Supporting Your Body Through Menstrual Cycle Changes With Weight Lifting And Eating More
Welcome to the Satiated Podcast where we explore physical and emotional hunger, satiation and healing your relationship with your food and body. I'm your host Stephanie Mara Fox your Somatic Nutritional Counselor. I'm excited to chat with Kitty Blomfield today. Kitty is the cofounder of NuStrength and Saturee creator of metabolically supportive supplements and saturated skincare. Kitty created a method that freed herself from years of restrictive diets and excessive cardio whilst transforming her body and health. Since then, she's helped 1000s of others achieve the body and health that they've always wanted using the same approach. Kitty is on a mission to free women from restrictive diets, help them restore their metabolisms balance their hormones, and build bodies they love. Welcome Kitty!
Kitty Blomfield 00:56
What a great intro. Thanks so much for having me.
Stephanie Mara 01:00
I'm so excited to get to connect with you more today. And I would love to start out with hearing a little bit more about your background and your history and how you got into this work.
Kitty Blomfield 01:10
Yeah, yeah. And look, maybe I should start with a question. Because obviously, I know the listeners aren't gonna be able to respond to this question. But, you know, if you're a woman listening to this, how many of you have ever really truly been happy with your body and how it looks? And maybe if you were, did you have to do some crazy restrictive diet to actually maintain it? So I was that woman, basically, for 17 years of my life, you know, I was just never happy with my body. And I was always trying to achieve this specific number on the scale. And I don't know why it was 62 kilos, it was just 62 kilos, but I cycled through every single diet under the sun. You know, Isagenix for 12 months, I did keto, I did fasting, I did low carb, you know, I really restricted calories, I overtrained and I would restrict, and then I would binge all just to get to this 62 kilos, and, you know, I would achieve it. But, I would be exhausted, and I would be craving sugar. And my periods were irregular, and heavy and painful, you know, I didn't sleep very well, I had really low energy, I was constipated, my hair actually started falling out. So you know, I never really was happy with my body, really. And I felt terrible. You know, I was just exhausted. And I always felt like I was obsessed with food. So I was either restricting and thinking about what I couldn't eat, or then planning the next cheat meal, which would turn into a cheat day, you know, and I would remember sitting there at nine o'clock at night thinking, I'm just gonna keep eating, and I would eat and eat and eat till I felt sick, because then the next day, I would just jump back on the crazy restrictive, you know, just get back on the 1200 calorie diet, this cycle would just repeat itself, you know, year in, year out, year in, year out. And I think the real turning point for me, was, I just left my husband. So I was 34 for the second time. And so my relationship was shit. And of course, I was back restricting again, because I thought, you know, just lose some weight, that will make me feel better, that will make me feel happier if I can just get tiny again, you know, so I was back on the crazy diet bandwagon. And of course, because of that, I was feeling tired. And you know, I had really low energy, and I just wasn't focused at work. So at the time, I was working in mining, doing a Mind Control role doing FIFO. And one of the step up supervisors actually complained to my boss about me saying that I was really distracted, and she didn't want to work with me. And he basically, he was this South African guy and he was a real hard ass, but I'm so grateful to him now. So he sat me down and basically said, Kitty, if you don't get your shit together, I'm gonna fire you, you know, you've just got divorced you, it's not like you're dying, you've got your whole life ahead of you, you know, basically get it together. And that really scared me because I didn't want to lose my job. So not only did I go out and buy every book on men and relationships, because I just had a terrible track record with that. But I also started to research about hormones and metabolism and all these issues that I had. And I came across my business partner, Emma Sgourakis, who's the other half of Saturee and I was reading this article called defending fruit and other non complex carbohydrates and all of these light bulbs are just going off and I was just thinking, Oh, my goodness, like, no wonder I have spent my whole life jumping from diet to diet and have all of these issues and I can never ever maintain my weight or a healthy weight without restricting. So I emailed her and I said, I have to work with you. So I did her 12 week popping the food bubble course. And at the same time, I met Craig and Craig introduced me to strength training, you know, instead of spending hours flogging myself with cardio and I just fell in love with it. He taught me about energy balance and tracking my food and optimizing my body and Emma taught me how to eat, you know, to I guess support my metabolism and my hormones and really re-educated me on food. So you know, all of these things I cut out of my diet so long like sugar and fruit and dairy, you know, that I thought was the devil. And you know, I couldn't possibly eat these foods and be healthy or not get fat. And so basically what they taught me transformed my body and my health, you know, so I started sleeping through the night, my periods became regular and you know, pretty asymptomatic, I stopped binge eating, I started pooing every day, I had energy again, you know, I went to the gym, and I really loved my training, you know, it wasn't, instead of being punishing myself for what I'd eaten, I was training to be strong and training for performance. And so my body started to change too you know, and so instead of always thinking, I'm just going to destroy this body that I have with restrictive diets and cardio and try and achieve this whatever number on the scale, I was building the body I wanted with real food and strength training. And so yeah, I just, it literally changed my life so much that, you know, I left my job in mining, and we opened, Craig and I opened the gym and we built sort of worked on a methodology for three years doing that working with men and women. And then we sold the gym and decided to create an online program specifically for women. So women just like me, who have spent years jumping from restrictive diet to restrictive diet, who just want to eat real food and feel good again, you know, women and we attract a lot of women with perimenopausal, menopausal symptoms because I'm 42. And a lot of the women we work with are sort of in that 40 to 50 age bracket. And they're the same as me, and they just experienced all these crazy symptoms. And yeah, then we also along the way created Saturee with Emma because we just couldn't find any great skincare that we've loved. So yeah, that's sorry, that's a bit of a long, long story.
Stephanie Mara 06:27
I love it. I love it. Yeah, I'm hearing just both attending to the, the outer and the inner of what you were like, how can I support my body externally and also internally?
Kitty Blomfield 06:39
Mmmm. Because I think I always thought like, to look good, and I guess when I say look good, that's subjective, right? Like, it's, you know, women come into our program, like, look, we can help you, you know, whatever you want to get to, we can help you get there. And some people may not want to look as muscular as me like, I'm pretty muscular. That's just a byproduct of lifting very heavy weights. But you know, we're here to, we want to help you achieve that, it's not about being really skinny, or really shredded, but just that strong, capable, a body that's energized, that sleeps well, you know, and you can, you can look good and feel good, you can have both. And I thought, oh, in order to look good, I have to just starve myself, there was no other way. But you can have both.
Stephanie Mara 07:17
What I hear in your story is you first started to notice what made you feel the way you wanted to feel in your body. And it was actually bringing back in a lot of foods that diet culture had really kind of demonized. I know you put out a post recently about like, eat the sugar, eat the carbohydrates. And I would love for you to talk more about that, because I feel like a lot of the individuals I work with and even listeners here, you know, sugar and carbs have been demonized for so long that it's like you can't eat these things if you want to, you know, get to where you want to go with your body.
Kitty Blomfield 07:52
Yeah. Well, I think there's a couple of sides to it like and this is one thing that really helped me is that, you know, in order to lose body fat, you need to eat in a calorie deficit, you don't need to cut out carbohydrates. It's a deficit that makes you lose body fat. And you don't need to have a huge deficit either. And I think that's where women go wrong. And then you know, sugar. So when we talk about sugar, so there's like white table sugar, and then you know, you've got, which is sucrose, which is glucose and fructose, and then you've got sugar, which is found in fruit and honey and juice. So they're the same structurally, it's just that you know, fruit contains vitamins and minerals and fiber and extra free molecules of glucose and fructose. So, you know, you definitely don't want to be cutting out fruit. And you know, if you want to have some fresh juice, go for it, because those foods contain, you know, they're abundant in nutrients that your body actually needs. And then having some white sugar, white sugar isn't, it's not poison, like people say it's poison, it's just, it's just simply energy. That's all it is devoid of nutrients. So obviously, it wouldn't make sense to go and eat 10 cups of white sugar. But if you've got a nutrient dense diet, then having some white sugar as part of a nutrient dense diet is not an issue. So like as an example, you know, sometimes I'll have sugar in my coffee or I'll have maple syrup, you know, I make this homemade ice cream that I have for dessert every night, which obviously has sugar in it you know, we have this amazing flourless chocolate brownie recipe in our program that is like divine and a lot of women love it. So you know, like once a day I might have a small piece of that with a glass of milk you know, when you're incorporating some of these yummy things into your diet and not restricting and not drastically restricting sugar and carbs, you're gonna stop the binge eating and I think I feel like that's where so many women go wrong because that's where I went wrong too is that I so drastically restricted that your body when you're under fueled and undernourished it cries out for carbs like think about when you when you cut carbs out of your diet like what do you crave? You crave sweet things. So your body's trying to tell you that it needs fuel and if you don't give it fuel, it'll make it by breaking down your muscle. Yeah right. Through a process called gluconeogenesis. And that's quite stressful. So I think, you know, for women who are wanting to improve their body composition or lose weight, it's not about cutting carbs from your diet or drastically cutting calories. It's eating in a small calorie deficit. Include more of these beautiful nutrient dense sugars like fruits and fresh juices, dairy, maple syrup, honey, include other carbohydrates too, so that you actually feel satisfied, and you can maintain this small calorie deficit and slowly lose body fat, which then stops you from binge eating, right? Because like these women, they try and eat 1200 calories, and then you just end up eating fucking 5000 calories in the weekend, because you're so starving. And you know, you can only ignore the biological response of your body for so long. So yeah, I think it's just such a huge misconception, which stops women from actually, you know, reaching their health and body goals, because they're just trying to always cut sugar and carbs from their diet.
Stephanie Mara 10:40
Yeah, yeah. And something I've seen is, as a woman comes up towards perimenopause, that it starts to get even more restrictive, because the body starts to change and change in ways that may feel unknown or scary. And I'm wondering how you've guided the women through your program, like through that transitional time in their life.
Kitty Blomfield 11:03
Yeah, Kate Deering and I have done some great podcasts on this. When you're going through perimenopause, so you know, when you go through menopause, you've obviously stopped ovulating, it's 12 months after you stopped ovulating. Leading up to that you start to experience these ovulatory cycles where you don't actually ovulate anymore, and you're not making progesterone. So you know, if you're healthy, and everything's well, you should go through this period with minimal symptoms, right, you should go through menopause. Like, if you look at non western countries, they don't seem to have all of the issues that we do. So you know, I don't want you to sit there and feel bad because you're having these symptoms. But I also want you to know that it's not necessary, you know, that you can support your body so that it functions well, so that you don't experience these symptoms. Because I think, you know, like, if you're listening to this, or women listen to this, how many of you have kids, you're working full time, you know, you've got a ton of stress in your life, you're probably under eating, you might be over exercising, you might be drinking a bit too much. You know, I've been there, I was a big drinker, I still like to have some drinks. You know, so all of the it's just like adding these layers and layers and layers of stress on the body and then the body starts to dysfunction. So you will start to experience more of these. You might not ovulate or your body's not really detoxifying well. So often, you know, your body's you could, estrogen and progesterone balance each other. So you just become estrogen dominant, because your body's not actually producing enough progesterone to you know, balance it out, I guess you may not be detoxifying well. So how many women listen to this don't go do a shit every day. Like it's really common. Ya know I've been constipated, it's terrible. So that you know, your body, your liver will deactivate estrogen, and then get rid of it through your poo. So if you're not actually pooing everyday, you're not getting rid of that estrogen and so it's backing up in the system, you know, and so it's all of these things I think that basically your body's just its signs of too much stress. And you know, the process that we use with all of the women in our programs, so like when you're younger, it'll show up as cycle issues. So heavy and painful periods, you know, bloating, the PMS. And as you get into menopause, and perimenopause, it shows up as perimenopausal symptoms, hot flashes, insomnia, weight gain all of these things. You know, I think it too, it can be really easy to get sucked into, like, ya know because you can Google, you know, you're like I get on calls with women and they're just taking a ton of different supplements. And you know, it can be so easy because you just Google things and then you go see some doctor or some naturopath and they just prescribe you 500 bucks worth of supplements and like, you really need to address it. I'm not saying that you should never take supplements, because I do, but the foundation is nutrition and lifestyle changes, you know. So one, making sure you're eating adequate protein. Like, that's just such a simple one. Because so many women, they don't track their food. So you don't really know how much you're eating, you know, so you they'll start to track their food and they're like shit Kitty, I'm only eating 80 grams of protein or 70 grams of protein. So your liver, if you don't eat adequate protein, it can't do its job of detoxification. You know, protein is the most thermogenic of all the macronutrients that it takes the most energy to digest. One thing that we get them to do is actually eating adequate protein, right? That just can improve things, you know, then am I eating out of balance and balancing it out with carbs and fat like say if you do need to lose body fat, am I eating a small calorie deficit instead of trying to eat 1200 calories? You know, am I getting the nutrients that my body needs? So you know, we recommend eating things like liver and oysters and people like oh my god Kitty, ya know, liver, it contains a week's worth, 100 grams contains a week's worth of vitamin A, which is used to make your protective steroid hormones. So you know think about progesterone, you know, but you can just take the capsules, I take the capsules. You know, building muscle. Muscle, like honestly, that is one of the most underrated things I think that that women just don't think about because as we age, we lose muscle. You know, so think about when you've, how many of you listening to this have done restrictive diets, but you've also paired it with a heap of cardio. So I've done it too. Been on that bloody spin bike every every week, every day. So you know when you're eating in that drastic calorie deficit, yeah, you might lose some body fat but you're losing muscle. So muscle is how we improve our resting metabolic rate. So you know, 70% of your total daily energy expenditure is just you doing nothing. And the way to actually improve that is by adding more muscle to your body, which so many women don't do. And you know what it also does, which is amazing, it improves your body's ability to use carbs. So it increases your insulin sensitivity. You know, we get moving more, getting out and getting sun, doing some walks, trying to prioritize sleep, you know, how many of you sit there at night, put the kids to bed, scrolling through Instagram. And you're like, look, it's like 11 o'clock, and then you go to bed and you wake up at five or six, and you only had six hours of sleep, this compounds, right? So it's all of these, you know, when I say this stuff to women, they're like, wow, this is actually really basic, you know, but it's actually doing it, doing it consistently over a long enough period of time, you know, cutting out the booze for a period of time or cutting it back, like being really honest with yourself. And look, I've been there, you know, I've even had stages, like I think I've talked about on a podcast once, I was like, had a month where I just drank every weekend, and I got to the end of the month, and was like fuck Kitty, you're really getting back into bad habits again, because I love alcohol. I just don't like how it makes me feel. So you know, just being really honest with yourself and asking yourself, do I really need this because alcohol impairs liver's ability to detoxify estrogen, you know, and it's just empty calories, it just does nothing for you. And I'm not saying don't ever drink again. But potentially it might be it might be good just to stop it for a little while and then feel better again, and then you'll probably find you won't want to drink as much anymore, you know. So it's, I think it's just doing the simple things and supporting the body. Because I always think about it like, you know imagine your body is a Ferrari, you know, and if you don't put the right oil in it, and the right fuel, if you start putting like, you know, just diesel in it or something like that, and you don't put enough oil in, eventually over time it wears down. Right. So if your body, you know, if you're not getting enough energy and nutrients, it's constantly stressed, it will cut corners. So things like digestion, you know, reproduction. They're not, well digestion is essential, but you know, like reproduction, it's not essential. So it affects your steroid hormone production, it affects your digestion, it affects your thyroid function. Your body just down regulates things so that it can just survive, and then you start to get all these symptoms. Yeah, it's not sexy. And it's not quick, but it really works. You know?
Stephanie Mara 17:19
Yeah, I really appreciate all these points. And yeah, they may sound simple, but like you're pointing out, it can actually be quite difficult to put them into place, sometimes, because I find it that we go through, like different nutritional phases throughout our life. And so if you are in a phase right now, where it's, I just want what I want when I want it, like, it's gonna take some time to transition out of that phase to be like, okay, is this still supporting me? Like, how does my body feel on this and as you get the feedback from your body over and over again, this isn't making me feel the way I want to feel, yes this still isn't making me feel the way I want to feel. At some point it's going to be like you don't I don't want to do that. today. I want to do something different.
Kitty Blomfield 18:07
Yeah, and you know what, like, I don't know, I just this is me personally, I'm sure a lot of women who listen this will agree that when you hit your 40s, I hate having a bad sleep. Like, you know, I just if I don't eat enough, I don't sleep well. I don't have good energy, and like I just can't function anymore. And I had you know, when I was young when you're younger, when you're 20's you can cope with more. I destroyed myself I think. Actually Craig always says I'm surprised that you are okay because I took a lot of drugs. I drank a lot. I consistently under ate and then binged you know, my poor body. I think about all the stress that I put it on that and it makes me feel sick thinking about the things that I didn't eat. Trying to eat 1200 calories and just dragging myself out of bed in the morning, drinking my black coffee, going in training fasted, I just couldn't do it now. And I think once you do this for a while, and you know, I get it, you want to see your body change, I get it, you know, but you have to ask yourself, like, what's the definition of insanity? So if those restrictive diets worked long term, you'd be looking great. You'd be feeling great, but they don't. And it just, if you keep going back, you just stay stuck in that cycle versus and I always say to women in our program, you've got to give it 12 to 18 months, like you've been dieting for 10, some women come to me they've been dieting for 30 years. How realistic do you think it is to undo all that and achieve the body that you want in 12 weeks. And when I ask them that they go Kitty, yeah you're right. You know, because it takes time to build muscle, you know, and the thing is, you're gonna fuck it up along the way. That's normal. Like, you know, I think women come in thinking, oh, like, it's just gonna be this great linear progress, and I'm gonna go from A to B and there's gonna be no hiccups along the way. But that's, it's like, there's life things will happen with your kids, you'll get derailed you, you know, but the secret is to just keep going, you know, take that consistent, imperfect action and keep just getting back on getting back on and getting back on and you know, because like, think about it. How many times have you doubted something? And then you get derailed and then you just totally throw the baby out with the bathwater. And you just go fuck it. And then three months later, you're like, oh my God, where am I? Again, I'm here again. Imagine if you just thought, okay, that's okay. I fucked this up. It doesn't matter. It's part of it. And the next day, just got back on your nutrition plan. And you just start again, like, imagine where you'd be in 12 months time. And I feel like that's a huge one for women not being so hard on themselves and giving themselves some grace and allowing themselves to make mistakes, but then just you can choose then what you do after that. You can choose to go okay, okay, maybe I ended up having some wine last night, it wasn't the best choice and I ate some shit food. Don't let it roll over to tomorrow. Just get back up. You don't you don't need to fast and starve yourself all day. Just get up and eat your breakfast and start again.
Stephanie Mara 20:45
Yeah, I completely agree with that. I think that that we have to kind of reframe what healing our relationship with our food and our body is like that it's not that suddenly, you're never going to do your familiar eating or body behaviors ever again. It's okay, sometimes this is going to happen. And I'm not going to self abandon anymore. I'm going to keep showing up for myself and be committed more to the journey, instead of just I'm going to get to this destination. And then what?
Kitty Blomfield 21:13
That's right, that's right. And I really feel like because this is how I was practicing moderation. Because I was such an extremist, you know. If you go, if you decide, you know, because I do think, you know, when you start this process, and you are working towards some say weight loss or fat loss or body composition goals, and you've got some health issues you need to improve, you do have to tighten it up. But when I say tighten it up, it's not about restricting and eating 1200 calories, it's about consistently hitting the macros, eating those nutrient dense foods, most of the time, doing your walks, once you you know, building the muscle because once the once you get to the maintenance spot, you know, you can then you know, have some drinks or have some non optimal food and you just go straight back to playing and nothing happens, you don't gain 10 kilos, you don't fall off the wagon, you know, it's that moderation. Like if you make a mistake, or if you eat like you're in your in your plan, like say you drink the wine. So what you did it, you know, whatever, just that just have two glasses, instead of having two bottles don't then go and eat a large Domino's Pizza. Go to bed and just start your plan again. And I think the more and more like, you know, we talked about it on the podcast about the emotional, I think the more more you practice this, it starts to become the new norm. And you get out of those extremes and more into that middle ground, which is where you need to be because like you say, it's not like you can never drink alcohol again, you'll probably drink it less like me because you just, I mean, I had a few champagnes on the weekend with a friend of mine, we shared a bottle. And I, like it actually makes me feel pretty shit now, wine and champagne. Like I'm so much better if I drink cocktails. And after drinking that, like the next day, I was like, you know what, I think I'm really just not going to drink champagne anymore. I'm just gonna have cocktails because I'm like, they just there's whatever it is in the champagne, like the what's in there just doesn't I can have a few cocktails and sleep better and just wake up fresher. So you end up getting to the point, you're like, oh, I just it's not worth it anymore.
Stephanie Mara 23:07
Right. And that's, that's that body feedback. Just saying, okay, I can do something over and over and over again. And at some point as we keep, I like framing it more as collecting data on your body. If you keep collecting data on how your body responds to things, at some point, it's going to be like, I don't think I can ignore this anymore. Like my body has been sending me this message over and over and over again. And I think I just need to start paying attention to this and honoring what my body's trying to tell me and it is such a process. You know, what you were just referencing is I was recently on Kitty's podcast and I'll share that with you all. And you know, I love also bringing in your perspective because I talk so much about the emotional aspects. But like if we bring it back to your first suggestion of you know, eating enough protein for example, that like if your body isn't getting the macro nutrients that it needs that can also be a contributor to emotional eating and binge eating because your body is trying to get the nutrition it needs and sometimes while I talk so much about the deeper reasons why these kinds of relationship with food can occur, sometimes it is if you start to bring in the nutrition that you need, for some individuals, I have seen this the binge eating just goes away because your body is starting to feel nourished and grounded and regulated just by the food that's coming in. It's getting what it needs.
Kitty Blomfield 24:34
But then there's women too, like we talked about this, that they're doing all the right things actually supporting the body. But then they go and emotionally eat, comfort eat,, and I used to do that a lot too. Yeah, anyway, you can listen to I'm gonna release that podcast, guys listen to it. Yeah, but I think it's you know, if you're doing all the right things and eating enough and you're still still binge eating for other reasons. And yeah, I think your stuff is so helpful because I see it all the time. It's so common. Yeah.
Stephanie Mara 25:00
Yeah, absolutely. So you're talking about kind of a major transition for some individuals. And what do you find are the initial baby steps someone can take, let's say, they're not lifting weights at all, let's say they are more in that realm of doing lots and lots of cardio and still focusing on trying to eat as little as possible. Like where would someone slowly start shifting their relationship with food and how they move in it.
Kitty Blomfield 25:28
Women, when I talk about tracking food I get, sometimes I'll get pushed back from the tracking the food. And I get that, because I used to track but always try to eat as little as possible. And I think I really had to shift my mindset around tracking and because I always associated with with restriction, obviously, because I was trying to eat 1200 fucking calories and not eating carbs, that is restriction. So you know, when I met Craig and Emma and, you know, she got me to track my food, I really looked at it like shifting my perspective with data, it started gathering information to teach me. And you know, it really showed me that I actually could eat more food without gaining a ton of weight. So like day to day, got me out of that binge restrict. So I think coming into it with being more inquisitive, you know, and going, okay, maybe just for a week, track, everything that you eat, and just do it as a information gathering exercise, and then look at it, and you might go shit, and track the binges too. So you might eat 1200 calories during the week, and then you go and eat 10,000 calories in the weekend. So really, you could be eating more day to day, and then I think it would be about, you know, looking at the macronutrient breakdown, and like slowly increasing it. So let's say you genuinely are eating 1500 calories, why don't you just add 100 calories, you know, make sure you're getting enough protein. So you'd want to if you're not training or doing anything, 90 grams per day, but most of the women we talk to are training, so you know, probably a good range would be like 1.6 grams to 2.2 grams per kilo of your goal weight. So work out your goal weight, let's say your goal weight is 70 kilos, and then just find a number in that range. And just start with that. And then you know, then you could just gradually increase the calories week, like just add 100 calories for a week, and see how you feel. And then you know, potentially, you might want it you pull the cardio back a bit, and just start doing a couple of strength training sessions a week and just start there and then see how you feel, I guarantee you will start to feel better, you know, and just instead of going I think, like one extreme and go, I'm just going to use zero cardio, and I'm just going to eat two and a half 1000 calories, because you will gain weight, you will. So I think the key is to just go slowly and use it and just gather that data. And it really should. And I was like wow, like when I strength train, and I eat a bit more carbs and you know, eat a bit more food consistently on day to day basis, I've actually felt better, you know, I was starting to sleep, my energy returned, then I could actually see my overtime, my body started to change because I started to actually build muscle, you know, so I think it could be just that gradual process like that. And then, you know, working your calories up to you know, because everyone's different, you know, you call it what you need is, is an individual is going to differ because do you know you've got different amounts of muscle and activity levels and stress levels. So I think it's about finding what works for you. And we'll probably talk about at the end. But Craig and I created a challenge a seven day challenge, which is a really great introduction, it's so cheap, it's $27 Australian, lifetime access and introduces you to all these basic concepts, tracking, it's got a meal plan, you know, some foods that you can include in your diet, they're gonna give you the nutrients that you need that we talked about. And again, it's not about being perfect. It's not about eating these foods exclusively all the time. It's just about including them. So you're getting those nutrients, and then gives you two training programs, one that you can do at home with basic equipment and just start, I think you've just got to start, you know, and take that consistent, imperfect action and just build on it slowly rather than going off like I can't do it perfectly. I'm just not going to do anything.
Stephanie Mara 28:45
Yeah, yeah. And for those who are listening, and kind of like oh my gosh, counting and macros and all those things. And you know, we don't talk about that too often here. And I just want to add in that I am a big proponent of I think that everyone gets to explore and discover what works for them. Because I've actually found a lot of individuals that once they started, for example, like tracking their macros, that it actually healed their relationship with food, they felt more empowered, they felt more freedom in the relationship with food. I think that for someone if it feels overwhelming, that we're I even if it's like you or maybe even healing from disordered eating eating disorder, I just want to add this also this caveat of just start looking at your meals and saying Is there a carb is there a fat is there a protein here, but don't worry about counting don't worry about you know, because sometimes that can feel really overwhelming and sometimes bring in other familiar behaviors from the past that maybe weren't supportive, but just even saying, am I feeding my body all of the building blocks that it needs to function?
Kitty Blomfield 29:46
Yeah. And you could be like am I, eat breakfast. There's a lot of women just not even eat breakfast. They're fasting, so okay, this week, I'm gonna eat a well balanced breakfast like you say with some protein, carbs and fat every day. I'm going to drink my coffee after my breakfast and not on an empty stomach. Maybe I'll eat the carrot salad every day for a week and just do that. Just do that. And then you might get to go okay, cool, I'm good with this. Now I actually want to like do a little bit of like, put my meals in for a day, just do it for a day. And just even if you do it just to see where you're at, because I think like you say, can really show you and you then you're kind of shit. You know, I'm really under eating. And then I go and binge eat, you know, if I ate just a little bit more during the week, that'd probably potentially stop me ending up face first in a tub of Ben and Jerry's, which is what I used to do or Domino's pizzas or corn chips. I love corn chips, too.
Stephanie Mara 30:34
Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, if it feels regulating enough that you can track it for one day, I think it is illuminating, because what you may find is you are drastically under eating. And like 1200 calories is not enough to function on like that's like for a lot of people their basal metabolic rate, like the amount of nutrition that your body needs just to function. But just to work.
Kitty Blomfield 31:02
Not taking account stress, exercise, you know, activity levels. Yeah, you just and honestly, like, you just feel so much better. Even if like for me with the tracking, I really had to really shift my focus and go, Okay, Kitty. This is about optimization, I really want to feel good. It's not about starving myself. It's about giving my body the macronutrients micronutrients that needed. And I was like, okay, and I really feel like tracking is difficult if you plan on the fly, and you track on the fly, because you will just be stressed in there every day, you'll get through the day and be like shit, you know, and like, I've got to eat 50 grams of protein. And I just, I've just believe everyone could benefit doing some a little bit of forward planning and some Food Prepping every week, because I'm like, if you're a mom, don't tell me that you don't sit down every week and think about what the family is going to eat for a week and then go into the fridge show me like you don't go into the food shops blind and think, oh, okay, we'll just buy whatever and then every day you decide what you're gonna eat. Like, my mom didn't do that. We'd go to the shops every week, and she'd buy what was on special chops. chicken drumsticks meant we had a lot of spaghetti bolognese even if you're not tracking sit down and go okay, what am I going to have the news with the kids, right? And then you could go, maybe I'll just make myself one lunch, make a slow cook lunch, freeze it and then all I have to do is grab it out of the freezer. I'm going to think about what are some simple snacks I could have like, as an example cheese and fruit, yogurt and honey, they contain they don't take any preparation, you know, some beef jerky and some fruit, they just really simple ones. And then what would I like to have for breakfast. And just you know, like most people, probably the same breakfast for a week. And just go to yourself, I'm just going to eat the breakfast lunch and dinner similar for a week, I'll rotate the dinners out with the kids, I guarantee you'll feel better and less stressed. Having that plan and having those things there and knowing like, you know, because how many times this should happen with the kids. And you know, you like I don't know, you get to the evening. And if you've got something planned out, it's easy to make, it's so much more likely that you're going to stick to it and fuel your body. You know, have yourself like if you're like me, I always have a before bed snacks. I love something sweet, small, like I have just small bowl ice cream or have a little chocolate brownie or have a glass of chocolate milk. You know have that there so that you don't end up at night just completely falling off the wagon, you have something before you go to bed. You'll just feel so much better. And it will like obviously takes a bit of time at the start of the week. But oh, you'll find yourself doing it.
Stephanie Mara 33:19
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of the experience of how do I want to care for future me, like present day me that may be really overwhelming to present day need to be like, Oh my gosh, I need to like prep what how I'm going to take care of myself the whole week. But your future self is going to be like, Oh, thank you so much for planning these nourishing meals for myself. And I think that also, dieting culture has really kind of CO opted a little bit like this whole meal planning thing that a lot of individuals are like, but if I plan on my meals, aren't I on a diet and I think there's some balance that can be made between one thing and give it more as like I think of it as like rhythm. Like we have to create a rhythm to our day that feels very regulating that actually our body can relax and trust that consistent nourishment is coming in. And it can kind of like, okay, there are these like anchors throughout my day that I can really rely on and in so that it's not necessarily you're on a diet and I think there's some balance that can be made with also body wisdom and planning where it's like, okay, if you even have two different meals you make for yourself throughout a week, you rotate them, right you check in with your body, okay, which meal would resonate with my body today? So there's both that like, Okay, I've made my life easier by having this. And I can also check in with my body as well.
Kitty Blomfield 34:40
Yeah, and I think too, like, what if you got to choose delicious foods that you love and that's what it is, you know, when you actually learn this skill, like I think about some of the foods you know, I made this amazing like slow cooked chili. Ah, it's just a vine, you know, and I often have gone to a tillers with prawns and cheese and juice and I have ice cream Rain. And I have sourdough crumpets with Pad A and marmalade and cheese and orange and milky calm like, does that sound like a diet, a restrictive diet, it's just the fruit and you like I guarantee too, if you actually sat down in a month, and wrote down all the meals that you have, you probably rotate through the same 10 to 15 years anyway, like a guarantee it. That's what happens with women. So it's like, just pick the ones that you like what you say do a couple of weeks, and then I sit down like this week I made this amazing because I've got this chicken feet broth. And you can see the dress from Instagram that I made. And I made this I just felt like sweet corn. So I made this beautiful chicken, sweet corn and noodle soup. And our God, it's just having it having it every day. It's so delicious. I just look forward to it so much. It's so nourishing. I have it with beautiful sweet watermelon on the side. You know, it's not a diet. It's just like saying nourishing your body with these delicious foods that you love to eat and contain nutrients that your body needs and to contain enough protein. So like Yeah, I think too, when you get really educated on what are the foods that actually contain the nutrients that my body needs in a form. It's easy to digest. I feel like a lot of women are brainwashed to think they have to. I'm not saying don't ever eat these foods, but like I only ever ate these foods. So lean chicken breast, white fish, kangaroo heaps of nuts and seeds, bought tons of green vegetables, egg whites, protein powder, no joy in my life. And then I completely fell off the wagon and ate rap on the weekend. No wonder But now that I actually eat, you know, like carbs and fruits and ice with these delicious, nourishing, yummy foods every day. I just don't feel like I want to binge eat anymore.
Stephanie Mara 36:30
Yeah, I mean food in our experience of it is meant to be pleasurable, like you are allowed to enjoy eating and have that be a satiating experience. But that starts with getting curious about what are the foods that I genuinely enjoy. And and that means slowing down in your eating experience and actually getting curious, what's the taste? What's the texture, am I enjoying this, am I not and I've heard this a lot with those that I work with that once they start to slow down the things that they thought that they enjoyed, they actually really don't because it's maybe devoid of flavor. Or you know...
Kitty Blomfield 37:07
Like plates and plates of, I'm not saying don't eat green vegetables, I want people to feel triggered, but like, you don't love them, trust me like you don't when you binge eat, do you go and binge on a plate of raw broccoli, you just don't, you know, but you're so conditioned to think. And you're like if you love green vegetables, make sure you having some protein and carbs with them. So as an example, you know, don't just have chicken breasts and salad green salad with just greens, you know, you might have like a steak with some nice potato with a bit of saturated fat and salt on it, then have you cooked greens on the side if you like them, because they really don't give you any energy. They're hard to digest. And they contain anti nutrients, you know, so it's like, have them but make sure you're having adequate nourishment with the meal, that's actually going to give you the energy that your body needs. And I often find with women, when they do our programs, they just slowly naturally don't want to eat tons and tons. But they still have them. Yeah, I have salads, but I have it as a side salad. It's not the main part of the meal, I'm having carbs. You know, I love a good Greek salad. On the weekend, we had these yummy steaks with baked potato with some butter, and parmesan, and then a nice, just small Greek salad on the side. Because traditionally, salads were served as side dishes, not as like I'm eating chicken breasts and salad, because that's what happened in the 90s. Because we all just wanted to be skinny as fuck, and like it was about reducing calories. And just trying to eat these fully fibrous foods that filled us up.
Stephanie Mara 38:30
Yeah, as you're talking about energy, just something popped in my head of another thing that again, it kind of you're trying to maybe move away from, you know, calorie counting, or macro counting or something like that, that hasn't necessarily supported you. The other thing you can actually track is kind of noticing on a scale from one to 10 to one of my energy levels like because if you notice you're ending every single day just dragging, and then you're eating a lot in the evenings to bring your energy levels back up. That can also be information. Am I eating enough? And am I eating enough balanced meals throughout the day just even kind of noticing the ebb and flow of your energy levels throughout the day?
Kitty Blomfield 39:12
Totally. And look, I think to again, like if you really I'm not like someone who's got an eating disorder, I think yeah, tracking may not be the right approach. But I think women think and Craig and I've talked to this podcast, the studies show that if you don't have an eating disorder, if you go and track your food, it's not going to give you an eating disorder. You know, but so let's just take away those people with DD disorder. You know it What are you so afraid of? Like what is it you really afraid of what's going to happen if you if you track like I think for me, the tracking really helped me take the emotion out of it. And look at the facts. And when I plugged it in, I was like, Oh man, I'm only eating like 150 grams of carbohydrates. No wonder I feel like dogshit you know, and so okay, well how do I bump that up? Remember I said some fruit here, add some potatoes ate it for a day I was like, wow, I can notice really feel the difference in my energy. You also too Like, if you're a woman who is drinking a lot, you're under eating, you're binge eating, like, you're gonna have to change your behaviors and habits, but you have to, because the woman that you want to be isn't drinking alcohol every night, you know, she isn't starving yourself all day and then eating 10 packets of chips at night and you have to break that in the way that you're gonna break that is by planning at events prepping some food. And yes, it will be hard to start with. But trust me, like once you do it for a few days in a week, and you start to like, sleep better, and you have more energy, and then you know, you slowly start to see your body change, you'll just be like, Fuck, yeah, this is amazing. And you'll just, it's just, you know, once you do the tracking for a while, like, I go through periods where like, you know, because I'm just maintenance now. And I just want to train hard and have energy to shop in my business. And you know, I still track during the week and plan on my food, but then on the weekends, you know, like we went out for lunch with a friend I don't worry about tracking that had some glasses of champagne, you know, had then whatever dinner we just, we just went because we didn't make anything for dinner. So we went to Harris farm markets and there's this great little thing that does Bran it does like prepackaged meals, but they really good like that. I mean, if she didn't have a decent amount of protein, so we just grabbed the spaghetti bolognese each had some palms and had a glass of juice, had some ice cream went to bed, you know, didn't track that fine, you know, because I know like, I can look at that meal and go, Okay, I need to get about 30 grams of protein like I need has adequate carbs, no adds more juice, once you do this enough. It just, you know, like you don't you'll know whether you're under eating or you know, you know that you probably can't eat a whole large Domino's Pizza, because it's gonna have like 500 calories of fat in it, you know? And again, I'm not saying don't ever eat pizza, but you'll go okay, maybe I just eat two slices, instead of the whole pizza that makes sense.
Stephanie Mara 41:36
Yeah. And I appreciate this imagery of the future woman that you want to be. And I even get curious about someone kind of like writing down who is that person? Like, what are their habits and patterns? How do they show up in relationship with food, so that you can kind of like work it backwards? A little bit? Okay, if I started acting like that woman today, what kind of different food decision might I make at this meal, you know what I'm not going to restrict, I'm not going to cut out all my carbs. Like, I'm not going to eat certain foods, because diet culture told me not to eat those foods. Actually, I'm going to adequately nourish my body and I'm going to eat breakfast in the morning, I've seen a huge difference as individuals start letting go of intermittent fasting and like eat breakfast in the morning. So you know, even just starting to get that imagery online. I'm a big fan of imagery, and then starting being like, Okay, how would I respond differently if I was that person already?
Kitty Blomfield 42:34
Yeah, totally. It's sometimes like, I know, people who follow me know that I'm pretty straight shooter. And like, you just have to fucking get over yourself and do it. Like, you just have to say, I'm just going to have breakfast every single day for a week, I'm just going to do it. You know, I'm gonna make sure that I've got some snacks prepped, and I'm just gonna make I just say, make your standard success action. That's what I do. And be okay, that you ain't mistakes and it won't be perfect. But just go, I'm just going to show up. And I'm just going to do this for a week, and just do it. And, like, let that build, build, because I think, you know, it's the action that leads to motivation, because everyone wants to be married. And I'm like, I don't feel motivated all the time. But I've just taught myself to take consistent imperfect action, that doesn't mean training, but like, this week, I said to Craig, I think I need a D load I was just woke up today so tired, and I still eat my, my normal food every day, I'm pretty consistent, you know, and we've been busy at work. And it's probably been about eight or nine weeks since I've D load and I can just feel it My body's achy. So I'm like, I'm still gonna train for the rest of the week. I'm just not gonna train, just gonna walk, eat my food. And I know that and I'll feel better and be able to train again, but you just, you know, I think sometimes you have to just make that decision. And go all in. And going all in doesn't mean that you're perfect. going all in just means I'm committed to this future self. Even if I make mistakes, I'm gonna still keep showing off. And I'm going to chip away and just like start to enjoy the journey bit more than being so focused on I have to be at this goal. Wait, I have to be here by this time, because as long as you're moving in the right direction, it doesn't matter how fast you go. Right? Like I think you've just got to be moving and it may not you may not get there as quick as you want. But you're getting there. And I get it like I'm the same in our business. Like I think I've got the nutrition and training pretty down pat now but yeah, business I get frustrated and think oh, you know, should have been here by now. And then I'm like kitty, enjoy the journey, like I have to remind myself sometimes is that I'm doing what I love every single day, we're moving in the right direction. You know, it may not be as quick as I want, but it's happening just enjoy the day to day but sometimes I think you need to remind yourself of that. Because you're right, like once you get there and get the body that you want it doesn't magically fix everything in your life just doesn't obviously you're gonna feel better because you're feeling healthy and well, but like if you've got other shit going on, it ain't gonna fix that and then you're just gonna be looking for the next thing. And the next thing see you have to enjoy the journey and like you know, I really do enjoy strength training. I love it. It gives me so much I don't know joy is the right word. And I love food and I love making up new recipes and eating and feeling good and say that sounds like you've just got to fall in love with that. I think otherwise, like you say, you're just it's that that goalposts of just forever change them saying you can't have goals, you know, but maybe make your goals like, I want to get 100 kilo deadlift instead of focusing so much on I've got to achieve this number on the scale because he'd be consistent with the bird if you go into the gym and do your training sessions your body will change you know, and I think the strength goals is just so much more rewarding, I think. Yeah.
Stephanie Mara 45:23
Yeah so beautifully said I really appreciate you sharing your wisdom today and I would love for you to share how can individuals keep in touch with you? Where can they find you and the work that you're doing in the world?
Kitty Blomfield 45:35
So probably maybe just we have a podcast too, The Weight Loss For Women. Eat More Train Less. Get Results podcast so we release an episode every single week, we released two actually one with Craig and I and then one with it some sort of expert like we had Stephanie and then Instagram will be good @kittyblomfield. Get there I post lots of different stuff. Follow along, you'll get some good tough Kitty love every now and then if you didn't. Yeah, time, there's times for breaks. I've got to give myself grace, and be okay with okay, maybe had a shit week with the kids. I didn't get to train this week. Like, that's life, don't beat yourself up. But then there's times we need to give yourself a kick up the ass and go, like, can I be consistent with my nutrition? Can I make the choice to prep my food this week and eat the food? There's time to both.
Stephanie Mara 46:23
Yeah, absolutely. I think there's an ebb and a flow. And you know, even what you were talking about before of just being again, like we're talking about being committed to the journey is also sometimes at the end of the day, acknowledging what you did do. You know, we're so quick, and it's so easy to pick up on what we aren't doing and what we didn't do that every day you are doing something, even if it's you know what I'm going to imagine what it would be like to make a different choice tomorrow, that's still doing something that's kind of in the pre contemplation phase of change. So acknowledge yourself for every tiny little thing that you do, because it does matter.
Kitty Blomfield 46:57
Yeah, totally. And pat yourself on the back. I'm always patting myself on the back. For stuff that I've done. Good. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. When I make mistakes, I'm like, Oh, well, whatever. You just get over it. You can't like don't dwell on the past. It doesn't serve you. It doesn't help you. Like don't just keep doing the same stupid shit over and over again, obviously, like, learn from it. But I think there's no point beating yourself up, you know, because just move forward. Start again. Try again. Tomorrow's always a new day.
Stephanie Mara 47:23
Yeah, absolutely. Totally agree. You know, it's just like, Okay, this was today. And you can be in the practice of leaving yesterday, at yesterday. And today, when you wake up. This is today. This is a brand new day. And what happened yesterday isn't happening anymore. And I think that's such a practice to leave it there. And get curious, how do I want to meet myself today? Because this is an entirely different moment.
Kitty Blomfield 47:49
Yeah. So good.
Stephanie Mara 47:50
Yeah. Well, I will put all those links in the show notes. And just thank you so much for being here today and having this conversation.
Kitty Blomfield 47:56
Thanks for having me on. Sorry, I hope I didn't swear too much. I do drop like to swear a little bit. And I was thinking, Oh, God, I should probably ask people like, is it alright, if I swear, don't swear, if they do like to drop the occasional F bomb. So sorry, people if you don't like swearing.
Stephanie Mara 48:09
I'm totally fine with it. Yeah. But I, you know, I appreciate just your energy and your authenticity and just like your passion for this work, I can really feel it just you know, flowing through you.
Kitty Blomfield 48:19
Well, I love food, and I love strength training. So, you know, and I feel like, I've never met a woman who's gotten strong and hated it. They love it. It's empowering. And you know, everyone, I think everyone likes food. Yeah.
Stephanie Mara 48:32
Well, thank you so much, again for being here for sharing everything you did for anybody who's listening. If you have any questions about anything we discussed today, I'll put our contact information in the show notes and I will talk to you all again real soon. Bye.
Keep in touch with Kitty here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kittyblomfield/
Website: https://www.nustrength.com.au/