Food for thought – does protein for women have to be all chicken breasts or protein powders?

When I ask people how much protein they think they eat, a lot of the time these are the answers I get:

“I can’t eat that much protein, it’s too expensive.”

“When you tell me that getting enough protein is important, I can’t get past the idea of eating chicken at every meal and thinking ugh, boring”

“I’m vegetarian, I can’t eat protein”

OK let me explain; I never want you to obsess about what you are or aren’t eating. I want you to feel normal around all food.

But as a woman who wants to learn how to help her body to function well, some knowledge of what role different foods play is helpful.

Just like I’ll teach you why and how to really access your core for example, you can be empowered to know what your body does with the food you eat.

Lots of women don’t think about protein

as being important because:

a) it’s been associated with either meat (which we’re told we should eat less of) or

b) those big pots of powder in health food shops with scary names like “Mutant Monster Mass”, and

c) just more generally because we’ve had both fats and carbohydrates focused on for so long we’ve kind of forgotten that another food group exists!

We know we should eat protein to build muscle but instead of thinking about protein as being a “nice to have” and assuming that the worst thing that will happen is that you just won’t build muscle (but you’re lifting kettlebells, so that’s good enough, right?) think of protein as being one of the key elements that gives a point to your lifting.

Protein for women is crucial, especially active women who lift. If you don’t have adequate protein intake, your body will stay in breakdown mode after you train. So those adaptions you were looking for?

To get stronger

Stop those aching joints

Feel more energised

Sleep better

Make changes to how your body feels?

Actually you’ll just be adding more stress to your body, so those adaptions will stall, fast.

BUT, you don’t want to eat chicken/mutant monster mass at every meal, right?

I get that.

The end goal for your journey to prioritising yourself is that strength training and movement become everyday without becoming punishment, as does fuelling yourself without it becoming obsessive.

You already know the main sources of protein – meat, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, lentils and beans, yogurt, cheese. But what about the protein content of other things that you eat?

Have you ever thought about that?

A slice of bread, baked potato, serving of pasta, sweetcorn stalk, cup of sprouts, head of broccoli, 1 medium avocado can all have around 4-5g protein each.

1 digestive biscuit has 1g of protein 🙂

These things add up.

So I’ll tell you to try and aim for 30g of protein each meal, and you’ll look at me and see my head turn into a chicken.

But if you take some time to stop obsessing what you SHOULD eat LESS of and start thinking about what you CAN eat MORE of, it will make much more sense.

We talk about this inside of Strong Girls Kettlebell Club and how understanding what your body does with food and how a female body in particular uses food can help you to feel more normal around eating and training.

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Juno Fitness

I’m Shell Gilkes, a personal trainer for women who train their bodies to be strong, healthy and powerful. I empower women to help them to feel confident in their bodies through the power of movement.

Think about it; how would it feel to focus on what your body can do (cool stuff like press-ups and deadlifts) and how it feels (strong, mobile, powerful, full of energy), rather just on what it looks like?

We cannot be too strong. Join the movement. Come along. Everyone is welcome.

Email me: info@juno-fitness.co.uk

Call me: 07963727581