HANXIETY is Real: How Protein Can Help You Feel Calmer and More in Control

Nutrition is a key part of managing your stress and anxiety levels. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, shaky, like you could burst into tears any second, and unable to focus you could be suffering from what I call HANXIETY. Think back to the last time you felt like that- perhaps it's kinda happening right now- what had you eaten that day? Maybe you hadn't eaten at all or you had a donut and coffee for breakfast 6+ hours previously. Perhaps you had a granola bar for lunch alongside your mocha latte cuz ya just needed some damn energy!

I get it. When it comes to eating some days, you just feel like you don't have the time to eat an actual meal. You have too many people counting on you to do the things you need to do. You don't have the energy to even THINK about what you should eat.

Here's the thing: how well do you do the things you need to do when you're feeling overwhelmed, shaky, and unable to focus? How present are you during your work meetings? How well done is that project you've been working on? How about that email that you've retyped 4 times now because you just can't focus and you're anxious about how to respond in the first place?

HANXIETY is real! Let's talk about how protein can help you feel calmer and more in control:

We typically think of protein as being important for muscle building, which is true, but it's actually important for SO MUCH MORE.

At the simplest level it helps with satiety. It's going to keep you fuller longer, so your blood sugar levels aren't rollercoastering you to your next anxiety attack over an email or awkward interaction with a colleague.

Next, we have tryptophan, a type of amino acid (amino acids make up protein), that helps with serotonin production which not only translates to you being more relaxed and less reactive but also promotes high quality sleep (and we all know high quality sleep is essential to overall well-being AND being more resilient in the face of anxiety and stress.) You can dive deeper into how tryptophan impacts you here.

All that to say, if you're calmer that means you make better decisions and can focus on getting the things you need to get done DONE.

So you may be wondering how much protein do I need? I'm going to dive into that and the following in this blog post:

The importance of protein

How to figure out how much protein you need

Plant and animal sources of protein

How to eat the amount of protein your body needs

So, let's dive in!

The Importance of Protein

We just talked about how protein is important for reducing anxiety and stress, but let's look at some other things that it's involved in:

• The make up of our hair skin and nails

• Producing neurotransmitters, hormones, and enzymes that help our body function as it should

• Transporting things throughout our body

• Helping our body with growth and repair

• Making sure our immune system functions well

• Staying satisfied longer by our food intake

• Helping maintain muscle mass as we age or lose weight

You can dive even more into the nitty gritty on Precision Nutrition's website- one of my favorite nutrition resources!

Clearly, it's needed for more than just growing your muscles post workout.

How to Figure Out How Much Protein You Need

How much protein you need is going to be based on things like your body weight and personal fitness goals. Ideally you want to aim for .7-1 gram per pound of your goal body weight. We're aiming for a range- it doesn't have to be exact!

For example, someone who is 175 lbs would aim for 122-175 grams of protein per day.

• If they're trying to gain muscle they're going to aim for the upper end of that range.

• If they're just trying to maintain they could aim for the lower to middle end of that range.

• If they're older they'd want to aim for the middle to upper end of that range.

• If they're trying to lose weight they're going to want to aim for the upper end of that range.

If this has you gasping and thinking no friggin way am I gonna be able to eat that much protein! stay with me because I'm going to tell you exactly how to do it below!

Protein sources

While protein intake may be a challenge at first- take heart! There are TONS of sources of protein out there that can be animal or plant based. Even veggies have a little bit of protein! Check out some options you have below:

Animal Sources

• Beef

• Chicken

• Salmon

• Cod

• Tilapia

• Bison

• Pork

• Eggs

• Greek yogurt

• Cottage cheese

• Milk

• Turkey

Plant Sources

• Beans & rice (together they make a complete protein!)

• Nuts

• Tempeh

• Quinoa

• Lentils

• Chickpeas

• Tofu

• Edamame

• Potatoes

• Broccoli

Three notes about protein sources:

1 Animal sources are going to be higher in protein overall. For example, chicken breast will have around 23 grams per serving whereas you'd need to eat about 3 cups of quinoa to get the same amount of protein. (1 cup of quinoa will have around 8 grams of protein.)

2 It's important to get complete proteins. This means the protein source contains all 9 of the essential amino acids which are amino acids that we can't produce enough of in our bodies and need to get from food. Sidenote: tryptophan, the amino acid we talked about earlier that helps with serotonin production, is one of these!

3 There are fortified options as well. Things like high protein cereals and oat meals, protein shakes and bars, high protein granola and yogurts- the list goes on. Just make sure that most of your protein is coming from actual food (as opposed to multiple protein shakes) because satiety comes from eating your protein as opposed to drinking it.

Want a little more guidance? I talk about protein and other nutrition info along with healthy habits you can create to help reduce anxiety and stress in my FREE guide called The Anxiety Antidote: Nutrition & Self-Care Practices to Restore Calm.

How to eat the amount of protein YOUR body needs

First off, you need to be aware of where you're starting at. You could be eating way more protein than you thought OR you could be eating way less. You can find this out by tracking your food intake- without changing anything about your eating habits- in an app like My Fitness Pal or even just keeping a note on your phone that tracks the protein from food labels or using a search engine like My Food Data.

Then calculate what your ideal protein range is by multiplying your goal body weight by 0.7 and 1 and see how your intake compares. Once again, an example would be if you're wanting to gain muscle and weigh around 165 lbs your range is going to be 115-165 grams of protein per day. And since you're wanting to put on muscle you're going to want to aim for the top end of that range.

If you're already eating within that range great! Onward friend!

If you're pretty well below that, and most people are, then GRADUALLY work your way up to it. Here are some examples of how to do this:

• Add greek yogurt to your breakfast

• Swap your granola bar for a protein bar

• If you tend to go through a drive thru take 5 minutes to look up the nutrition info of the restaurants you go to and list the highest protein items in a note in your phone

• Choose to prioritize protein intake for ONE meal rather than trying to do it with every meal starting off

• Use your crockpot to bulk prep some protein so it's already cooked, and you can just grab and go (If you want to dive more into meal planning checkout my blog post Overcome Overwhelm Around Meal Planning.

It may be challenging at first and that's okay! Doing new things is hard and you can do hard things!

You'll likely find that as you increase your protein intake that you'll feel calmer and better able to handle your day-to-day things. This is not only because you'll be keeping your blood sugar levels more stable, but also because protein helps improve the overall function of your body!

This is one of the things I help my clients with inside my program called SNAP Method which helps women reduce anxiety and stress through Sleep, Nutrition, Activity, and Personal Self-Care. If you feel like you need more guidance AND accountability to actually follow through on increasing your protein intake and improving your health overall, then send "SNAP Method" to janna@jl-wellness.com and I'll send you the details!