Welcome to Rooted Wednesdays!

I’m creating this weekly newsletter as a place to Fuel Your SHINE and get the best, latest-and-greatest information about your health and hormones, nutrition guidance, an active lifestyle, and overall goal-crushing. We always #FuelYourselfPassionately around here, so I hope you love everything in here and that it fuels you towards your absolutely best, dream life.

At Rooted Coaching, we coach the ✨ SHINE✨ system:

• Strength Matters (we lift heavy shit, and we care about mental strength, too)

• Harmony in Lifestyle (your daily schedule & your specific hormone cycle)

• Intentional Mindset (we’ve got goals!)

• Nutrition (PNP ↙️ )

  • Protein first

  • Nutrient density

  • Prospective hindsight

• Exercise (we live an active life)

Everything filters through our systems, which is how I know we get results. So let’s dive into the pillars of Nutrition (Protein) & Strength.

What is a Complete Protein?

So this has is a question/topic that has been coming to me a lot lately. A complete protein is defined as a supplement or food source that contains all nine essential amino acids (EAAs). EAAs are called this because we need to consume them; our bodies don’t produce these amino acids on their own. The nine EAAs are:

• histidine

• isoleucine

• leucine

• lysine

• methionine

• phenylalanine

• threonine

• tryptophan

• valine

If a supplement or food source doesn’t contain all nine, it’s an incomplete protein. An easy way to know you’re eating a complete protein is to consume animal protein, though some plant-based proteins are complete as well.

Most other foods are incomplete proteins, and though they may be labeled “high-protein,” they don’t necessarily contain all nine essential amino acids. This is, again, why it’s important to eat a wide variety of foods (and check your labels!). Our bodies require all of the amino acids in order to function properly, and it’s equally important in strength training.

Whether your goal is to lose fat or gain muscle (or, like me, it might be both!), those EAAs found in complete proteins are necessary to build and repair muscle tissue, and they maximize the benefits of protein intake by giving our muscles what they need in order to be healthy and grow, while minimizing muscle breakdown - which is especially important when trying to drop fat while building strength.

Oookay, so we’ve covered real-food sources, which are pretty straight forward. The next question is:

What protein powders are complete proteins, and what’s best for me?

We all know that protein from whole food sources are ideal… and, I also live in the real world and work with real-life people.

I love and often share this infographic from Precision Nutrition comparing common protein powders:

If you can tolerate it, I recommend a high-quality whey isolate or a casein protein powder. Whey is fairly quickly digested, so it’s great pre- or post-workout, and a micellar casein is great for meal replacement/to curb hunger, or before bed because it is slower to digest.

If you’re choosing plant-based, a rice/pea blend can give a complete protein source, as can soy. The bioavailability/total amount of protein your body absorbs can be a concern with plant-based proteins, but they’re better options if milk- or egg-based proteins don’t work for you.

For whichever protein powder you choose, a high protein to calorie ratio is important whether your goal is fat loss, muscle gain, or both. Lower carbs and fats will also help with fat loss (get those carbs and fats from real food - don’t waste them in a drink) so read your labels and do your research 😘 

What about EAAs or BCAA powders?

It’s important to remember that we need ALL of our amino acids for our body to work properly, and for our muscles to get what they need for both maintenance or growth (read: to avoid sarcopenia, which is age-related muscle loss).

In total, there are seven amino acids that our body makes on its own, no questions asked. These are called non-essential amino acids.

Another five amino acids are called conditionally essential amino acids. Our body can make these on their own most of the time. However, in times of stress or trauma (which can include a good weight-lifting session or a nice, hard workout) we need to ingest these in order to support our bodies.

Then, there’s the nine EAAs we discussed above. Of these nine EAAs, there are three branched chain amino acids (BCAAs). So BCAAs are EAAs.

BCAAs have gained some notoriety and popularity because they’re crucial for muscle protein synthesis. Muscle protein systhesis is essentially how your muscles respond positively to a training session, so BCAAs are obviously important to our goals. They do, however, have a limit as to how much is effective. Once you hit that limit, you’re just consuming more than your body will use for muscle protein synthesis anyway, so I wouldn’t recommend taking BCAAs when you can take whey protein isolate, which is rich in BCAAs anyway.

You could take EAAs, which are super-fast digesting and are great pre-workout if you haven’t eaten in a couple hours, but fair warning - they are super bitter.

Okay, cool. So talk to me about creatine…

What about creatine? Do I need it?

Here’s the thing. It’s not often that I say that all women need something. And, unless you have a pre-existing kidney condition, I say you need creatine.

Specifically, you need creatine monohydrate. Don’t use the other ones; they’re less effective and I want you to use your money and your time as effectively as humanly possible.

I recently shared this post on instagram explaining all the reasons that women need creatine. In that post, I shared that women have 70-80% lower endogenous creatine stores compared to men.

Wait. What??

Right. We have 20-30% of the endogenous creatine that our male counterparts have.

Creatine is one of the most well-researched and studied supplements, ever. It’s incredibly safe, it’s affordable, and it helps us avoid injury, gain muscle, and keep it - which helps us fend off metabolic diseases. AND, it has gut, brain, and mood benefits.

Creatine supplementation is also especially important during menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum, and during and post-menopause (so always? yeah?).

Okay, great. I’m sold. Power to Protein. Got any good recipes for me?

I’m so glad you asked…

High Protein (& Complete Protein) Recipes

One of the PNP principles is Protein First. We plan our meals starting with our protein, and when we eat - we eat our protein first. We’re looking for 30-35g of protein per meal, and at least 15g per snack. So if you’re meal prepping, or making your grocery list for the week, start with making sure you’re preparing to have enough protein in every meal (prospective hindsight, my friends! see how this all works together??).

I also like to post a protein shake of the week on my instagram, which will always be a complete protein (I use whey isolate) and contain creatine. Check them out!

@gymratrecipes on instagram is a favorite of ours for high protein recipes. They pull from their own account and other amazing creators for some super yummy finds.

And finally, I’ve been in love with this pot roast lately. Talk about a delicious way to get your protein in❣️ 

Got other protein questions?

💪 I gotchu. Reply to this email and let me know. I’m offering a free 20-minute consultation to discuss individual protein needs and goals.

With love and strength,