Armor Up with Lorayne Michaels

Protein Pop-Tarts Won’t Save You

• Lorayne • Season 1 • Episode 5

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Forget the food rules that left you hungry, confused, and stuck. We pull back the curtain on nutrition and show how to build a plate that supports hormones, energy, and long-term health without counting every bite or chasing fad labels. The big shift is simple: food is information, not morality—so send better signals.

We start by untangling years of mixed messages from the old food pyramid to today’s MyPlate and explain why quality matters more than neat portions. You’ll learn how prioritizing protein at each meal builds muscle, steadies blood sugar, and quiets cravings. We dig into healthy fats for hormone and brain support, and make the case for intentional carbohydrates from whole, minimally processed sources. Expect practical targets—like 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal—and clear guidance on why the scale can stall while your body composition, sleep, and mood improve.

Then we tackle label literacy. Marketing terms like natural, low fat, keto, or even protein often hide ultra-processed ingredients. We walk through how to scan ingredients in order, spot added sugars by their many names, check meaningful protein and fiber, and avoid industrial oils and empty starches. You’ll leave with a sustainable framework: build meals around protein, add quality fats, choose carbs that fit your day, and make one small upgrade at a time. No perfection required—just steady, confident steps toward strength and clarity.

Ready to fuel like your future depends on it? Follow the show, share this episode with someone who feels overwhelmed by nutrition, and leave a review with the one label trap you’re ditching first.

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Email Me: Lorayne@arorupllc.net

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to the Armor Up Podcast. I'm your host, Lorraine Michaels. And I am so glad you're here today. I say that every time. And you know what? I truly am. I'm glad you're here. So if you've been listening for a while, thank you. Thank you for sticking around. If you're new here and you've just found me by happenstance, or I don't know, maybe you Googled personal trainer or you looked up on your podcast search bar fitness, nutrition. I'm not sure how you got here, but for that, I am grateful that you're here. Today, I want to talk to you about something that is controversial and something that is um a hot topic, and it is nutrition. Stick with me. You might be healthy, you might not be healthy, you might think, I don't even really care. I love food and I want to enjoy food. Either way, this episode will have something for you in it. And who knows? I might, I might change your mind, I might enlighten you, you might learn something, or you might hear something that you think to yourself, oh my gosh, I have someone that I have to send this to. So I'm so glad you're here. Thank you very much. Today we're talking about something that impacts every single person, every single area of your health, but it's also one of the most confusing topics out there, and that is nutrition. And we've been told so many different things over the years. One day, fat is bad. The next day, carbs are the enemy, then it's calories, then it's macros, then it's fasting, then it's supplements. And it's no wonder that women feel overwhelmed, stuck, or frustrated when it comes to food. So today I want to simplify this conversation as best as I can for you and hopefully give you some peace of mind and also to maybe clear the air of some things that have been told to you or that you've heard. So we're going to talk about why nutrition actually matters, how the food guidelines have changed over the years, and why reading food labels is one of the most important, powerful skills that you can learn if you want to take control over your health. And that is one of the reasons why I got into functional medicine, functional nutrition, functional fitness. Because for so many years, I was told, you know, society was told one thing. And I'm a little bit of a rebel. And, you know, sometimes I was like, you know what? That that doesn't sound right. And I would look into it, you know, um, I would question things like, how is why are you saying that this is bad? For instance, I'll give you an example when nutrition experts were demonizing carbs and they are so bad. And I'm like, well, there are such things as good carbs and bad carbs. I take that back. I don't even want to say good carbs and bad carbs. There's carbs that do something for you, and there's also carbs that hinder you. That's another thing. Like, we have to stop demonizing food and saying good food and bad food. There's food. Food is fuel. It's just a matter of how it's broken down into the body. Some fuel, some food is much easier to digest and break down and for your body to utilize. And then there's other food that is harder and it takes longer to break down and it really doesn't get absorbed, but it gets blocked places or stored places. And then so your body's not utilizing it. So let's not say good and bad because I mean it's fuel. But carbs, they break down into glycogen and that fuels your muscles. And so your muscles need that in order to grow, maintain. Um, and that's another thing that we've been hearing so much about is how muscle is the longevity, creates longevity. When we age, we start to lose muscle. And if we lose muscle mass, then that decreases our bone strength. And so naturally, our body loses muscle mass, and that's called sarcopenia. And that is the decrease of your muscle mass as you age. Naturally, it happens, it's inevitable. However, you can slow it down, you can reverse it by building muscle. So, this podcast this isn't about dieting, it's about understanding how food affects your body, your hormones, your energy, your metabolism, and your long-term health. And so, why nutrition matters, let's start with the big picture. Food is not just calories, it's information. Every time you eat, you're sending signals to your body. And those signals affect your blood sugar. It affects your hormones, your gut, your brain, and even how your body builds or loses muscle. And I I just I talked about that. I just touched on that. And so this is especially important for women, particularly as we move into our late 30s, our 40s, and beyond, because our hormones are changing. And what worked for you in your 20s often stops working. And it's not because you're broken, it's because your body needs different support now. Proper nutrition helps regulate your blood sugar, it helps reduce chronic inflammation, it helps support your hormone balance, preserves muscle mass, and it improves your energy, mood, and mental clarity. And something that is um that I see a lot lately, especially with a couple of clients that I have, inflammation is a huge factor right now and hormone balancing. And also we're wanting to build muscle. A lot of clients come to me and they want to quote unquote lose weight. But what they fail to know, and that's no fault of their own because they're not a personal trainer or nutritionist, what they aren't realizing is that when we start to build muscle, they will naturally lose fat. You won't necessarily lose weight because we're gonna be building muscle. And so you'll notice the scale might not move or it might even increase. But what you were noticing, or what you should be noticing, is that you're feeling better, you're sleeping better, you have more energy, your clothes start to fit better. It has nothing to do with the number on the scale, but it's what's happening internally. So here's something that I can say often because it's true. You cannot out exercise poor nutrition. I just had clients talk to me and ask me about adding in some ab routines because they want to lose belly fat. Sometimes, yes, ab exercises, you know, will help with that. But what you're doing is you're strengthening your core. You're building your core muscles. And so, what's really gonna help with losing the belly and you know, decreasing that circumference is your diet because a lot of it has to do with inflammation. A lot of it has to do with that belly fat that you have built up over time. And so that's gonna resolve with your nutrition. So the old food pyramid versus the new guidelines, this is what everybody's dying to hear about, right? Let's talk about where a lot of confusion started with the food pyramid. So if you grew up like me, you probably remember the old food pyramid. At the bottom, the biggest part, you think of a pyramid, it's small at the top and bigger at the bottom. So at the bottom, the biggest part was grains, bread, cereal, pasta. Meaning, we were encouraged to eat the most of those foods in that food group. And then fat was demonized. Give up the butter and stop with the eggs. It's gonna increase your cholesterol. And so the fat was demonized, and everything was low fat. You saw low fat over all the food labels, and that was highly encouraged because everybody was so concerned about the amount of fat that they were consuming. And then protein, that was almost the smallest amount on the picture. And so what happened during that time? Well, we saw a massive increase in obesity, diabetes, and metabolic dysfunction, meaning your metabolism is all out of whack because your body was not made to um, your body wasn't made to ingest those foods in that manner, in that, in that way, in that structure. And now, to be fair, nutrition and science has evolved and we know more now than we did decades ago. Why this food pyramid wasn't restructured or changed as we evolved, I don't know, but here we are today. The USDA uses my plate instead of the pyramid, and it encourages half of your plate from fruits and vegetables, a quarter of it from protein, and a quarter of it from carbohydrates, and then some dairy or calcium source on the side. And this was a step in the right direction, but it's not exactly right and it's not accurate, and it still has some limitations here. What it doesn't address is the food quality. A plate of processed carbs and lean protein is not the same as a plate with whole foods, with adequate protein, healthy fats, and a good amount of fiber. Your body knows the difference. Even if the calories look the same on paper, it's all about what your body can do with it, how it breaks it down, how it absorbs it. And if it's highly processed, your body is not gonna absorb it. And it's not going to have all the micronutrients and the amino acids that our body needs. So, what modern research supports is this higher protein intake for muscles, metabolism, and satiating, which means feeling full, satiated. That means feeling full. Healthy fats are essential for hormone health and brain health. So we're always talking about, or I am at least, the healthy fats, your avocado, coconut oil, avocado oil, nuts, seeds, butter. Butter is is not bad for you. You can still have that. And also your omegas. Omega fatty acids, omega, omega-3, six, and nine is so good for your brain. So if you aren't currently taking a good omega, you need to be taking that because that is essential for your brain health. And then carbohydrates. Carbohydrates should be intentional and come primarily from whole food sources. Um, for example, I make bread for my family, sourdough bread, and that's almost only the bread that we eat. Aside from, you know, every once in a while, if we have hamburgers and we get hamburger buns, we make sure we get a good brand that has limited ingredients and staying away from, you know, the refined grains. Um, but I make my own bread because the only ingredients is flour, water, salt. And then the yeast naturally um is created by fermentation, having good carbohydrates. So potatoes is great. We have rice every once in a while. Pasta is very I'm strategic about that. We don't just get enriched pasta, whole wheat. We don't just get any pasta. We want to make sure that we're getting good limited ingredients. So, like there's this one from Trader Joe's I get that is from Italy and it only has two, two or three ingredients. And that should be it. That that's what you want to focus on limited ingredients in what you're consuming. A simple framework that I like to teach is hyperizing protein. I will die on this hill. Eat your protein first. You want to have at least the minimum amount 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal. So you are at least getting, if you eat three times a day, three meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, 30, 60, 90 or 40, 80, 120. And that would be the minimum amount of protein that you should be consuming in a day. I always tell my clients, you want to consume one gram of protein per ideal pound of body weight. So if you weigh 150 pounds and you want to weigh 140 pounds, you need to be eating 140 grams of protein throughout that day. That day, you would need to have consumed that amount. And I know it sounds like a lot, but it's not. One gram per pound is on the low end. And you'll understand, once you start doing it, you'll understand why it's so beneficial. If you like your hormones and you want your hormones to be regulated, that is one of the key ways to do it. So prioritizing protein at every meal and build your plate around whole foods and eat in a way that supports stable blood sugar. So you want to make sure that you're not going hours and hours and hours between meals because what's happening is your blood sugar is like, think of it as a wave and it's going up and down, doo, do, do, do, do, do, like a small wavelength. And then when you go hours and hours without eating, your blood sugar tanks. Shum, it goes way down. And then all of a sudden you eat. And because you haven't eaten for so long, you overconsume and you eat way too much, and your blood sugar spikes way high because you're eating too much and then you drops again. So we don't want to have those major dips and spikes in your blood sugar. So if we're eating balanced meals throughout the day, your blood sugar will remain in a steady state. And so that is like a really big deal that I try and encourage my clients. And obviously, we're gonna have snacks throughout the day, which is great, just making mindful decisions. So, why reading food labels matters? And this is gonna be huge now because of this, you know, flip in the food pyramid. And now everyone is talking about protein, protein, protein, protein. Get all your protein in. You're going to start seeing protein on the front of every box of everything. You're gonna see protein, everything. One of the ones I just saw recently was protein Pop-Tarts. Friend, the Pop-Tart is still the Pop-Tart. It is still highly processed, and it's got a gang of crap in it. But now they just added some protein to it. And so now everyone's gonna think, well, it's got protein, so it must be good. Protein Cheerios, protein, you're gonna see protein on everything. So, why reading food labels matters? This is one of the most important skills you can learn. Because here's the truth food companies are very good at marketing. Words like healthy, low fat, natural, or even, and this one grinds my gears, organic, on the front of the package, they're not telling you the full story or the real information. And where you're gonna find the real information is on the back. The first thing I want you to look at is the ingredient list. Ingredients are listed by weight. And if sugar, refined grains, or oils are listed first, then that product is primarily made of those things. So a good rule of thumb: the shorter the ingredient list, the better. And you should recognize most of the ingredients. If you can't recognize it, and it sounds like chemicals, it is. So, next, look at the protein. Most packaged foods are gonna be high in carbs and fat and very low in protein. Protein is what helps stabilize your blood sugar and it keeps you fuller longer. And like I've said time and time again, it supports muscle growth and recovery, especially as we age. The next thing you want to look at is added sugar. Sugars hide in the labels under many different names. And excessive sugar intake is one of the biggest drivers of hormonal imbalances and metabolic dysfunction in women. I talk about this all the time with my clients. So, also, I want you to pay attention to fiber. Fiber is gonna be a key ingredient because it supports your gut health, blood sugar control, and feeling fuller longer. But it's often stripped out of processed foods. One more thing: don't fall for common label traps like low fat, sugar-free, keto, protein when the protein content is actually minimal. So low fat, I want you to stay away from that because we need fat. So if it's low fat, it's gonna have other processed crap in it. Sugar-free, that does not mean it's sugar-free. It's gonna have fake sugar in it. Because how else is it gonna taste delicious and sweet? So you don't want sugar-free because that's fake sugar. And then the keto and the protein, that means it's gonna be full of other junk in it. It needs to be a paragraph to explain what it is. Your body probably doesn't need it. If it needs, if it needs this food label, if it needs a paragraph to explain what is in it, your body doesn't need it. That's the first I don't even if I turn it around and I look at the ingredients and it's shoom a mile long, I put that sucker back because I know there is. Nothing good in it. So how can you apply this without becoming obsessive? Now, I want to be very clear here. This is not about perfection. My poor mother-in-law, when I first was helping her with this, because she was like, I eat really healthy. And I'm like, actually, you don't. You're missing a lot of nutrients and nutrition. And so we went to, I think we're in Trader Joe's. And I was like, show me, let's show me what you what you normally get. And so we went through and we were picking up everything. And I was showing her the difference. And she's like, oh my gosh, what am I going to eat? I can't eat anything anymore. I thought I was eating healthy and I can't eat anything. And what I had her do was download this app. It's called Yucca I-U-K-K-A. It's got a carrot on it, like the little icon. And what you do is you scan your food and it'll tell you, it'll rate your food. Now, this isn't the end all be all by all means. I'm not saying if it is rated good on the Yucca app, then you go ahead and eat it because there's foods that are on there that I know are not healthy. They're not, you know, ideal, but they're rated good. So I mean, here, this is what I'm talking about. Not to become obsessed about it, but it's about improvement and not perfection. You do not need to analyze every stink and label or eat perfectly all the time. That's not realistic and it's not healthy because what it's gonna do is it's gonna stress you out. And then you're probably not gonna eat. You're gonna be under-eating. And then we're gonna deal with all kinds of other issues, same thing, hormonal imbalances, metabolic dysfunction. It's gonna lead to the same problems, but you're getting there a different way. This is about awareness and consistency. A few simple ways to start. Focus on protein at every meal. Get creative. Think about all the protein sources. If you're looking for a guide, message me and I will email you over a guide that gives you all sorts of protein options, healthy carbs, vegetables, different ways. So it's got this, it's a list of all kinds of foods in all categories: grains, proteins, dairy, fat, vegetables, fruits, and it lists the amount of sugar, protein, fat, and carbs and sugars in it. So if you would like that list, message me and I will send it over to you. But back to what I was saying, a few simple ways to start is focus on your protein first at every meal. Remember what I said 30 to 40 grams per meal. Second, read food labels on foods you buy regularly. So if you are consuming this on a regular basis, read the food food labels and also make one ingredient upgrade at a time. So just do small incremental improvements because that's how we get to the ultimate goal. We take small incremental steps. Food is not moral. And I said this before, right? It's not good or bad, it's information. So when you understand that, you can make empowered choices instead of emotional choices. That's why we have a lot of emotional eating. Just think of the information that you're putting into your body. Nutrition is foundational. It's not optional if you want to feel strong and energized and confident in your body. And that is what I teach. Your body is incredibly intelligent and it's designed to thrive when it's supported properly. And when you fuel it well, it responds well. So my encouragement to you is simple. Start paying attention, read one food label, make one small change, and build from there, friend. If this episode was at all helpful to you, I would love for you to share it with someone who feels confused or overwhelmed about nutrition. And if you're ready for support and guidance, you know where to find me. You can message me on Instagram. My handle is at Lorraine Michaels. You can find me, armorupfitnesslc.net. And again, if you want that food guide, send me a DM or an email or message me. And I would be glad to send that over your way. I am accepting clients online and in person. So again, same thing. Message me and we can hop on a discovery call and I can help you on your way. And if it's not a good fit and you decide not to, that's all right. I will give you some guidance. I'll give you some information to help you on your way to live a healthier, happier life. Your health matters and your choices make the choices that you make today can either add to your life or take away. So you are empowered, you are beautiful, and you are divinely created for a divine purpose, and there was no mistake in you.