My New Happy: Pass The Protein Please

Monday, July 14, 2014

Pass The Protein Please


A month ago I wrote about my ongoing fight with my weight, and how weight training had helped me lose eight pounds and go down a dress size.  So far so good - the weight is still wandering around Siberia, and has been joined by another two pounds.

Becoming healthier and stronger through weight training is an ongoing goal for me.  But there is another important piece to the puzzle, one that women over forty often ignore.

Protein.

I am not a big fan of beef or fish.  By the way, this drives my husband crazy.  I have no idea why - I don't give him a hard time for not enjoying margaritas.  Anyway.  I don't mind chicken on occasion,  but I'm kind of picky about how it's prepared.  And as a woman constantly thinking about my weight, I've tended to stay away from eggs and cheese.

A new friend in my Zumba class happens to be a nutritionist, and one day she quizzed me about my diet.  As we delved into my typical eating habits, she suspected that I wasn't eating nearly enough protein on a daily basis.

It seems I'm not alone.  Approximately 1/3 of women don't get enough protein in their diet.   If you are active and want to know how many grams of protein you need daily, multiply your weight by .6.  If you are more sedentary, multiply times .4.  

My friend discovered that I was taking in about half the amount of protein I needed to keep my muscles humming along.  Oops.



Protein has many overall benefits, including helping prevent osteoporosis and diabetes and reducing blood pressure.  If you're trying to lose weight, it's even more beneficial. High protein foods take more work to digest and metabolize, so more calories are burned while processing them.  They also take longer to move on from your stomach, so you feel full sooner and for a longer period of time.

Whey protein is especially helpful for women in their 40's and beyond.  Whey is a high quality protein with a greater proportion of branched-chain amino acids.  These building blocks help build lean muscle mass.  More lean muscle mass means higher resting metabolism - and more weight loss.

Equally important is aiming for a chunk of that protein first thing in the morning, to help replenish your stores after a night of fasting.  This has the added benefit of helping to regulate your appetite all day.



It hasn't been hard to add protein into my day, now that I'm more aware.  Whey protein shakes, hard boiled eggs, greek yogurt, almonds, cottage cheese, protein bars, and string cheese have all become part of my diet.

I'm eating more chicken, and some steak on occasion.  I'll admit I was still a little worried that my weight would go up instead of down, but that hasn't happened.  I'm feeling fuller during the day, and those muscles are popping up here and there.

My husband is happy to hear me say, "pass the protein, please"!  Now about those margaritas... 

Linking up with Katherine's Corner

21 comments:

  1. Oh, protein is sometimes so hard to keep up, isn't it?! Seems like we need a lot more than what a typical diet would contain. I'm a vegetarian (but I do still eat some dairy) so I have to be pretty creative with protein sources. I found a whey protein that I really like, which is made with Stevia, so that's an easy one anyway. :)

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    1. It's definitely harder to get your protein when you're a vegetarian! Whey protein is ideal.

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  2. By the way, is your blog on Facebook (as a page) so I can "like" it? :)

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    1. No, I don't really do Facebook - sorry! But thank you for asking :)

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  3. You're so right, Lana! Protein has really been the key for controlling my weight. When I started really focusing on getting enough in the morning, my afternoon cravings disappeared. I've been shifting to a semi-vegetarian diet, but even so, I'm finding that my food tracking app helps me stay on top of the protein issue.

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    1. It's amazing how eating more protein helps maintain weight. I couldn't believe it myself at first.

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  4. It definitely helps ME. But I am such a carb addict. I don't like meat that much. Or chicken. Or any protein. Ahh.Other than that, though, I'm perfect. NOT. ;-)

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  5. I agree 100%, especially about the protein in the morning. If I have protein for breakfast, I can usually control my eating most of the day.

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    1. It's interesting how the morning protein helps so much. I have a hard boiled egg and a whey protein shake for breakfast, and I'm not hungry again for hours!

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  6. This is really informative, Lana. I have noticed that if I eat a protein bar, I am a lot less hungry later than if I just eat a regular granola bar. A good reminder to pay more attention to this - Thanks!

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    1. I have a protein bar every day around lunchtime and I'm usually not hungry again until dinner.

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  7. there are so many ways of incorporating protein, beans, quinoa, if you don't like meat too much. Myself I just love fish and yoghurt.

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    1. Yes, these days there are so many good protein rich foods! I love yogurt - but not fish :)

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  8. More power to your awesome weight loss journey Lana....just take it one day at a time!

    Rebecca
    www.redtagchiclosangeles.com

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    1. That's the truth - one day at a time! Thank you Rebecca!

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  9. I'm here via SITS! Great post - it feels so good to see the weight come off after all that hard work, right?

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    1. Yes, it's hard work but worth it in the end. Thanks so much for stopping by1

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  10. This is such good information. I am pretty good at eating protein but my two teenagers - not so much. One in particular is a very picky eater (I thought he was going to grow out of that!). Keep up the good work. I can so relate to everything ;)

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    1. I have a very picky teenager too - although they both do like meat! Thanks so much for the nice comment.

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