Master Your Health: Hormones, Hunger, and the Mindset Shift You Need

NUTRITION
Life After Macros: How to Transition from Tracking to Intentional Eating

‍I often use calorie and macronutrient tracking with my clients, especially at the beginning of their journey. It’s a great way to build awareness around food, learn what’s really on your plate, and understand how nutrition directly affects your energy, body composition, and performance. Tracking macros is when you weigh and measure your food to calculate how many grams for protein, carbs, and fats you are eating a day.

In fact, research shows people who track their food consistently have better long-term weight management than those who don’t (Ingels et al., 2017).

But here’s the catch:

If you rely too heavily on tracking apps and food scales, it can start to feel like you have to measure and log everything, all the time, just to stay on track. This can disconnect you from your body’s natural hunger and fullness signals — and in some cases, it can lead to unhealthy, obsessive patterns around food.

That’s why my real goal isn’t for you to track forever.

I want you to build the skills and confidence to nourish your body without the need for constant logging — using both your nutrition knowledge and your body’s feedback to guide your choices.

Think of tracking as “training wheels.” It’s a short-term strategy to help you build awareness, structure, and understanding — but once you’ve learned the basics, it’s time to practice living without them.

How to Transition Away from Tracking

Here are a few ways I help clients (you!) shift from strict tracking to more intuitive, flexible eating:

1️⃣ Calorie Ranges & Protein Priorities
One of the first approaches I use with clients who are looking to move away from macro tracking is to use a calorie range and protein “minimum”. Instead of hitting the same exact macros every day, try working within a calorie range, with a daily protein minimum and fiber target. For example, if you had been hitting 2000 calories 130g protein, 180g carbs and 84g fat and maintaining weight and feeling good- I would likely move you to a range of 1900-2100 calories with a minimum of 130g protein and 25g fiber. This would allow you to start to tap into hunger, fullness, and food preferences without completely going rogue. This gives the freedom to adjust your meals to your hunger levels while still staying on track. It also allows for more flexibility with eating out at restaurants or on the road, supports balanced holiday eating, and helps you avoid getting too wrapped up in the small details.

2️⃣ Track Fewer Days Per Week
This is my personal favorite approach. This can help you learn to trust yourself without the training wheels. Start by taking one or two non-consecutive days off from tracking each week, while keeping an eye on your weight, energy, hunger, and digestion. As your confidence grows, gradually reduce tracking even further by 1-2 days at a time until we have a full week off from tracking.

3️⃣ Hand Portions or Plate Method
Ditch the food scale and start eyeballing your portions. A simple method: aim for a palm-sized serving of protein and a fist-sized serving of veggies at every meal, and balance your carbs and fats according to your hunger and activity level.

4️⃣ Rebuild Hunger & Fullness Awareness
Most people lose touch with their body’s natural hunger cues after years of dieting or strict tracking. Reconnecting with those signals takes time, but it’s one of the most powerful tools you’ll ever develop for lifelong health.

A practical tool we can use to develop this skill is quantifying hunger and fullness. Some people use a 1-10 satiety scale, while others use a percentage system. If you’ve never used one of these methods, it can be helpful to start by describing what each extreme number or percentage group feels like to you physically, mentally, and emotionally. For example, someone who is at 100% full might describe that level of fullness as uncomfortable, feeling lots of pressure in the abdominal area, and lethargy or heaviness in their bodies. On the other hand, someone might describe a 10/10 on the hunger scale as painful, gnawing sensations in their abdomen, paired with obsessive thoughts about food and intense irritability.

‍

After getting comfortable assigning values to the extreme levels of hunger and fullness, we can start to work on the more nuanced levels of satiety. We can start to learn what a 7 on the hunger scale feels like and understand that it’s probably time to start seeking out some food, before we hit a 9 or 10. A hugely important tool for most people for long term weight maintenance is being able to stop eating when they feel satisfied, instead of stuffed. This requires practice and lots of trial and error. Some helpful steps in getting there are eating slowly, chewing food completely (to a paste consistency), and putting their fork down between bites.

‍

With time and practice in satiety awareness, many people will find it much easier to maintain weight and have a healthy relationship with food & their body for the long haul. This allows people to enjoy flexibility with eating, navigate travel, events, holidays, and different seasons of life while staying in tune with and honoring their bodies’ needs. It can help to continue to collect data while practicing hunger and fullness awareness. This could include paying attention to things like weight, energy, digestion, performance, recovery, sleep, stress, etc.

5️⃣ The Ultimate Goal: Intentional Eating
This is where true food freedom lives. You eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re satisfied, and make nutrition choices based on what fuels your body and fits your life — without overthinking or obsessing.

And if you ever need to dial things in again, tracking will always be there as a tool. Whether you're training for a goal, feeling off, or need a reset, you can use it to check in — but it shouldn’t run your life.

My goal is to empower you with the tools and knowledge you need to build a healthy, balanced, and flexible relationship with food — one that lasts a lifetime.

If you’ve been feeling stuck in “tracking mode” and want to learn how to confidently transition away, I’d love to help. Message me today, I have a very limited spot for new clients!

HEALTH/WELLNESS
Your Period: Your Monthly Health Report Card

When it comes to health, most of us know the basics: your heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and breathing rate are the core “vital signs” doctors use to assess if something’s wrong.

But did you know your menstrual cycle is just as important?

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has called your period the “fifth vital sign,” because the health of your cycle reveals what’s going on under the surface — long before most women feel obvious symptoms. Changes in your period can be one of the first signs your body is under stress, under-recovering, or under-fueled.

If you’re training regularly, lifting heavy, and eating “pretty healthy,” it’s easy to assume you’re doing everything right. But the truth is, women who train hard — especially those balancing careers, families, and personal goals — often normalize signs of hormonal imbalance without realizing it.

Things like:

• Missed or irregular periods

• Short, light, or “barely there” periods

• More painful or symptomatic periods

• Spotting between cycles

• Cycles that fluctuate month to month

...aren’t just random. They’re messages from your body. These symptoms are often common but they are NOT normal! Did you know that your period shouldn’t really cause you any discomfort?!

Your menstrual cycle is highly sensitive to both physical and emotional stress. If your body senses that energy is scarce (whether because of under-eating, over-training, lack of sleep, or chronic stress), it will prioritize survival over reproduction — and the first system to down-regulate is your reproductive hormones.

Even if you're eating "clean" or working out consistently, this can happen when:

• You’re not eating enough to match your training demands.

• You’re skimping on recovery days.

• You’re pushing hard in the gym while your sleep, stress, and hydration are out of sync.

In fact, research into Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) shows that even recreationally active women — not just elite athletes — are at risk of hormonal disruptions if their recovery and nutrition don't support their workload.

Instead of seeing your period as just a monthly inconvenience, start viewing it like you would a fitness tracker or progress report.

• A consistent, regular cycle means your body is recovering well, fueling properly, and managing stress.

• Irregular or missing periods are often the first hint that something needs to change — before injuries, plateaus, mood swings, or fatigue show up.

If you’re noticing changes in your cycle, it could be a sign to:
✔️ Adjust your nutrition — especially making sure you're eating enough calories and protein.
✔️ Reconsider your training volume and recovery strategy.
✔️ Prioritize sleep and stress management like you do your workouts.

Your period is one of the best (and most underappreciated) health indicators you have. When it’s predictable and symptom-free, it usually means your body is in a good place. When it’s off — it’s time to pause and listen.

Tracking your cycle can help you understand your body on a deeper level, prevent long-term health issues, and even improve your training results. Your period isn’t just a monthly event — it’s feedback. Pay attention, and it can become one of your strongest health and fitness tools.

A few of my favorite resources to learn more about this:

Beyond the Pill
The Fifth Vital Sign
Period Repair Manual

MINDSET
Your Life Is A Blessing

Quit thinking "Why me?" when bad shit happens to you.

Maybe instead start thinking "Why me?" when great things happen to you.

Because the truth is...

You are not a victim.

You only think you are.

Most people struggle with constant feelings of pain and suffering because they fixate on all of the negative and unfavorable outcomes.

Spare yourself from the same feelings of pain and suffering.

Shift your focus away from all of the negative stuff that happens to you...

...and start focusing on all of the great things you have in your life...

You will start to feel a lot more grateful and excited about your life immediately.

Bad shit happens to all of us...

Don't make it worse by dwelling on how you wish things could have gone differently or on how "bad" you have it.

Your life is a blessing.

Never forget that.

Make yourself Better Today.