What Nutritionists Don’t Tell You About Food w/ Abbey Sharp

00:00I was really obsessed with sugary cereal. And when you get in your head, you can't have, for me, cereal, sugary cereal. I just want to eat it all. It's all I can think about. It's such a mind suck. It's food noise. As soon as I started to find ways to add that sugary cereal to my diet, it just was knocked off its pedestal. It lost its allure. It was just another food. What's going on, everybody? Hey, you guys. Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. And today, I've got an incredible guest here joining us. This is Abby Sharp. She's on with us today. She is a registered dietitian. She's a content creator. She's the host of her own podcast called The Bite Back with Abby Sharp. And she's co-founder of The New Theory. Am I saying that?

00:49Yes, you are new. All right. And that is a gut-friendly supplement brand for women. Guys, Abby is known for keeping it real when it comes to food, nutrition, and body image. And I love the way that she brings science, honesty, and a fresh perspective to the wellness space. It's just something that very much aligns with also Warrior Babe and the brand that you guys listen to. So, Abby, I'm excited that you're here. Let's dive into it. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to chat.

01:21Yeah. All right. So, you've built a powerful voice in the nutrition space and the wellness space. So, before we dive into it, can you just share what initially drew you into this field? What made you so passionate about helping others navigate these topics like food, body image, and health more with the compassion that you have? What led you into this space? Totally. So, I mean, not that different from a lot of my colleagues. I mean, and I can speak to this in a moment, but I suffered from a need disorder in my late teens. And there was surprisingly very high rates of eating disorders or recovered eating disorders in nutrition students, in kind of nutrition professionals.

02:06And I think that comes from just our own experience. And I started studying nutrition, probably because I was kind of in this eating disorder. I was obsessed with eating clean and healthy eating. And, you know, through my education, I was able to start to unpack that and kind of unlearn some of these unhealthy kind of obsessive behaviors, really like realize that the moral weight I was putting onto food and how unhealthy that actually was.

02:37And once I dug deeper into the science, I was able to get better in tune with my own body's needs and also kind of uncouple kind of the foods I was choosing from my own worth. Once I became a registered dietitian, I knew I wanted to speak out against the dangers of diet culture because they burned me bad. And I was seeing, and this was before social media, you know, I was struggling when I was, you know, 18, 19. There was no TikTok at this time.

03:11There were no days. There were no body checking nonstop online. I can only imagine how much harder it would have been for me to go through that when I was constantly bombarded by, you know, the nonstop restrictive messaging and the body checks. So watching this all unfold now, you know, as a person on the other side of recovery, I knew I had to speak out. I knew I had to help people understand the dangers of a lot of this content.

03:43And, you know, not just for physical health, but also for emotional health. And these are things that, you know, women, young and old are struggling with. They struggle with their whole lives. That was really the inspiration for going into the field. And where I really kind of got my name known, there was a very popular frugivore, basically like a raw fruititarian vegan YouTuber at the time, who was making videos recommending just eating fruit. And there were countless young girls who were messaging me being like, I'm just eating fruit and I'm, you know, gaining so much weight or my blood sugars are out of control or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

04:23And I was like this, we got to unpack this as a team here, folks. And so that's really where the, you know, my brand kind of took off. And I've been essentially dismantling diet culture and debunking myths and trying to demystify a lot of the pseudoscience and fear mongering that we see really take hold on social media today. That's so powerful.

05:17I want to navigate with you on this episode. One first being in the rise of like the skinny talk. You've spoken out about the dangers of skinny talk. Can you explain like what it is for those that maybe have not heard what that is? And then also like, why is it so pervasive? Yeah. Yeah. Those are great questions. So if you are lucky enough to not have been, you know, on skinny talk or getting kind of down that rabbit hole, it's essentially a subculture on TikTok. That's glorifying extreme fitness, often promoting, you know, disorder behaviors in the, under the guise of kind of wellness or health or discipline or femininity even.

05:57And it's really just like this algorithmic driven rabbit hole where users are, you know, sort of video after video after video of unrealistic body ideals, you know, very restrictive, low calorie, what in a days, inspo images, like repackaged with pastel fonts and wellness hashtags. And, you know, all of this is bound up in this messaging suggesting that, you know, discipline is this moral virtue and, you know, it weaponizes a lot of the language around self-care to actually be about suffering.

06:31And it's hugely dangerous because it's essentially glamorizing and normalizing disordered eating and body dysmorphia. And it doesn't just influence how people are eating. It's really about how people are thinking about their bodies and other people's bodies and their worth and their health. It perpetuates fat phobia and weight stigma. And so, you know, it really is an unhealthy echo chamber for a lot of people to, to find themselves in. Because, you know, once you watch one or two of these videos, it just becomes, it's, it seems like everyone around you is participating in this way of thinking about food with these insanely, you know, restrictive mantras.

07:14Like, you know, if your stomach is grumbling, think of it like applause, you know, like if you're hungry, think of it as applause. And, you know, if you are too tired to go for your walk today, call yourself a fat pig and oink at yourself. Like, so it's mind boggling, you know, it was mind boggling for me at first to see this start, especially when I felt like we had made such progress with, you know, the body positivity movement, body neutrality. But I think there's two reasons why this has really taken off.

07:44One is that, you know, we spent so long in this kind of like wellness culture, interpretation of diet culture, where we were talking about like clean eating and people going on detoxes or cleanses. No one was talking about their weight, because it wasn't cool to talk about weight or weight loss or getting skinny. We were talking about, you know, cleansing or detoxing or doing things to make us feel good. But the subtext was always still trying to get thin.

08:14Right. Like it was always just like the sneaky subtext. And people are kind of waking up to the fact that, OK, this girl that is fit and beautiful on Instagram or TikTok is saying she's eating an 800 calorie smoothie bowl, but she's still a size 00. And that doesn't actually, you know, check out in my mind because I can barely eat. You know, I'm barely eating anything and I can't lose weight. So I think people were kind of waking up to the reality of what they see online might not actually be a reality.

08:48And skinny talk is really like they come in there and be like, I'm going to tell you what you need to know, not what you want to know. And I'm going to be totally honest about what it takes to look like this. And people wanted that. And then I think the other piece here is the Ozempic era that, of course, we're in because, you know, thinness and, you know, always being this kind of moral value and the status symbol. But with widespread access to weight loss injections like Ozempic and Mongero, you know, thinness basically becomes explicitly transactional.

09:22You know, if you can afford it and you can find a doctor to prescribe it, you can buy thinness. You can bypass, you know, maintaining thinness the quote unquote hard way. And so these folks are there's this moral counter movement with this no pain, no gain mantra because this is threatening those who have, you know, built identity capital around being thin and doing so the kind of quote unquote hard way. Yeah, it's scary, right? It's like people are it feels like we have the pun like the language has been we have to punish our bodies in order to get the result.

09:56And then like anybody that's watching these videos that wants to really pursue being healthy for themselves are so impressionable when they are listening to people that claim that they're experts online. Yet they're saying these narratives, which is crazy. And I'm glad you brought that the Ozempic because like it's crazy. I was just sitting and I was going to make a podcast episode out of this. But it's good that we're talking about it right now. I was sitting in the sauna yesterday and this poor woman, she was like not poor. I shouldn't say like that, but she is she you could hear the struggle on her voice.

10:27She looked at me and she was like, wow, you have really nice arms. I'm like, thank you so much. I appreciate that. She's like, yeah, I just lost like 43 pounds within the last year. I'm like, wow, that's awesome. How did you do it? She's like, I've been taking Montero. And I was like, and then you could just hear the decline in her voice. It was like, and it's really just like it made me lose all of my muscle and it just made my hormones like flip upside down. And she's like, yeah, I know I want that route. And I'm like, it's OK. It's OK that you did. I don't want you to feel like you're broken or like something's wrong with you. But there's there's another way out of it. Like there's a positive way that you can lean off of it. So it's like I don't want women to think like these and just like your message to as well.

11:00It's like I don't want women to think the end all be all because it's what social media is saying. You should do this. And it's a quick way to get results. I love that you brought that up. And I love that this is like your message and what you speak on. You mentioned, though, there the body positivity, the like we were just a few years ago, we saw like that huge like body positivity wave online. How did we shift so quickly back into this like thin, obsessed content? Like, is it because of the algorithm or is it deeper than like what we're consuming?

11:30Is it more of like our perspective and mentalities on it? Like what? Why? Why do we drive back into it so quickly? There are probably a lot of reasons and social reasons. I think, you know, there's no question that weight loss injections have probably played a role because, again, thinness is just more accessible in some ways to people. And when it really started with the celebrities and when celebrities start using it, because they are the first to kind of have access to a lot of these kinds of opportunities,

12:01all of our plus size or larger body, you know, celebrities, role models, influencers, they kind of just started to shrink. And so the representation, it kind of shrinks. And so I think that, you know, what we what we see over and over and over again just becomes normalized until it is just kind of like, of course, you go on Ozempic, you know, like it started out as this like fringe thing, like, oh, my God, you're going to take a weight loss injection. And now, you know, I mean, you can speak to anybody who lives in L.A. or California.

12:34And it's just like, yeah, everybody I know is on Ozempic kind of thing. So I think there's that. And I think also something has to be said for just the general state of the world right now. There's a lot of uncertainty in basically every single aspect of life right now, whether it's, you know, political, A.I., you know, financial, economic, all of those kinds of things. And so our bodies often become we feel at least that it's one of the only things that we can actually control.

13:04And so I think that that also may have played a bit of a role in it, something that it's almost like a project. Right. And again, it's just like once we see it a couple of times, the algorithm blows it up and it seems like it's everybody's thin now. And the expectation is that you shall be, too. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control.

13:34If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you. At Warrior Babe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results and results that last. Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women.

14:08Visit WarriorBabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's WarriorBabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. Crazy, crazy, crazy. So you have such a large platform. How do you navigate speaking up, you know, while staying so grounded in your message and not getting sucked into the trends? Like, you know, the way I look at it is that big. It's like they're just repackaging up all of the old quick fixes and that.

14:41It's just repackaged in a different way. So how do you stay so grounded, you know, and not falling into these sucked into these trends? Yeah, I think, you know, for me, it really comes down to just remembering like my why. And I didn't build this platform to kind of be trendy. I built it to empower people to feel safe in their body and confident in their choices. So obviously, you know, you got to engage with trending topics to start conversations.

15:12But I never want to perpetuate shame. And I always want to take that trending topic and spin it into evidence and truth. And, you know, it's really all about, for me, balancing meeting people where they are and connecting with them on the topics and questions that they are actually grappling with. Even if in my mind as an expert, I'm like, oh, my gosh, are we still hung up on that? Like, are we still not understanding that that's a myth? But, you know, you have to try to see it from their perspective based on the kind of content that they are being fed constantly without feeding into the BS machine.

15:50So I always take that like little like, OK, what where could they have gotten that that outlandish idea? Try to try to try to zone out on that, acknowledge it and then try to really break it down for people in kind of really bite sized pieces. Heck, yeah. I love that so much. I think it's about bringing the awareness to where they're at. I love that. I love that saying meet them where they're at is something that I say to as well. So it's just understanding what what stories, what narratives, what limiting beliefs or what what what is their preferred perspective coming from and how can you just change a narrative for them and help them see a different empowered view on the situation.

16:28So, OK, cool. I want to dive into the next bucket that I have for you. One being the first question I have for you is you coined the term hunger crushing combo. So I love that. Can you explain like what that means and why it's such a game changer? Absolutely. Yeah. So this is really it's been my signature framework for building satisfying satiating meals. And and like most kind of quote unquote diets out there, which are constantly telling you, OK, you need to cut this out.

16:59You need to cut calories or remove these foods from your diet. This is an additive approach to eating well. And it encourages you to add to your meals protein, fiber and healthy fats. And we do that because we know that these hunger crushing combo compounds help to stabilize blood sugar, curb emotional and physical cravings, help you stay fuller longer. And they get you the best nutrient bang for your caloric buck. And they do that without denial or deprivation. So basically, it's shifting the mindset when we when we think about what we're adding, not what we're taking away.

17:33We're shifting the mindset from one of scarcity mentality to a world of abundance. And that is really important for the sustainability of any way of eating, because as soon as we start thinking constantly about like, oh, I can't have I can't have carbs or I can't have sugar because this is what my diet says or whatever. You're going to want those carbs so damn bad that you will binge. And then, you know, diet starts again tomorrow. Right. It's this whole binge, restrict, repent, repeat cycle. And people get stuck in that for their entire lives.

18:05And so I actually have a book coming out. It's on presale right now. The hunger crushing combo method. And so this dives into the versatility of this method because it supports basically any goal. It really doesn't matter if you are trying to lose weight, gain weight, gain muscle, going through perimenopause or menopause, manage your diabetes, PCOS, insulin resistance, things like that. Raise healthy kids. This is a framework that can be easily adapted throughout the life cycle, depending on your goals.

18:37And in the book I go into with each chapter how you can kind of gently tweak the framework to really zone in on some of those some of those goals. And so the way I started this idea was when I was struggling with my relationship with food. I was really obsessed with sugary cereal. And that's what we call in my book the naked carbs. Naked carbs are all those, you know, carbohydrate based foods that don't have fiber, protein or healthy fats to keep you full. And when you get in your head, you can't have for me cereal, sugary cereal.

19:10I just want to eat it all. It's all I can think about it. It's such a mind suck. It's food noise. And so as soon as I started to find ways to add that sugary cereal to my diet, it lost its it just was knocked off its pedestal. It lost its allure. It was just another food. And that's what I really encourage people to do. So in the case of the sugary cereal, I would have a bowl of Greek yogurt for my protein, throw on some berries for my fiber, add maybe some hemp hearts on there for some healthy fats and a good handful of lucky charms.

19:42And damn, I'm satisfied. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Because you've got the the state, the physical satiety, but you also get the emotional satisfaction. And that is so important to keeping a sustainable way of eating. I love the way that you're saying that and articulating that. I think that lands like really well. It's because it's like thinking it's like me telling you nothing about a pink, a pink elephant right now. It's like, what do you think about pink elephant? You're going to go eat those when you're restricted from your diet. You're going to go consume the things that you can't have that you think you can't have.

20:15So have a better way of working them in so that you aren't restricting it and you learn how to eat them in balance. I love the way that you just said that thing that explains it well. And then also it's like and then years to come, you'll realize in two or three years, you don't have those same cravings anymore that you once had. When you were starting a journey because you've just allowed yourself to have these things without. Exactly. It's not so special anymore. It's not this like forbidden fruit that you feel like the moment you get your hands on, you've got to you've got to binge on it. And the really cool thing about this framework, especially for folks who are looking to kind of, you know, find their healthiest, happiest weight is when you start to add in these hunger crushing compounds, because they are so satiating, you kind of just naturally edge out some of the less satiating, you know, higher calorie naked carbs, for example.

21:03So it's just this really amazing mindset shift that, you know, encourages you to actually stick to it because it feels good to your body. Yeah, I love that. All right. Quick pause, because if you've been listening for a while, you know that I am huge on optimizing your routines, especially when it comes to recovery and sleep. And that's why I have to tell you about Cozy Earth. I have tried so many sheets over the years until I finally landed on Cozy Earth about two years ago.

21:35And I haven't looked back since their bamboo sheets made from viscose from bamboo have completely changed the way that I sleep. They're temperature regulating and actually wake up feeling recovered instead of tossing and turning or kicking off the covers in the middle of the night. And when I'm not sleeping, I am wrapped up in their bubble cuddle blanket. It is ultra soft. It's mid-weight. And it's part of my Sunday reset routine. Like, give me some coffee.

22:06Give me some journaling. Give me some quiet time with this blanket. It's the absolute best. And Cozy Earth, they give you a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty, which honestly right there said so much about the quality of their products. Once you feel this comfort, you're never going to go back. Trust me. So head to CozyEarth.com. Use my code MACROHOUR for up to 20% off of your order. And when they ask where you heard about it, say the MACROHOUR. All right. Let's get back to the show. My next question was going to be around the women that constantly jump from diet to diet.

22:38Would you say that this would be an example of a mental reframe that could help them to shift to a more sustainable one? It's like adding in the food. Adding. Adding. It's you've got to come to this realization that you've got to think about what you're adding rather than taking away. So helpful for chronic dieters. Again, because like you said, like, you know, you can't have sugar. You're going to binge. And then you're just you're doing that cycle over and over again. You're saying, OK, I'm not that diet doesn't work. But let me try the keto diet. Now let me try the, you know, the low fat diet.

23:08It's all the same. You're still putting your body and your mind in scarcity mentality. And it's just it is just biology when we are restricted to something physically or emotionally. It is going to be all you can think about. It is all consuming. And that's where we hear about things like food noise, for example, which is something that, you know, like Ozempic actually can can help quiet. But, you know, for a lot of people who are struggling with food noise, it's because they first they're restricting these things and they're not allowing themselves any wiggle room to enjoy the foods that they actually love.

23:41And that's really why the hunger crushing combo method is so successful. Yeah. Oh, I love that so much. OK, so leaning on the side of I'm sure you've heard this so many times, like women eating healthy or like, you know, the term that once you're in the fitness space a little bit more, you understand what intuitively eating means. Mm hmm. What does it what does intuitively eating actually eating intuitively actually really mean, especially when you're still learning to trust your body? Because there's so many women that are like, I eat healthy. And I'm like, well, what do you eat in a day? And it's like it and they're not eating enough, but they think they're eating healthy or the women that are trying to lean off of maybe tracking macros so they don't have to do for the rest of their life or, you know, they want to intuitively eat.

24:22What does that mean to you? And then, you know, especially as you're trying to, like, trust, learn your body and trust your body. Totally. Yeah. I think the term intuitive eating has been hugely misunderstood. You know, largely people believe it to mean, oh, just eat whatever you want, whenever you want. And obviously, if you've been dieting your whole life and someone says, oh, just eat intuitively, that is that's going to freak you out. Right. Because after, you know, after years of dieting, how could you possibly just throw, you know, caution to the wind and hand the reins back to your body when every single diet you've ever been on has told you that your body cannot be trusted.

24:57But intuitive eating actually isn't chaotic. It's really about connection. And it's about rebuilding a relationship with food that is based on respect and not restriction. It's kind of like if you treated your body actually like a friend that you wanted to listen to. That is really like the heart of intuitive eating. And when you're first starting out, it's completely normal to feel very, very, very, very lost because people have spent decades ignoring hunger and micromanaging portions or labeling foods as kind of quote unquote good or bad.

25:32So those internal cues are probably going to be very unreliable. So if you've been dieting and you don't have really strong hunger and fullness cues, you can't just jump into intuitive eating because you actually might end up under eating. Because, again, you're going to be like, well, I'm not hungry, so I'm just not going to eat. And so you have to think of it as self-care. And in those early stages, self-care is going to mean having some structure, like eating balanced meals and snacks every few hours just to teach your body that the nourishment is safe and it's predictable again.

26:10It's going to come. You're not doing the diet thing anymore. You're going to actually fuel your body with the food that it needs. And that will help to kind of reawaken some of those hunger and fullness cues over time. And for me, intuitive eating, again, it's not just about the hunger piece. It's really about getting curious rather than controlling. And so that means just collecting data without any judgment on how food makes you feel. So, for example, you might in the morning run out of the door, have a piece of toast, and you might just notice completely without judgment that you're hungry again in an hour.

26:46And you're like, OK, a piece of toast with butter doesn't really hold me that long. Next time, I'll have maybe some avocado in there, and I'll grab like a little yogurt cup or something to go with it. Let's see. Let's see how that like try that on and see how that feels. And so it's all about just collecting like data. And that's really, again, where the hunger crushing combo comes in, because once you feel the satisfaction and the satiety factor, you're like, oh, you know, it's not just about eating less. It's about, you know, what am I adding to those meals to make me feel my best so that I'm not constantly thinking about food and my digestion is actually working properly and my energy levels are, you know, even keeled and things like that.

27:27So I really just encourage people to kind of get curious in their own body and, you know, see the cues and the messages that your body is sending you without judgment. Would that be like what you would also say to someone that's been so disconnected from their hunger cues for so long is like, let's take some time to get curious on what that actually feels like for you? Absolutely. And especially if you have been disconnected from your cue from your hunger cues, whether that's from, you know, chronic dieting, disordered eating, eating disorders, things like that, that will likely require some kind of what we call like mechanical feeding, where, you know, you're not going to be hungry for necessarily first thing in the morning, but you're going to have a meal.

28:07And that's going to feel weird at first because you're like, why am I eating when I'm not hungry? But very soon your body's going to be like, oh, food is coming. I don't need to like, you know, hold on to this and conserve and like not give you any actual data on what your body needs and feels because you've just been ignoring me for so long. Yes. I need you to say that louder for the woman in the back. I've heard that so many times over the last eight years, but I don't want to eat breakfast because I'm not hungry. And I was like, well, yeah, because it's what your body knows for so long that you've been doing it.

28:38So let's just let's just eat that food and then let's see what your body is telling you in two to three weeks once your body's adapt to you eating food in the morning. And then two or three weeks later, you're like, how have I gone this long without eating any breakfast? And like usually, I mean, typically when you are doing that, you know, you're skipping breakfast and you're just kind of like waiting for like you to be ravenous enough to have a bite to eat. Usually you end up playing catch up at like 9 p.m. at night when your body's just like, you know, the world is quiet.

29:09You know, you don't have all these distractions like work or kids or whatever vying for your attention. And then you're just like chips. And, you know, had you just had a mindful meal earlier on and actually spaced out your meals so that you had better, you know, energy and fullness and appetite, you know, control later on. And you'd be in a much better place. Yeah, I joke about this, but I don't know if it's funny to joke anymore about it. I call it the food hoarding. It's gonna be the next like macro, the next Netflix documentary or something like that. Like, it's just like I joke about it, but, you know, innocently.

29:40But that's so true. It's like people, if they just ate balanced meals throughout the day, their society would be way more controlled. They would not feel like they have cravings all throughout the day and everything that we're talking about. So I'm really excited that you're on this podcast and sharing these words because, you know, it's like one where you say something. Like I say something and then it's like somebody else comes on and they say the same thing. It's like, oh, wait, you know, it just clicks differently. Maybe it's like listeners. Okay. So on that note, the question I had that popped in my head was why is understanding being satiated?

30:14Why is it so important for long-term health? Like, and then also double that. How can someone start to learn, to tune into that more effectively? Yeah. Yeah. So I talk about this a lot more in the book, The Hunger Crushing Combo Method. You know, I think it's really important that, first of all, we don't pathologize or celebrate hunger because that's what diet culture always does. Like, it's either telling you that, you know, hunger or stomach growling is your body giving you applause, like the skinny top mantras. Or it's like, if you ever feel hungry in the day on your diet, you're suddenly like doing something wrong.

30:47Wait, I'm also guilty. Not to like interrupt you. I'm also guilty of this. I used to say back in the day that if you're hungry, it's your fat crying or something like that. Right. I mean, we all did. Like, we were all wrapped up in that diet culture crap. And so, you know, these were like the mantras of like the 2000s, just making a resurgence, literally. But hunger is very distracting. Like, whether you are physically undernourished and you're hungry or emotionally undernourished or, you know, basically what I would describe as like unsatisfied because you are not.

31:20Maybe you're eating like bowls and bowls of lettuce all day, but you're like, I'm just, it's just not hitting, you know. You're going to be using that precious brain space to think about food. And we have so much data to suggest that. That doesn't seem like a good use of anybody's time or energy or brain space. Like, we got a lot, I'm a busy woman. Okay. I got a lot going on. I don't have time to constantly be thinking about food and even just being distracted from hunger. You know, if you have one of these, like, I think back to, you know, my disordered eating days and it'd be like, okay, I'm just going to have this like yogurt cup.

31:55And I would like hope, you know, just like space out all my meals to have the smallest amount of food possible or like the healthiest possible thing that, but ended up being very low in calories. But then I'm like an hour later, I'm still thinking about food. Of course, because I haven't had a satiating hunger crushing combo. And so learning to respect and respond to your body's hunger and satiety cues is really like turning down the volume on diet cultures noise and just tuning back to your own body frequency. And that is going to help you meet, you know, reach your healthiest, happiest weight, whether you are being under eating and chronic dieting.

32:34And maybe that's not serving you well either from, you know, your hormone levels, your energy levels and getting to a better place there. Or you've been stuck in this kind of diet culture hamster wheel of like trying a diet for a week and then just like binging out of control. And so you've never really been able to get to a place where you can trust your hunger and fullness cues and what your body actually needs. So, yeah, we really it's all about learning how food and our hunger and fullness serves us and working with those cues rather than fighting them.

33:06Hmm. Love that. I love that answer. I'm also going to be linking your book in the description. Yes. Thank you. Preorder now. Yeah. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you. At Warrior Babe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more.

33:45Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results and results that last. Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit WarriorBabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's WarriorBabe.com forward slash apply. All right. Let's get back to the show. OK, so the next bucket that I want to dive into with you is gut health without the hype, though, because gut health is getting a lot of hype nowadays.

34:16So it's everywhere. Supplements, drinks like, you know, skin care, even in skin care and all the things. So why is gut health actually important, though, especially for women? Totally. Yeah. I think, you know, again, like wellness culture has just reduced gut health to just like digestion. Right. And it's it's actually at the center of how your entire body functions. You know, your gut microbiome, which is this huge ecosystem of bacteria living in your digestive tract, influences so much more than just like your poop or bloating or anything like that.

34:51It plays a role in your immune system, your hormone balance, your mood, your ability to maintain a healthy body weight, your brain health, everything. And for women especially, you know, gut health really matters because the constant hormonal changes that we go through, whether menstrual cycles, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause, you know, estrogen and progesterone both interact with the gut microbiome. And so when one is off, the other gets off, too. And when your gut is struggling, like you might not just notice that you're bloated, for example, or maybe you like your bowel movements are off.

35:28You might feel mood swings, fatigue, skin changes, irregular cycles, all the things. And there's this really powerful thing called the gut-brain connection or gut-brain access, which is hugely important. And 90% of your serotonin, which is the feel-good neurotransmitter, is made in the gut. It's not even made in the brain. It's made in the gut. So that means if your gut is undernourished or stressed, it directly impacts your mental health. And so for women, we are going through, you know, the hormonal changes of perimenopause and menopause when there's already a lot of mood swings happening.

36:03There's already huge changes happening in the body. So this is why so many women feel like emotionally off when their digestion is kind of out of whack, too. It's this two-way conversation, this two-way street between the gut and the brain. It really is so important that we are paying attention to the health of the gut. Yeah. Love that you brought that up. I think that's really important because it's not just, like, the mental aspect of things that we experience when our hormones are changing. It's where is it stemming from and why.

36:36So for women, what are some, like, simple but actually, like, doable ways that someone can support their gut without falling into the gimmicks that's out there and all the things to do? Yeah. I mean, it really comes down to basics. And, you know, whether we were talking specifically about gut health or literally, like, any other health goal or health condition, chronic illness, anything, my recommendations would basically be the same. And so we want to focus on eating a variety of plants because plants contain fiber.

37:08Fiber is the fuel for our gut bacteria. So just the same way that, you know, we need a variety of different foods to, you know, have amino acids for muscles and carbohydrates for our brain and healthy fats and all those things. Our gut bacteria like a variety of different plants. They like a smorgasbord. So we want to try to incorporate a wide variety of plant foods, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds. We want to hydrate to support our regularity. We want to move our body because also very important for regular bowel movements.

37:43So sleep and stress are so critical to the health of the gut. When we are stressed, and I mean, I have IBS. So, you know, IBS literally is just a disconnect between the communication between the brain and the gut. So stress has a massive effect on our gut health, on our digestion. And these are just like kind of the basics. Outside of that, you know, we've got some evidence on specific probiotic strains for specific concerns.

38:13So, for example, with my supplement Lyme new theory, all about gut health for women. And we use two bacillus strains that have been shown to support IBS and bloating. And so, you know, when you look at the data on different probiotic strains specifically, they may support more specific concerns. But I think that really just focusing on those things are going to be the good get me the most bang for your buck, especially the plant food. Got to feed those critters. Yeah. Yeah. Got to get that fiber in there.

38:43Yes. All right. So next bucket that I have for you. We're moving along here because I want to make sure they get all the buckets in here with you. Of course. We close on this episode. But this is such great information so far. And everybody, too, that's listening to this, all of Abby's information is going to be in the description below. And we'll close it out asking where you like to hang out the most, where people can find you. But this next one, I have a couple of questions around menopause because that's a lot of the women that are listening to these episodes are going through either peri or they're in it or they're postmenopausal.

39:13So you talk about the importance of feeling, right? That's your main, you know, what we've been talking about a lot here and like not restricting, especially as women age. What are some of the key things, key shifts that women need to make in their nutrition during midlife to support what their hormones are experiencing? You know, a lot of people think, especially as they like get into their 40s, they're like, oh, my metabolism is just like shut down. And actually, when you look at the data, your metabolism stays relatively consistent until you're about 70.

39:44And then it starts to, you know, reduce after that. So the problem is, is that, you know, as we get into perimenopause and menopause, women may be starting to see some changes in the fat distribution in their body. It just is a result of estrogen shifts. And so most women are just going to respond by like eating a lot less because, again, they feel like, oh, my God, my body's just going to shit. My metabolism slowing down when what the bodies actually need at this stage is more support, not necessarily less food, just a little more intention.

40:16So, again, I try to focus on fueling strategically. And that's, again, where the hunger crushing combo comes in. And I have a whole chapter on perimenopause and menopause for this reason. So eating enough calories, very important for hormone balance, for muscle repair, because we know that this is when we start to, you know, potentially lose some bone mass. Muscle mass becomes harder to maintain. And so prioritizing protein at, you know, ideally every meal and most snacks, very important to protect against age-related muscle loss.

40:50And so that is really key. Complex carbohydrates with fiber also important because, again, when we are going through perimenopause and menopause, we might be experiencing changes in our bowel habits, more bloating, more gas, just all sorts of unpleasant symptoms. And the fiber is really going to be important for that as well. And then not fearing fat. So healthy fats, fish, olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, all important for brain function, skin health, hormone production. And so for me, it's all about, you know, it's less about cutting back and more about shifting focus towards foods that, like, keep you feeling strong, nourish, and resilient through all these changes that your body's navigating.

41:34I love that. And I want you to unpack really quick for me. You touched on age-promoting muscle loss. So, like, why protein's important. Why is protein important? And protein timing and the quality. Why is it such a game changer for women before and after menopause? Yeah. I mean, ultimately, these are things that we want to be focusing on all the time, especially when we can really, you know, build muscle in our younger years when it's a little bit easier. But, yeah, protein is absolutely king here.

42:04I call it the king of the satiety hierarchy. So, it's going to keep you full longer. For, you know, for most women going through perimenopause and menopause, we should be aiming for about 1.2 to 1.6, 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight or a little higher if there's, you know, fat loss goals in place as well. And it's really important that we are eating protein, getting enough protein to prevent our body from kind of cutting into our muscle, our metabolic muscle mass. I also really love, you know, we talked about the importance of plants earlier for the gut microbiome.

42:39But there are some specific foods like soy-based foods that are particularly powerful in perimenopause and menopause because they contain compounds called isoflavones, which are a type of phytoestrogen that mimics estrogen in the body. And as our natural estrogen declines, upping that intake of soy may help to reduce the risk of bone and muscle loss. Plus, it's being shown to help support, you know, symptoms like hot flashes, anxiety, depression.

43:10And so, my recommendation is all about trying to spread out our protein as best as we can throughout the day. We know now, we used to think that like, oh, okay, you know, your body was like really, really hyper-specific on like how much it can use. But we don't need to totally stress too much about getting like perfect 30 gram portions every three hours. But we know that getting our protein spread out versus just like having no protein all day and then having like a 16-hour porterhouse steak, it's not going to optimize our muscle protein synthesis.

43:43And also, it's not going to optimize our energy levels as well. So, I do recommend trying to get that protein in every meal and most snacks. And then, when it comes to protein quality, you know, a lot of the discussion around that has been like animal versus plant proteins because a lot of plant proteins are not considered kind of quote-unquote complete proteins, which means that they are missing one or more amino acids that can support muscle protein synthesis. We now know that our body's really smart and it does keep a little reservoir of amino acids.

44:14So, you don't need to like combine specific plant-based proteins together to get the same, you know, all your amino acids at the same time. As long as you're getting a variety of plant-based protein sources or protein sources in general, you're generally good. The one thing I will just say about the kind of protein quality or amino acids is simply that when it comes to protein powder specifically, when you're using that for muscle protein synthesis, you know, whey protein has, you know, enough what we call it like leucine.

44:45Leucine is the trigger amino acid for muscle protein synthesis. So, whey typically has a good amount of leucine. Most plant-based proteins do not. And so, you know, I, with our plant-based protein at New Theory, we've got a 2-in-1 plant-based probiotic protein and we add extra leucine because that is going to help to support muscle protein synthesis optimally. So, just a few things to kind of consider when you're thinking about kind of planning out your meals. No, I love that. That's great. It's a great breakdown of the quality of protein, what women should look for, and then protein timing, why it's so important.

45:19But not getting so stuck on like, it doesn't have to be 30 grams in your meal five times a day. It's the importance of just getting it in your meals throughout the day. Because I think a lot of people got hung up on, I need to be perfect with my numbers. No. But I think that's great. Okay, the last bucket that I have for you and the last couple of questions I want to dive into is really around like what we opened up this podcast talking about, which was, you know, how the industry can lean on shame and making people feel like our bodies are punishments. And we need to punish our bodies into things, into diets. How do you encourage people to feel better about their bodies and not just like following these rules that are out there?

45:56Like we've talked about some tactics on here on this episode with you, but like more of the mindset category. Like how can somebody, how can you encourage someone to feel better about food and their body? Yeah, I think awareness is a really great place to start, you know, understanding where these messages, you know, come from. Start noticing the kind of quote unquote food police voices in your head. Question, where did I even hear that from? And is that, you know, is that even a valid source? Should that be indicating what I, what I choose to eat that day?

46:28And I think once with a little bit of that awareness of almost like just critical thinking about the sources of some of these, these, these narratives, it does put things into perspective. And reminding yourself that like, you are the, you are the only expert on your body, like not even your doctor, like you are the expert on your own body. And certainly not, you know, a pretty influencer on your Instagram feed. So I think that that's, that's really important as well.

46:58Just really like respecting your own true body's needs. Love that. That's mainly that word awareness for, and probably the last, and the listeners will know this, but want to share this with you. The last, probably at least like 15 episodes of the podcast, literally said the word awareness. And I joke in every episode, I'm like, this is probably one of the key, most important words that you guys could latch onto and start using when you're eating foods and bring awareness to the stories and the narratives that are in your mind that are making up these judgments or why you should do this or why you shouldn't do this.

47:32And starting to recorrect, recorrect them and change them. So I love that you love that you said that. Okay. So one last question for you, for the listeners that are listening today that feel some, some, some feel overwhelmed or they feel stuck or they're stuck in this like toxic food mindset. What's one thing that you want them to walk away with from this episode? Um, I think which is really important to remind yourself is, of, is that, you know, your worth is absolutely not determined by your body or your plate.

48:04You know, with one of our kind of mantras, that new theory is like your diet is the least interesting thing about you. You know, this doesn't need to be your whole personality as we've unfortunately seen people make it on social media. And you do not need to earn food or shrink your body to deserve respect. And when you stop obsessing over food and what you're cutting out and your body and how it looks in the mirror and that angle, you make room for so like your world opens up and you finally can make room for, for what actually nourishes you, not just physically, but also, you know, emotionally as well.

48:41That's great. That's such a powerful reminder. Everything you shared today was such a powerful reminder, Abby. Thank you. Thank you for your bringing your brilliance and your honesty in today's episode and the conversation and for that powerful reminder and the many that you've given throughout this episode today. And just, you know, the reminder that food isn't something that we need to fear. It's something to enjoy, something to understand, something to bring awareness to, something to use to fuel your life and the way that you want to live. So, and I know so many women listening to this today are walking away with some new sense of clarity, some new sense of confidence and, and, and compassion for themselves.

49:20So keep quieting that noise. I appreciate you and your work and everything that you're doing. And where can people find you? Yeah. So I'm at Abby's kitchen, basically everywhere. TikTok, Instagram. I'm on YouTube. I've got a full length YouTube channel. I've got my podcast bite back with Abby sharp. You can pre-order the brand new hunger crushing combo method. You know, anywhere you get your, you know, your, your, your books or audio books and what else?

49:52And then new theory as well. So you can find that at new theory. Cool beans. Awesome, Abby. Thank you so much for being on. Thank you. Hey, really quick before you go, I've one small favorite ask if this episode brought you value or sparked something in you take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all of the difference, helping more women discover the tools they need to transform the fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey.

50:24Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much. Thank you.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.