Moving through Midlife | Helping Midlife Women Move Better and Feel Better

160 | Listening to Your Body's Signals and Cravings with Lisa Kilgour

• Courtney McManus

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Ever felt that your body is trying to tell you something? Join us for an illuminating conversation with Lisa Kilgore, a registered holistic nutritionist and the author of "Undieting." Lisa shares her powerful story of overcoming severe health issues through the magic of nutrition. Discover the importance of creating individualized nutrition plans, the transformative power of listening to your body's needs, and how small, sustainable changes can make a world of difference in fighting diet culture and enhancing overall well-being.

Ever wondered why you're craving chocolate or carbs? You might be surprised to learn that these cravings can signal underlying nutritional deficiencies. In our chat, Lisa and I explore the fascinating links between common food cravings and nutrient needs, such as the connection between chocolate cravings and magnesium. Learn about the value of balanced eating and experimenting with different meal compositions to find what best suits your body. We also delve into the benefits of quality carbohydrates like sweet potatoes for sustained energy and gut health, highlighting why it's crucial to listen to your body to determine the most beneficial diet.

Navigating midlife, especially as a woman, can be a challenge. Hormonal shifts, adrenal fatigue, and metabolic changes are just a few of the hurdles. Lisa and I dive into these topics, stressing the importance of self-care and understanding one's body. We also touch on the complexities of discussing diet culture with teenagers and the importance of recognizing their nutritional needs. Tune in for practical advice, inspiring stories, and insights into maintaining optimal health during midlife. Plus, get the latest updates on Lisa’s book, "Undieting." Don't miss out on this enlightening episode!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Moving Through Midlife. I am your host, courtney, a personal trainer and movement specialist who wants to help you move through midlife with more grace. Each week we will discuss ways we can show up better for ourselves and our children without the burnout. We will focus on overall health through habit stacking to help increase energy, provide movement snacks to help you move more throughout the day, while also moving your body more, and learn from professionals on moving through midlife with ease so that you can feel confident with aging. Gracefully, grab your earbuds and join me on a leisurely walk while we discuss moving through midlife. All right, I wanted to go back in the archives for this one. This is an interview that I did all the way back in episode 52. And it is one of those that I still think about today.

Speaker 1:

I continue to follow Lisa. I love what she stands for. She is very much a person who thinks we all need individualized plans and encourages you to listen to your own voice, your own body and what it is telling you, and making sure that you understand that diet culture is not what your body is asking for. She talks about cravings and how they are a cue to what your body needs, and she has written a book on dieting. I love this interview. I listened to it again and got so many nuggets of gold again that I wanted to bring it back for you to listen to as well. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Lisa Kilgore of Undieting.

Speaker 2:

My name is Lisa Kilgore. I'm a registered holistic nutritionist and when you hear that title it makes you think that I've always been healthy, that I grew up on a farm and ate organic food, and that's not the case. I became a nutritionist to heal me. First, when I was in high school and my early 20s, I was in a very competitive program. I was a performance music student and I got really, really sick. And I got sick for a variety of reasons. But by the time I was 25, I was going to doctor, to doctor and nobody could figure out what was going on. But I had nerve damage down both my arms, tendonitis in both my thumbs. I had asthma that was not major but out of control and was affecting me every day. But more than anything, I was so foggy I'd forget what day of the week it was, where I was going, and I would have this constant. It was before smartphones, so I'd be sitting on the subway saying what day of the week is it and where am I going? I needed a calendar. That's what I needed to put in my purse, but I didn't, and I would just like sit there trying to figure out where I was going and what the day of the week was when I left university.

Speaker 2:

I ended up getting a job in a whole food supplement company and I don't know why they hired me. I had no background in this, but I'm so grateful they did, because after about a month I got the courage to try their main supplement, which was like a super green powder. That it I had to read a lot before I'd actually drank my first glass, but what it did was provide the nutrients I was missing, and within about two weeks my brain turned back on and I could think again and my job was to learn about nutrition, and it just inspired the life path. That was 20 years ago. And then I, about five years after that, went to school for nutrition. And then in 2008, I was living in Toronto. At the time I packed up my cats in my car and drove across the country, and now I live in British Columbia, in the mountains. It's beautiful.

Speaker 2:

And for the last 15 years I've been working full time as a holistic nutritionist and now I get to help people where I was feel better and help them with that journey of what do I do first and how do I make these big changes, and I do it in the easiest way possible, because when we don't diet, when we actually make small changes and listen to our body, it becomes easy and it becomes just something you do. So it's not work anymore. And I work with a lot of people that flip back and forth between like they eat well and then they fall off, and then now they and so there's no work anymore. And I work with a lot of people that flip back and forth between like they eat well and then they fall off, and then now they and so there's no in between. And I I helped them find the gray area where chocolate, cake and cookies are still exist, and you feed your body in a way that it feels really good.

Speaker 1:

When you were talking about, like, how you, um, had all these problems growing up, was this due to, obviously, your nutrition. Were you struggling with your food intake? Is there something specific in regards to that?

Speaker 2:

I'm still surprised to this day that no doctor asked me what I ate at the time, because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I ate sugar all day, all day long. Everything I ate was sugar, and I was a really picky eater as a teenager. And so a beautiful dinner would be made and I would go and make myself a peanut butter sandwich, and, and and this happens with a lot of kids when life feels out of control, they control their food, and that's what I was doing.

Speaker 2:

It was a minor eating disorder, a disordered eating inside this wonderful family with a lot of yummy, delicious food, and so when I moved out on my own, I was continuing to eat sweetened peanut butter, sweetened cereals, as my all day long food, and and so, over time, I developed so many nutritional deficiencies that my body just couldn't function properly. And what I love is our bodies are amazing, and the very first thing I did that was healthy. My body said, yeah, that's what I'm looking for. And still to this day, 20 years later, my body loves green things and it's like super attached to green vegetables, green powders, everything green, cause it's like that's where health is. Keep eating that.

Speaker 1:

Yes, oh, that's so interesting. Um, I was similar when I was a child and I I don't know if this is something that a lot of children struggle with. I, watching my own children, I do think you know that picky eater and um, I would go to cereal, like that was my thing, that I would eat cereal all the time If it was Isn't it glorious? Oh yeah, I mean well, but no, I know.

Speaker 2:

The flavor is glorious. My body didn't like it but my taste buds loved it and it was easy and it was comforting and we have such a connection to it as children that it doesn't make sense that it stayed comforting as I got older.

Speaker 1:

Right, okay, so you have written a book called undieting. Yeah, I was going to ask you, but you didn't really have a issue growing up with dieting. You weren't on that diet rollercoaster, were you?

Speaker 2:

to a certain extent I grew up around dieting culture.

Speaker 2:

My mom's been on a diet since I was born and when I turned 12, I just thought you go on a diet, and so I put myself on a diet. I didn't think I had a weight problem, I just thought this is what adults do, and so I started controlling my food then and I it led into some control issues around food and, but because I haven't done any big diets, I have the ability to see from the outside and say, oh, you know, there is a different way. And so I've spent 15 years working with people and and undieting their life, and it has taken me a long time to actually realize what I was doing, but right from the, from the beginning, it was okay. Let's stop following things. Let's stop using our brain to tell us what to eat, what does what feels good, what does your body look for? And and I developed this, this methodology of using cravings and and time and energy and and what you like and what you don't like, and what feels good and what doesn't feel good, as a way to help people learn what their body is looking for. And that means they don't need me anymore.

Speaker 2:

I have a open door policy with new clients because I want them to be able to go on their own and not need me anymore, because I'm not the place where all the answers are. They are, I just help them uncover it and I think it's partially because there isn't a super embedded dieting philosophy inside my body my body's not overly connected to it that I've been able to have a bit more of a clear sense. But that doesn't mean I wasn't victim to diet and culture. I have absolutely been a victim of it and I'm in my forties now and I'm watching my brain tell me you need to control your metabolism. Isn't as fast as that, as it used to be? We need to. We need to do something, and if it wasn't for the thousands of people I've worked with and I know without a shadow of doubt this doesn't work, otherwise I'd be doing it. I just said a desperation, like honestly, out of a doubt. This doesn't work Otherwise.

Speaker 1:

I'd be doing it. I just said a desperation like honestly, right, yeah, well, and I think, like you said, is it's listening to your body. That's the most important thing and I think the more we can tap into that, the less we have to worry about all of these diets, so to speak.

Speaker 2:

Dieting kind of wages war on your body at. It's saying, okay, I am going to convince you to shove your body over here and then I'm going to give you all of the ways to ignore what your body is saying. So in a diet, you would be doing things to ignore your cravings or eat something else to satisfy that craving, and. But your body always wins. So your rational brain stays in charge for a while, but every diet fails. 95% of diets fail. So almost every diet fails. And the failure and I'm and I'm using quotes like air quotes for the word failure, because it's not really failure it's your body taking that over. When your body shoves you off that diet by making your craving so extremely loud you can't ignore it anymore, or makes you so tired or so hungry you can't say no a second longer. Or it's that evening where you've had a really long day and your body just says why don't you just have one cookie? Wouldn't that be lovely? This is your body saving you. This isn't your body doing something bad to you. This is your body saving you from something that wasn't working.

Speaker 2:

And it's using it's using a language you don't fully understand yet Like why? Why would you, when you've been eating all of these vegetables, would your body want a cookie? It's like, cause it couldn't talk you into a potato and so it asked for the carbohydrate a different way and something you can't say no to. And so that's why I like using cravings as a guide, because it's like, oh, your body wants these kinds of food. How do we do that in a way that's also nutrient dense and does that quiet those cravings? And it's really fun. It's like it's a super fun puzzle to figure out.

Speaker 1:

So, speaking into that with the cravings, so do you usually recommend? Do you notice patterns where if you are craving this, then this is what you need? Because I honestly, I don't know if I was even thinking that if I'm craving that sugary cookie, that I need a potato.

Speaker 2:

I know because we are so disconnected they all are supposed to be bad and again bad in air quotes that we don't even see that maybe it's our body knows you'll eat that one and not this one. I have a whole chapter on cravings and what they mean, but I can go over some of the most popular ones.

Speaker 1:

Sure, sure. Yes, I'd love that.

Speaker 2:

These aren't a hundred percent. So if you don't fall like, this is like a bell curve. This is the middle of the bell curve. If so, if you or any of the listeners say well, I don't, that doesn't sound right to me, that's okay, you're just on the other side. We still need to figure out your language. It's still your body asking for something, it's just a different way of asking for it.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so the most popular craving is chocolate, and chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is really high in magnesium, right? Okay, magnesium is a mineral we use enormous amounts of when we're stressed. We use enormous amounts in the last week of our cycle, and we crave chocolate in the last week of our cycle and when we're under enormous amounts of stress, it's a craving for magnesium. Uh, other symptoms of low magnesium are really tight muscles, low energy and and you don't sleep very deeply because your body's really restless and I. So when somebody says I crave chocolate, I ask them the other magnesium questions. Let's see if this is magnesium. Otherwise, it can also just be you haven't eaten enough, and, and chocolate is a delightful way of getting calories, so, but most of the time it's a magnesium deficiency.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so magnesium, but then there could be that calorie restriction, I think, okay.

Speaker 2:

And a lot of carb cravings are either due to the body is like carbs are out of style, so we crave enormous amounts of carbs. In the eighties and the nineties, we craved enormous amounts of fat because fat was out of style.

Speaker 1:

Right, the low fat yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, guacamole was bad for you again in air quotes, yes. And so potato chips have been bad the whole time because now they're carbs before they were fatty. But what carb cravings frequently are and they can be a variety of things, but a lot of the times, especially if they're at night, it's a sign you didn't eat enough through the day. They can be that your body is asking for just a steady set of energy. It doesn't have to work very hard to get and, and a low carb diet can create that. And then, lastly, it can be due to a low levels of.

Speaker 2:

We currently believe that, um, depression is a low level of serotonin. That might not be found to be the case, but carbohydrates pull serotonin up, and so people who are wired for depression tend to be carb cravers and their mood is affected by going on a low carb diet. And so people who are wired for depression are not doing well with our current food fashion, but did better in the in the low fat, high carb days of the 80s and 90s. It's just fashion. There's going to be. There's a new one coming in. Just ignore it all. My body likes fatty carbs. I'm so out of fashion. Who cares? I eat what my body likes and when we feed our body good quality carbohydrates like potatoes and sweet potatoes and I put starches in people's diets constantly they feed our gut bacteria, which is really important, but they give the steady set of energy and they dramatically reduce the evening cravings of potato chips and ice cream and cookies and all of the food that your body asked for in a tired moment because you said no all day long.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that is amazing. I love everything. I'm just like my mouth is open. You're like, oh, my goodness, I love this. Okay, so you've said like what's popular and what's not popular right now. So there's all these different fad diets that people you know paleo, keto, intermittent, fasting, all of that and you've gone against the grain with what you're teaching. You have no specific diet, so to speak, that you're following. Is there any certain protocol that you follow in regards to your clients, or is it really an individualized situation?

Speaker 2:

There's a methodology I take them through that's very similar, but what comes out is very unique. So instead of me saying have a high protein breakfast, that's good for everybody, I say let's try a high carb breakfast, a high protein breakfast and a middle ground breakfast of both and see what feels best to you. Cause when my body has like high proteins in style, I have a high protein breakfast.

Speaker 2:

I'm hungry in an hour. That doesn't make sense in the current philosophy, but makes full sense with what my body is, who my body is and what the constitution is. I do well with super carby breakfast, which I'm it's not supposed to do well, but I have. I had oatmeal and a banana for breakfast this morning, with some cocoa in it. It was delicious and, uh, it will keep me full for five hours. If I had bacon and eggs, I'd be hungry in an hour. I need carbs, and so I.

Speaker 2:

What we do is we go through each meal of the day and find what does your body like the best, what is your balance, and we listen to overall cravings, overall energy and especially evening cravings to say Are you eating enough? Are a lot of people I see are just simply not eating enough. I put more food into their diet, even if they're looking to lose weight, because it's all being made up for at the night, when they have a massive night craving. So better food and find that balance. And at the end some people will come out and say I feel really good with a lot of protein and non-starchy vegetables, but that's honestly a very small percentage compared to those who come, who come back and say I need starches through the day. That feels better. I need these kinds of foods and the reason why I get a small percentage of people who do well on a high protein, low carb diet is that they wouldn't be finding a holistic nutritionist if the current food fashion was working for them. So I get a higher percentage of carb loving people today because it's not working for them. They don't feel well and they need to understand why. A lot of times I get these food diaries and they're trying to follow what we're told is healthy and it's just not working for them.

Speaker 2:

So while I don't have a prescription where you can just go, you can scan my book and find the main points and not read the whole thing and just do those. That's not what my book is. My book is sit listen, let me teach you how to how to use your body symptoms as a guide to find out what's out of balance, and here are things to try. It's not as hard as it sounds and it gives you a lifetime of. I don't need any other help because I get it. I understand what my body is looking for, but if what you want is be told what to do. I don't do that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, Well, and I was going to say there's a lot of people out there who, um, they just want to be told what to do. So how do you start to work with someone? Because I think that's great that you want to be told what to do, but that only lasts so long.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and and I fully respect everybody where they are Like, I am a firm believer in body autonomy. If you, if what works in your life and works in your body is to be told what to do, wonderful, I'm not your practitioner. Okay, there are a whole bunch of places you can download meal plans and and find exactly what you're looking for, but no, I'm here when that stops working for you and and I'm here. Keep following me if you want, and I'm here and ready for you the moment you're like. You know I have the bandwidth.

Speaker 2:

Now my kids are a bit older, I have the energy to actually start understanding my body and I get a lot of women in their 40s, because that's that time where it's like you know what I need to start taking care of myself and I don't know where to start because all of these other things didn't work. But wherever you are, that's okay and it's not a judgment if you still want to be told what to what to eat, but eventually listen to those whispers that come from your body of like, maybe there's something else and I can help you learn that when you're ready.

Speaker 1:

Okay, you mentioned 40, like do you notice a big shift of what we did in our thirties, twenties and thirties? I felt like I didn't have to change much of anything for myself in my twenties and thirties and then I hit 40 and things have started to change. Is there something that you notice like this in almost every one of my clients? This they have to start changing in their forties.

Speaker 2:

I noticed it too and I couldn't want it Like I when I was in my thirties. Everybody's like, oh, everything's fine until you turn 40. I'm like, I'm a nutritionist, I know how to know. I tell, happened to me too.

Speaker 2:

Um, I think when our hormones start shifting and perimenopause, our body gets louder and says, okay, enough is enough. Through your 20s and your 30s, you're busy, you had small kids, that's all fine, I managed, I am not going to manage anymore. And so your body gets really loud and so adrenal fatigue symptoms and exhaustion really get loud and your metabolism slows down and and the hormone fluctuations in the month gets so much louder and it's a wake up call and unfortunately our culture doesn't give us the space in our forties to even start listening to it. It's we still have incredibly busy lives and so sometimes you just need quick fixes through this, and that's okay too. But when, if we have the time, space and bandwidth to start really tapping in, it's also a wonderful time when your body is allowed to really learn your body Like.

Speaker 2:

There's no better time than when the smallest thing throws you off to say, okay, body, tell me more. And sometimes you just need some help with your adrenals and your hormones to get through some really busy years, and I can help people with that. And, as we as just know, as you get closer to 50 and your mid fifties, these just get louder and louder and louder. But you have the space and time when you can carve the space for yourself. I think it's a lesson for women to give them themselves time and space and to start giving back to themselves as much as they give out to everybody, which is what we do in our 20s and 30s and 40s. We just our body, stops wanting to let us.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and we are. You're kind of sandwiched in in that, that generation where you've got you raising, you're still raising your kids. You might be starting to take care of your parents in some form or another, especially like into the fifties as well, and that doesn't leave. And you're trying, you know, most of us at when our children or when we are in our forties. Our children are now in school. So now we're thinking about if you've been a stay at home mom. You know that's a lot of hours in the day where I've got to get back into work and that type of thing. So you're constantly you've got. Now everything's just coming in on you, moving in on you, so really stressful.

Speaker 2:

It's really hard.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I love supporting women through this time. I'm I'm 40, I'm almost 45, and 45 in a few months and and so I get how the body is. But I have more space to give because I don't have kids, and so I see my role in the world as I chose a different path. Therefore, let me give back to moms, Let me help moms through this really hard time and find easy, easy routes to feel a little bit better due to the fact that I have the space to be able to do that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, you mentioned adrenal fatigue. I suffered with that for a period of time. Do you have any warning signs that? Because I feel like I've heard more friends mentioned that they have been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, but I feel like it's kind of that new thing that you start to hear now. Is there signs that we should be looking for? What could be our signs letting us know that we're tapping out?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, adrenal fatigue and adrenal exhaustion are really common. I've been through it three times myself um, two, two really bad times, that time in my 20, 25,. What was causing the fogginess was a lot of adrenal fatigue. And we're two years into a pandemic. A lot of people are crashing, and understandably so, and so for the first warning signs that can come out is, um, taking longer to wake up in the morning. So you feel groggy. Instead of for 15 or 20 minutes, you now feel groggy for a half an hour, an hour, two hours, or you just don't lose that sleepiness. That's an early sign. New salt cravings also an early sign. Adrenal fatigue usually brings out salt cravings. Salt is a medicinal food for adrenals, so that's, that's helpful. So bring in more salt. The big time red flag. So if this happens, go directly to a naturopath or an integrative medicine doctor to help with your adrenals. If you're exhausted all day long, you can barely function, and around nine or ten at night you wake up and feel like a million bucks. That is is a big time warning sign. The next step stage past. That is bedridden. So don't that's a don't pass.

Speaker 2:

Go, don't collect $200, go straight to a practitioner that can properly diagnose you so that would be through a naturopath or an integrative medicine doctor and can assess your adrenals. Before that, holistic nutritionists like me, other practitioners we can help you. There's a lot of herbal supplements that can help you out. There's a lot of just eating techniques to take some strain off your adrenals. This is not a time to do any intermittent fasting. You can really stress out your adrenals intermittent fasting. So if you are struggling at all with energy, just start eating more often, um, otherwise they will crash just from that Um. But in general, um, there's a lot we can do. You don't need to feel like this Um, and the sooner you turn the train backwards to energy, the better.

Speaker 1:

Okay With this undieting, do you and you're listening to your body what your body needs, which I find so fascinating? Because, um, I am a big proponent of getting protein in, but that's because my body, I like you said that you were eating oatmeal and a banana and I used to be able to eat that, but then I hit not 40, but you know up, moving up through forties, um, and all of a sudden I started feeling this spike. You, I, I would assume it has to do with insulin resistance. I just feel more anxious when I have carbs in the morning. Um, my heart will start racing, I'll just feel like I'm jumping out of my skin Almost. Is that a sign of maybe going too high on the? Is that an insulin resistance, that is?

Speaker 2:

it. It's a sign that your body is saying this ain't working for me. And you listened and added protein and it worked like a charm.

Speaker 2:

And so that's like something that's worked for you for a long time can suddenly stop working, and that's a that's something to listen to. And, uh, you did the right thing of adding protein. And doing that as an experiment is a great thing, but some people will add protein and feel hungry or faster, and it doesn't sound like it should happen, but it can, and so we. That's where we want to know what our body needs and to adjust accordingly, cause sometimes, especially when nutrient levels get low chromium being being the main one then we start our our body starts overreacting to grains like oatmeal. Oatmeal is a beautiful whole grain, but so when I hear those symptoms with oatmeal, I'm like, okay, our cells are not happy with insulin. How do we fix that? And chromium can be a good fix. It can. The the you did the right thing is stop stressing your body out with this and over time, you'll you'll find that that you can bring it back in. But anytime I see somebody eating oatmeal, especially steel cut oats, and they're hungry in an hour, okay, that's not working for you. Let's find another option. And now let's look at are there other signs of nutrient deficiencies? Chromium deficiencies happen with long-term stress, but mostly long-term. Refined sugar refined flour, which I did for a long time. Yeah, and I did. I had I did two years on chromium to get my body reacting.

Speaker 2:

Well, chromium is unsung mineral hero. It's a trace mineral, we don't need much, but it fixes the insulin receptor. So it creates glucose tolerance factor in the body, which literally means your body tolerates glucose better. And so, um, insulin resistance is when the insulin receptor breaks because too much insulin is hitting the cell and the cells like you're knocking on my door too much, I need a break and breaks its receptor. Now it's starving for glucose, can't get glucose because there's no insulin, and so it's telling you I need more food. But there's tons of sugar in the blood and chromium fixes that receptor, allowing your blood sugar to be more steady, allowing your body to produce less insulin to deal with that, and therefore you can tolerate grain, whole grains, better again. And so it's just about listening to that symptom and then saying why did that happen? So you did the great thing of just saying this doesn't feel good anymore, I need to do something else. And again your body got loud.

Speaker 1:

In your forties, your body said this isn't working for me anymore and you listened and that's what we all just need to do. Okay, so you're talking about all these different nutrients that I or you know whomever needs. How do we? I mean, is this something that, if we're eating our fruits and vegetables on a daily basis and some protein, some fat, that we're going to be getting all of these nutrients into our diet, or do you supplement as well?

Speaker 2:

these nutrients into our diet or do you supplement as well? Um, I, generally, um, I look at diet as a means to bring in nutrients. Um, because if we only look at supplements, that can cause its own imbalance because they're not food, it's missing cofactors for absorption. But our life can create deficiencies. So, like my old high sugar, high refined diet created a multiple deficiency level of deficiencies. I, my current life is full of nutrients but I self-employed and my schedule changes every day. I'm kind of high strung and so I have a running magnesium deficiency.

Speaker 2:

I supplement with magnesium and I add cocoa dark chocolate to anything I can for extra magnesium and it's delicious. But what I do with people is I look at their symptoms. So I wouldn't put everybody on chromium, but I put you on. I would consider talking to you about chromium from that symptom that you had, from the um, from the oats, or if you have a diagnosis of insulin resistance or type two diabetes, then we want to look at how to how, to see if we can get the cells functioning better.

Speaker 2:

Again, Um, I, I don't recommend. There's very few supplements I recommend right across the board and usually they're due to like in Canada, we need vitamin D because we live so far North and stressed out, People tend to need magnesium. If your diet, though, overall, is poor, then we we need to bring in a multivitamin possibly, or if you deal with a chronic illness, because it's really hard to get enough nutrients from your food. But most of the time I'm looking at let's use food as much as possible to get those nutrients in, because that's what your body wants. Nature understands what our body needs and I've oversupplemented in my in my attempt to fix my body 20 years ago and it really didn't work. And I've oversupplemented in my attempt to fix my body 20 years ago and it really didn't work, and I've seen that happen a bunch of times with other clients. And food is always best and sometimes you need to fix something that happened in the past or you need to fix something chronic, like my stress level.

Speaker 1:

Okay, when we are thinking about our children, so many of us have teenage girls who are getting ready. Well, not getting ready, they already are. You know, this is that age where those kids start thinking about going on diets because of the way they look. Is there anything that you can recommend in regards to that talking to our teens about the dieting culture and how we can work through that with them?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, this is a really important time. So young kids are really connected. Their, their brain and their heart, their body, are really connected. They know when they're full, they know what their body wants, but our life kind of teaches that out of us. Um part is sometimes you have to eat a meal when you're not hungry, because that's when the meal is available, and sometimes you have to eat food. You don't always like that sort of thing, but there's this really important moment as a teenager that can set the stage for for the 20s, 30s and 40s, and this is when girls are become really body conscious, are become really body conscious and research has found that teenagers who go on a diet just one have a higher rate of obesity as an adult and so and this goes for like, there is actually higher rates of obesity with every diet, even adults going on, so it's not just teenagers. So parents who have teenagers who are about to go on a diet like this is just right across the board. The best predictor of weight gain is dieting right now, and it's just that we has been studied on teenagers and so encouraging healthy conversations with the body, making sure that nobody in the family is making body comments because a teenage girl is already obsessed, and as all she's probably thinking about anyways, that we don't need to add to it, including positive. We just need to not have the body be a part of who they are in their self esteem. Encouraging healthy food consumption, listening to cravings, understanding why they're happening, is really fun. And then, if you feel like your teenage girl might be going down the dieting path, encouraging them to follow anti-diet.

Speaker 2:

Um, instagram personalities are some really great ones. There's some really great ones talking about how curated Instagram is like. There's one woman I follow. I love her because every single video is like here's how to take it, looking pretty, and then here's what reality looks like, and she's like watch me pull my butt, cheek out to create this photo and I just I, like my 45 year old brain, loves seeing that. I can only imagine what it would be as a teenager.

Speaker 2:

There's a really book, a great book called intuitive eating. That is, I think every parent should read, but but as a great read for a teenager that might be going down that dieting path, because it looks at why dieting doesn't work, go through all of the research, but then how to connect as well, and it's a really well-written book. It's very famous. It's been out for 20 years. Um, I can't think of the author's name off the top, but I can send you links for for that. But those are those it's.

Speaker 2:

It's do your best. To be having a teenager is really, really hard, and so, you know, do your best. And they're watching you, they're watching how you're eating and your relationship to food and they're developing a relationship with food, and so it's just. It's just about being cognizant of what's happening in the brain of a teenager and they're not making the most rational, like their brain's not done growing yet, so they need help with that like judgment, discernment side of things. And so this is a place where you can kind of come in and say, wait, why? Why is your plate, why does your plate have so little food? Are you not hungry? What's going on? And if they just say, yeah, I have no appetite, that's fine, but if it's, oh, I want to lose weight, well, that's okay, let's, let's have a conversation about that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and you mentioned intuitive eating. How, how do you get, whether it be the child or the adult, the mom or the teen, how do you get to where you really can trust your body? I'm thinking of my daughter. My daughter is, she's me, and she's very much on this sugar kick now, like everything is sugar, and I keep trying to help her understand that we've got to get some nutrients in there. Is there like because if she's listening to her body, her body's telling her to go have more chocolate? Yeah, and, like you said, like obviously, I mean, would she be one who might be suffering with magnesium? Yeah, okay, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Yeah, Teenage girls ripe with magnesium deficiencies, leg pains. Girls ripe with magnesium deficiencies, leg pains, uh, crampy, all of that, yeah, Um, and so so helping her under, say, like, let's ask your body why you want the chocolate. What's going on, Um, what else is like? How does it feel when you eat it? How does it feel after you eat it? Are you do? Does it satisfy you or are you still hungry? Sometimes, when you um have a craving and what you eat doesn't satisfy that craving, you still feel empty and so you want to keep going. And so helping her, just start understanding that language and seeing what else feels good.

Speaker 2:

And nobody feels good when they have the blood sugar highs and lows, but with a teenager it's not as loud. Sometimes they just get moody, like sometimes they just sometimes you just know you have to hand them a snack to have the conversation you want to have with them, Like they need to eat something before they're themselves again, and so it's. It's really like you can mirror a lot of it and it's it's opening up that conversation of like wow, your body really is sounding like it wants chocolate. How does it feel? And and just like, even just tweak that thought, but ask them how tight are your muscles? You have a lot of knots in your shoulders. Are you feeling really crampy with your period? How's your legs? Are you getting leg cramps? And it's not, it's. It's magnesium deficiencies are so common and she's growing so much that, yeah, I I would say there's pro. There could be um a potential of of low magnesium, and I had really low magnesium as a teenager.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah, that that was an aha moment for me, because when I was a child I the leg cramps that I would get nonstop. Oh, it was so painful.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I have been addicted to chocolate forever.

Speaker 1:

So this is, this is great. This is so much information that I this is my own soul study right here, or you're helping me with that. So, okay, tell me a little bit more. I'm definitely. I want to go grab your book now. Tell me a little bit more so I'm going to be able to read your book and I will be able to better understand myself and figure out my cravings and all of that through your book.

Speaker 2:

Yes. So if you go to undietingca, you'll get more information on my book and it's it's available though at all uh, online retailers. Um, my website, undietingca just is an easy way of accessing it and accessing where you can buy it from. Through my book, you will have a better understanding of your body. Sometimes people are like, yeah, but I still don't know what to do next, and so that's where you can see me one-on-one if you want some one-on-one help.

Speaker 2:

And then I also have a group program called your Beautiful Life, and that's for people who like to learn for themselves, and that's who I am. That's why I created it. I rarely see practitioners I want to like tell me what to do and let me figure it out. And so in your Beautiful Life, it's a, it's a group program. There's about 80 to a hundred people in it right now, so it's a really nice group. The age range is between 30 and 70, both a huge smattering 45 to 50, 45 to 65.

Speaker 2:

And in it we look, we we tackle a topic every month. This month is sugar, Last month was protein, and we take it from an undieting way. And so I I write a masterclass every month. There's 37 of them right now and you can. They each stand alone so you can say I really need to focus on inflammation or I really need my. Like, I need to understand sugar better, and you just can.

Speaker 2:

You can read through the masterclass. It takes about 45 minutes from top to bottom, and then you can be in my, in the our private Facebook group. You can ask me questions. I do Q and A's every two weeks and I'm there to share more and you have really strong access to me. Like, my priority is my clients and my group program, so it gives people both options. Do you want to really work through it in deep level, one-on-one, or do you want to be a part of this? You want to kind of like have it simmering around and understand it from a different, from different areas and see where it's where you want to take it next. I have many of my members are also clients and there's a 15% discount on seeing me on one-on-one if you're also a member. So if you're thinking I kind of need both, yeah, yeah, you can totally do both, and there's about 25% of my members are also clients.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, now is there one thing that you would recommend for those of us, you know, these moms? Is there anything specific that you want to make sure that you leave us with that we can work on, or with our children? I mean, if you're welcome to recommend both, if you'd prefer.

Speaker 2:

Well, the key with with your day is breakfast, and if you think, oh wait, I hate breakfast, I never eat it, that's fine. It's the first thing you eat in a day. Some people's digestion doesn't start in the morning and eat something by mid, mid morning and then lunch is your, your first one to tackle. But for most people, get breakfast to work for you, and breakfast working for you means you feel satisfied for three or four hours at five is best. You enjoy it, it feels good, your energy is steady all morning, you nail breakfast, your whole day looks better.

Speaker 2:

Uh, I have had like former dieters who who was like shocked that that's all I wanted them to do. For the first three or four weeks we worked together and then they come back. They're like I really I was humoring you. That made a huge difference, though, like I'm shocked, I for the rest of my life I will always make sure breakfast works for me, because everything else are problems stemming from breakfast. So if we don't solve that first, then we're just kind of working out the balance. So try a smoothie. If a smoothie feels terrible and you're hungry and now stop eating smoothies, try something else and you're. This is good for your kids too, because their whole day of concentration will be better if they start their day with something that's going to keep their energy steady. For some people, that will be that smoothie or a high protein breakfast. Another person is going to be oatmeal with a banana or like, like it is for me. We're all different. Just nail your breakfast.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and I'm sorry I've got to ask this because you said nail your breakfast and I know a lot of people are really gung ho with this intermittent fasting and you also touched on that. In regards to the adrenal fatigue, what is it something that we, as women should be looking at? Intermittent fasting? Or I mean, you did mention that it doesn't have to be first thing in the morning, but it's when you're breaking your fast. Yeah. I would a couple of things about that.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely I would. I would recommend every woman be very cautious with intermittent fasting. It works beautifully for some, but terribly for others. All of the research, except for a very small amount, is all done on men, and the very little bit of research they've done on women has found that the results are the opposite. Okay, so the better insulin control that works for men. Women the opposite. They have not looked at how intermittent fasting affects hormones, and what I've seen anecdotally is 20 something women with menopausal level hormones after pushing intermittent fasting too much.

Speaker 2:

So while for some, like you know, it's working for you because it's easy and as you enjoy it and you feel good. So if fasting until lunch is easy, you don't even think about it. You feel so much better than trying to force food in. You're, you're on the right track. This is totally working for you.

Speaker 2:

If, though, you are waiting anxiously for for lunch, or you have to have caffeine to get you to lunch, that's, that's your body, overpowering with cortisol, your hunger signals and what we, what? What we're seeing with intermittent fasting in women is that it causes a stress reaction in both men and women, but on a woman it's more harmful, possibly, but when the adrenal fatigue, it's terrible. So women do better at more of a gentle 12 to 14 hour overnight fast that I don't even consider intermittent fasting, that's just like finish dinner and eat breakfast and that works out to being that, um, that tends to be better hormonally and um, the beginning of our cycle tends to be better better for fasting than the end, than the last two weeks. So also adjust for where you are in your cycle, but don't push your body. Your body will have problems in the longterm if you push through it too much. Your body will have problems in the longterm if you push through it too much.

Speaker 1:

Well, and you even touched on something that I found very interesting is because some of us may not even realize we're not listening to our body, because we're shoving caffeine into us immediately, because you know you can intermittent fast, as you know, if you have coffee in the morning and that will tide you over. But is that really tidying you over properly?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's simply using cortisol to push down your, your, uh, hunger. And so, if you like I am. I have been a breakfast eater my entire life, since I was a little kid, as my favorite meal. I am going to be a terrible intermittent faster because I'm missing my favorite thing and the thing I go to sleep waiting for like I'm like excited about breakfast when I go to sleep. Somebody else who has been trying to force breakfast in for their whole life because they just never have the appetite for it. They're better. They're better at this intermittent fasting trend, like they're going to be better eating lunch as the first meal.

Speaker 2:

Um, it really depends on who you are, and just don't force it. I I've met a lot of women who are doing it because their partner is also doing it and they're trying to support their partner, but they spend all day starving. Well, you, your metabolism is being pushed down, your hormones are being pushed down, your cortisol is skyrocketing to get you to this thing that your brain has been convinced is good for you. Your body doesn't like it. So listen, listen, listen and you can be guided to what works and stop it when it stops feeling good.

Speaker 1:

Okay, perfect, thank you so much. Can you tell the listeners where they can find you and learn more from you?

Speaker 2:

So my website is my name, lisa Kilgorecom, but you can also get to my website at undietingca. So if you can't remember how to spell my name because it's the Canadian spelling, just go to undietingca and you'll get my book. But then you can navigate to the other stuff and see, learn about my group program, your beautiful life, or see my rates for working one on one. My one on one rates are are in Canadian, which is better for like the. There's a good transition from. It's like 20% lower if you're paying in US dollars, just with the exchange rate.

Speaker 2:

Um, I also have uh, if you go to lisakilgorecom, forward slash freebie. You can download my five ways to eat what you want. It's my beginner's guide to undieting, and then you're also on my newsletter list so we can be in touch every week with. I send out some goodies every every single week and so that's a nice way in as well. But kind of go with what feels good and what you're ready for and have time for, but grab my my beginner's guide at least, because then you can stay in touch.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and books are sold everywhere now.

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely. It's been out since September 2020. So it's on Amazon, it's on Barnes and Noble, it's on Chapters in Canada, it's on all of the online stores.

Speaker 1:

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

You're welcome, Courtney. I really enjoyed chatting with you.

Speaker 1:

I hope you enjoyed this episode and found something to take away to help you practice healthier habits, move more or handle the midlife and aging with grace. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review to help us reach more moms just like you. Head to movingthroughmidlifecom to join the free community or learn how you can move more and feel better in your daily life.