Women’s Metabolic Health: Nutrition, Strength & Sustainable Lifestyle

Opening on soreness vs pain 0:00

I think we have to define truly what hurt is pain and what soreness is. I mean, I call me crazy, but I, I really want to be sore. I like to be sore. It makes me feel like I've done something. Does that mean that you have to be sore? No. It's just sort of like, like an accomplishment thing for me. Like, but I don't get sore often and that's okay. But if you truly hurt. then there's likely that's a sign that we're not doing something right. And, you know, just because you don't have to lift heavy weight to get a good workout, okay?

You actually could lift no weight and if you engage your mind muscle connection and did this, you could actually elicit, you know, a response. So it's all about the mind muscle connection and doing the weight or the exercise properly with proper form. Welcome to Take Back My Brain with Lori Hammer, where real healing starts in the brain. I'm Lori, a functional nutritionist and mom who's walked the path from anxiety and burnout to clarity and calm. Each week, we're going to dive into brain-based tools like amino acid therapy, gut health, fasting, and faith to help you reclaim your energy,

Podcast intro and guest welcome 1:14

emotions, and sense of self. Hello everyone welcome back to Take Back My Brain and I'm your host Laurie Hammer. I am so excited today because we're going to talk about metabolic health for women and I have on here today registered dietitian Shannon Davis who is a powerhouse and she has a passion and has been doing this for 19 plus years helping people fix their metabolic health with various tools. And so today we're going to dive into women's metabolic health because let's just be honest ladies, we try to do it all and we can't do it all.

And so we're going to dispel some myths today. And so Shannon, welcome to the podcast. Wow, Laurie, thank you so much for having me. I could talk about it all day. I mean, and you know, it's funny because I had a conversation with one of my dear friends, Michelle Hearn, who's also a rock star in the metabolic health world. We were talking the other day about how, you know, even things that we've been, you know, very passionate about and strong about in the metabolic space, you know, you're starting to see some changes and I think Change is good.

It's good when we can be open and accepting of these changes. It's when you get so like dogmatic and box yourself into a brand that you are not accepting of when things serve you and then they don't anymore. And if you aren't able to, you know, take in the information and say, okay, this worked for me. I was getting the results and now I'm not feeling so great. Why and it's okay. It's okay to do something and then Change it right and so I just thought up and when it's not working like oh I must be doing something wrong that this isn't working anymore instead of Maybe I've overdone it or maybe it's just changed enough that it just doesn't serve me anymore.

Yeah Absolutely. I mean, that's just what we're talking about is like, you show up at the gym, you do the same workout, you're going to get results until you don't. And so what do you do? Do you keep going? No, you change it up. And then more isn't always better. When you are trying to lose weight, the first thing people do is they cut calories. Okay. Then you plateau. Then what happens? Do you cut more calories? No, I mean, so it's like, do you fast harder? Do you diet harder? Do you exercise harder?

No. We as women, and I'll just throw it out there as a stereotype, have always been like, looked at like, rest is weak. You know, you got to work more.

Why women need to adapt their health approach 4:17

If you, if you don't, you're a weak woman. Or if you take days off, you're weak. And maybe that's just society in general. But I think. There are a group of us that are starting to look at, well, you know, rest is good, letting our cortisol come down and, and our adrenal fatigue work on things like that versus always just who can stay up the most, who can work the hardest, who can outrun the other and it's, and maybe it serves for a minute and then it doesn't. Right. Right. I was, I'm in a mastermind and I was listening or watching, you know, watching conversation going back and forth in our, in our chat group.

And there's this one lady and she, she's struggling with some of her health issues, but she also wants to grow her business. And so some of the guys were giving her like advice, right? And so no, nothing against all you guys out there, but the guys were giving her advice and it doesn't serve the same for a woman. They're like, Hey, we'll just go to bed an hour later and get up an hour earlier. And, you know, then you're going to get XYZ more done. Right. And so she's like, Oh my gosh, I'm totally going to do that.

I'm going to go to bed an hour later. I'm going to go to get up an hour earlier, which again, might smoke her for 30 days. I'm pretty sure she's going to be exhausted after those 30 days, because they don't have to go through a cycle. Right. They're not going through a cycle. They're still not trying to exercise every single, you know what I mean? Like their body is completely different. And I thought, well, and I didn't chime in because I'm like, well, she was going to do it either way. She's going to do it, but that's not going to screw up her body in the long run and her performance over time is actually going to go down.

Oh yeah. I mean, it's, it's sometimes hard because I'm like that. I'm type a, I'm like, okay, I can outwork you. I can go hard. I can grind. I can, I mean, many of us can, we do. And, but just as we can, doesn't mean that we should. And it's hard to sort of, when you're in, in the midst of it, realize that. If I, and I, and I'm speaking to myself cause I am trying to build my own business that sometimes, you know, it's FOMO for me. Okay. If I, if I put it down and rest my brain or do something, not work associated or I'm going to miss out.

No, in reality, you're going to come back stronger and with more vibrance and with more enthusiasm and with better ideas. But you have to take the chance. of setting it down for a minute, knowing it's going to be okay, and then coming back. Right. So let's transfer that into metabolic health. So as we're, you know, as we're talking to women about their metabolic health and being able to switch things up, can you kind of divide that up for us? So maybe let's talk about food, let's talk about exercise, let's talk about sleep and movement.

Sure. Sure. Okay. Okay. So with food, I mean, I think everyone's going to have their own opinion about what works for them, and they should. We're all individual, and I do firmly believe that over the next 10 years, what's going to happen is every single person is going to be able to have their DNA and their genes test, and we're going to come out with an exact diet based on your genes and your DNA, your nutrigenomics. and it's going to pump out exactly what you need to do based on your biology.

Right now we don't have that. I mean we can, we're getting there, but we don't have it, you know, it's not available just at an affordable rate for everybody just to go do and it's easy. So if I have to give a general overview, I think what we all can agree, no matter if you're vegan or carnivore, is removing ultra processed foods. I think if you can remove ultra processed foods, seed oils, nobody really gives enough you know, attention to seed oils and their toxicity. I mean, guys, I do not like sugar.

I don't want to eat ultra processed foods, but seed oils are in every ultra processed food. They're in every fast food. When you eat sugar, yes, it does the damage to your body, but and then it's gone. Seed oils live in your body. no less than two and a half years. That's their half life. So even if we stop today, Lori, it's going to be at least about 700 or more days, more than 700 days before those are out of our body. But if we've eaten something in a package and a fast food, There's a good chance it's got seed oils in it.

Guess what? We start again. It's like we can't get away and those are extremely toxic to our body.

Food, fasting, and metabolic health basics 9:17

They destroy our mitochondria and if your mitochondria are not healthy, then you're not going to have a healthy metabolism or health, right? It's all about the mitochondrial health. I am also, if we look in the realm of food, I am a big animal protein person. And I know we probably have a lot of vegetarians on here and maybe vegans on here. And while I respect that, the science is there to show that animal-based proteins are more biologically available. That is not a Shannon. thing this is a pure science thing so just take that as you want and what and do with it as you choose but you are going to get a complete amino acid profile that's much more biologically available meaning we can absorb and utilize those amino acids from animals better okay so I am a big fan myself and I teach this predominantly an animal-based protein diet meaning one gram of protein per pound of your goal weight that that is what is most beneficial for you and then I'm I like vegetables you have camps that say we don't need them and that's fine we have camp they we have oxalates and lectins and I believe in all of that but as a general term plant-based protein I mean plant animal-based protein one gram per pound of your goal weight Fill the rest of your plate with good high fiber vegetables.

I like the cruciferous broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, zucchini, yellow squash, cabbage, asparagus, avocados, those types of things, the non-starchy. Do not fear the fats that come with the proteins. Right. We also have our olive oil, our coconut oil, our avocado oil. Even walnut oil, butter, ghee, tallow, lard. Don't fear those. We have been taught to fear fat. No, no, no. Fat is where it's at. So have the fat and then then have your your fruit at the end. If you're going to do fruit, make fruit your sweet treat, your dessert.

So I teach on a premise of that. If we're not a child, we don't need to snack. We have also been told to snack every two to three hours. If we look at where that comes from, it comes from the snack food industry. Most snack foods are pre-packaged in a bag with a barcode or in a box. Snack foods are not the chicken, the egg, the, yeah, it's not real food. But if we can, we can shrink our eating window and notice I didn't say eat less. I just said less frequently. And there are studies, multiple ones that show if we shrink our eating window, we don't have to eat less, change nothing, but the time that we eat, every biomarker of metabolic health will improve just by doing that.

And so what does that look like for you? I say start with 12 hours, work your way up to 16. There are many people that do autophagy fast, these self cell regeneration clean out that go much longer. I myself don't, maybe I should. I'm thinking of doing one. But, you know, 16 hours is the sweet spot. So then that gives you an eight hour window. And most, Laurie, so many people do that and don't even realize it. Most people get up, I would say, 12 to 14 hours in without trying. If you stop, let's just say you stop dinner, you eat dinner at six.

You go to bed, you wake up at six, by the time you get up and get to work, you might sit at your desk and nine, you eat breakfast. Guess what? You just did a 15 hour fast. You didn't call it that, but you did. And then, so, so the, the. High, high protein fiber, fat diet, shrinking our eating window. And then I am a big fan of some nutraceuticals that I use myself. I use with my clients that work on metabolic health. And so they, they up regulate our own GLP one. And by the way, I know many of your listeners.

Everybody on this planet at this point not just has heard of these GLP-1 receptor agonist injections, right? The Ozempic, the Wygovy and everybody calls them GLP-1. They are not GLP-1. There is only one source of GLP-1 and that is your gut. These are synthetic memetics. They are not the same. We have to start calling them by what they are. Yep. And so these upregulate our own GLP-1 by about 60 to 70%. So you get the same benefits of the appetite suppression, the shutting off of the food noise, but they also lower inflammation, they improve gut health, they lower glucose.

So it works all in to the protocol that I am so passionate about. I follow myself every day of time restricted eating. a animal protein predominant high fiber diet, add in some nutraceuticals. And then, you know, the other aspects, the sleep, the sunshine, the touching the earth, the resistance training. I used to be a cardio bunny and that's out the window. We want muscle is our metabolic powerhouse. It's our longevity organ. And so as an aging, perimenopausal female, right? We need to embrace muscle and resistance training.

So I'm a huge fan of that. And Hey friend, just a quick break to remind you if calming your brain is the missing piece in your practice or in your home. My mind thrive certification course teaches you exactly how to do that with targeted amino acid therapy. So it's real science, real results, no band-aids enrollment is now open link is in the show notes. So back to the show. What does that look like for us in this perimenopausal state? Because I hear a lot, and this is why I ask this, because I hear a lot like, if I do a lot of resistance training, lifting, those kinds of things, my body hurts so bad.

So I hear a lot of clients saying that, and I've experienced that as well. I would love to hear what your take is on that. I know what I do and how it works, you know, for me, but a lot of people start with that. Yeah. I mean, if you truly, there is a difference. I think we have to define truly what hurt is pain and what soreness is. I mean, I call me crazy, but I. I really want to be sore. I like to be sore. It makes me feel like I've done something. Does that mean that you have to be sore? No.

It's just sort of like, like an accomplishment thing for me. Like, you know, but I don't get sore often and that's okay. But if you truly hurt, then there's likely that that's a sign that we're not doing something right. And, you know, just because You don't have to lift heavy weight to get a good workout, okay? You actually could lift no weight and if you engage your mind muscle connection and did this, you could actually elicit, you know, a response. So it's all about the mind muscle connection and doing the weight or the exercise properly with proper form.

So you should not hurt. You absolutely should not hurt. That means that something's not correct. Can you, can you elaborate on that mind muscle connection? Like what exactly is that? So let me see how, like. Like if you will do the butt, who doesn't want a nice butt? So like if you're doing a hip thrust exercise, you're engaging your glute muscles. So if you can think about before you do that exercise, like for me, sometimes I like have to touch my like tactile stimulation, like because that mind muscle connection, like for me, glutes, it's hard for me to activate them.

So if I can put my hands on them and squeeze it, okay, I know now what that feels like. I'm actually squeezing the muscle. I'm activating it with my mind so that when I go into this exercise, if I can make that happen again, then I'm going to get a better result because I am stimulating those muscle fibers properly and then the weight adds resistance to that. So like you can see, you can see it in my arm, like I am squeezing my muscle. There's a difference in this than in this. You know, that is not activating the muscle.

But if I squeeze it, even if there's no weight there, you see a muscle because that's the activation. So you see people and I'm just, throwing it out there, they go to the gym. I mean, I say, so what did you do today? I went to the gym. Okay, so what does that mean? Did you hang out in the gym? Did you exercise at the gym, you know? But if you're going to go, make it worthwhile. Like you took the time to go, you're in your car, you're stepping away, you are going. It doesn't have to be an hour. Literally, you could realistically probably need to be done in 30 minutes, right?

But here's the thing you can pick up a two pound dumbbell and sit here and do this for 25 30 reps before you get tired or you can pick up a 10 or 15 and you get six or eight and you're tired think about the the time-saving aspect of that, but you're accomplishing More in less time with actually less you know, less time working the muscle, but because of the mind-muscle connection and the resistance of the weight, you're getting a better bang for your buck. I don't know if that felt like that's very long-winded, but does that make sense?

No, that made total sense. Yeah, that made sense. It's really good. What do you say to women who they feel like they're doing that, but they're not, you know, they're not seeing the results. Like you have beautiful arms. Let's just be honest. So if you can't see her, her arms are phenomenal. Yes, but you know, there's, there's nothing else to include. And I'm like, why, why do I still have a little flab down here? Because I, because I do, I do the whole mind muscle thing. And like, what's going on there for some of us who aren't seeing the product of our.

Right. Right. Well, I mean, there's a lot that goes into that, right? There's a whole bunch.

Resistance training and mind-muscle connection 21:08

Like how long I've been, I'm 45. I've been doing this since I was 16. So I got a lot of, a lot of reps up under my belt. Number one. Number two, like, are you really fatiguing your muscle? Because like you said, we can all go in there and do it, but are you really like, are those last few reps hard? If they're not, you need to go heavier, right? Or you need to slow it down. You need to change something. It needs to be challenging. It doesn't have to be a failure every time, but it needs to be hard, right?

And then the most important thing is there's two most important things after that. Are you properly resting and recovering? Because that's when all the repair and the building takes place. If you're not sleeping, if you're not resting, you're not going to get the rebuilding, the repair and the recovery, which is where you get your growth. And then are you eating properly? Are you eating enough protein to elicit a growth response, right? Are you eating enough calories? If you're in a calorie deficit, it's going to be hard to grow, to grow while you're taking away.

So, you know, nutrition is huge. You cannot build a house without material. I always teach my clients that the feast is just as important as the fast. So if you don't have days where you're having a good feast, like And that doesn't mean eating garbage. That just means maybe opening up your eating window a little bit more. We're just eating more for the day. Eating more carbs for the day, whatever it might be. So as we're seeing some days, we just need more carbs as women. A thousand percent. And I'm so happy to hear you say that because I think as a whole, if you say women, we have been thought to eat less, the least you eat the better, right?

And if you eat more or you need to account for every calorie that you take in. Like if you're going to eat it, you need to burn it. Y'all come on. It's not like that. Like truly it's not. Our body is so incredibly smart that if you truly look at the human body, and break it down from like a physiological molecular level and look at. What really happens if you decrease your calories, and we don't pay attention to it, but what you would notice is your activities, they call it neat non-exercise activities, right?

Like if you were fidgety, you would be less fidgety. If you were more apt to get up and move around and do things and pick up and that will slow down, your body compensates. So the less you eat, the less activity you take in. Your metabolism will start to slow down. The more you eat, right? The more active your body becomes because your body truly wants to maintain a good healthy set point. And it will try its best to, you know, burn a little more calories on the days that you eat more. You may, you know, and then the days that you don't eat as much, you might not, you might be a little slower and a little more inactive.

And you can see that in, in animals, like, I know this is a terrible comparison, but my dog, he's only filed. So he. I leave free choice out. Why? We do too. Because he eats when he's hungry. Yeah. And he stops when he's full. He can have a full, and it's so funny because I watch him. As a dietitian, I truly watch what my dog eats and he eats top of the notch like food, by the way. But he, there'll be days, he doesn't eat, he fast. Like I watch him, he fast. And it's funny, there's nothing changed.

But then over the, like say two days, I'll watch him and he'll eat a full bowl and then he clings it around and he wants more because he's making up for the day he didn't eat. Like you look at animals in the wild, not ones that we keep fence, but why are wild animals not obese in the wild? because they regulate their body weight by how much food they take in and how much exercise they do. So it's, you know, long story short is our body, if we can provide it the right materials, which is rest, recovery, through sleep, proper hydration, proper supplementation, I know you'll hear people say, well, I don't need supplements.

In a perfect world, no one needs supplements. But our soil is depleted. We have toxins all in our environment. We have microplastics. We have fragrances. We have obesogens. Our plants are devoid of the proper minerals. So is our meat. So there are times that we need these things to supplement them in. But in a perfect world, I would be very, I don't think that we would see the obesity and the chronic metabolic diseases because we would just eat. I mean, if you truly think about our grandparents, grandparents, they just ate.

They went and worked in the field and they just came in and ate. It was food was just food. It was just energy. Now we make it like. I mean, I love food and it is an event, but we make it so much more than what it- We make it so complicated. We do. We do. Food isn't complicated. It's only complicated if you're, if you're buying a lot of processed foods and being like, Oh, that's just fast and easy, but it's so complicated. Do you know how complicated it is for your body to process that? It can't, it can't.

No, it can't. So if you're talking about supplementation, cause I believe that everybody needs, you know, some basic supplementation kind of no matter what's going on

Supplements for metabolic support 27:48

with you. Are there any that kind of stand out to you that you'd be like, make sure you're doing this? Yes. Several. Vitamin D, K2. Vitamin D3, K2. I think because, geez, everyone has slathered on sunscreen their whole life. We need to make sure we're getting enough vitamin D. Enough vitamin D and it needs to be coupled with K2 so it's going into your bones. We need magnesium. Our soil is depleted of magnesium. We need magnesium. I like magnesium breakthrough. I take it every day. I have no affiliation to them, but I love them.

I do something called fatty 15, which is a fatty acid. Oh, yep. Yep. I like it because it's good for our cell membranes. It makes them permanent, makes them flexible. If they're flexible, then you're more metabolically healthy. I just found out because I was pulling up this. I usually use, um, Pure form, but I just not about fatty 15. Oh, I've taken it Yeah, a year now and I love it. I truly love it. I Take Omega's so Omega's not top of the fatty 15 And what else do I take? Of course I use my, my Unimate imbalance, which I spoke of earlier, the chlorogenic acid, Yerba mate tea concentrate, and it's a fiber matrix.

So I have used that for three years and never missed a day. And that is significantly improved the way I feel my metabolic health, my lipid profiles. my recovery because it boosts glutathione production. So I take that. I'll have that in the show notes for everybody too. So yeah. And I'm trying to think of what else I take. There are times I've used berberine. I think berberine is amazing. I don't think that everybody needs to or has to take it. Yeah. I like apple cider vinegar. I think that's something that's simple, easy and is great for gut health.

I think if I don't think everyone has to take a probiotic, but if you've got some gut dysbiosis going on or you're on an antibiotic, just get a good one. I feel like there's one or two I'm missing, but that's, that's, I try to keep it super simple. Oh, iodine. I'm a big iodine fan. I take iodine. It's made a difference for me. Um, my thyroid was a little, a little slow and I added some Lugol's iodine and were pristine and golden. I mean, when I tell you the amount of hair regrowth that, that I, this is all, since starting the iodine.

I mean, I'm telling you, like, it is insanity. So I'm an iodine fan for sure. Yeah, for sure. I know the person who does my hair, she's always like, you guys have the, me and my daughter, she's like, because I'm the best hair. It's just so thick. Like you never had periods of time. I'm like, it's because my mineral status is good and my amino acids, minerals, aminos, and fatty acids. Yeah. Yeah. You're going spot on. I didn't say I use electrolytes. I didn't say that. I use electrolytes every day.

Yeah. So yeah, that is, if you eat good quality food and you, just like you said, you keep your omegas, your trace minerals, right? And get your amino acids that you're going to be golden. You're going to be golden. For sure. For sure. man this is so good just practical basic stuff for all you women out there right we don't want to go big and we don't want to go home we want to exercise for where we are in life right and we want to challenge ourselves but we don't want to go past the point where we're actually harming ourselves and over exercising or under eating or overeating and i don't think honestly shannon i don't know if you see this but i don't really think most people are overeating I think they're eating the wrong kinds of food.

Correct. But I don't see a lot of people who are actually overeating. No, it's the opposite. It's the opposite. It's very rare that I meet anybody that is eating enough protein and enough fat. No, you're so right. I mean, fat for sure. Well, you know, I take that back. I bet it's about a one-to-one. It really is, you have to work hard. I have to work hard to eat 130 grams of protein. I do. It's a no compromise. If I expect my body to perform and I want muscle, then I've got to provide what it needs.

And if you eat your protein and your fats, then it's almost, Laurie, just like you said, it's almost impossible to overeat. Right? Yeah, there's just no cravings there. If you were eating enough of that, you just fix those deficiencies and people are like, well, I still have cravings and I'm eating 100 grams of protein a day. Then you still have deficiencies. You need more. You probably aren't eating enough of that. You need a little bit more. You're probably not eating enough caloric intake. I don't even like to focus on calories with people, but sometimes it is the caloric intake.

Yeah, absolutely. What else might you eat with it? Yeah. When you eat enough, the cravings stop. It's just almost like if you can give yourself permission to eat enough food and not be afraid of it, you'll be very thrilled. Yeah. So not enough Oreos. You'll still crave after that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Back that insulin up. You'll keep eating. Yeah. If somebody wanted to be like, Ooh, I need a cheat day. And I hate that word. I really do hate the cheat day because we're not cheating. We never want to cheat our body.

We don't want to cheat ourselves. We want to nourish ourselves and we want to go have fun. Yeah. So like, what do you say to somebody like, if I was going to cheat on something, what would you have them cheat on? I mean, I think that you can take any dessert that you like and make it healthier. And if you make it with real ingredients, like cheesecake with cottage cheese and Greek yogurt and real eggs and stevia and alulose and vanilla bean with berries to me, that just like, I want to go make it now.

And it's just real ingredients, right? Make it with real food. Anything that you want, if you make it with, I am, There isn't probably my favorite, like if, when I did my bodybuilding competition and they were like, what is the first thing you want to eat? And I was like, pancakes, pancakes, but you can make protein pancakes. You know, I mean, you can make chaffles.

Final advice and where to find Shannon 34:48

You can, there is not anything that you, that you cannot make better. Even pasta now. They are so many pasta substitutes. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. I love this conversation. Anything you want to tell the audience that we haven't kind of talked about yet. No, really. I think if there was anything is like, nothing hurts my heart than to know that women are afraid to eat or even men. Don't be afraid of food. Like truly, there's no reason to be afraid of it. Provide your body what it needs and your body will not deceive you.

Like it, It's smarter than we are if we kind of like stop overthinking it. You know, spend your energy and your time with what matters, your family and your friends and your faith and get movement and eat real food. And it's really that simple. It really, really is. God created so much good food for us, and we just remove the interferences, right? And then our body knows what to do. We give it the right fuel, and our body heals itself. Very much. Very, very true. Yeah. Where can they find you, Shannon?

I'm predominantly on Facebook, TikTok shut me down. So I am on, yeah, I got shut down twice. I'm done with that. But I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, I'm on LinkedIn. So those are pretty much it. And I think I provided you a link tree that's got all of those. And if people want to, To try the, the nutraceuticals, I have a discount for that, for those. They come with a 90 day money back guarantee. So I think that you'll be blown away truly for, for anybody struggling with, you know, cholesterol, diabetes, weight, inflammation, autoimmune, gut health.

You'll see profound improvements and if not, money back. That's important. That's awesome. Yeah. Shannon, thank you, thank you, thank you for being on today. I love your perspective. We're on the same page all the time, so I appreciate you very much. Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's very nice to be on. And I know all of you listening, you're like, oh, so-and-so needs to hear this. Make sure you share this episode, please, and make sure you give us a nice Like, if you can, I'd love a review.

So that would be amazing as well. So thank you all for listening. I believe in each and every one of you and I will see you in the next episode. God bless. Thanks for listening to Take Back My Brain. If today's episode helped you connect with hope or direction, I want you to follow the show, leave us a review and share it with someone who needs it. And if you're ready to start your own healing journey, explore our courses and our coaching programs at lorihammer.com backslash store. So until next time, remember you cannot medicate away a nutrient deficiency and healing your brain isn't just possible, it's powerful.