This is a transcription of Episode 23 of the LinnFit coaching Podcast. If you want to listen to it you can find it on Spotify by searching for LinnFit coaching Podcast, or on the Youtube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz7lJVuU7wA. Follow and subscribe to those channels to catch all the Podcasts.
Welcome to the LinnFit coaching podcast where we take some of the most important Fitness, Nutrition, and lifestyle topics and we make practical for you, so you can take it with you in your daily life.
Alright I just want to jump on the LinnFit coaching Podcast today, thanks for tuning in. I wanted to check in and say there's a lot of different seasons throughout the year and our bodies’ change throughout the year. Isn’t that crazy? Throughout the seasons as your activity changes, as your life goes through different stages, and going through different challenges and even as weather changes our body naturally changes its energy needs. What do I mean by energy needs? Energy is in the form of calories, that’s our bodies’ fuel. Calories come from three different macronutrients: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Protein is your meat, dairy, fish, eggs, beans, and lentils, things like that. Carbohydrates come from your breads, pastas, grains, juices, fruit, sugars, sweet things like that. Fats come from nuts, seeds, and oils. Those are the main things that come from each of those, that’s where your energy comes from. It comes from your food. So whether you eat it, or you drink it, that's where the energy is coming from.
As you go throughout the year your stress might change and your level of activity might change also. It’s interesting to know and think about your energy needs because if your energy needs are changing throughout the year but you’re eating the same amount throughout the whole year, then you might be doing well at certain times of the year and you might actually be gaining weight that you don’t want at other times of the year. For example, people tend to be a little bit less active in the winter than they are in the summer. Because of that if you’re eating the exact same amount in the summer as you are in the winter you might lose weight or stay the same in the summer and you might gain weight in the winter if you eat the exact same thing.
How do you keep from this constant cycle of up and down, and up and down?
It's good to evaluate two major habits and work on them. The first one is eating slowly. If you eat slowly you're going to give your body and mind time to sync up and get in good communication with each other. Taking 10-15 minutes to eat your meal is going to allow you to understand and be able to recognize any hunger and fullness cues. So before you even sit down, before you're ready to eat, consider, “Am I even hungry? Is this a good time to eat, is this a time I should eat, or am I actually hungry?” If you are noticing that you have some cues like “oh man my stomach is growling,” or actually feeling hungry or “Man, I’m feeling a little bit irritable I’m about to bite somebody's head off because I'm just so hangry.” If there are some signs that you need to eat then yeah let's sit down and eat. Whenever you eat let's eat slowly instead of just consuming it, eating it so fast and downing it.
Try removing distractions to help yourself be mindful as you eat. Because as you eat you can pause at certain times to see “How full am I?” Once you feel satisfied and you feel full you can save the rest for later or you can just give it to someone else who needs it or toss it in the trash, whatever that means for you. That’s gonna help you understand, “Am I getting enough?” Our bodies’ are pretty good about giving us signals whenever we feel full typically. If it's in the winter and you're not moving as much your body is not going to have as high of energy demands. In the winter whenever it's cooler outside, people aren't out walking, they're not out exercising as much and whenever you are working out it's typically colder, so you're not sweating as much, and not burning as many calories. That can mean you don't need as much. It's totally normal to not have the same kind of appetite. But also totally normal to be sitting around and that can lead to boredom. If you're bored you might get snacky. Being mindful of this, to be aware of your hunger cues and your fullness cues, and what leads to both of those can really help you take better control of your body and your food, throughout the different seasons.
In the summer you might be eating a lot more, you might have a bigger appetite because you're moving more. You might be exercising, you might have a little bit more off time depending on what your job is, you might have more freedom in your schedule to be doing some exercise. You might even be out doing more lawn care outdoor stuff that is around your home that requires more movement so you naturally are going to have more of an appetite. You're going to be sweating more. You're going to need to drink more water, and more electrolytes. You might crave things like fruit more often because fruit contains electrolytes, this is going to help you stay hydrated and retain that water. This is just a little example picture for you to understand how throughout the different seasons of the year your body can be affected.
This can happen wherever you're at, maybe you're in a temperate climate where you only have two seasons, where it's hot and cold or a dry and wet season. Maybe you're in a western climate like in America where you have four seasons, where the summer is pretty warm and then spring and fall are a mixture of warm, cold, and in between. Then winter where it's really cold in a lot of parts of America, where people are pretty sheltered in, not moving a whole lot, pretty sedentary throughout the winter. Understanding that certain times of the year I might need to actually try to observe a little bit more often “What do I actually need right now? Do I want to eat because I’m bored or because I’m stressed? Or do I really need to eat because I’ve been skipping meals because I’ve been stressed out with a work project? Or do I really need to eat because I’m doing that much activity with my body?” Maybe your body is trying to tell you “Hey feed me something” especially if you're doing extra activity that's trying to lead to a certain outcome that you want for getting fitter, healthier and stronger something like that. Your body is going to need the fuel to be building up that lean body that you want.
So this is a quick podcast about how your body can change throughout the seasons. Really interesting stuff and I challenge you to think about the season you are in right now the weather you’re in, what kind of stress, job stress work stress, life stress you have if that is causing you to have a little bit more of an emotional desire to eat and really think about it. Do I actually need to eat? Do I actually have some hunger cues yelling at me? Or is it more like a stress or emotional response and I feel like eating to feel comfortable? Then as you're eating, whatever you eat whether its healthy or not, if you work on eating slowly and stopping at regular times to understand “Am I full, am I full enough?” Try not to get stuffed all the time, your body is going to help you take control of whatever you are eating and you’re not going to eat too much in excess. It's going to help us to keep ourselves in a better rhythm to be eating what our body needs and controlling the energy that we get so that we keep ourselves ultimately fitter and healthier in the long term
Thanks for tuning in today guys.
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