Vanessa G Fitcast

Everyone wants to know how to eat to balance your hormones and I wish it was an easy answer... “Just tell me what to eat” people will ask.  I’m actually really happy that we as a culture have shifted away from the low fat of the 90’s, low carb of the early 2000’s, and the overall fearing calories of recent years, and are starting to bring awareness to eating FOR hormone health!  But we’re also very much still a culture of processed foods and fast food. Everyone’s living off caffeine and stress, and our blood sugar is all over the place. Eating to balance your hormones is a matter of going back to basics and eating in a well rounded & nourishing way. In this episode, we're going to share the 3 steps to follow to eat in a way that promotes balanced hormones including how to eat a mostly whole food diet, how to avoid eating naked carbs, and how to get 20-40 grams of protein at each meal. These steps have helped the thousands of women we've coached at Vital Spark and we hope they work for you too! Time Stamps: (1:32) It’s The Mold! (2:08) Eating For Your Hormones (5:22) Diet Aka Did I Eat Today? (6:04) #1: Mostly Whole Food Diet (9:27) #2: Avoid Eating Only Naked Carbs (13:26) #3: Eating 20-40 Grams of Protein At Each Meal---------------------Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. ---------------------Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program---------------------Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!---------------------Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!---------------------Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!---------------------Check out our Youtube Channel!---------------------Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

I was baby-sitting a 5-year-old girl (NOT my perfect little niece from this video) when I found myself shocked into silence… ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣My goal to get her to take a shower suddenly felt unimportant as I watched her stand in front of the mirror, put her hands on her cute little 5-year-old belly, and say ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣“I’m fat.”⁣⁣⁣⁣No idea how to respond (I was 16 at the time), I defaulted to “don’t say that!”⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣Of course, considering I was talking to a 5 year old, this just prompted a “why?”⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I too thought “why?”⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣WHY is a FIVE year old girl picking apart her body?⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I was very familiar with the struggles of comparing my body to other girls in high school, ⁣⁣finding myself wearing looser shirts and positioning myself in photos to hide the parts of my body I was ashamed of… ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣But this was when I first realized just how much diet culture and negative body talk affect us.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣When women say “I can’t eat that” or “I’m on a diet”… girls hear that too.⁣⁣⁣This has always been a deep driver for me as a coach…⁣⁣⁣⁣Despite the 1000+ women my team and I have coached over the last 5 years, I was NOT put on this earth to help women lose weight.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I was put on this earth to help women LOVE their bodies by HEALING them. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣Is weight loss often a part of that journey toward health? For sure!⁣⁣ And our girls are dang proud of the external transformations they achieve. ⁣⁣But these transformations come from a place of LOVE and wanting to give ourselves the gift of consistent energy, regular PMS-free cycles, freedom to eat foods without fear of GI issues… not from a place of self-hate or shame.⁣ In this episode, we'll discuss how to pull yourselves toward your goals in a positive way rather than being pushed by ego or in negative ways. This is a powerful mindset shift to head into the new year with and we hope you start adopting it today!  Time Stamps:  (0:42) Shared A Recent Story On Instagram (5:45) Pulling Ourselves Into The Positive (8:45) Imagine You Are Talking To A 5 Year Old (15:55) Our Individualized Approach---------------------Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. ---------------------Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program---------------------Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!---------------------Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!---------------------Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!---------------------Check out our Youtube Channel!---------------------Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

Would you believe me if I said the majority of our clients at Vital Spark consume 2000+ calories?  Many even higher! In order to understand this, you need to understand BMR. You have actual BMR, potential BMR, actual TDEE, and potential TDEE. Getting to potential TDEE will create a metabolism that is more forgiving to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle. For those who don't know, BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate and TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure (we'll explain what these mean in the episode).  So how do we get to potential BMR and potential TDEE? BMR: Improve metabolic processes by working systems of the body: Adrenals, Thyroid, Liver, Gut, Sex hormones, and Insulin. TDEE: Increase NEAT: Work on habits and behaviors to increase activity levels, Increase energy by feeding up, Increase desire to get out and move by improving internal health (you’re less inclined to play with your kids or do active adventures with friends when your PMS is terrible or your gut is irritated),  Optimize NEAT: Strength train > cardio, More calorie burn POST workout, Work smarter not harder, Make it shorter and more effective, which makes you more consistent with workouts. Optimize TEF: Work on food quality without unnecessarily removing foods and creating restriction. ADD don’t subtract mindset This is why you’ll see me share so many quotes or testimonial videos from clients saying how they’re eating foods they used to restrict, and have LOST weight! Listen in as we go in detail about all of this and more!  Time Stamps:  (1:46) Quick Story You May Relate To (4:10) What Is BMR? (6:21) What Burns Calories (8:04) Diving Deeper Into BMR (10:02) Potential vs Actual TDEE (15:37) Our Process (18:32) The Calories Out Portion (20:08) Actions We Have Our Clients Work On (22:32) Food Quality---------------------Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. ---------------------Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program---------------------Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!---------------------Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!---------------------Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!---------------------Check out our Youtube Channel!---------------------Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

We officially hit 200 episodes! We appreciate all of you that have listened to one, all (DM us if you have) or anything in between! Last episode we talked about how optimizing insulin and blood sugar is really the hidden gem for a lot of people’s hormone healing and weight loss journeys, we chatted about how to know if you are insulin resistant or on the path toward insulin resistance, and we walked through the science of how these things actually work in the body so you can UNDERSTAND WHY this impacts your weight. This week let’s chat about how to actually balance blood sugar from a nutrition, movement, and lifestyle perspective! First, I want to share a story about a woman named Susie who also listens to the Vanessa G Fitcast.  Susie just started her own business and is busier than ever. She sleeps 5-7 hours at best and often forgets to eat, leading to some binge eating at night and/or on the weekends. She has always carried a bit more weight than she would like so she has had a history of yo-yo diets in the past to try and lose the weight.  Nowadays she eats overall healthy, but truthfully her health isn’t as much of a priority as it once was, as she is at her desk most of the day and doesn’t have time for much activity. She listened to Episode 199 and starts to put the puzzle pieces together of how blood sugar could be playing a role in keeping her stuck. If you resonate with Susie, I have 6 foundational blood sugar balancing strategies that you can start using today that we've seen make a tremendous difference in the lives of our clients.  Let us know which ones you'll be incorporating soon!  Time Stamps: (1:12) Episode 200!!! (2:48) Last Week’s Episode (4:15) Story Time (9:32) Insulin Surge (15:44) Consistent Meal Timing (18:50) Managing Fiber Intake (20:17) Awareness of Macros (24:12) Naked Carbs (29:37) Low Intensity Movement and Strength Training (31:57) Supplementation When Needed (33:42) Support From Specialists---------------------Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. ---------------------Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program---------------------Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!---------------------Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!---------------------Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!---------------------Check out our Youtube Channel!---------------------Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

Optimizing insulin and blood sugar is really the hidden gem for a lot of people’s hormone healing and weight loss journeys. After consuming food, especially carbs, blood sugar levels rise. The pancreas detects this increase and releases insulin. Insulin facilitates the update of glucose by cells, promoting conversion into energy or storage as glycogen in the liver and muscles. In periods of low blood sugar (fasting, between meals, or during physical activity), the pancreas releases glucagon to stimulate the liver to convert stored glycogen into glucose, releasing it into the bloodstream to raise blood glucose levels. Blood glucose levels are constantly changing within the body, and feedback mechanisms adjust insulin and glucagon release accordingly. Over time, insulin insensitivity can occur when blood sugars are consistently high, and the pancreas keeps on secreting big dumps of insulin, and the cells start to become resistant to it. Meaning that the message is sent, but it’s never delivered or read.  To compensate, the pancreas will then secrete more insulin in order to push that message through. This can eventually lead to high levels of insulin and blood sugar at the same time! Insulin resistance can result in: Excess storage of fat, especially in the midsection (apple shape!) Reduced energy production. Less ability to burn calories and tap into fat stores. Poor blood sugar regulation. Muscle loss. Systemic inflammation and immune system issues. Other hormonal imbalances. It may also contribute to high triglyceride levels, low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, and propel you toward metabolic syndrome, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. In this episode, we want to take a deep dive into all things insulin and insulin resistance so you understand what your body is doing from a hormonal level and what you can do to counteract these potential consequences.  Everyone is different though so make sure you seek out those trained to handle more complex cases like us here at Vital Spark! Time Stamps: (2:14) Insulin Resistance (3:52) What Is Insulin? (6:20) Storage Forms of Glucose (8:29) What Happens When Blood Sugar Gets Low? (12:57) Omar’s Honest Thoughts Where He’s At (19:16) Common Signs of Insulin Resistance (24:44) Fasted Blood Insulin Marker (27:44) Normal vs Optimal (30:12) Tracking Blood Sugar---------------------Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. ---------------------Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program---------------------Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!---------------------Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!---------------------Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!---------------------Check out our Youtube Channel!---------------------Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

The REAL reason your weight isn't moving might surprise you... And that reason has to do with how you are measuring your weight in the first place: the scale. Most women will randomly step on the scale one day to see where they are at, or they weigh in at the doctors office. They’re shocked to see a number higher than they expected or heavier than they've ever been before. They decide to go on a diet, or to start exercising more and eating healthier. They continue to step on the scale each morning and at first they see the number go down… they feel excited. After a couple of days it goes up and now they feel frustrated. They continue like this… back and forth with weight up and down, and after a few weeks the scale is up even HIGHER than it was when they started… now she feels like “what the hell” this is pointless, and goes back to her “normal” eating routine. See how this could be a problem when it comes to weight loss?  In today's episode, we're going to breakdown how to use the scale properly as one tool for weight loss, how to be aware of normal fluctuations, how to use multiple metrics to assess progress, why you should also focus on performance goals, and much more! Time Stamps: (2:56) Using The Scale Incorrectly (7:02) Where To Start (10:47) A Pre-Scale Warmup (12:42) Identifying Your Emotions (15:42) Managing Expectations (22:20) Body Fat Testing (25:09) Have Performance Goals As Well (26:22) Other Ways To Track Improvement (27:52) Body Composition---------------------Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. ---------------------Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program---------------------Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!---------------------Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!---------------------Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!---------------------Check out our Youtube Channel!---------------------Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

Trying to lose fat with a slow metabolism is just a waste of time... Let me explain. Your metabolism can be changed. Genetics play a role, but not as much as people think. “Weight struggles run in my family” 73.6% of American adults aged 20 and older are considered overweight or obese, with around 40.3% classified as obese. Only about 100 years ago, only 3-5% of Americans were overweight. Obesity was extremely rare then. Our genetics as a species didn’t suddenly change causing everyone to feel like “weight struggles just run in my family”... our environment did. Obesity wasn’t prevalent until hyper-palatable ultra-processed foods became the norm.  There are things you can do to make your metabolism faster or slower. A fast metabolism means that your body simply requires more energy to function. Having a faster metabolism is a good thing regardless of your goals because in the modern day world it is good to have more of a buffer. In today's episode, we're going to discuss not only how to speed up your metabolism but share exactly why your metabolism might be slowed down. We'll also talk about how semaglutide (GLP-1's) like Ozempic are contributing to a slower metabolism once individuals get off of it. Time Stamps: (1:32) Losing Body Fat and Your Metabolism(7:22) Being The Hummer(10:30) Any Reason To Have A Slow Metabolism?(11:46) Eating Less(13:07) The Big Issue With GLP-1’s(14:02) High Calorie Exercise(16:34) Vanessa’s Experience With Running(17:42) How to Speed Up Your Metabolism(20:15) Please Share This Episode With Someone! ---------------------Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. ---------------------Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program---------------------Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!---------------------Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!---------------------Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!---------------------Check out our Youtube Channel!---------------------Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

It's that time of year again and we totally understand if this season is filled with both excitement and anxiety... There's a lot to look forward to for many people and these events have their positives and negatives. If this is the year you are going to stick to your nutrition goals and you want a blueprint for how to have those potentially awkward conversations with family and friends about it, we've got you! In this episode, we want to breakdown how to set boundaries with others when it comes to food and any other boundary you desire to set around this time of year. Omar recently gave this presentation at our retreat and everyone loved the content so we thought we'd share it here as well. We are going to go through 5 different real life scenarios and while we had fun with the reactions, these are real scenarios we know you might be faced with during this time of year and we want to arm you with strategies and tactics that allow the other person to understand where you are coming from and give you a firm boundary with sticking to your plan.  Time Stamps:  (1:22) Omar’s Specialty and Recent Presentation (4:27) Don’t Have To Tell Everyone Your Goals (6:29) Sharing Boundaries (8:42) The Conversation With Yourself (10:10) Scenario #1: Company Holiday Party (14:45) Scenario #2: Tracking Macros (17:40) Scenario #3: On Sale Halloween Candy and Leftovers (18:32) Scenario #4: Your Best Friend’s Christmas Cookies (24:52) Scenario #5: Family Tension Around The Holidays (29:07) Shoot Us A Message!---------------------Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. ---------------------Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program---------------------Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!---------------------Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!---------------------Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!---------------------Check out our Youtube Channel!---------------------Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

It's spooky season and we have a great topic for this week's podcast! One of my biggest pet peeves is fear mongering and I always hated people fear mongering around toxins specifically because truthfully, I find it all very overwhelming.  But I also recognize that knowledge is power, and my learning more about toxins, what they are, how they actually impact your body from a science perspective, and things you can do about it.  We can better support our health and our body composition goals! In this episode, we're going to cover what are toxins and define them clearly for you, explain the concept of toxin burden that our modern society unfortunately has us content with 24/7, how frequent our exposure is to toxins, symptoms of excessive toxins, and much more!  Time Stamps: (1:17) Scary Toxins (2:24) Pet Peeve Around Fear Mongering (5:02) What Is a Toxin? (6:53) Toxic Burden (8:20) Initial Exposure (17:19) Managing Your Toxic Burden (26:35) Caster Oil Pack (28:27) Other Strategies (31:11) Think Dirty App and Other Resources---------------------Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. ---------------------Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program---------------------Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!---------------------Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!---------------------Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!---------------------Check out our Youtube Channel!---------------------Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

The reason your reverse diet might not be working isn't your fault... It still amazes me how much of the human body I'm still learning about and we are at Vital Spark coaching and every single year we get better and better as coaches and practitioner's helping our clients with their health and nutrition goals. Back when we first covered reverse dieting on this podcast, I thought it was one of the be all end all ways to help most if not all of our clients with their metabolism, hormones, and getting them back to a place where they could start dieting again and be successful at it. The more we coached, the more we found that strategy only goes so far and wasn't helping as many women as we wanted and it honestly broke my heart not being able to help these women. Fast forward to now, we've got new strategies and protocols for our clients and I absolutely love the process we take our clients through now. I'll share why your reverse diet might not be working, the importance of understanding where you are at right now using the HAQ survey, why the FLUSH protocol is next level if you haven't heard us talk about it before, and more!  Time Stamps: (1:16) Officially Fall in Florida(2:57) Why Your Reverse Diet Isn’t Working(5:02) What Is A Reverse Diet?(9:06) Our HAQ Survey(15:07) The FLUSH Protocol---------------------Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. ---------------------Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program---------------------Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!---------------------Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!---------------------Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!---------------------Check out our Youtube Channel!---------------------Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!