Episode 132: 5 Tips to Speed Up Weight Loss in Menopause

Weight loss in menopause can feel like a slow, tedious process. Here are my 5 fav tips to speed it up.  

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Transcript

Becoming MindStrong: 132: 5 Tips to Speed Up Weight Loss in Menopause

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Welcome back to the becoming mind strong podcast, and in today's episode, we are answering the million dollar question, Rachel, how do I speed up weight loss? And here's the thing we need to know, weight loss is never as fast as any of us want to go. If you've hung out here, you know me well enough to know I'm not going to sugarcoat I'm an educator. I want you I believe expectation management is one of the keys to life. So I want you going into this eyes wide open. Weight loss is never going to be as fast as any of us want when done what I call capital C, correctly meaning, we're not putting ourselves in an extreme diet where we're going to do more harm than good. We're not taking drugs that you have to be on forever, and are actually pulling away from muscle mass and bone density when we are doing this capital C, correctly meaning for the long haul in the best name of our health, it's never going to be as fast as we want, and there are certain tips and tricks that we can use to make it go faster. So in today's episode, we're going to dive into my fav, five favorite tips and tricks to make weight loss faster, specifically in a menopausal body. Check it out, all right. Today we were talking about the five tips, five of my favorite tips for helping weight loss go faster, specifically in a menopausal body. If you worked out, if you've hung out here before, you've heard me say many times, you know, a lot of times women come to me and they're like, Rachel, I'm injured. I can't work out. I'm scared of workouts. I don't have time to work out. And my answer is, always, we're not going to start with the workouts. Then, because number one, nutrition is 90% of this game. Number two, humans, by human nature, by design, are pleasure seeking creatures. So as we start to get the snowball rolling down a hill, as our energy increases, as we start to feel better in our body, we're not going to say, I feel incredible. Let me not do anything else. We're going to say, I feel incredible. What else can I do? We can do my favorite mindset exercise called do the bare minimum. We can get that snowball rolling further, and we can introduce workouts. So gun to my head. Do I need to work out? The answer is no. Start with nutrition alone. And if we're talking about my five top tips to make weight loss go faster. Working out helps this process go faster. Now it is true of every human out there that when it comes to the most bang for your buck with exercise, weight training over cardio doesn't mean cardio is bad for you. Doesn't mean don't do cardio. It means that weight training, resistance training, pushing your muscles to do what they can't yet do is the most bang for your buck, because the long the more lean muscle mass we have in our body, the faster our metabolism runs. So does not mean we need to become a professional bodybuilder overnight. Does not mean that you need to go to the gym for an hour and a half six days a week, if we can do I have a very old podcast episode one of my favorites, called why you need to stop trying so hard. In there, I teach you my exercise called do the bare minimum. If we are doing zero exercise right now, doing one day a week of 20 minutes. That's better than nothing. Get the snowball going down, rolling down a hill, because the more lean muscle mass we have in our body, the faster our metabolism runs, the faster the weight loss happens. So number one, ways to make this go faster is weight training. If hearing that, you're like, respectfully, screw you, Rachel, I don't want to do it, don't worry, because I got four more tips for you. Number two, we're talking about things to make weight loss go faster is reducing sugar intake. Now I want to be very clear. I'm saying reducing, not cut out. If you know me, you know I loves me some Krispy Kreme donuts. If you held a gun to my head and said, Rachel, choose a life of fitness or choose a life that includes whiskey and Krispy Kreme donuts. No question. Peace Out fitness. Thankfully, we don't have to do that. And instead of thinking of foods as good, bad, allowed or not allowed, we're going to think in terms of nutritious and less nutritious. Sugar is not a very nutritious food. We all know that it also causes more inflammation in the body, which is something that we're dealing with already in menopause. It can mess with our gut, which is something we're dealing with already in menopause. It's not doing us any favors when it comes to weight loss. And I am a big believer that it is not just okay to but I believe it's important to fit those more fun foods, less nutritious foods, into our day now and then. Because when you try to put horse blinders on and say, This is good, this is bad. This is allowed. This is not allowed. That's when we say, well, I had one donut. I've already caved and binged, and down the rabbit hole I go, I may as well have six. But if we're of the mindset of, yeah, donuts not the most nutritious thing I can do, and I can fit it into my quote, unquote daily budget, and I didn't cheat, I didn't splurge. I don't have to go down the rabbit hole. I just keep going with my day. I'm still hitting my goals. That's how we get out of the all in, all out diet culture. So for the purposes of this episode, when we're talking about five things to help speed up weight loss, reducing sugar is a great one. So the. Being a non zero to 100 person, don't try to cut out all sugar. I do not recommend it if you notice. You know, three times a day I'm reaching for the candy stash I keep in my desk. Can we swap that to two? Can I make one of those some more nutritious sugars? Like maybe I have an apple for one of them, but I still keep the other two sugar stops of the day. Again, as as pleasure seeking creatures. The beauty is we don't have to work that hard, because as you start to reduce sugar, your body's going to go, Holy cow, I feel incredible. My inflammation is down. My energy's up. Let me do more of that. And it becomes easier and easier when we try to put our horse blinders on and say, I could never have sugar again. Good luck with that. Right. Most people will go on a cleanse. They'll do it really well for a few weeks, and then we go off the rocker on the other side, because that's not how humans are designed so slow and steady, baby steps momentum work to slowly reduce sugar. Number three in our list of top five tips to help weight loss go faster is increasing fiber intake. I have past episodes all about fiber. We talk about soluble fiber, we talk about insoluble fiber. We talk about ways to get more fiber. The thing with fiber is this, you need to increase slowly. On the topic of baby steps and momentum, if you were to track your fiber for a week, you would see most people that I come in contact are eating with eating somewhere within like seven to 10 grams of fiber a day. Ideally, we want to be eating around 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day. You could go above that, if you want, but that's kind of the ideal goal range. Do not try to jump there. If you go from eight grams of fiber a day to 30 grams of fiber a day. You will never go to the bathroom again. Zero out of a billion. Recommend what like everything we teach, but especially from a logistical standpoint. When it comes to fiber, we need to slowly, slowly, slowly increase. Fiber is a powerhouse for your body, for your heart health, for your body's ability to to regulate blood sugar when it comes to bathroom habits, when it comes to weight loss, getting enough fiber into your I'm using diet here, meaning how we eat every day is one of the absolute keys to supporting weight loss inside ignite our 12 week program. This is, this is part of our check ins. Over the years, we used to not ask about fiber, but we have seen what a drastic difference it makes then. Now we ask our members, how is your fiber intake, and if we're not getting the weight loss results as quickly as we want, this is one of the first things we look at, is, how can we slowly start to baby steps? Step fiber up. So five things we can do to make weight loss go faster. Number one, weight training, that one is 100% negotiable. If you don't want to do it, don't do it, and it's going to make it go faster. Number two, not eliminating, but reducing, slowly, reducing sugar intake. And number three, is getting that fiber, fiber intake higher and higher. Number four, quick and dirty. This is a super easy one, so if you, if you heard my first one and you're like, Screw off, Rachel, I'm not going to do weight training. Cool, you can probably do this one slowly increase your water intake. Water intake. I have lots of episodes about this in the past. Is one of my favorite hacks, because it's about building the habit. Most of us are walking around dehydrated throughout the day, so our body is secretly crying out for more water. The reason we don't do it is because we're not in the habit of doing it right. It can be tough to remember. Some of us don't like the taste of water, whatever the thing is there that's holding us back. It's not that our body doesn't want water. We need water. We're made up primarily of water. Real quickly, as a former teacher, differentiated learning is real. So if right now you're listening to this episode as a podcast on Apple podcast, Spotify, I Heart Radio, wherever you get your podcasts, know that it also exists in video form on YouTube. Similarly, if you're watching me right now on YouTube, know that this episode also exists as a podcast on all the platforms. So however you take in information, best know that we've got you the podcast exists both in podcast form and video form. We'll link both in the show notes below, so you can learn however you learn best. Now let's get back to the episode. And not only does water help promote weight loss, right? It's flushing out your systems, getting rid of toxins, it's keeping you hydrated, it's helping all your organs work properly. It's also one of my favorite energy hacks, because most of us are walking around dehydrated. As we increase water, you're going to notice your energy skyrocket. So in those past episodes, I talk about some of my favorite tips and tricks for increasing water intake. I'll tell you my favorite one here. This is what I used when I was a teacher. I trained my body to get used to a gallon of water a day. That's a lot of water. You don't have to jump there. Let me say that again, you don't have to drink a gallon a day, and that's what I wanted to do as a teacher. So what I did was I bought one of those big gallon water bottles. It was like a workout carrying that thing around, and I. Put it on my desk, and I made a rule for myself that every time I look at it, I had to take a sip. I don't care if I wanted to or not. I hated the game at the time, I was so mad at my past self, but the game was every time you look you have to drink some water. And guess what? As much as I hated the quote, unquote, rules I set for myself, it worked because I'd been walking around dehydrated. It was a fairly simple habit to form, because my body was like, thank you. It's kind of like, Have you been an under eater all these years? Right? You start fueling it correctly. Your hunger sensors fire up. Same thing with water. Your body is like, Thank you for hydrating me. Give me more of that. And then it starts reminding you, through the feeling of thirst, to give it more water. So in the beginning, yes, you will go to the bathroom a lot more. Your bladder will adjust. It gets easier. Again. You don't have to jump to a gallon of water. The textbook rule is half your body weight in ounces, even that, just like macros, just like everything, don't try to jump to that. If you're someone who drinks a glass of water a day, cool. Let's make that consistent. First, let's get one glass every day. Then we can go to two glasses. Then we can start moving exponentially. But increasing your water intake is going to help tremendously when it comes to weight loss, and bonus, when it comes to energy and overall health. Okay, so so far, top five for ways to speed up weight loss, I'm saying specifically in a menopausal body, because that's the field in which we work. And these are true for every human being. Number one, weight training, resistance training, you'll hear a called progressive overload, pushing your muscles to do what they can't yet do. Number two, not eliminating but slowly working to reduce sugar, just like all of this, the more you do it, the easier it becomes, because our body wants that. Number three, baby steps momentum, slowly increase fiber intake. And number four, increasing your water. Number five, I saved for last on purpose, because if I, if I put this as number one, I might get some eye rolls. And okay, Rachel, and it is the absolute truth the the fastest point from the fastest way, from point A to point B is not stopping, and it's such a cheesy way of saying it, and it is so true, right? There are so many things in life that we can look at and in retrospect be like, Man, if I had just started this six months ago, where would I be right now in this moment? And for most of us, it's the not starting or the quote, unquote, starting over, where, if we had just stayed consistent, our future self would look back at our past self and want to kiss us on the mouth. One of the things I say time and time again when it comes to Macros is is you cannot mess this up unless you stop right. If you have a day where you completely nail your macros, heck yeah, throw a party. Keep going. And if you have a day where you completely bomb your macros, cool. What lessons can I learn from it? Keep going right. Our bodies respond to what we do on a consistent basis, not day by day by day. You can't mess it up in a day or even a week. So as long as we get back on and we're committed to mastering the skill and giving it most important, well, not most importantly, hand in hand, importantly, giving it the time and consistency that it needs. The beauty of this is the work works when you do the work, science is always going to science, math. So is going to math? Biology is always going to biology. So as long as you keep going, yes, it might take longer than we want, and if you save more money than you spend, you're always going to acquire wealth. Because math is going to math. If you're fueling your body correctly for your personal body, in your personal goals, and you're giving it enough time and consistency, you help will hit your goals as long as you don't stop. So there are that give you 100 tips, but for today, we're doing my top five tips. Number one, just to recap, weight training again, I know I'm beating a dead horse, but I know this one scares a lot of people. When we push our muscles to do what, what they can't yet do. This is how we build lean muscle mass. The more lean muscle mass on your body, the faster your metabolism runs, the faster your metabolism runs, the easier and faster weight losses. Doesn't mean it's as fast and easy as we want, but the faster our metabolism goes. That does not mean cardio is bad for you. It means weight training is the most bang for your buck. If that sounds terrible, don't do it yet. Nutrition is 90% of the game. We can 100% 1,000% retrain your metabolism with nutrition alone. I would estimate. This is not an exact step, but I would estimate about 60% 65% of the women we work with are not doing workouts when they first come to it. So we're getting the snowball rolling with nutrition, and then if or when the time comes, doesn't mean it's always going to come, but if it does, we can do some resistance training. Side note to this, menopause is a stage of life where we naturally lose bone density. We naturally lose muscle mass at an alarming rate. So the other benefit of resistance training is that we preserve that lean muscle mass and. Preserve that bone density. Number two, reducing sugar. Again, I am not a fan. I think it's I'm going to use the word important. I think it's important to fit those more fun foods in, because this is how we get away from diet culture when we try to live in a black or white world. Allowed, not allowed, good food, bad food. This is why most of us have a history jumping ahead to number five, right of starting stopping. I'll start again next Monday. I'll start again. Next New Year. I'll start again next month. Much of that is diet culture. It's because I had a donut, I cheated, I splurged, I go down the rabbit hole. I have six donuts. I messed it up. I'll start again Monday. It is not about all or nothing. It's if I'm having sugar three times a day, five times a day, can I reduce it to two to four, because as I start to feel better, as my energy increases, as the weight comes off, as inflammation goes down. As a pleasure seeking creature, we're going to say that feels great. What else can I do? Number three, fiber again. I've got past episodes. We've got guides out there for how ways to increase fiber. Some great fiber choices. The name of the game for today's purposes is to slowly increase what I always recommend people do. You don't have to track it for the rest of your life, but take a week track your fiber. Any of these macro tracking apps out there will track fiber for you naturally see where you're starting. The kind of textbook rule is 25 to 30 grams a day. If you're at five, 710, do not try to jump again. You will never go to the bathroom again. Do not recommend meet your body where it is, just like we do with macros and work to slowly, slowly, slowly increase. The health benefits of fiber are through the roof, one of which being that it speeds up weight loss. Number four, water. This is my quick and dirty one. When, if you ask me, What is my easiest hack in life? To feel better in your body, to have more energy, to lose weight faster, start training your body to drink water. It does not take much. It doesn't take much logistically, it is building a new habit. It's what reminder do I need? Do I have to set a reminder in my phone? Do I want to be mad at my past self by putting a giant bottle on my desk and making a rule that I have to drink it? They make, I'm always a big fan. They make those cute bottles that have, like, you're almost there, halfway done. I think those are super cute because it encourages us, right? You see, you're just by that line, and you're like, you know what? I could chug a little bit to get to the you're doing great line. So treat yourself to a cute little water bottle. Whatever you have to do to build the habit. Because the beauty of water, the beauty of that habit, is that the more you do it, the more your body's going to crave it. It's going to communicate via thirst, so you're going to want more of it. And now the Snowball is rolling down the hill. And number five, it's the cheesiest one, and it is the single, single, single, single, single. Single, most important one is, do not stop the work. Works. When you do the work, biology is going to biology. The only way that this doesn't work is number one, you did it wrong, meaning you're using a generic online calculator. You're not tweaking and adjusting your macros, whatever the case may be, all the stuff that we talk about here, it has to be uber personalized. The only way this doesn't work is, number one, you did it wrong. And I'm using that word intentionally, because there is a right and wrong way to do macros. And number two is that you gave up. You cannot mess this up as long as you keep going. As I said in the beginning, where we started, this process is always slower than any of us want, right? If, if I could have Rachel's laws of health and fitness, it's that weight loss would go about 10 times faster, especially in a menopausal body, weight loss is never as fast as we want, and it doesn't mean we have to add all five of these in right? Hearing this list, start with one. What's the lowest hanging fruit? Oh, I could probably increase my water. Great. Start there. You know what? I've been thinking about fiber for a while. Maybe I'll start there. Perfect. I've been wanting to start a workout routine. I'm going to start there workout. Sound terrible for me, great. Don't start there, right? It is never zero to 100 It is never all or nothing. These are five of my favorite things that speed up weight loss. Find the lowest hanging fruit for you, dive in and let that snowball start rolling down the hill. You

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