very, very important to get enough fiber in our meals. There's a couple of different kinds of fiber as well that I think are important to touch on, and not, not all types of fiber work in the same way. We have soluble fiber. That's a type of fiber that dissolves in water, and it forms like a gel-like substance in the digestive tract. This helps to slow digestion and the absorption of glucose and makes it really helpful for blood sugar stability as well as cholesterol balance. Soluble fiber is found in foods like oats and beans and chia seeds and psyllium. And then we have insoluble fiber, which is the opposite. It does not dissolve in water, but instead adds bulk to our stool and helps move food through the digestive tract more efficient— efficiently. It's what's supporting our regularity, bowel movements, and can be found in foods like leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, the skin of fruits and vegetables, and low glycemic berries. So one isn't better than the other necessarily. You want to have both types of fiber in your diet. And then rather than focusing on maybe trying to make sure you have both, just getting variety in your diet is probably the easiest and best way to make sure you're getting both types of fiber. Because when you're eating a wide range of whole foods, you're naturally getting a mix of both of those. Um, chia seeds are permitted, uh, Jennifer, in the maintenance phase. They would be something you would add in when you're adding in healthy fats. So here we are. What— how much fiber do we need, right? Again, as with protein, I think consistency over the course of the day is what matters. Most, most people need around 25 to 30 grams of fiber per day. Most of us are also getting a lot less than that, even when we feel like we're eating well. But it's— what's really important here is is not to jump from very low or almost no fiber to 25 to 30 grams, because that's just going to result in a lot of digestive distress, bloating, gas, discomfort, because your gut does need a little bit of time to adapt to more fiber in your diet. So again, a really good approach is to spread it out through the day, increase it slowly, maybe 3 to 5 grams at a time. Just to allow your body that adjustment period before you sort of hit your target goal. It's really important as well to drink enough water. Hydration is key to fiber doing its job properly. So really honing in on your hydration goals through the day is necessary and helpful, right? And again, just spreading out the fiber that you're eating consistently through the day is going to prevent digestive overload and any of those symptoms of bloating and discomfort that you might experience if you eat too much too fast. And this can look like, you know, maybe having some oats for breakfast with, with some flaxseed and berries, maybe even a little Greek yogurt for protein to get that combination going. It can look like a large salad with some chickpeas on it for fiber, really great combination. That's also protein as well, but you can add a little bit of a grilled chicken or something like that to your salad to have that combination. And then adding some quinoa or some wild rice with a piece of salmon and some vegetables on the side for your meal at dinner time is a wonderful way to have that protein-fiber combination and getting it throughout the day, right? Little portions throughout the day. If you're looking to just add 3 to 5 grams here and there if you need to top up. You can look at things like some apple slices with almond butter or some vegetables with hummus, um, or even just a little small handful of nuts. Again, this is more focused towards the maintenance phase. However, something that you can keep in mind going forward. And then just again, this is how it all comes together. Protein and fiber are what's going to give you really good, stable blood sugar balance. They work as a team to create that stability. It's the protein that's slowing your digestion and helping moderate how quickly food moves through your stomach, while fiber is furthering and slow— furthering the slowing of absorption of the carbohydrates. Regulates and controls the release of glucose through the bloodstream. It's really important that we have these two together in a meal. It's going to create that steady energy that we want instead of those spikes and crashes. And when your blood sugar is stable, your insulin response is calmer, your body doesn't feel the need to compensate by driving cravings or storing fat. And again, in midlife, all the more important than it used to be. And even like these smaller imbalances when things are off feel bigger in midlife because of everything else that's going on due to the aging process. So, you know, building your meals around a good balance of protein and fiber is key, and it's going to be far more sustainable and less stressful for your body. So just a reminder as we kind of wrap up this presentation is that your body is constantly communicating with you in changes in energy, appetite, cravings, or weight should never be viewed as failures. They're nothing you're doing wrong. They're simply feedback you're getting from your body, and I cannot strive this enough. Pay attention to those signals because your body is trying to tell you something. And midlife is a season where our body's needs shift. What could have felt effortless 10, 20 years ago may now require a different kind of support. And that should not be considered a setback. It's just an invitation to respond more intentionally. And when we focus on stabilizing blood sugar and prioritizing protein and consistently including fiber throughout the meals in our day, we're just creating this beautiful environment where our body feels nourished, our nervous system feels steady, and we feel supported. And from that place, all of our systems improve, our energy, our cravings soften, and metabolic changes become easier to navigate. And it's not about trying to do it perfectly, and we always say that. It's really just about the small, consistent choices over time that are going to move the needle forward. So thank you for joining me on this presentation. We can now— I'll stop sharing and and you have any questions about this or any questions about anything in the program or where you're at, I am all ears and would love to be of assistance. Did that make things a little bit more, um, understandable? Like, I know sometimes some of these topics and conversations you kind of know about them, but you, you know, you don't really know why they are happening in your body and can feel a little bit hard to understand and figure out. I think blood sugar is a big— has a big question mark around it for a lot of people. So I hope that that shed a little more insight and was helpful for you, at least.

Well, while you were talking, I was, I was like, I went and started looking back through Practice Better to see what my fiber intake was per day. And I think it's really difficult to get up to 25 to 30, like, grams, certainly while you're on the program.

Yes. Especially during the release phase, it is definitely more challenging. Yes.

But I think there's only one day that I was up around 30, and there was another day that I was like 23 or whatever.

But yeah, and I think we have to sort of put it into perspective that the release phase is really kind of like a therapeutic part of the, the program. It's not forever, and we don't want you to do it forever for those reasons, because you are missing out on other things, you know, fats in the body and having some of those complex carbohydrates that do provide a lot of fiber. Um, but you know, you've— the fruit and vegetable part of it, even though they're smaller quantities, you're still getting fiber from it. I think that the 25 to 30 grams is sort of more in the maintenance phase side of things where you are able to have a little bit more variety in in your food choices.

But even in the maintenance phase, like a lot of the things that you were suggesting— Greek yogurt, things like that— we don't have any of that in the maintenance phase even?

Oh, you can. Yes, absolutely. Come weeks 9 and 10, you can start reintroducing dairy.

Yeah, I guess.

Week 8, you can start reintroducing starchy carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates like quinoa and rice and things like that. So yeah, you can absolutely do it. Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Because I love that as kind of a— like, I love a lot of variety in my food. Um, so that's one of the more challenging parts. Of doing the program is because there isn't a lot of variety.

So yeah, I, you know, I think from a variety perspective, really utilize your vegetables, both free and, and approved, because there are so many options when it comes to that that you can play around with. And then also I think having additional seasonings and using herbs just from a flavor variety perspective can be really, really helpful in making, you know, making things taste a little bit different. You could be having the same base vegetable, for example, but really change up the way it tastes with broth or seasonings and herbs. Even sprinkling fresh herbs on a salad makes your salad pop and taste totally different than just plain lettuce.

Well, if you've seen any of my pictures, you'll know I'm not afraid of fresh herbs. I use a lot of them.

You do use—

I love that too. Yeah. Yes.

You just did one with dill and, and shrimp and it looked amazing.

That salad the other day was amazing.

Yeah. But it looked really, really good. Yeah. So yeah, play around with it that way. And again, you know, the, the release phase really is intended to be a therapeutic part of the program, not a forever.

Yeah, for sure.

Yep. Any other questions, comments, challenges, takeaways? Would love to hear any or all. Even any wins, anything you're grateful for that you've achieved being on the program. I would love to hear that.

I've been doing all the talking. I want other people to talk.

Yeah.

Well, you share your recipes?

Sorry?

Do you share your recipes?

Absolutely. Absolutely, I do.

I'm excited just hearing about, and how excited you are in making them. I don't find myself excited in the kitchen anymore.

No? Do you like to cook?

Um, I've cooked, but probably not, uh, for, um, the program. Yeah, my knowledge is limited. Um, I will not tell you what I used to eat and cook.

And, you know, do you like to eat?

I do.

Okay, can I show you, Laura? Do you mind if I show some pictures?

Go ahead, I'd love for you to.

Um, because like I said, I was looking for some inspiration, um, and so I started, um, taking a bunch of pictures. So these are actually from Practice Better, right, where I had uploaded sort of my ingredients and all of the things. So I remember My family was having burgers that night, and one of the struggles is eating the same and with my family so that we have that like shared meal experience. And, um, they were having burgers and my husband is like, well, I know you can't have a burger. I'm like, I can have a burger.

I can have a burger.

Don't tell me I can't have a burger. I can have a burger. So this was my burger. And I remember I was like, this is so good. It was so good. So this is just a, um, cabbage leaf, I believe. Yeah, 2 cabbage leaves. I have some mushrooms on here, some tomato, some lettuce.

Do you—

at the end of the last time I did the program, Laura, I remember, I remember I was, I was looking at, you know, how in the program they recommend Walden Farms Walden Farms dressings.

Yes.

So I was looking through the ingredients of Walden Farms dressings because I was like, tell me about how, like, how are they doing this, right? And, uh, one of the ingredients is xanthan gum. And I have xanthan gum because I love to cook, and xanthan gum is really great for thickening sauces without adding any, like, bulk or flavor. And that was one of the things that I was really struggling with when it came to my food. I love to make like a chicken piccata or something like that. And, and like having this like thin watery sauce was not doing it for me. So adding that tiny little bit of xanthan gum was a game changer when it came to like creating some sauces. But when I mentioned that one day, I think it was Annalisa was like, like, yeah, maybe we should be staying away from things like that. And I was like, well, it's an ingredient in the— so I don't know if— are you still recommending Walden dressings?

It didn't— yes, we— yeah, it's definitely still on our list of, um, approved, uh, condiments. Yeah. Okay, great.

Because one of the things I have in here is the Walden Farms barbecue sauce, which is awesome. I just used it the other day to top some meatloaves, and like little— I made little mini meatloaves in like a muffin tin. Colleen, don't write it all down. If you send me your email address, I'll just send you a bunch of pictures and it's got all of this in there. I can see your head's down.

I know. Hopefully not just the pictures.

No, no, no.

It's—

this is the whole picture. The whole picture has the ingredients with it. All right. So I'll show you another one. Hold on. So that's the— that's the burger. There's a beef stew.

And you make it so appealing.

Thank you.

I think you could be a food stylist. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. I don't know. Not with this stuff. This is one of my absolute favorite meals and it is the easiest thing to put together because what happens is as you braise the cabbage, like you braise all of this together, which is basically stick it in a pot with some broth, stick the lid on and let it go. The cabbage gets soft and sweet. So you get a lot of sweetness from the cabbage as it breaks down and braises. And the whole thing is just the most comforting meal. So, Colleen, if you want to put your, your email address or some sort of contact information, or I can send them to Laura and she can send them to you.

I don't mind giving you my, my email address.

I'm happy to just send you like, this is, um, that one looks really good.

Yeah, this is like a stir fry. It, this is what I would do like on when I get home from work and I have no time to throw something together.

Together.

One of my favorite hacks that I learned last time was that bag of like broccoli slaw that you can get at the grocery store. That's gold. Like, if— so the other thing that I do is I prepackage my meats in tiny, in like pre-measured portions, and I make sure that they're really flat and thin so they defrost like this. They defrost so quickly, so I can take them out, throw them in some water, start prepping some vegetables. They're defrosted by the time I'm ready to use them, and then I just throw it all in a pot and it's great with some seasonings, and away I go. Um, that's just a chicken breast with apple cider vinegar. It's got Dijon mustard on it, some green beans. Um, and then I was playing with the fruit. I took like frozen berries and whizzed them up to kind of make myself like a little frozen berry slushie. That was delicious. That's like a little lettuce wrap. It's got eggplant on it and chicken. This was a super quick meal as well.

Well, that's great, and I really appreciate you offering to share them.

Oh yeah, for sure. There's that— there's like a, like a chicken piccata kind of thing. It's got dill, and then you can see that the sauce has got a little bit of viscosity to it. That's because of the xanthan gum, and you need like a teeny, teeny, teeny tiny little bit.

You need barely any. It's very potent.

I've never used that before. So how do you spell that?

It's in here. Z-A-N-T-H-A-N.

Okay.

Yeah.

Xanthan gum. And you need a teeny tiny— I once ruined like some turkey gravy with— because I did not understand how, how little you need. And it made it like gummy and gluey. And I had like, like turkey Jell-O.

It was good.

But that's chili, which I love making. And I have a red chili and a white chili that I've also made. That's just fish on vegetables. That's fish next to vegetables. I love like taking my vegetables and spiralizing them or doing different things to make them feel like noodles. This is, this is an example of that broccoli slaw. So this is like, so I used ground beef. You can insert any ground protein, turkey, chicken, pork, whatever you want. Want. And then broccoli slaw, and then a little bit of shredded carrots, and then maybe some cabbage. Um, I use mushrooms, ginger, soy sauce, lime juice, and it's like to die for. That is chicken on asparagus and green beans and mushrooms. I will— oh, this is pickle brine chicken. So one of the other things that I love to do is I take pickle juice. I actually store it. My husband hates that I have like jars and jars and jars of pickle juice, and I will take pickle juice and I will brine my chicken in the pickle juice. And then it adds like a ton of flavor. You just have to make sure that your pickle juice doesn't have sugar in it. And a lot of them don't, so it's not that hard, but it's so flavorful and it tenderizes your chicken at the same time. And, uh, which basically means that you can't overcook it. Um, yeah, so just this one's got a pork tenderloin, which I made for my family. So I— it come— sometimes they come in a package of two. So I made one like with all like oil and, you know, stuff like that for my family, and then I made one for me. So, um, you can just bake it and then you'll see like it comes up a few times. This This is— I used an acorn squash. Oh, Laura, can we have— is there any squashes that we can have in release? Like, I know we can have zucchini. Yeah, you can.

Let me get the list for you.

This would be like an Asian bowl, like a noodle bowl, and I probably put it over riced cauliflower. Yeah, I've got cauliflower in here and a little bit of carrots. That's sea bass. That would, that would have been a special dinner.

Yeah, I, I, you could have a side job, Jennifer, and cook for all the clients and mail them out.

Honestly, like, that's always been sort of a, like, when I'm, I used to make food for my children when they were babies. And, um, that used to be like my dream side job is I would be like hired by rich families to make baby food for, for their children.

So I'm up for adoption to be a grandmother.

Have you used palmini noodles?

No.

Oh my gosh, they're so good. So these are palmini noodles, so they're hearts of palm.

They taste like nothing.

They will basically take on the flavor of whatever it is that you put them in. So this is basically spaghetti sauce. So I use some ground beef and some ground pork. Also, whenever I make a meal, I always make two. It's just as much work to make two as it is to make one, but it's easier to portion if you're only making two because then you're just splitting it in half. And palmini noodles tend to come in 8-ounce packages, so you know that it's 4 ounces when you split it, right? So palmini noodles are amazing. They taste tastes so good. I've already made this once. I make my own, like, I do my own tomato sauce every year. It's just ground tomatoes and basil, so I use that. Um, and then I will add beef, the red onions, celery is free, I'll measure the carrots, and the palmini noodles. So, but everything else is basically free.

Laura, would you mind if I told her my email?

Oh, no, by all means.

Because I don't know how to put it in message with the screen.

You know what, Colleen? I will message it to Jennifer so that it's not on the replay.

Oh, thank you very much.

Okay.

Yeah.

So there you go.

Yeah. Oh, this is beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing.

Oh, you're very welcome.

I'm very hungry now.

This is the white chili. And then that's a mushroom soup. There's like so many. So I, that was dinner and then there's like lunch ones. I had this, I made this yesterday.

Anything you're willing to share, I'm, I'm open for it.

I am very, very happy to share. I don't gatekeep these things. That's a tomato and cottage cheese soup. So good and so easy. So I will share all of these and like I said, it's got I've got the ingredients up at the top so you can— there you go.

Thank you for sharing. I love that, that we can, to share amongst the community like this. It's so great. And to answer your question, Jennifer, you can have acorn squash, spaghetti squash, yellow squash, pumpkin squash, summer squash.

Yeah, you can have pumpkin. You can't have butternut though, right?

No, butternut's probably the only one you can't.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, but acorn's good. I like it.

Acorn's good.

Squash—

spaghetti squash is amazing, and you can make noodles out of it.

Yeah, the thing with it, with spaghetti squash, is that it's really watery, and I feel like spaghetti squash really better. And besides that, you'd have to measure it, right? Which is fine. Like, I'm fine with measuring it. It's just that if I'm going to use that as like my noodles, then, um, it limits the other vegetables that I can put in it. Right.

So, um, except free vegetables, because these are— squash is a non-free.

Yeah.

You can add as many other free vegetables as you like. Yeah.

Yeah. For sure.

For sure. Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah, but I love acorn squash. Like I'm craving something mashed, you know, cauliflower is great mashed.

Yep.

But if I'm gonna want butter in it, oh yeah. So I would probably like wait till maintenance and put a little bit of ghee in it just to make it like—

yeah, you could definitely do that.

Yeah.

Or something that—

or like, I would need something with a gravy, right? So it would be great if I made like that beef stew. And, um, stew meat is great because it's naturally really lean, right? Like it's tough and it's mean. So yeah, for a long time. So yeah, so, but I did find, um, mashed Palmini. So he makes like a mashed— they have like seasoned and flavored rices too, which we can't really have because of the extra stuff in it. But they have rice, and when I can't find rice, I basically just take the angel hair pasta and chop, chop it up like crazy. Yeah, um, I'm sure you could also take it like whiz it in a food processor to try and mash it up.

But are we only gonna have angel hair pasta?

So, so Palmini has an angel hair. Oh yeah.

Okay.

So they have, so Palmini has like different thicknesses. So I personally love the linguine because it feels a little more substantial. But if I'm making like a chicken piccata or fish piccata. I want that over angel hair. And so they also have an angel hair, and then I'll use that if I can't find the rice, and I'll chop it up. So like this weekend, I'm going to make stuffed peppers. And last night, I made like zucchini boats. So yeah.

So yeah.

Yeah. And zucchini is great too. You can buy it as like noodles. So if you feel like that pasta kind of sensation or experience, you can use the heart, the palmini, or you can use zucchini and put sauce on top of it. It gives you sort of a little bit of that same.

Yep.

Yeah.

Great. I'm inspired. Thank you.

Yeah, that's so good.

I know, because it's sometimes like I found at the beginning of this round, I was like, I'm struggling. What I was having, like, I'm not feeling motivated to like cook and make food all the time. And I was like, okay, I know I came up with a bunch of great shortcuts.

What were some?

So I went back like a year and started looking at all of my pictures because I made it a habit to always post pictures with all my ingredients so that I would be able to go back and look at it for this very reason, all for this very reason.

So Do you still have the manual, Jennifer? Because there's some really good recipes in the manual.

Yeah, I didn't love the recipes in the manual.

You didn't love them. Okay.

Yeah, there are some good recipes.

I'm sure there are. Like, and I just—

in the Facebook group too.

I need to like do it in my head myself.

Um, do you both know about the AI Coach?

So we have heard about it, but I haven't tried it.

It. So you have access to an AI coach when you're part of the program, and you can put in, you know, I have chicken, uh, snow peas, and spinach in my fridge. Can you come up with a recipe for me? And it'll come up with it that is approved for— and you can say approved for the release phase— and it'll— it's trained in the program, so it knows what you can and cannot have, and it will come up with some recipe suggestions for you.

And how are we accessing that? Is it in the Practice Better app?

It is in the Practice Better app. I think it's in Module 5 is the link, but let me just confirm that for you. Um, yes, Module 5 called How to Get Support. There is a link to download the AI Coach.

Yep.

So that's kind of like a fun, easy— if you're really struggling for a last-minute suggestion on what to eat and you have stuff in your fridge you don't know what to do with, toss it in there and it'll come up with some suggestions for you.

Interesting. Okay, because you said in Module 5. 5.

Yep, called How to Get Support. There's a link to the AI coach.

I don't see How to Get Support.

Really?

Yeah, my Module 5 says program overview, loading phase tips, planning and preparation, what to expect, and optional supplements. That's it. My module— oh, wait a minute. Hold on a second. Maybe I'm doing this wrong. Wait, Getting Started, Declutter 3. Hold on, 4, 5.

Getting— so Section 1, Getting Started, Module 5 under Section 1, Getting Started.

Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. How to Get Support. When you said Module 5, I thought it was like the whole section.

Oh, sorry. Yeah, no, that's my, my mistake. We go by sections and then modules.

I don't— they didn't have the AI when I first did this.

Probably not. I think it's relatively new.

Um, we have a group chat. Um, we have a digital coach.

Okay, that's it. The digital coach. Okay.

Yeah.

All right. Interesting.

Cool. And you can use it for other things as well, but I know a lot of people use it for quick recipe ideas if you're just feeling uninspired or stuck.

Interesting.

Thank you for mentioning that.

You're welcome.

Okay, nice.

Any other thoughts or questions?

No.

No.

Awesome. Well, thank you.

I appreciate all the help, support today.

You're welcome. Thank you to everyone for joining, and Colleen, I will send you the link to the replay. Playlist, and I will send Jennifer your email address for her wonderful recipe.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good to meet you guys.

Have a good day. Nice to meet you.

Well, hopefully we'll see you next week.

I have it on my calendar.

All right, have a great weekend.

Thank you.

Bye.