“Menopause” is defined as “a point in time 12 months after a woman’s last period“. More generally, the term “menopause” refers to the end of a woman’s reproductive years. Even though menopause technically occurs once in a woman’s lifetime, the symptoms leading to it can last a decade. The decade preceding menopause is known as “perimenopause”.
Perimenopause
By “perimenopause” we usually refer to the lapse of time that precedes a woman’s menopause. In most cases, such lapse of time lasts about 10 years and begins sometime between 35 and 45 years of age. Undoubtedly, the perimenopausal transition causes the most physical, mental and emotional distress in a woman’s life. Indeed, it presents a woman with a variety of symptoms that upset both her life and her identity. In particular, the most common symptoms are:
– hot flashes – night sweats – insomnia – mood swings (with anxiety and depression bursts) – blood sugar fluctuations – energy crashes – fat-storing around the waist – loss of life purpose – identity crisis – shorter, lighter periods – shorter, longer or altered cycles
Common symptoms
Is Exercise Good or Bad for Menopause Symptoms?
Excessive exercise can lead to early menopause
While strength training has a beneficial effect on women’s health, excessive exercise – especially cardio – can lead to early menopause. Indeed, in response to the prolonged stress generated by frequent, strenuous sessions, the hormone cortisol is produced (as explained here). However, cortisol competes with progesterone, as they both are made from the same substrate, pregnenolone. Therefore, when the body prioritises the production of cortisol over progesterone (aka the “pregnenolone steal theory”), a woman gets light, short periods, or starts missing her periods altogether. In the worst case scenario, she can face hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA), clinically defined as the absence of a period for at least 3 months. When HA is not taken seriously and treated, early onset menopause can occur.
Exercise can be good for perimenopause symptoms
However, strength and power training sessions have a beneficial effect on perimenopausal symptoms. Moreover, when combined with proper rest and nutrition, strength and power training can even help reverse HA. Thanks to the positive effects of strength training on bone mineral density (BMD), blood sugar and mood, weight sessions can help most women reduce symptoms. More specifically, strength training improves sleep quality and insuline sensitivity (thus decreasing the chances of gaining fat around the waist), and it boosts endorphins, fighting both anxiety and depression. Lastly, it can help a woman redefine her sense of identity, as it helps her find new ways of assessing her skills and value.
Best Exercise Routines for Perimenopause and Menopause
1. Weight Training
For the aforementioned reasons, weight training is the best form of exercise to alleviate menopause symptoms. However, make sure you keep your sessions short and effective (45-60 minutes). In terms of frequency, 2 or 3 sessions per week are more than enough, unless you are an advanced athlete.
2. Yoga, Pilates and Stretching
To boost your mood, improve sleep and reduce anxiety, make sure you incorporate yoga, pilates or stretching sessions in your routine. As these types of exercise do not require much time to recover, feel free to have as many sessions as you please. Great additions are also Thai-Chi and Qui-Gong. To get the most benefits, make sure you train outside as often as you can: such a mood-booster!
3. Walks and Hikes
Lastly, make sure you include long, daily walks and/or frequent hikes in your weekly routine. Walking is an amazing way to lower blood pressure, reduce stress and improve sleep. Moreover, it allows you to burn a lot of calories effortlessly; for this reason, it is an excellent exercise to manage your weight and prevent fat-storing.
To Conclude
Hormones and energy
The transition from pre to post-menopause can be a long and painful experience for a woman. While excessive cardiovascular exercise can make such a transition worse, a good balance of strength training, stretching and walking can have a positive impact on symptom management. As I explained in my previous post, a woman’s energy fluctuates with her hormones. However, when exercise, nutrition, lifestyle and work-schedule are synchronised with your hormones, you can be productive all month long.
Want to know more?
Do you want to learn more about how your hormones affect your performance, and how you can organise your monthly schedule to work with your cycle? Would you like to know what foods to eat and what workouts to do in each phase, to be your strongest self all month long? Do you need recipe ideas to support your hormones? Do you want to get rid of cramps and migraines for good?
Join my Masterclass here and learn to work ‘with the flow’, not against it. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Book your FREE consultation today and balance your hormones in 12 weeks!
Remember: my biggest mission is to help you build your strongest body, sharpest mind and most connected Self.
If you need an extra boost to feel strong all month long, support your energy with ActiveIron: the only clinically-proven iron supplement on the market. It has 2x better absorption rate than other OTC supplements, and causes 6x less gut irritation. Get 10% with the code ‘GAIA10’. Just make sure you speak with your GP first.
Aren’t you tired to compete with your male coworkers, just to show your boss you are equally ‘good’? Well, this is not what it means to be a strong woman. As someone who has been often called ‘strong as a man’, I have felt the pressure of gender competition my entire life. However, such pressure and competition should not exist in the first place.
Indeed, whilst men and women share many qualities and deserve the same rights, they also differ largely in nature and genetics. Most importantly, men’s internal clocks are designed to work within a daily circadian rhythm, while women have a 28-day cyclical internal clock. For this reason, comparing men and women’s performances on a daily basis is a mistake; on the other hand, a monthly comparison would be a much fairer option.
Even more than this, if women neglect their cyclical nature – and strive to compare themselves with men all month long – they will end up renouncing their biggest strength. But what does it mean, therefore, to be a strong woman? To answer this question, we will have to provide a new, holistic, definition of ‘strength’. And to do so, we will have to go through some brief genealogy of modern masculinity and femininity.
What does it mean to be ‘strong’?
What defines ‘strong’?
When you look up ‘strong’ on Google dictionary, here are the definitions that come up:
‘having the power to move heavy weights or perform other physically demanding tasks’;
‘able to withstand force, pressure, or wear’ (italics added).
As it emerges clearly, physicality is the main characteristic of strength. But is it the only one?
Can we redefine ‘strong’?
For as much as I dislike using the word ‘patriarchy’ and adhering to an exclusively feminist narrative, I don’t know of any better ways to put it: history has been written by men. And both our grammar and thinking pay the consequences of it. However, masculinity itself has been scrutinised and challenged over the past 30 years, and this process has had a relevant impact on the notion of ‘strength’.
In the early 90’s, American post-Jungian poet Robert Elwood Bly (Bly 1990), analyst Robert Moore and mythologist Douglas Gillette (Moore & Gillette 1990), became the main advocates of the so-called ‘mythopoetic men’s movement‘. The objective of the movement was to challenge the traditional notion of ‘masculinity’, all centred on physicality and violence. By so doing, men would be enabled to reconnect with forgotten qualities, such as wisdom and care, and reclaim their so-called ‘mature’ masculinity.
At the same time, new definitions of femininity also made their appearance in the 90’s (most notably thanks to Clarissa Pinkola Estés), claiming the same rights: a more comprehensive, less stereotypical idea of femininity. Both notions of masculinity and femininity initiated a new debate on strength: can strength be more than just physically strong?
Albeit relevant to both men and women, a new definition of ‘strength’ will mostly benefit women, as we shall see in a bit.
What makes a woman ‘strong’?
What Makes a Woman ‘Strong’, Then?
Let’s go back to the cyclical nature of women
As already pointed out, women’s physical, mental, emotional and social strengths vary over the course of their menstrual cycle. Here is exactly how:
Menstrual Phase (Inner Winter). In this phase, basal body temperature (BBT) and physical energy are low, whilst introspection, long-term planning and emotional connection are highest;
Follicular Phase (Inner Spring). BBT is still low, however, due to increased physical and mental energy, women can excel at medium-term planning, marketing skills, physical strength and skill practice;
Ovulatory Phase (Inner Summer). BBT is now high, and energy is peaking. Women have the highest physical energy, social skills, short-term planning, physical, mental and emotional endurance;
Luteal Phase (Inner Autumn). BBT is very high, however, physical energy and social skills are running low. In this phase, women have high emotional connection and care ability, and highest organisational skills (e.g. decluttering, reviewing and revising, etc.).
How different phases of the menstrual cycle affect different energies: emotional strength, mental strength, physical strength, social strength
Different ‘strengths’ across the month
When we replace the old definition of ‘strength’ with a new one that includes mental, emotional and social components, women can be ‘strong’ all month long. In fact, women can be physically and mentally strong around follicular and ovulatory phases; they can connect emotionally with themselves in the menstrual phase, and with others in the luteal phase; they can perform challenging social tasks (like closing deals, meetings and trips) around ovulation time; and they are best suited to review, revise and declutter in the luteal phase.
To Conclude
Strong men and strong women
Whilst both men and women’s hormones fluctuate over the month, hormonal fluctuations affect women in much greater measure than men. By virtue of this, a woman’s ‘strength’ shifts continuously from physical to mental, through emotional and social. Therefore, a ‘strong’ woman is a woman who is:
connected with her emotions in the menstrual phase;
engaged in goal-setting and planning, as well as in physical strength and skill practice, in the follicular phase;
wiling to give her best physically, mentally and socially in the ovulatory phase;
able to connect with, and take care of others in the luteal phase.
Interested in learning more?
Do you want to learn more about how your hormones affect your performance, and how you can organise your monthly schedule to work with your cycle? Would you like to know what foods to eat and what workouts to do in each phase, to be your strongest self all month long? Do you need recipe ideas to support your hormones? Do you want to get rid of cramps and migraines for good?
Join my Masterclass here and learn to work ‘with the flow’, not against it. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Book your FREE consultation today and balance your hormones in 12 weeks!
Remember: my biggest mission is to help you build your strongest body, sharpest mind and most connected Self.
If you need an extra boost to feel strong all month long, support your energy with ActiveIron: the only clinically-proven iron supplement on the market. It has 2x better absorption rate than other OTC supplements, and causes 6x less gut irritation. Get 10% with the code ‘GAIA10’. Just make sure you speak with your GP first.
Thanks for supporting me through my Amazon Influencer account: I will get a very small commission at no extra cost for you.
And thanks for supporting me on my journey: your presence means the world to me! A new podcast is also coming soon: stay tuned!
By the way, if you want to learn all about women’s hormone health, follow my new Instagram. I post daily and look forward to seeing you there. Moreover, I am going to give away free coaching sessions soon: you don’t want to miss the chance. But make sure you follow my old account, too, for daily fitness contents.
Last but not least, please, help me improve. Would you like to see more posts about hormones? I would appreciate it, if you could take some time to complete this survey. Your feedback means a lot to me. Thank you!
It makes you feel guilty for feeding your kids on commercial chocolate eggs, made with plenty of refined sugars, chemicals, and additives.
It makes you feel even guiltier for enjoying a little bit of extra chocolate, making you feel like you have just spoilt your diet — kids play and run all day, after all, so all that chocolate might not have a huge impact on them, but you…
You would love to get your kids involved in some fun kitchen activities to enhance their creativity and spend some time together over the Easter break, instead of having them play video games all day, while you are busy in the kitchen prepping your lamb marinade and baking cakes.
I’ve got the perfect recipe!
I love homemaking whatever food can be homemade. And I also love avoiding processed foods, food colourings, and anything that can be avoided, to optimise my digestion, while still enjoying the foods I love.
But I also love Easter eggs. I love all dark-chocolatey things, and I also love to make my own raw chocolate. This year I decided to try something I had been wanting to try for a while: I made my own mint-flavoured Easter egg.
I went for mint flavour, because both me and my husband are very much into mint chocolate. If you prefer, feel free to replace it with vanilla seeds, cinnamon powder, raisins, or hazelnut bits — basically anything you like your chocolate with (even milk powder, if you don’t fancy dark chocolate).
Once fully melted, add in honey and stir thoroughly.
Gently, add in cacao powder, salt, and mint oil, until smooth and creamy.
Pour the mixture in a polycarbonate mould and, using a spatula, make sure it is evenly distributed. This will be your first chocolate coat.
While keeping the leftover chocolate mixture in the Bain Marie, let the mould sit in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Take the mould out, give a second coat, and put back in the fridge.
If you wish, give a third coat, to make the shell stronger.
Cover in cling film, and store in the fridge or freezer.
Once the appearance of each half begins to look a ‘blurry’ through the glass, the egg is ready (it might take up to a couple of days). Gently flip the mould upside down, to allow each half to naturally come off.
To seal the egg, in a pot or sauce pan, warm up some water to 50°C. Grab one of the halves, and let its edges touch the water for a few seconds. Quickly press it against the other half until the attach together (3-5 seconds). The egg is now ready to be decorated
MAKE THE ICING
Just as you did for the egg, melt the cacao butter in a Bain Marie, and combine with honey, mint oil, and coconut flour.
Sprinkle with turmeric and spirulina powders to make the chocolate green (feel free to switch to beetroot powder to make it pink; chilli or paprika for red; blue spirulina for blue; turmeric alone for yellow).
Pour the mixture in a sac à poche, and let it sit in the fridge for a few minutes, until it gets lukewarm: if the mixture is still too hot, it will melt the egg (trust me, I’ve learnt the hard way!); if it gets too hard, you won’t be able to squeeze it anymore.
Decorate the egg as you please, and let it sit in the fridge (or freezer, if you prefer), until ready.
As I made my own egg a little bit too thin, I was left with lots of extra mixture, which I used to make mint-chocolate pralines. Some of them, I filled up with crunchy hazelnut butter. I stored all the pralines in the freezer, to enhance their fresh mint taste, and they turned out just perfect.
You might have heard that muscle is also called the ‘organ of longevity’
Podcast
On 9 July 2020, I recorded a podcast with @Wildmanstrengthpt Taylor Thompson. Our discussion was mainly focused on the benefits of muscle growth, strength and power training for health, longevity and independence in old age. In that occasion, Taylor also presented his Wildman Strength & Longevity protocol for the first time. However, as we ran short of time, some topics were left uncovered, which are relevant to the process of muscle growth – such as micronutrient intakes and supplements. While you can read about, and watch the podcast here, I will attempt to give my 2 cents on what I consider to be the best hacks for muscle building in this post.
Sarcopenia and mortality
Before we dig into muscle building, it is important to understand why it is so important to our health. To do so, let’s start from the definition, and health implications of ‘sarcopenia’. The the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) has defined sarcopenia as ‘the loss of muscle mass plus low muscle strength or low physical performance‘.
To asses how sarcopenia relates to human health, several studies were conducted between 2013 and 2014, in different countries and regions. What all those studies found was a strong correlation between sarcopenia and increased mortality in elderly population (80-85 years of age) (Arago-Lopera et al. 2013, Duchowny 2019, Landi et al. 2012, Landi et al. 2013). What it means, is that sarcopenia can be thought of as the direct responsible for natural mortality. Consequently, it also means that the more muscle you carry and the stronger you are, the lesser chances you have to die from sarcopenia.
Therefore, building as much muscle as possible at a young age can delay or prevent sarcopenia, hence extending one’s lifespan.
Power and independence in old age
Moreover, other studies have specifically associated strength and power training with increased functionality and independence in old age (De Vos 2008, Hazell 2007, Marsh et al. 2009). What this means, is that building significant strength and power at a young age can also extend one’s lifespan.
For these reasons, I like to refer to muscle as ’the bank of longevity’: invest in muscle now, live a better future.
How do we build muscle?
The four most important elements for muscle growth
1. Resistance training
In order to grow, muscle needs to be stimulated. Muscle growth is indeed a consequence of the body adapting to a consistent stimulus. As is of common knowledge, the highest hypertrophic response is achieved within a 8-12 rep range performed at 60-80% 1RM. However, sets of 5-6 reps can also promote hypertrophy, while building strength at the same time.
2. Leucine
This is by far the most important amino acid for muscle building, as it acts with insulin to activate the mTor pathway, which is responsible for cell metabolism and growth. To activate mTor, just as little as 2.5g of leucine are necessary, corresponding to 80-120g red meat, poultry or seafood; 17g whey protein isolate; 3 eggs; 70g hard cheese; 140g cottage cheese; 400g tofu (not very practical); 380g lentils (not very practical, either); 120g almonds (again, not very practical) (source: https://www.sportsdietitians.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/110701-Protein-Supplementation_General.pdf). While all protein-containing foods are great to build muscles, those high in leucine play the most important role in the process.
3. Carbohydrates
Although dietary carbohydrates are non essential nutrients in the human diet, meaning that the body can manufacture glucose from fat and protein (the process is known as ‘gluconeogenesis’), post exercise carbohydrate intake facilitates insulin production, activating the mTor pathway, and creating the ideal environment for muscle protein synthesis. However, highly processed carbohydrates (such as high-fructose corn syrup) can play a detrimental role in insuline sensitivity, in the long term. Therefore, try to prioritise fruit, raw honey, starches, gluten-free grains and legumes.
4. Sleep
Muscle is stimulated in the gym, nourished with adequate leucine and carbs but it is regenerated while resting. Human growth hormone (HGH), which is responsible for all growth mechanisms in the body, is indeed secreted by the anterior pituitary gland while sleeping. Adequate sleep is therefore crucial to muscle building. Furthermore, an optimised sleep-wake cycle regulates the melatonin-cortisol ratio, hence reducing stress and promoting muscle-building even more.
My favourite supplements for muscle growth
1. Pre Workout. L-Arginine
It is a precursor of nitric oxide and has two important roles, as it:
stimulates blood production – potentially facilitating nutrient delivery in the muscles –
has been shown to increase growth hormone levels in the blood.
Even though the literature on taking L-Arginine supplements is still controversial and further research is probably needed to confirm its efficacy, taking 3 g dissolved in 50ml water as a pre-workout can potentially increase both performance and muscle growth.
2 Intra Workout. EEAA (essential amino acids)
To sustain high-volume workouts, dissolving 15g EEAA in 500ml water, with ¼ tsp Himalayan salt and 1tsp unsweetened berry jam or organic honey has become a must for me. During high volume training, glycogen stores might run low, so sipping high GI sugars (from berry jam or honey) will replenish glycogen fast, while adding EEAA will prevent further energy from being taken from muscle fibres. I also add Himalayan salt to replenish the electrolytes that get lost through sweat.
3 Post Workout. L-Glutamine and Creatine
Glutamine is a conditionally essential amino acid, meaning that, although it is produced by our body in otherwise sufficient amounts, in particularly stressful circumstances, the body tends to run low and it needs to be replenished. 5-10g post workout are proven to speed up recovery in some trial studies (e.g. Legault et al. 2015).
Creatine is a compound produced by the liver, made from the amino acids arginine, glycine and methionine. As you might know, it is also used by the muscle cells to produce energy. Therefore, ensuring that creatine stores are always full, assists muscle recovery and facilitates energy production in muscles. The debate as to whether it is advisable to assume creatine before or after a workout is still open, however I personally prefer adding 1 scoop to my post-workout whey protein shake, alongside l-glutamine.
4 Before Bed. Tryptophan
Tryptophan is a precursor of both melatonin and serotonin (the happiness hormone). Melatonin being essential for HGH production and release, drinking 3g of tryptophan with 50ml water before bed can potentially facilitate muscle growth.
Conclusion
Even though the debate is still open as to whether taking supplements can significantly improve muscle growth, research seems to unanimously agree on the health benefits of muscle mass, as well as on the functional role of strength and power training. One more caveat concerns the quality of supplements.
Indeed, the supplement industry is a relatively new one, and substantial studies on long-term supplementation lack to this day – to give an example, tryptophan was banned for well over a decade (from 1990 to 2005), as tryptophan produced by a certain company was proven to cause eosinophilia myalgia syndrome (EMS), due to toxins elicited by the genetically-modified bacteria used by that company in its fermentation process (you can read the full story here). Whether deciding to take supplements to help muscle growth is your choice – and so are the potential risks involved – you can surely control the quality of such supplements. Here are some easy tips to do so:
make sure you read labels carefully and avoid those with too many additives (these are usually encoded as an ‘E-numbers’ code, so you basically want to avoid as many ‘E’s as possible);
try to always choose the brand which contains the highest possible percentage of supplement (and the lowest of additives);
before purchasing supplements from an unknown brand, do some research and check if, and how many peer-reviewed studies exist on that specific product: even though such studies might be highly biased by the interests of the supplement company, reading through what some scientists have found out about a product, is always better than knowing nothing at all.
Remember, when it comes to health, make sure you always choose quality over quantity. Stay strong everyone!
Book a FREE consultation today, and learn how you can build muscle quickly and effectively:
I first started questioning the role of fibre in my diet when I was diagnosed with IBS for the first time in 2009
Back then, I was told to cut back on leafy greens, pasta, bread and gluten containing grains. I recall experiencing significant benefits within less than one week. However, due to my lifestyle at the time, I slowly reintroduced most of those foods back into my life as soon as all my symptoms went away.
When my IBS reached its apex in 2018, however, I was put on a strict low FODMAP diet by my GP, which excluded way more food groups than those listed above. After cautiously testing which ones I could reintroduce back into my diet without triggering IBS symptoms, I realised that there were still a whole lot of foods, which I would never eat in my life again, if not on very special occasions (e.g. most grains, alcohol, cherries, watermelon, apricots, mushrooms, just to name a few).
Despite what the mainstream culture seemed to promote, I found out I was better off without fibre, or with just a minimum amount of it.
What is fibre?
Technically, fibre is a subspecies of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates can be thought of as long and complex chains of simpler glucose molecules (made out of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen). Even though carbohydrates are non essential macronutrients (in fact, through a metabolic pathway known as ʻgluconeogenesisʼ, glucose molecules are manufactured in the liver from carbon substrates found in amino acids and lipids), paradoxically, they happen to be the bodyʼs preferred source of energy. Indeed, they appear to be the most accessible source of glucose, which is essential to run vital brain functions, as well as one of the muscle-skeletal energy systems.
Not all carbohydrates, however, are broken down by the body to produce energy, and here is where fibre comes into play: both soluble and insoluble fibre, along with resistant starch, present a molecular structure that our enzymes are unable to break down. The function of fibre, therefore, is not that of providing our body with energy.
Fibre can be soluble or insoluble:
Insoluble fibre (roughage) passes through our GI and its only function is to create stool volume.
Soluble fibre and resistant starch are fermented by gut bacteria and dissolved in water, forming a gel in the colon.
Both soluble and insoluble fibre have been popularised in recent years, due to their positive association with: colon cancer reduction; blood glucose reduction; LDL reduction (which might not be as a positive thing as you think, after all, but it would be off-topic now). However, all those positive associations should be rediscussed if you have a GI pathology.
Some literature
Even though fibre (without differentiating between soluble and insoluble) was said to be effective in a small group of Chinese population (33 constipated patients and 20 healthy individuals) who underwent a 4-week kiwi fruit treatment (On On Chan et al. 2007), a causation fibre-relief from constipation is still controversial. In particular, the benefits found in the consumption of a kiwi fruit twice a day could come from water, vitamins and minerals and not necessarily from the fibre itself. A meta analysis of the existing literature from 2012 showed that ʻfiber intake can obviously increase stool frequency in patients with constipation. It does not obviously improve stool consistency, treatment success, laxative use and painful defecationʼ (Yang et al. 2012).
Two studies are worth being mentioned in this regard:
An interventional study from 1997 (Voderholzer et al) investigated the role of dietary fibre in the treatment of chronic constipation. What was found was a positive outcome in patients with no GI issues, whereas no significant change was seen in the other group: ʻEighty percent of patients with slow transit and 63% of patients with a disorder of defecation did not respond to dietary fiber treatment, whereas 85% of patients without a pathological finding improved or became symptom freeʼ. So, they concluded ʻSlow GI transit and/or a disorder of defecation may explain a poor outcome of dietary fiber therapy in patients with chronic constipationʼ.
A more recent study from 2012 (Kok-Sun et al) investigated the role of fibre in idiopathic constipation and found no benefits in introducing fibre in the diet. In fact, ʻpatients who stopped or reduced dietary fiber had significant improvement in their symptoms while those who continued on a high fiber diet had no changeʼ. So, the authors conclude, ʻidiopathic constipation and its associated symptoms can be effectively reduced by stopping or even lowering the intake of dietary fiberʼ.
Further Reflections
Gut Dysbiosis
One more thing to be considered is the dysbiosis (microbial imbalance) characterising IBS sufferers and its relation to the efficacy of a low FODMAP diet: according to the most recent hypothesis on IBS, most of the symptoms appear to be triggered by an excess of bacteria in the colon, that can be overfed, when too many prebiotics are ingested, leading to an excess of fermentation, and, therefore, gas and pain (see Lyra and Lahtinen 2012, Collins 2014, Simrén 2014, Shukla et al. 2015, Putignani et a. 2016, Benno et al. 2016, Principi et al. 2018, ).
High FODMAP foods, by definition, are fermentable sugars: some of them (mono and disaccharides) are very small molecules, others are bigger polymers (e.g. polyols), others are long glucose polymers, known as polysaccharides. Fibre and starch are also polysaccharides, which makes it easy to understand why many fibrous or starchy foods also happen to be high FODMAP. However not all polysaccharides are highly fermentable, and nor are all other mono and disaccharides, which explains why some fibrous foods are still tolerated by IBS sufferers.
Soluble and Insoluble Fibre and IBS
Moreover, the tolerance level is individual and depends upon each individual’s unique microbiome. Consuming soluble fibre and resistant starch will obviously increase the chance of the bacteria being overfed, even within the recommended intake for average population.
Consuming insoluble fibre might also aggravate IBS symptoms. Indeed, due to the impaired fermentation in the colon, also the stool transit appears impaired: in so called ‘IBS-D’ (IBS-diarrhoea) sufferers, excess water is drawn and bowel movements are accelerated; by contrast, in so called ‘IBS-C’ (IBS-constipation) sufferers, bowel movements are slowed down. Ingesting a bulking, such as insoluble fibre, might potentially interfere with the transit, especially in the case of IBS-C sufferers, as happened in the populations of the constipation studies discussed above.
SIBO, IBD and Other Conditions
A similar discourse could surely be done in regard to SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth), which differs from IBS in that the overgrowth appears to be localised predominantly in the small intestine (it is possible that someone with IBS is also affected by SIBO, whereas someone affected by SIBO might not experience IBS symptoms). In that case, fermentation might occur in the small intestine, at the stage of absorption and assimilation of nutrients, which would in turn be impaired even more by the excess of bacterial population.
Lastly, also IBD (Inflammatory Bowl Disease), an umbrella term describing Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis also appears to be characterised by dysbiosis (see Putignani et a. 2016) and therefore might be impaired by a diet high in fibre.
Conclusion
Including both soluble and insoluble fibre in the diet of a healthy individual, with no GI issues, is not only harmless but even beneficial. In the case of IBS, SIBO or IBD sufferers, however, an overconsumption of fibre might aggravate some of the symptoms.
These days we find ourselves surrounded with all kinds of diets and lifestyles, each of them advocating to be ‘the best one’ and/or ‘the most suitable for humans’. Even celebrities popularise certain diets or lifestyles, and other ‘gurus’ claim tons of scientific evidence behind what they promote. It’s important, instead, to understand that not every diet or lifestyle can be suitable for everyone.
To cut a long story short, before jumping into a fad diet, or before making any relevant dietary intervention, please, do your own research and seek professional help.
Benno, Peter; Dahlgren, Atti-La, Befrits, Ragnar, Norin, E., Hellström, P. M., & Midtvedt, T. 2016 . ‘From IBS to DBS: The Dysbiotic Bowel Syndrome’. . Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Reports. https://doi.org/10.1177/2324709616648458
Botschuijver, Sara; Guus Roeselers; Evgeni Levin; Daisy M.Jonkers; Olaf Welting; Sigrid E.M. Heinsbroek; Heleen H. de Weerd; Teun Boekhout; Matteo Fornai;Ad A.Masclee; Frank H.J. Schuren; Wouter J.de Jonge; Jurgen Seppen; René M.van den Wijngaard. 2017. ‘Intestinal Fungal Dysbiosis Is Associated With Visceral Hypersensitivity in Patients With Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Rats’. Gastroenterology 153(4): 1026-1039. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2017.06.004
Collins, Stephen M. 2014. ‘A Role for the Gut Microbiota in IBS’. Nature Review Gastroenterology Hepatology 11: 497–505. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2014.40
Lyra, Anna and Sampo Lahtinen. 2012. ‘Dysbiosis of the Intestinal Microbiota in IBS’. In Godfrey Lule (ed.). Current Concepts in Colonic Disorders. Rijeka (Croatia): InTech:261-276.
Yang, Jing; Hai-Peng Wang; Li Zhou; and Chun-Fang Xu. 2012. ʻEffect of dietary fiber on constipation: A meta analysisʼ. World Journal of Gastroenterology 18(48):7378–7383. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v18.i48.7378
Kok-Sun Ho; Charmaine You Mei Tan; Muhd Ashik Mohd Daud; and Francis Seow-Choen. 2012 ʻStopping or reducing dietary fiber intake reduces constipation and its associated symptomsʼ. World Journal of Gastroenterology 18(33):4593–4596. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v18.i33.4593
On On Chan, Annie; Gigi Leung; Teresa Tong; and Nina YH Wong. 2007. ʻIncreasing dietary fiber intake in terms of kiwifruit improves constipation in Chinese patientsʼ. World Journal of Gastroenterology 13(35):4771–4775. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v13.i35.4771
Principi, Nicola; Rita Cozzali; Edoardo Farinelli; Andrea Brusaferro; Susanna Esposito. 2018. ‘Gut dysbiosis and irritable bowel syndrome: The potential role of probiotics’. Journal of Infection 76(2): 111-120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2017.12.013
Putignani, Lorenza; Federica Del Chierico; Pamela Vernocchi; Michele Cicala; Salvatore Cucchiara; Bruno Dallapiccola. 2016. ‘Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis as Risk and Premorbid Factors of IBD and IBS Along the Childhood–Adulthood Transition’. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 22(2):487-504. https://doi.org/10.1097/MIB.0000000000000602
Shukla, Ratnakar; Ujjala Ghoshal; Tapan N. Dhole; Uday C. Ghoshal. 2015. ‘Fecal Microbiota in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome Compared with Healthy Controls Using Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction: An Evidence of Dysbiosis’. Dig Dis Sci 60:2953–2962. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-015-3607-y
Voderholzer, Winfried A.; Schatke, Winfried; Mühldorfer, Birgit E.; Klauser, Andreas G.; Birkner, Berndt; Müller-Lissner, Stefan A. 1997. ʻClinical Response to Dietary Fiber Treatment of Chronic Constipationʼ. American Journal of Gastroenterology 92 (1):95-98
A disciplined and focused mind can achieve anything. This is no secret, even in the bodybuilding world. In fact, some of the greatest bodybuilders ever, such as 6x Mr Olympia Dorian Yates and ‘bodybuilding yogi’ Ben Pakulski, have compared training to meditation, and emphasised the importance of mind training to improve physical training too. Moreover, more and more athletes have been experimenting with visualisation and some of them have even attributed their success to their constant visualisation practice (e.g. 2x Ms Figure Olympia Erin Stern). Lastly, the motivational benefits of self-talk in sports have been exhaustively explored and reviewed (see Hardy 2006). But how does this translate into your everyday’s workout?
I’ve always regarded my workout as MY moment, in which nothing else is allowed but training-related movements and thoughts. There is no room for stress or preoccupation, nor is there any space for looking at my mirror reflection and analysing my physique. When I lift, I just lift, rest, sip some water and lift again. I might listen to some music or greet a friend, as long as these ‘distractions’ don’t affect my workout. When I train, I want to be present in the moment, I want to train mindfully. As any other routine, you want to perform every single act in the same way, as a sacred ritual, however, you want to do so intentionally and purposefully. And, I can say, when you train this way, your physical strength, mass and technique will also improve. On top of it, you’ll feel less stressed out and more relaxed. Below are a brief description of what a mindful workout should look like, and some quick strategies to make your workout mindful.
Mindful Workout Structure
In order for your workout to be mindful, there are 3 points to concentrate on:
Feel muscles activating. When you focus on the ‘here and now’ in the weight room, it translates into shifting your attention from the surroundings to your own muscle contraction, trying to feel your muscle fibres shortening and lengthening as much as you can. Don’t worry if you can’t feel your muscle contraction very deeply initially, it will improve over time, as long as you keep your practice consistent.
Control muscle activation. This step comes immediately after feeling your muscles activating and enables you to become aware of your ability to control your muscles, and to feel such ability. Again, your skills will improve over time.
Isolate exercise execution from gym environment and noises. This is the hardest part of a mindful workout, as it means that you should be able to isolate yourself from the gym environment and not let distractions interfere with your training. For advanced mindful athletes, this also means being able to not let inner distractions, such as thoughts or emotions, interfere with their workout. As a beginner, trying not to look at the person using the machine next to yours for the entire exercise duration is enough.
Strategies to Make your Workout Mindful
Here’re some strategies to practice mindful fitness. Some are meant to help you get into a mindful state, others are to be used during your workout, some others are general tricks or tools which you can implement in your everyday life to help your workout become mindful:
Scan your body before warmup. Individuate stiffness, pain or aches, or areas that need to be focused on when training.
Focus on stiff areas during warmup and try to loosen them up (you can also use a foam-roller or a lacrosse ball).
Focus on muscle contraction and relaxation during each rep and try to control muscle activation. You can literally visualise your muscles shortening and lengthening, as well as your brain pulling your tendons through your nervous system, as if it was a puppeteer pulling the threads.
Make sure you breathe deeply throughout, and don’t let your increased heart rate make your breath too shallow (you want to bring in as much oxygen as you can and you want to feel in control of your breath all the time). Needless to say, this doesn’t apply to intense cardio (I’m mostly referring to weight training).
Keep a training journal in which you record parameters such as ‘ability to feel the muscles’, ‘ability to control the muscles’, ‘ability to concentrate on exercise in a busy environment’.
Always start your workout from those exercises in which you feel you struggle to control or activate your muscles and see how they improve over time (again, a journal is the most helpful way to do so).
How Long for?
I encourage you to keep a mindfulness journal for at least 4 weeks, and to review your progress both at the end of each week and at the end of the full programme. If you need some more advice, or if you’d like to use my Mindful Fitness Journal, schedule a FREE session today.
Apply here to work with me:
I hope you’ve found this article helpful. If so, feel free to read more of my posts and articles.
After quitting veganism in April 2019, I started experimenting with a ketogenic diet, to see if I could: 1) fix my digestion, 2) improve my performance at the gym, 3) burn some body fat more easily. I was also curious to understand what kind of impact it might have on my energy levels and overall focus. I officially began my experiment the last week on May, and concluded it at the end of November.
My Protocol
As I was expecting (based on the literature I had read and the video I had watched), the first couple of weeks were the toughest ones. The principle of ketosis is that, instead of using glucose from carbs as your primary source of energy, your liver produces ketone bodies from short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) which travel across your body and supply energy to organs and tissues (thus sparing glucose supplies for your brain — as it can’t work without). Shifting from carbs to fats can take some time and can cause brain fog, lack of energy, headache (the so-called ‘keto flu’). So, as you can imagine, the first couple of weeks can be very painful. To reach ketosis and stay in it, all you need to do is:
Fast until you’ve depleted all of your glycogen stores
Consume a diet high in fats (60-75% of your calories), moderate in proteins (20-30% of your calories), and very low in carbs (5-10% of your calories, usually coming from low GI vegetables and fruit, such as cruciferous veggies, green beans, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, berries etc.)
Avoid high GI foods (starch, grains, most fruit, sugar, syrup, honey, etc.)
Limit your daily meals to 2-3, as you don’t want your insuline to spike, or it’ll prevent lipolysis (the process of fatty acids being released from the adipose cells to be used for energy).
As I work out everyday, and as I like to keep my workouts’ volume quite high, I adjusted my macros so that my carbs would never go below 50g a day, to be split between pre- and post-workout meals (what is commonly called a ‘modified or targeted ketogenic diet’). So my typical day looked like this:
4-6:30 am. Breakfast: water and lemon, coffee, peppermint tea
2-3pm. Pre-workout shake: whey isolate 97% protein powder, 1 small green banana or 1 cup of grapes
6pm. Dinner: salmon/lamb mince/beef mince/steak/liver/kidneys/lamb heart cooked in butter or coconut oil, steamed or baked vegetables (courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes, bell peppers, spinach, green beans), coconut yoghurt with frozen berries, 100% dark chocolate.
My Results
As I’ve anticipated, the first 2 weeks were really tough and my performance at the gym suffered quite a bit. Due to the lack of glycogen in my muscles, I couldn’t cope with high volume training, so I decided to lower my rep range and increase the weight (this way I could solely rely on the phosphocreatine energy system, in which ATP is more efficiently replenished than in the lactic acid energy system). Once in ketosis and fully adapted to using fats, however, I was able go back to my usual workout routine for most exercises. As the body becomes more efficient at using fats, indeed, the process of gluconeogenesis (namely the production of glucose out of fats and amino acids) also becomes smoother and glycogen can be stored in muscles just as easily as when running on carbs. However, I never managed to go back to my usual range of reps in exercises such as hack squats and pull-ups, in which the demand for glycogen is too great for the tiny amount produced by my liver and kidneys from other macronutrients. According to some studies on rats (Fournier et al. 2002) and on humans (Fournier et al. 2004), glycogen can be replenished even in the absence of food. However, it also depends on genetic predisposition, and, at this point, I think my body is not as genetically efficient at producing glycogen as someone else’s.
The other aspect I wanted to scrutinise was my digestion. Although I was on a lowFODMAP version of a ketogenic diet, the high amount of fats would occasionally get me bloated and slightly constipated. However, my energy levels were always high (after the first couple of weeks), and my appetite significantly decreased (as I wasn’t relying on insulin anymore). This subsequently improved my focus and my sense of balance and stability.
Surprisingly, although most people go keto because it is one of the most effective ways to lose weight, I must admit that the aesthetic effects of the diet is the only aspect of my experiment that has disappointed me. Regardless of what the literature says, my muscles never seemed to be fully replenished with glycogen and would appear flat most of the time (as I said, it might be that my genetics is not really efficient at producing glycogen). Moreover, even though staying in ketosis can be an excellent way to lose fat, it makes it really hard to gain weight. When I started my usual bulking after summer, I found it really difficult to put on weight beyond my maintenance. For this reason, at the end of November, I decided to go back to my typical 5-6 meals a day, increasing my carbs and lowering my fats until next spring (at least).
My Advice for You
Overall, I’ve become more efficient at using fats and much less sensitive to blood sugar fluctuations. Moreover, increasing the amount of fats also increases the amount of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) that can be absorbed and can be beneficial for your health. For both these reasons, I would encourage everyone to try. Here’re my tips and strategies if you’re interested in trying:
Set a realistic timeframe for results to occur (at least 8-12 weeks) and be mentally prepared for the first 2-3 weeks being extremely tough
Plan your meals and shopping list in advance: although most keto recipes are very easy to make, you might not be used to cooking with butter and eating fatty cuts of meat or fish, or, in the initial phase, you might have some sugar cravings that you might want to satisfy the ‘sugar-free way’ (there’re plenty of keto-friendly dessert recipes online and many require just a few ingredients). The further you go with your diet, however, the less cravings you’ll have
Make sure you eat enough calories (i.e. make sure you replace the calories you’re taking away from carbs with the same amount coming from fats). The rule of thumb is this: 1g of fat has slightly more than twice the amount of calories of 1g of carb. Therefore 50g of pasta or rice can be easily replaced with 20-25g of butter or hard cheese, to give an example
Make sure you keep your diet varied and never boring. Try to learn 1 new recipe every week using 1 different low GI vegetable and 1 different fatty cut of meat or fish. You’ll be surprised by how delicious such recipes can be!
Enjoy the process and don’t be too hard on yourself if you cheat from time to time. Remember to embrace the growth and the wisdom that experimenting with a new lifestyle will bring you but keep it fun, easy and realistic!
If you’ve liked this post, stay tune because I’m planning to share some ‘guilt-free’ keto recipes for delicious cakes or desserts. 🙂
References
Fournier PA, Bräu L, Ferreira LD, Fairchild T, Raja G, James A, Palmer TN. 2002. ‘Glycogen resynthesis in the absence of food ingestion during recovery from moderate or high intensity physical activity: novel insights from rat and human studies’. Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A, Molecular & integrative physiology (Nov)133(3):755-63 (DOI: 10.1016/s1095-6433(02)00254-4).
Fournier PA, Fairchild TJ, Ferreira LD, Bräu L. 2004. ‘Post-exercise muscle glycogen repletion in the extreme: effect of food absence and active recovery’. Journal of sports science & medicine (Sep)1;3(3):139-46.
After quitting veganism and enjoying the benefits of animal products for a couple of weeks, I decided to switch up my diet and experiment with a Keto-Carb Cycling one. The concept is very easy: I rotate my fat-carb ratio, alternating high-fat-low-carb and high-carb-low-fat days. From Saturday to Tuesday, I keep my fat intake very high (50-70%) and my carb intake very low (5-10%); my protein intake is pretty much consistent (25-40%). On Wednesday, I have a carb refeed, so my carb intake spikes up to 50%, while my fat intake goes down to 20%; Thursday and Friday are moderate-carb days, with Thursday being a little higher in carbs and Friday a little higher in fats. I like this way of eating, because it allows me to enjoy all of my favourite foods, without stressing myself out on macros too much.
This is a super easy recipe for my high-fat dinners, and is really enjoyable alongside some baked haddock or salmon.
Ingredients
350 g Courgettes (1 medium-large Courgette)
30 g Goat Butter
1 Stalk Spring Onion
1 piece Ginger Root
Himalayan Salt
Fresh Parsley to Garnish
350 ml Lukewarm Water
Cooking Method
Chop your courgette(s), spring onion and ginger.
Melt goat butter in a saucepan or skillet.
Add in the spring onion stalk, the piece of ginger, the chopped courgettes and some salt, cover and cook for 5-10 mins, stirring from time to time to make sure they cook evenly.
If you have a Vitamix, pour your water in and place the rest of the ingredients. Set it on “soup” programme, and allow it to blend your creamy soup for you. If you have an ordinary blender or food processor, just blend your ingredients in the traditional way — you might need hot water, rather than lukewarm, though.
If you want to be as ethical as possible, not only do you want to buy local and sustainable, you also want to maximise your food while minimising your waste. An excellent way to do so is making broth out of your leftovers. Whilst chicken bone broth has become increasingly popular over the past few years, not many people know you can make a delicious — and very healthy — broth out of fatty fish too. All animal products are indeed high in collagen, which is the most abundant protein in our body, and the most important one, as it’s responsible for connecting our organ tissues (including tendons, ligaments and skin). Vegetable collagen is unfortunately very hard to be absorbed and used by our bodies, but animal collagen is easily absorbed. Collagen is also held responsible for healing our guts, hair and damaged skin (it can also help with stretch marks and cellulite). When cooking broth, collagen is released from the animal’s bones and flesh, and loosed into the water in the form of gelatine. This is what makes broth so precious for your health.
It was around Easter time, and we found an incredible offer at Asda’s: a whole salmon (3Kg) worth £30 was reduced and on sale for only £13.99. Yes, 3Kg is too much for too people alone, unless you want to freeze the salmon, but the offer was too appealing not to take advantage of it — mostly because those poor salmons would otherwise have been fished in vain. So we bought one, cut it in 3 pieces, stuffed it with fresh ginger, rosemary, bay leaves, thymes, fresh parsley, Himalayan salt and lemon wedges, and baked it at 180°C for 30 minutes.
Whole salmon stuffed with fresh ginger, rosemary, bay leaves, thymes, fresh parsley, Himalayan salt and lemon wedges, and baked at 180°C for 30 minutes.
We ate nothing but salmon for 3 days straight, keeping all fishbones, head, tail, uneaten skin and flesh aside. At the end of the 3rd day, we decided to make some broth out of such leftovers.
We placed head, tail, fishbones, skin and flesh in a saucepan with: water, 1 carrot, 1 piece of ginger, some spring onions and regular onions (they’ll change their composition while cooking, losing some of their FODMAP contents in the process). We added some salt and simmered for 3-4 hours.
The broth was unbelievably good and satiating. We had it plain, after our dinner, but it would have been just as delicious with some prawns or shrimps, courgettes and maybe rice noodles.
What’s more important for us, however, is that that poor salmon hasn’t died in vain: we benefitted from its death for 3 days, not harming any other animals meanwhile, and used it in all the possible ways. This is what mindful eating really means!
As I said in my post on why I’m no longer vegan , one of my favourite meals is organ meats for 2 reasons: they’re extremely cheap, as they’re not typically popular among average meat eaters; they’re incredibly packed with nutrients and extremely absorbable by our bodies, because they’re what we, as a species, have evolved on.
Livers (from cows, lambs, pigs, geese, chickens and fish) are incredibly rich in B12, B2 (Riboflavin), B9 (Folate), Vitamin A, Iron, Copper, Choline, according to healthline.com. This is due to the liver’s functions of: processing the digested food from the animal’s gut and absorbing nutrients from it, while filtering and clearing the blood from toxins. Livers are also light in calories and high in proteins, making them fit for most diets. This is why everyone should be consuming livers on a regular basis.
If organs are cheap and highly nutritious, unfortunately, they’re not necessarily as tasty, especially when not cooked properly, or when overcooked. With a few adjustments, however, organs can become part of a very enjoyable meal. In this specific post, I’ll focus on livers exclusively. Just stay tuned for further posts on hearts and kidneys. 😉
My Tips to Enjoy Liver
Don’t overcook it. Liver is soft, tender and creamy, but tends to get a bit stiff when overcooked. The best thing you can do is chop or mince liver prior to cooking it, and not cook it for more than 1 minute on each side.
Use plenty of herbs (such as rosemary, thyme, chives and bay leaves), onions or spring onions, salt and pepper to stir fry your liver. These will enhance the liver’s flavour, while hiding its animal-like taste, which not everybody enjoys.
Squeeze some fresh lemon or lime juice on your liver, to enhance its flavour even more.
Don’t quit liver just because you didn’t like it the first time. Keep trying out different recipes until you find a way to enjoy it: you’ll sure get used to its taste and texture.
If you have any tips that would like to share with me, feel free to comment down below. 😉
Thanks for following me along my journey!
Lamb liver stir fry with: red pepper, mushrooms, ginger, spring onion and fresh parsley.
