How well are you processing your Folate with MTHFR

How well are you processing your Folate with MTHFR

by | Genes, MTHFR

MTHFR is an acronym for an enzyme that changes the folate that you eat into an active form that you can use in your body.

How it gets more confusing is that the MTHFR gene and the enzyme have a very similar name! 

Simply put, the MTHFR gene makes the MTHFR enzyme. 

In more scientific language the gene, MTHFR (aka 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase) gene makes the protein, MTHFR (methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase) enzyme.

That’s a bit of a mouthful. So, it is MTHFR for short.

Simply, without this one major working efficiently you may not be able to Methylate properly.  Methylation is a big name for a simple transfer of one Carbon and 3 Hydrogen atoms that when donated and received starts a cascade of biochemical actions. 

This one gene has been highly researched and is very significant in many disorders and disease processes, including Thyroid function.  And we can see why when folate is needed for cell growth and repair and involved with DNA and RNA replication.

We all know that folate is imperative to start taking before and during pregnancy. This is because the folate is involved in making new cells and without it can cause Neural tube defects which are severe birth defects of the brain and spine of the newborn.

We can see in a diagram of a pathway that the folate takes to get from what is in your food, or supplements.  When you ingest it, it passes to the small intestine and is processed, almost like conveyor-like process and is altered by a number of enzymes. This process uses B2, B3, B6, B12, Vitamin C, Zinc and an acidic environment.

The basic outline looks like this:

Unfortunately, the synthetic form, Folic Acid, that is widely included in many processed foods and supplements block the natural folate from converting into the active, and much-needed form of 5-MTHF.

It is extremely common that the words folate and folic acid be used interchangeably without much thought as to their true meaning.

First of all Folate

  • Also called Vitamin B9
  • The natural form that you get from whole foods
  • Needed for DNA production and RNA repair
  • Needed for neurotransmitters and detoxification
  • Needed for formation of RBC, WBC and Platelets

Folic Acid

  • This is a synthetic form
  • Commonly used in supplements and added to foods – check bread and cereal labels
  • The enzyme that processes Folic acid works very slowly and can only process 150-200mcg per day
  • Folic Acid that is not processed is called Un-Metabolised Folic Acid (UMFA) which is of no value in the body

Then there is Folinic acid

  • This is supplement is also called 5-formyl tetrahydrofolate
  • Important for making DNA
  • In the body this is made using B6 and Magnesium
  • This still relies on being converted into the active folate form by MTHFR

And finally: 5-MTHF

  • Also known as Active Folate, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, 5- methyl THF, or methylfolate
  • This is produced at the end of the Folate pathway by the enzyme MTHFR
  • An important doner for Methyl groups for the Methylation Cycle

When you get your genes tested for MTHFR the results show that you are a carrier of one or two of the genes, C677T or the A1298C.

To understand what your results mean, I need to take you back a step or two and talk about genes and the basics of how they express in the body.

To make a gene you need two parts.  One is inherited from each parent to make a pair. When both parents give their child matching genes it is called Homozygous (Homo = Same). When each parent gives their child a different gene that is called Heterozygous (Hetero = Different).

A gene is made up of a Helix shape with pairs of nucleotides.  These pairs carry genetic information to make proteins and can be very on long strands of DNA.

It has been discovered that there are common mistakes in gene sequencing and these are called polymorphisms. Poly = many, and morphisms = forms.

One mistake is called a single nucleotide polymorphism, snp for short.

When making the MTHFR gene there has been recognised as many as 34 snps. Two main ones have been researched extensively and they cause consequences within the body.

These are:

MTHFR C677T

  • Sits at position 677 along the chain
  • It means a nucleotide base called Cytosine (C) is swapped out for Thymine(T)
  • When this gene uses this base code to make the enzyme it will switch the protein that is used from alanine to valine.

MTHFR A1298C

  • Sits at position 1298 along the chain
  • This means that a nucleotide called Adenine (A) is swapped out for a Cytosine (C)
  • When this gene uses this base code to make the enzyme it will switch the protein that is used from glutamate to Alanine.

So, What are your chances of having an MTHFR polymorphism?

There was a study in 2003, published where 7,130 newborns from 16 areas in the Americas, Europe, Russia, China, and Australia (NSW) were tested. Newborn babies were tested,d 500 of them from New South Wales.  7.5% were found to have two copies of the gene with 41% of the population were found to have 1 copy of the Gene.

MTHFR Gene Results Classification

Your personal results will tell you if you have the gene polymorphism. 

MTHFR C677T Heterozygous (one snp) = 40% loss of function

MTHFR C677T Homozygous (two snps) =  70% loss of function

MTHFR A1298C Heterozygous (one snp) = 20% loss of function (research not known)

MTHFR A1298C Homozygous (two snps) = 40% loss of function

MTHFR C677T & MTHFR A1298C heterozygous = compound heterozygous = 50% loss of function

If I have you curious now, yes, you can absolutely just test for MTHFR.  Your GP may run a test, and as far as I know, it is not covered by Medicare.

You can do this via blood or saliva, let me know if you would like to be tested and I will arrange this for you.

However, before you do, you may want to consider having more than one gene tested, because like anything it is just one tiny piece to a larger puzzle. You could be tested and find that you are low risk, however, other snps in the pathways may be an issue, so therefore your coping mechanisms may be just a low as if you were to have a homozygous snp.

There are a few companies that offer genetic testing, both online or through your health professional.

Then what do you do about your snps, besides learning to live with them and not against them is key. The most important thing you can do easily and straight up is eating as clean as possible supplying the body with natural nutrients, and then diving into other environmental factors that may be inhibiting the function of your genes that are expressing snp symptoms.

What kind of body are you living in?  If it is a hypothyroid, one, you will be slow functioning and perhaps auto-Immune.  Both conditions are affected by each other moment by moment.

The thyroid is trying its very best to keep the body regulated when it is being besieged by antibodies and the antibodies and the inflammatory cascade is like a run-away train because the body doesn’t have the resources to calm it down.

Let’s bring in a major player in both of these instances, and that is the gut.  I’d like you to take a moment and think about what you ate yesterday and how you woke up feeling today?  Were you alert and ready to leap out of bed and nail your day, or were you sluggish, a little sore and feeling ‘off, or worse, you hardly slept are very sore and in pain, and have to really push yourself to face another day?

I’m going to make the assumption that there that you are not jumping out of bed feeling awesome, because you wouldn’t be looking for sources, like mine to help you feel better.

Or, the second scenario (you are sluggish, a little sore, and feeling ‘off’) is typical of sluggish metabolism and potential auto-immune brewing or early stages of it, and the final scenario (very sore and in pain and have to really push yourself to face another day) is where that inflammatory cascade is most likely creating physical change and damaging as we speak.

These things don’t just happen overnight.  They take years, even decades to develop.  Thyroid antibodies can take 7 years to develop and show up in blood tests. 

Back to my question earlier, what did you eat yesterday?  Unfortunately, this is where it gets really tricky, because while yesterday’s food may not trigger your symptoms, (but maybe the most obvious) it’s the day before, or even the week before may have as well, so it makes working out which foods are activating your immune system really difficult and challenging.  

Then, what starts to happen we can start to eliminate foods in a desperate bid find that offending food.  I know how difficult this is, because when I had my bad flares of Psoriatic Arthritis, I did the same. Have you ever done that? Taking out healthy foods from your diet, becoming even more reactive to foods that once you could eat? You think that you are getting healthier, but instead, you feel like you are getting sicker and sicker, and you most likely are, as you are eliminating major sources of vitamins and minerals, to keep your body working.

So, what’s going on, on the inside?

Basically, the digestive tract is a big long tube from beginning to end.  That tube lining is like the skin covering your body but it’s on the inside, but it has different linings in each area.  For example, the stomach’s cells can handle the strong hydrochloric acid, that your hands could not, the small intestines are almost porous-like and are dynamic, and flexible to the foods that are floating past.

When you think about it, those tissues are exposed to the outside world, so not only do they have their methods of selectively nutrients to enter the body, they also have to have some protection.

Like think of them as being rows of gates, and then there is a guard to make sure the gates are being opened and closed to the people having a guard at the gate is your immune system.

The gut has an army of immune cells just hanging around on the inside wall of the digestive system, just keep watch and making sure nothing untoward is coming in.

So, you may have heard of ‘leaky gut’, this term is used quite freely and it is really bad if you have it. Well, we all do to a certain extent, the cells need to pull apart sometimes just to let some larger particles come through, like curcumin.  But we want it to close again once we have accepted that larger particle.

Unfortunately, by eating the wrong foods for a long time, we can inadvertently have allowed the connections of the cells to become weak.  Then what happens is normal good food can escape into where the immune system is and be seen as baddies and we have an immune attack.

When this happens for long enough, we can trigger an auto-immune response in our body because normal tissue is mistaken for problems.  The most common food trigger is gluten for Hashimotos.

Rheumatoid and other autoimmune diseases can be flared or activated by the imbalance of the gut being constantly activated by food – and in many cases it can still be good food, which is really unfortunate because then we start missing out on essential nutrients we need to operate our body and that’s when our friend cortisol begins to take over and our body starts living in a stress response, our blood sugars become unbalanced, we are tired, feeling low, unmotivated, sore, and over time, become more anxious and susceptible to the hits of life.

The first thing is to begin putting healthy food into the system.  Of course, eliminate the trouble foods that you know aren’t working for you, but then work on the gut.  Because it is not the food, it is the environment.  Long-term restoration is key, if you have an auto-immune issue, while a probiotic will help, it’s not going to change your gut microbiome and calm down that inflammation to the extent that you need it to.

There are so many gut irregularities to go into, there are certainly some good gut support nutrients, but I have seen over and over, that eating a nutrition plan that is matched to your body through your own blood has amazing outcomes.  Then backing that up with supporting the gut helps regulate and calm the immune system at the front line so to speak.

If you’d like to know more about this or other topics, you are welcome to join my free membership on face book. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub. 

I’d love to see you there

Inspiring Wellness

 

Beth  

 

References

[1]Benjamin Lynch ND, Folate Metabolism and MTHFR: Introductory Overview of an Essential Gene

https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Genetic-Code

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213158212000174

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK6561/

Leclerc D, Sibani S, Rozen R. Molecular Biology of Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) and Overview of Mutations/Polymorphisms. In: Madame Curie Bioscience Database [Internet]. Austin (TX): Landes Bioscience; 2000-2013

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6021155/

Nefic H, Mackic-Djurovic M, Eminovic I. The Frequency of the 677C>T and 1298A>C Polymorphisms in the Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) Gene in the Population. Med Arch. 2018;72(3):164-169. doi:10.5455/medarh.2018.72.164-169

Gut health in Hypothyroid and Auto-Immunity

Gut health in Hypothyroid and Auto-Immunity

by | Digestion, Thyroid

What kind of body are you living in?  If it is a hypothyroid one, you will be slow functioning and perhaps auto-Immune.  Both conditions are affected by each other moment by moment.

The thyroid is trying its very best to keep the body regulated when it is being besieged by antibodies and the antibodies and the inflammatory cascade is like a run-away train because the body doesn’t have the resources to calm it down.

Let’s bring in a major player in both of these instances, and that is the gut.  I’d like you to take a moment and think about what you ate yesterday and how you woke up feeling today?  Were you alert and ready to leap out of bed and nail your day, or were you sluggish, a little sore and feeling ‘off’, or worse, you hardly slept are very sore and in pain, and have to really push yourself to face another day?

I’m going to make the assumption that there that you are not jumping out of bed feeling awesome, because you wouldn’t be looking for resources, like mine to help you feel better.

Or, the second scenario (you are sluggish, a little sore, and feeling ‘off’) is typical of sluggish metabolism and potential auto-immune brewing or early stages of it, and the final scenario (very sore and in pain and have to really push yourself to face another day) is where that inflammatory cascade is most likely creating physical change and damaging as we speak.

These things don’t just happen overnight.  They take years, even decades to develop.  Thyroid antibodies can take 7 years to develop and show up in blood tests. 

Back to my question earlier, what did you eat yesterday?  Unfortunately, this is where it gets really tricky, because while yesterday’s food may not trigger your symptoms, (but maybe the most obvious) it’s the day before, or even the week before may have as well, so it makes working out which foods are activating your immune system really difficult and challenging.  

Then, what starts to happen we can start to eliminate foods in a desperate bid to find that offending food.  I know how difficult this is because when I had my bad flares of Psoriatic Arthritis, I did the same. Have you ever done that? Taking out healthy foods from your diet, becoming even more reactive to foods that once you could eat? You think that you are getting healthier, but instead, you feel like you are getting sicker and sicker, and you most likely are, as you are eliminating major sources of vitamins and minerals, to keep your body working.

So, what’s going on the inside?

Simply, the digestive tract is a big long tube from beginning to end.  That tube lining is similar to the skin covering your body but it’s on the inside, and it is made from different types of cells in each zone.  For example, the stomach’s cells can handle the strong hydrochloric acid, that your hands could not and the small intestines are almost porous-like and dynamic, and flexible to be able to move and absorb the digested food particles floating past.

When you think about it, those tissues are exposed to the outside world, so not only do they have their methods of selectively absorbing nutrients to enter the body, they also have to have some protection.

If you think of them as being rows of gates, with the guard behind the gate to make sure access via the gates is being opened and closed to the right nutrients.  Having a guard at the gate is your immune system.

The gut has an army of immune cells just hanging around on the inside wall of the digestive system, just keep watch and making sure nothing untoward is coming in.

So, you may have heard of ‘leaky gut’, this term is used quite freely and coined ‘really bad’ if you have it. Well, we all do to a certain extent, the cells need to pull apart sometimes just to let some larger particles come through, like curcumin.  But we want it to close again once we have accepted that larger particle.

Unfortunately, by eating the wrong foods for a long time, we can inadvertently have allowed the connections of the cells to become weak.  Consequently, normal good food can escape into where the immune system is and be seen as ‘baddies’ and we have an immune attack quickly on our hands.

When this happens for long enough, we can trigger an auto-immune response in our body because normal tissue is mistaken for problems.  The most common food trigger is gluten for Hashimotos.

Rheumatoid and other autoimmune diseases can be flared or activated by the imbalance of the gut being constantly activated by food – and in many cases it can still be good food, which is really unfortunate because then we start eliminating these items, and soon we are missing out on essential nutrients we need to operate our body.  Before long our friend cortisol begins to take over the driving force of our body and be begin to live in the stress response, our blood sugars become unbalanced, we are tired, feeling low, unmotivated, sore, and over time, become more anxious and susceptible to the hits of life.

Ideally, to get out of the pattern of inflammation, the first thing is to put healthy food into the system.  Of course, eliminate the troublesome foods that you know aren’t working for you, but then work on the gut.  Because it is not the food, it is the environment. 

Long-term restoration is key, if you have an auto-immune issue, while a probiotic will help, it’s not going to change your gut microbiome long term and calm down that inflammation to the extent that you need it to. Certainly not if you keep inflaming the environment with food that is not conducive to your health.

There are so many gut irregularities to go into, along with awesome gut support nutrients, but I have seen over and over, that eating a nutrition plan that is matched to your body through your own blood has amazing outcomes.  Then backing that up with supporting the gut helps regulate and calm the immune system at the front line so to speak.

If you’d like to know more, you are welcome to join my free membership on facebook. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub. 

I’d love to see you there

Inspiring Wellness

Beth 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its never too late to work on Muscle Mass

Its never too late to work on Muscle Mass

by | Nutrition

Muscle maintenance is so important as we age. The alarming thing is, we actually start to lose muscle mass from our mid-twenties, and in total, we lose about 25 – 40%  of what we were at our peak, and then it just gets faster after 60yrs.  So, it is imperative that we know what to do about it right now!

To begin I want you to think about how active you are in terms of moving your muscles and how much resistance type of workout you get daily.  When we exercise and how we exercise – and when I say this –  I am talking about exercise as the movement of the body – like vacuuming, cleaning, going up and down the stairs etc.   What you may not know is that there are 3 types of muscle fibres that use various different pathways for their energy source, so you need to have a variety of exercise to utilise all of these different types. Some are good for long walking or marathon running, others for short and fast movement, like sprinting and then the mixed type which is kinda in between.

The thing about muscle is, and you may have even said this yourself, if you don’t use it, you lose it? That is so true.  Because building and breaking down muscle happens at the same time.  Can you remember a time that you weren’t moving as much as you normally do? – you may have been sick and in bed, a lot,  or on holidays and you weren’t doing as much exercise as you normally do – more sitting, eating and drinking and flexing this muscle. You may actually feel more ‘flabby’ or not strong after and this what is called muscle catabolism.

So to build muscle you actually have to have more of the building up going on, than the breaking down of muscle.  This means we want ‘net’ balance is more for building.  So as this balancing act is happening all the time, how do we push it more to the building side?

Okay, so we need to eat protein to build muscle right. Proteins are made up of Amino Acids, of which some are essential so we have to eat these to get them into our body. One of these is called Leucine it can activate the building of our muscle all on its own.  Amazing right. Other Amino Acids can help stimulate making muscle as well as something called Insulin Growth factor, but Leucine has its own little trigger system. So what’s important here is 1. We have to eat this to get it and 2. It has its own special pathway, so I’m thinking this is kinda important.

What we want is about 3gms of Leucine per meal to turn on muscle building.  And no, you don’t have to go out and buy a specific supplement, but you may see it in muscle-building protein powders. 

You want a target amount of 3 g of leucine combined with 25-30 grams of protein, each meal, 3 times a day is recommended.

So where to get it?  Well, you can find Leucine is most animal protein at reasonably high levels. So, all you have to do is eat it.  These foods are particularly high in Leucine, beef, chicken, pork, tuna, salmon, sardines, eggs and feta, and cashew nuts give good high amounts from their 15 – 20gm of protein per gram. 

And the perfect timing to eat for maximum muscle building is close as possible after a workout.  So say if you have an early morning walk, or go to the gym before breakfast ensure it has a good source of protein, likewise after work, going for a workout and then having dinner.

For healthy aging, if you eat 3 high-quality protein meals per day, it provides all the amino acids you need to increase muscle mass by about 25% over 24 hours, which is pretty cool.

So, it’s all about maintenance as we age, and addressing our susceptibility to muscle breakdown.  If you eat three balanced meals a day, in particular, a selection of high-quality proteins to ensure adequate leucine contents you will benefit in the long run. 

Building muscle is greatest when combined with exercise, particularly ingestion of leucine-based protein as close as possible to completing the exercise.

Now if you are confused about what to eat, and the best options for you, I can certainly help you out there with a whole food nutrition plan, designed by your blood values.  How incredible is that?  The guessing stops there, as you have your own meal plan and types of protein to eat, it makes muscle building easy. 

If you’d like to know more, you are welcome to join my free membership on facebook. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub. 

I’d love to see you there

Inspiring Wellness

Beth 

Because life is better with Protein

Because life is better with Protein

by | Nutrition

The question I have for you right now is, what did you have for breakfast?

In particular, I am asking what your protein part was?

Was it milk, cheese, eggs, fish, meat, chicken or legumes?

Or none of these at all?

It may have been a coffee, toast, breakfast bar…

Then your body will be working hard to do all the housekeeping it needs without your protein meal.

Did you know that all protein is not the same? That is, they can all be broken down into different types and amounts of smaller particles called Amino Acids.  You may be familiar with the name of amino acids as found in protein drinks or energy bars.

So out of 20 amino acids nine are essential to eat.  The proteins that have all of these are called complete proteins.

Others, are lacking some or all of the nine essential amino acids are low-quality proteins.  They don’t have all the essential amino acids or have smaller amounts of them that aren’t enough to contribute to making a full protein. 

When this happens is it said they are limiting amino acids.  And what does that mean?  Once a limiting Amino Acid is used up then even if there is plenty of other amino acids available to make hormones, build muscle, carry red blood cells, make digestive enzymes and a number of other really important jobs in the body, it can’t because that one limiting amino acid has run out.

So you say, okay, well, I haven’t had all my amino acids this morning, I’ll make up for it at lunchtime. But guess what, you can’t!  The body does not store excess Amino Acids.

Every meal is unique and you can’t do catch up later.  That’s really insane and makes you really think about what your next meal is composed of.

A part of getting the benefits of the proteins is how well they are digested.

We need to be able to break down our proteins via our digestive system, which begins in the mouth, with tearing and chewing, then into the stomach where strong Hydrochloric acid begins the breakdown of the protein and pepsin begins work here as well. Then into the small intestine, there are more enzymes that continue the breakdown, until the protein that you ate is now singular, double or triple amino acid groups that get transported in the intestinal cells.

So if you have issues with digestion, burping belching, indigestion it is quite possible you are not breaking down your proteins well.

In general Animal, proteins are well digested – 90 – 99%, plant proteins not as well 70-90% with the exception of soy and legumes at 90%.

When proteins are being recreated in the body for important jobs to be done in the body, all the necessary Amino acids are needed at the same time. A bit like baking a cake and not having the flour or eggs to make it. It can’t be done. 

Remember how I spoke about Complete proteins at the beginning, these have all the nine essential amino acids.  If we are baking our cake and are putting milk into the mix to make it the right texture and we run out of milk and leave the mix very sticky and hard to handle, then we have a Limiting ingredient – Milk.  Amino acids also have Limiting Amino Acids.  So if a protein is being made and it may have to stop because there are no more of the amino acids that it requires.

This is where, if we are not eating complete protein in a meal, it is vital that we eat a combination of proteins called Complementary proteins. An example is eating legumes with grains.  The Legumes have a reduction of two amino acids that the grains are in abundance of and vice versa. So eaten together will give plenty of amino acids to build proteins the body can use to make what we need.

This is exactly why the nutrition plan I use in my methods works so well. 

If you’d like to know more, you are welcome to join my free membership on facebook. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub. 

I’d love to see you there

Inspiring Wellness

Beth 

Meal Planning Made Easy

Meal Planning Made Easy

by | General, Mindset

Often when we are starting a new eating habit, there is an initial ‘shock’ factor and concern that we are not going to be able to manage the family and that everyone has to eat so differently and how is that all going to work out, as inevitably is up to you to do all the food preparation in an effort to appease everyone and get the results that you desire. 

Here are some tips about how to manage your family and their needs as well as yours and how you make everyone’s world pivot in a good way.

So, to begin, how do you plan meal? – What is everyone going to eat?

  1. In your planning, think about the protein component first. Is it going to be a fish, meat, chicken, legume dish etc?  For meals that you are going to share, have a protein type that suits you, everyone needs proteins, ideally three times per day.
  2. How are you going to cook it? Slow cook, fry, poach, bake? You can cook proteins in water (poach, slow cook), fry or bake with good quality oils (olive, coconut, ghee). No vegetable oil, please.
  3. You may decide that one night, the family will have a premade batch-cooked meal from the freezer while having your own special protein that may not be in the family budget. You are healing, this is your medicine.
  4. What vegetables are going to be eaten, what are the standard ones the family will eat? It is quite common that likes and dislikes are seen here, it doesn’t take much to add or take away to suit various requests, or you have a ‘try it all on your plate” general rule.
  5. It doesn’t have to completely be a ‘you and them’ scenario, it can be a blend, and as a parent, preparing meals with slightly different combinations is reasonably common.
  6. Remember that every ‘body’ is designed by nature to eat proteins, vegetables and carbohydrates. Everyone needs all of these things in a balanced way. 
  7. Think about the foods you already prepare? Do they compose of these things? If not regularly, then the whole family will benefit to eating in a healthier way.

Planning meals – Putting pen to paper

Consider a 14-day cycle of meals, if you feel that is too overwhelming then begin with a week.  Then the following week, make up a new menu and so forth.  You will soon start to see that common meal feature.  You can then recycle these meal planners. 

Or if you want to think for a longer time period straight up, then start with family favourites that you may like to have once or twice in that time. 

Include then a few dishes of yours that you think that the family can eat, you may have to make a slight variation for yours. Include an easy ‘treat’ or a simple meal for one night a week, Friday night works well, so you can take a break.

Batch cooking – A huge time and decision saver

Choose meals for the family that can be made in bulk and easily frozen that will still turn out well when thawed like stews, slow cookers, soups, lasagne, crumbed chicken, schnitzel etc

You can batch cook all in the same day or if you are making meals as you go, make a double batch and freeze the second.

Meal preparation – Making life easier

For meals that are going to be freshly prepared before serving, do the prep soon after you’ve purchased the product. Trim, cut, and weigh meats before freezing for the recipe that you are using.  If you are making several meals this way, you may have to label the item and dedicate it to that recipe dish, especially if you are sharing meal prep with others, who are ‘doing their own thing’ so they don’t eat what is specifically for you.

Shopping – Using lists make it easy

Do a stock take before shopping to make sure you have all the ingredients for your recipes, simple I know, but it’s easy one and forgetting an item can lead to a no-meal deal and it’s easy to get caught out. 

Do one big shop per week for all your big items, so you have food at the ready all the time. Plan for the shopping day and allow time for the shop and time once at home to sort, prep and store, as it can take a few hours. 

You may have to ‘scheduled’ in your shopping time, so it comes before something else pops up.  Apart of eating well for your health is the respect you give yourself and honour the time you use to nurture the future you.

Encourage others – It’s more fun to share the load

This is a great learning time for those that surround you, I know it is bliss going out shopping on your own, and maybe the only time you get for yourself!  But at the right age, it is a great learning tool for your children, I get mine to read labels and chat about sugar content all.the.time.

If you’d like to know more, you are welcome to join my free membership on facebook. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub. 

I’d love to see you there

Inspiring Wellness

Beth