What if peri-menopausal/midlife weight gain and the ubiquitous midlife muffin top has nothing to do with calories and instead is a symptom of dis-regulated metabolic hormones?
What if we did not need to lose weight to make ourselves healthy but that our bodies will naturally release excess pounds from around our middle and maintain our ideal body weight WHEN we are fully healthy?
In my one-on-one coaching practice and in my 12 week program, I spend a disproportionate amount of time encouraging women aged 40+ to eat MORE; more nutrition and more nutrient dense whole foods so that their bodies can release the weight they are sick and tired of carrying.
This recipe for Savoury Breakfast Muffins is a perfect example of building dense nutrition into your day and eating MORE health promoting food so that your body can achieve the all round, mental and physical health you working towards.
Let me explain:
As we pass through midlife and the hormonal stage called peri-menopause, we are enter into a crazy hormonal dance as a result of the depletion of estrogen and progesterone from our bodies as our ovaries finally work towards getting the rest they deserve.
In a nutshell we drop out of our regular hormonal cycle we have come to know so well for decades and enter an unpredictable hormonal pattern that creates hormone based symptoms throughout our bodies.It is discombobulating.
In this hormonally turbulent stage as we lose estrogen, it is very easy for our bodies to become dominated by our stress hormone cortisol.
Cortisol increases our appetite, causes cravings for sugar and carbs and robs us of our sleep at night. Cortisol triggers our fight or flight response, sending glucose into the bloodstream, releasing insulin and causing the liver to lay fat down around our middle. The classic middle aged muffin top.
The truth is that as much as we may have cursed our menstrual cycle over the years, the presence of estrogen in our bodies is important for many areas of our health.
One of roles of estrogen is to increase our insulin sensitivity throughout the years after our puberty making every cell in our bodies more effective at handling excess sugar in the blood stream.
As estrogen depletes, so does this protection and just as a result of being peri-menopausal we slide gently towards insulin resistance, a state of pre-diabetes purely as a result of being a midlife women.
Don’t panic! We can manage this metabolic change in our bodies with the food we eat and when we eat it.
If you were ever going to take your health seriously and make changes to your habits to build a nourishing routine and lifestyle, peri-menopause would be that time.
Both of these recipes are gluten free and contain eggs to boost the protein content.
These are recipes to riff off.
Add in seeds that you love, add the vegetables that you have in your refrigerator or frozen and on hand. Use the recipe as a guide and make them your own.
…and here is my favourite way to serve these muffins in a completely satiating, blood sugar balancing breakfast. Additional protein; and a gorgeous piece of grilled salmon or left over chicken would work perfectly here, and additional healthy, satiating fats in the form of avocado. Don’t forget the hot sauce!
Sweet Potato Breakfast Muffins
Ingredients
Olive oil to prepare the muffin pan
Parchment paper
600g or sweet potatoes or 1/2 a butternut squash grated
4 spring/onions finely chopped
1-2 red chillies finely chopped
6 large free-range eggs beaten
3 tbsp cottage cheese
250g/ 11/4 cups corn meal
11/2tsp baking powder
50g/ 1/4 cup parmesan cheese finely grated
!/4 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp poppy seeds
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 375F/190C
Prepare a muffin pan by coating the wells with olive oil or lining each well with parchment paper
Put the corn meal, baking powder, parmesan cheese, sunflower seeds and poppy seeds into a large bowl and mix to combine
Add the spring onions, chillies and sweet potatoes or butternut squash and mix thoroughly
in a separate bowl add the cottage cheese and eggs and mix to combine thoroughly
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined
Place the mixture into the oiled muffin tray and bake for 30-40 minutes until cooked through and fragrant
Place on a cooling rack until the muffins reach room temperature and can be frozen
Savoury Breakfast Muffins
Ingredients
8oz Organic Chicken Breakfast Sausage
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups of baby spinach or 1 bunch of parsley finely chopped
1 cup vegetable (Frozen sweetcorn, diced red pepper, diced Zucchini
I small apple diced
3 green/spring onions finely chopped
2 cups corn meal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
6 tbsp organic butter melted/hemp oil/olive oil or pumpkin seed oil
1 cup buttermilk or coconut milk and 2 tbsp lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup sharp cheese grated
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 375F/190C
Remove the casing from the sausages and cook on a medium heat in a small frying pan with olive oil until cooked through.
Add the spinach/parsley and vegetables for the last minute to cook through
Prepare a muffin pan by coating the wells with olive oil or lining each well with parchment paper
Put the corn meal, baking powder salt and pepper and cheese into a large bowl and mix to combine
in a separate bowl whisk together the butter milk and eggs add the melted butter or oil of choice
Grate the cheese and dice the apple and finely slice the green onion and combine with the flour mix
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined
Add the sausage and vegetables and stir for a minute longer to combine to a veg rich savoury batter
Place the mixture into the oiled muffin tray filling the wells generously and bake for 30-40 minutes until cooked through and fragrant
Place on a cooling rack until the muffins reach room temperature and can be frozen
