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Leveling Up Midlife - Our Blog.
Our blog is a place where we share helpful insights, practical strategies, and science-based information to support women over 40 on their health journey. From nutrition and strength training to menopause, mindset, and sustainable weight loss, our goal is to provide clear guidance that helps you better understand your body and build healthier habits. Whether you’re looking for education, motivation, or simple tips you can apply to everyday life, our articles are here to help you move forward with confidence.
Nutrition
Allulose: What Makes This Sweetener So Sweet?
Want to hear about allulose, a low-calorie sweetener that helps you lose weight and doesn’t have a cringy aftertaste with every taste like you just licked the back of an ibuprofen pill? What if I told you that just like the late-night 90’s “Sham-wow” video commercial, this sweetener also had potential health benefits? Let’s discuss the potential benefits of the hottest noncaloric sweetener on the market and some considerations you should also be aware of. Let Me Introduce Y
Jan 20, 2025
Seed Oils: How Bad Are They?
Seed oils are the talk of the town—or at least the talk of the social media health warriors and future Head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Depending on who you follow, they’re either miracle liquids or the dietary bogeyman causing brain fog, inflammation, and making your waistline expand faster than you can say, "Super-size me!" But before you start throwing out your canola oil, let’s see what science actually says. Spoiler alert: it’s not as dramatic as your
Dec 23, 2024
Self Sabotage: Are You Wrecking Your Progress?
Self-sabotage refers to behaviors or thought patterns that prevent an individual from achieving their goals or undermining their success. It often happens when someone consciously or unconsciously acts in ways that hold them back or derail progress. Here Are 13 Key Ways You Are Sabotaging Your Results: 1. Are you avoiding the uncomfortable tasks that will bring you the results you say matter to you because you don’t want to leave your comfort zone? Telling yourself things li
Sep 29, 2024
Weight Loss Mistakes
Are there weight loss mistakes? Absolutely. As a Nutrition Coach, I am sharing the biggest ones I see when working with clients to drop fat for good. Let's face it: embarking on a weight loss journey is a rewarding decision, but it can be fraught with pitfalls that may stall your progress. Below, I've outlined 15 common mistakes people make when trying to lose weight. Recognizing and avoiding these errors can enhance your journey and achieve sustainable success. 15 Weight Los
Sep 22, 2024
Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss in Menopause
Weight loss vs. Fat loss: As a Nutrition coach, I love my job. It fills my cup to help 40+ women create a healthy, fit body that will allow them to be confident and have the longevity and quality of life they deserve. However…I have one complaint. I really want women to stop using the scale to determine health and self-worth. Almost every woman I have worked with has an emotional reaction to the number on the scale. They lose a pound and are on cloud nine. They gain two poun
Sep 1, 2024
Supplements in Menopause
A supplement is a product intended to add nutritional value to the diet. Supplements are used to complete, extend, or reinforce something needed in the diet. Supplements are not meant to replace but to enhance something you already do. This is valuable in menopause since age and hormone-related changes diminish valuable nutrients and processes within a woman's body in this stage of life. Changes like osteopenia, sarcopenia, and estrogen all begin to decline around menopause.
Aug 12, 2024
Fasting in Menopause
Fasting has been practiced for thousands of years, offering various benefits such as improved mental clarity, weight management, and spiritual growth. However, it is not without its challenges. Especially for menopausal women, fasting requires careful consideration to avoid potential pitfalls like muscle loss and nutritional deficiencies. The History of Fasting Historically, fasting has been used primarily as a tool to successfully enhance meditation and spiritual practices,
Aug 5, 2024
Alcohol: Bad for you?
It is tempting to kick back and enjoy an alcoholic drink after a long day of work. We've all been there, right? Alcohol helps you relax and unwind and can make any experience more enjoyable. Like it or not, it's a huge part of our social culture. You'll be offered a drink during your diet at some point. People always ask, " Is it bad for me or not ?" And, like most honest answers, it depends. The best way to look at alcohol is to use the popular science or medical expression
Jul 28, 2024
Cravings
Cravings: If you have ever white-knuckled it through a diet only to fall face-first into a pan of brownies, then you are familiar with the dreaded craving. Food can be a powerful reinforcer, some more so than others. Thoughts of chocolate ice cream will steer your cart into the frozen aisle, but rarely will a drive for fresh cauliflower hit you in quite the same way. The question is, why? People eat for many reasons: taste, emotion, pleasure, social, tradition, and culture, j
Jul 1, 2024
Macronutrients
What exactly are Macronutrients or Macros? Macronutrients are nutrients required by the body in large amounts. They provide energy and support various physiological functions. What we consume converts these macronutrients to calories or energy. This article explores the importance of each macronutrient and its roles in supporting the body, aiding weight loss, and promoting overall health. There Are Three Primary Macronutrients: Proteins Carbohydrates Fats Some experts consid
Jun 17, 2024
Fiber for Menopause
Let's explore fiber for menopause. Fiber is a special type of carbohydrate that our bodies handle uniquely due to the lack of a specific digestive enzyme. This distinctive characteristic is what gives fiber its remarkable health benefits. But fiber's benefits go beyond digestion. It's like a superhero for your body, improving blood glucose levels, enhancing insulin sensitivity, lowering cholesterol, and improving blood lipid profiles. And that's not all—it's also a secret wea
Jun 17, 2024
Protein for Menopause
Protein for menopause is essential because a diet high in protein reduces the potential for age-related losses in much-needed lean body mass. As women enter middle age, the depletion of estrogen in their bodies leads to changes in body composition. However, a diet rich in protein can help maintain a healthy balance, preventing the accumulation of fat around the abdominal area and the resulting higher fat-to-muscle ratio. This shift not only affects their appearance but also i
May 27, 2024
Whole Foods and Weight Loss
Eating whole foods is key when aiming to lose weight, especially for women over 40. Choosing healthy foods over more processed options or dining out is a satisfying and sustainable weight loss strategy. By choosing these foods more often, you can achieve sustained weight loss while also adopting lifelong healthy eating habits. This approach can help you avoid the constant restrictions of many traditional diets. Focusing on nutrient-rich foods can also enhance your overall hea
May 27, 2024
Dietary Fats
Dietary Fats are what really make food delicious, right? They come in varied forms: butter, nuts, avocados, salmon, oils, and sprays, and each of them is a huge part of what makes food taste so good. We NEED dietary fats. They perform a variety of essential processes in the body, including forming parts of cells and cell membranes and helping the body process much-needed vitamins. Many vitamins are only fat soluble. They keep hormones like testosterone balanced and transport
May 27, 2024
What is a Calorie?
What is a calorie? Do calories matter? What do all diets have in common, besides the fact that I have done literally all of them? They all work by decreasing your daily calorie intake. Why do some work for some people and not others? We will discuss that in another post, but for this one…let’s consider some basic science-backed nutrition principles about calories. What is a Calorie? Women tend to think a calorie is a thing they manage, but it's actually a unit of measurement
May 8, 2024
Free 3-Day Meal Plan
Unlock your free 3-day meal plan with an included grocery list, specially tailored for menopausal and middle-aged women! This carefully designed nutrition program aims to support hormonal health and ensure you maintain vibrant energy levels throughout the day! Convenience and a FREE Meal Plan: We've meticulously prepared our free 3-day meal plan with everything for you so that you don’t have to worry about counting calories, figuring out macros, or planning your meals day b
Apr 25, 2024
Portion Control Guide
Introducing the ultimate Visual Portion Control Guide and Cheat Sheet, specifically designed to empower menopausal women on their weight loss journey ! Why we created it: Most middle-aged women feel they need to lose weight to obtain better health, but let's face it...dieting SUCKS! It's a drudge to constantly be hyper-focused on food all day, every day. It's exhausting, and nobody wants to do it. We agree it can be a pain in the arse to make it such a huge focus. We wanted t
Apr 12, 2024
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