Episode 201
Einat Shinar:Why Women Over 40 Are Waking Up Exhausted Every Morning
Einat Shinar:
Why Women Over 40 Are Waking Up Exhausted Every Morning
Nutrition coach Einat Shinar reveals why sleep is the most important pillar of health for women over 40. She explains the science behind sleep-weight connection, shares practical tips for optimizing circadian rhythms, and teaches a powerful technique called cognitive shuffling to help you fall back asleep when you wake up at 2 AM with a racing mind.
First Aired on: Jul 21, 2025
Episode 201
Einat Shinar:Why Women Over 40 Are Waking Up Exhausted Every Morning
Einat Shinar:
Why Women Over 40 Are Waking Up Exhausted Every Morning
Nutrition coach Einat Shinar reveals why sleep is the most important pillar of health for women over 40. She explains the science behind sleep-weight connection, shares practical tips for optimizing circadian rhythms, and teaches a powerful technique called cognitive shuffling to help you fall back asleep when you wake up at 2 AM with a racing mind.
First Aired on: Jul 21, 2025
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
In this episode:
Introduction
Einat Shinar is a nutrition, mindset, and wellness coach who specializes in helping women over 40 understand how their lifestyle choices affect their health and energy. With credentials from Precision Nutrition and specialized certification as a Menopause Specialist, she brings a comprehensive approach to women's wellness. In this episode, she joins me to discuss the critical connection between sleep and weight loss, and why so many women over 40 are struggling with exhaustion despite their best efforts.
Episode Highlights
Sleep is the Foundation of Health, Not Just Recovery
Sleep isn't just about rest - it's when your body performs critical repair, restoration, and detoxification functions.
- The brain has its own detoxification system called the glymphatic system that only works during sleep
- The brain shrinks by 60% during sleep to allow toxin removal
- Four stages of sleep each serve different functions: memory formation, growth hormone production, and immune system activation
- Without quality sleep, your body can't perform these essential functions
The Sleep-Weight Connection Through Hormones
Poor sleep directly disrupts the hormones that control hunger and satiety, making weight gain almost inevitable.
- Ghrelin is the hormone that signals hunger to your brain
- Leptin tells your brain when you're full and satisfied
- Studies show people sleeping less than 6 hours had 18% less leptin and 28% more ghrelin
- Sleep-deprived people crave carbs and processed foods, not salads
Your Sleep Routine Actually Starts in the Morning
Most people think sleep hygiene begins at bedtime, but your circadian rhythm needs to be set first thing when you wake up.
- Get 5-10 minutes of sunlight exposure immediately upon waking
- This signals to your brain that it's morning and helps regulate your internal clock
- Every cell in your body has a circadian clock that needs to stay synchronized
- Use this time for light movement, stretching, or lymphatic drainage exercises
The Critical Importance of a Caffeine Curfew
Caffeine has an 8-hour half-life, meaning it stays in your system much longer than most people realize.
- Set a hard caffeine cutoff at 1:00 PM to protect your sleep quality
- Even if you can fall asleep after late caffeine, it disrupts restorative sleep stages
- Coffee consumed at 5:00 PM will keep you awake half the night
- Sleep trackers can help you see the real impact of late caffeine consumption
Protein Pacing for Better Sleep and Weight Management
How and when you eat protein throughout the day directly affects your sleep quality and hormone balance.
- Start with up to 40 grams of protein in the morning for sustained energy and satiety
- Protein controls blood sugar balance throughout the day
- Bigger muscle mass helps absorb glucose more efficiently
- Eating enough during the day prevents late-night hunger that disrupts sleep
Why Perimenopause and Menopause Wreak Havoc on Sleep
Hormonal changes during this life phase create a perfect storm of sleep disruption that most women don't understand.
- Estrogen regulates melatonin and serotonin production
- Progesterone is the calming hormone that helps you wind down
- Both hormones fluctuate dramatically before declining, causing fragmented sleep
- Increased cortisol from life stresses compounds the sleep problems
Cognitive Shuffling: A Powerful Tool for Middle-of-the-Night Wake-Ups
This psychology-based technique can help you fall back asleep when your brain won't stop racing at 2 AM.
- Choose a random word with no emotional meaning (like "dog")
- Break it into letters and think of as many words as possible starting with each letter
- This shifts your brain from ruminating thoughts to theta waves that promote sleep
- Most people don't even get through the second letter before falling asleep
Notable Quotes from this Episode
Sleep is not just for relaxation. It's for repair, restoration and recovery, and when we sleep, we go through several stages, and each of them has its own main ingredient.
-Einat Shinar
When we get disrupted sleep and dysregulated sleep, especially us women, and I specialize in women in perimenopause and menopause, sleep becomes an issue. We wake up with more ghrelin. We're hungrier, but guess what? They want to eat carbs, not salads.
-Einat Shinar
Most people think that sleep starts when you walk into bed. Wrong. It starts the minute you open your eyes in the morning.
-Einat Shinar
Muscle is our lifeline. The more muscle mass you have, the healthier you're going to be.
-Einat Shinar
Other Resources:
Other Resources:
Connect with Einat Shinar
Connect with Einat Shinar
Watch this interview:
Watch this interview:
Einat Shinar has a gift for you!
Einat Shinar has a gift for you!
Free Sleep-Enhancing Tapping Session
Episode Transcript
Einat Shinar:(Teaser) most people think that sleep starts when you walk into bed. Wrong. It starts the minute you open your eyes in the morning.
(Intro bumper)
Julie Michelson:(Episode Intro) Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson, and today we're joined by Einat Shenar, a nutritionist, mindset and wellness coach who helps professional women over 40 understand how their food and lifestyle choices affect their health, weight, sleep, and energy, so they can confidently thrive during their midlife journey.
In today's conversation, we're talking about the role sleep plays in wellness and weight loss, her tips and strategies to optimize sleep, as well as to address those sleep disruptions, which really can play a big role in women's lives.
Julie Michelson:(Main Interview) Einat, welcome to the podcast.
Einat Shinar: Hi. Thank you so much for, uh, having me here. I'm excited.
Julie Michelson: I am as well. I wanna start by just having listeners get to know you a little bit. What, tell me a little bit about your journey of how did you decide to become a coach and, and really, you know, just grab onto this wellness space.
Einat Shinar: Sure, sure. So, um, I'm actually a teacher. Um, in my, my, my first degree was, uh, in English teaching. Um, I'm an educator at heart, so I was a teacher for. A long, long time. Um, even had my own afterschool program here in Atlanta for many, many years and, um, I got into coaching through my own experience. When I turned 40, 41, I started feeling like something was off with me.
I had suddenly gained almost 40 pounds of weight, which was just part of the problem. I actually couldn't sleep at night. I had. Night sweats and hot flashes. I was just exhausted all day. And as a teacher having to go and teach in the afternoons, that was a bit of a problem for me and I had to figure out what was going on.
And for me, that was the second time gaining weight. The first time was pregnancies. So the first time around I went to see a clinical dietician, uh, which was a very traumatic experience for me because I just got a list. Eat this, don't eat that. Here's your meal plan. See you in three weeks. Yeah, and for a person who probably has a pretty low metabolism, that did not work.
And eventually I lost the weight that first time when we relocated to the US and not because of that successful diet. So the second time around I, that was after my second pregnancy. Tried every diet in the book. You named it. I tried it and I did lose weight, but I gained double and triple, but I felt horrible.
Yeah. And then it was just a miracle meeting this woman who was the wife of a colleague that I used to work with at a school, and she brought this system that I could buy online and be supported by that, which looked. Seemed very improbable that it would help me, but I was so desperate for some kind of help, and I just say yes because there was a 30 day money back guarantee.
Long story short, it actually helped. I started cleansing my body, which I had never done before. I started eating different kinds of foods. And I started losing the weight and you know, it wasn't about the weight. It was a feeling of rediscovering myself and finding my self-confidence again in this. Yeah, my husband looked at me five days in and he said, I'll have what you're having.
I don't know what it is. And so I was with that company for a few years. Love the product. Today, I'm no longer with them, but. It expanded my horizons in the way that I attended conferences and learned about nutrition. And so while I was running my afterschool language program, I started learning about nutrition and science, and women started approaching me.
How did you do it? Right? Yeah, and myself. I want what you have. I want what you have. Yeah. And initially I shared the, the shakes, the program, but I felt very irresponsible coaching them because people call themselves coach when they sell products.
Julie Michelson: Yep.
Einat Shinar: And I thought that would be very irresponsible. It might work, but it's not just about the food.
And so I went back to school, got my nutrition certification, got my, you know, wellness and um, health and wellness re-certification. Then Reiki found me, I became a reiki master. Mm-hmm. And then I heard about EFT tapping. So I went into that and I gradually built my toolkit and started working with women while I was still running my other business.
So it all just grew together. And then three years ago I decided to retire from a 27-year-old. Wow. Coaching career? Teaching career.
Julie Michelson: Wow. Amazing. Yep.
Einat Shinar: Into this full time.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Wow. Well, it's, that's what happens as we heal or learn and, and we just deeper, deeper into the rabbit hole, and then it's like, oh, we have to share what we're doing, so I, mm-hmm.
I can only imagine the impact that you make and the women that you're working with. Um, and I know, you know, people hear nutrition, they're like, oh, here we go again, nutrition. Um, but what I really wanna talk about is the importance of sleep. And, and it, I know it ties into your journey. Um, and I have so many different directions and questions about sleep, but I, I.
Share with us. 'cause, and one of the things I really appreciate about, uh, appreciate about you is that you are, it is science driven, right? It's experience, but also then what's the science behind it? Mm-hmm. Um, and so often I've had conversations with clients and they think I am a lunatic. When I, you know, I'm like, we really need to optimize your sleep.
If you wanna lose the weight or, you know, if we wanna balance hormones or if you wanna reduce inflammation, you know, oh yeah. All the, if you wanna detox, if you wanna, so yeah, sleep is that important, but tell us a little bit about your approach and, and, you know, what is that connection between sleep and, and weight loss?
Because my audience knows, like when weight loss, it, it, inflammation is at the bottom of all of this. Mm-hmm. Um, and so, you know, I say, you know, when we get to, when we can reduce the inflammation, the weight falls off, right? Sure. It's the, it's not, they're not separate. Um, so what is the role that sleep plays and, and why is it so important, especially for us women?
Einat Shinar: Yeah, it's a great question. And you know, when I first started coaching, I thought it was the nutrition stuff and the exercise. And when I got deep into the studies and the research, I found that it was sleep. That is the most important pillar, and that's one of the first things I actually work on with my clients.
It's not the food. Let's talk about how you, right, and so why is it so important? Sleep is not just for relaxation. Yeah. It's for, it's for repair. Restoration and recovery, and when we sleep, we go through several stages, right? There's four stages of sleep that we cycle through during the night, and each of them has its own kind of main ingredient.
Main point, right? So initially we go into the feta phase, which is the non-REM sleep. Its slight sleep, which is fall into sleep. Then we have another non-REM sleep. Where we fall asleep a little deeper, and that's where we start making memories. And then we fall really deep and that's when the hormone, the growth hormone starts to be produced, and then the immune system starts kicking off.
And lastly, we dream. And that's where a lot of the cognitive stuff happens. But what most people don't know is when we sleep, we also detoxify not only our body, but our brain has its own. The detoxification system, it's called the glymphatic system. And the glymphatic system causes the brain to shrink by about 60%, and that allows for this very unique pressure, um, system to go through and get rid of plaque if we don't detoxify our body and our brain.
Nothing happens. And that's what people don't understand and it doesn't take these crazy juices and you know, and, and only fasting really. Yeah. Making sure we sleep and the body has its own tools to do the job. Now the other thing that happens while we sleep, which is really amazing, is our hormones are balanced.
And I wanna talk about three in specific. So one is called grelin. That's the hormone that tells our brain, I'm hungry. I need energy. Let's put something in our belly. Right? Second one's called leptin. Leptin is the hormone that tells the brain we're full. We don't eat anymore. When we get a really good night's sleep, I.
They're balanced. So we usually wake up with more leptin, which is the satiety hormone. Mm-hmm. And less gh. But when we get disrupted sleep and dysregulated sleep, and like you said, especially us women, and I specialize in women in perimenopause and menopause, sleep becomes an issue then. Right. And if we don't use the tools, which I hope to share later.
Yes. Then don't sleep. We don't get that ram sleep that really deep, high quality sleep. We wake up with more grilling. They actually did many, many studies, and I wanna share one where they tested people who slept less than six hours versus people who slept about eight hours. And they found when these people woke up, and they tested this for over a few weeks, six weeks, I believe, the people who slept less than six hours had a leptin dropped by 18% and they're rein up 28%.
Yeah. Now, not only were these people who were sleep deprived, deprived. Hungrier, but guess what? They wanna eat cars and salads.
Julie Michelson: I love, I love that you, that you brought that up because it is, it is. So many people say, you know, when I, when I start to inquire about sleep and, and they're like, oh no, but I, you know, I don't need that much sleep.
Uh, while there are a really, really small amount of people who are super sleepers, most people who think they are are not. So, I agree. Um, it is amazing the amount of, you know, it's just become this norm in our society, right? Like, I wear the hat, I'm busy, or I don't sleep. I don't have time to sleep. Oh, sleep when I'm dead.
It's like, well, you might sooner than you think if you know.
Einat Shinar: And you know what? I even see a lot of my clients come in and they drink a lot of coffee and they, especially when they're in perimenopause and menopause, stress levels are so high because we take up so much, you know, our, our kids live the nest and then we have to take care of our.
Um, you know, aging parents and there's maybe career changes and so they indulge in a glass of wine at night and they're like, but this helps me so much. And I always say, alcohol is a sedative. Yes. But what happens once it metabolizes, then you wake up. Alcohol is a system wide disruptor and it will promote inflammation.
It will disrupt your immune regulation. It will, uh, it will cause frequent wakes up at night, maybe even heart palpitations. And it impairs melatonin production, which is our sleep drug. It's our natural sleep drug. So women might fall asleep really quickly, but when they wake up later at night, that messes up their REM sleep, and that's when all the important things happen.
Same for coffee, by the way. If you don't have a coffee curfew, coffee has a halflife of eight hours. So having your coffee at 5:00 PM you'll be awake half the night. So it's so important to understand we need to balance these hormones. Uh, also cortisol. If cortisol is high at night, you'll be waking up very early in the morning and that will mess up your hormones, which leads to overeating during the day.
And women need to understand it's not their fault. If they're hungry, they just need to prioritize sleep.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, I love that. And I, you, you brought up so many, so many good points. Um, I want to, this leads into, I know you're, you're itching to share some of your, your tips and, and, and hacks with us with sleep.
Um, which is like my favorite thing. And, and people are always surprised. And you mentioned cortisol. And the stress and the changes in perimenopause and menopause and, and the, I mean, we could do three hours on each of those things. Oh, yeah. Um, but people are always surprised when we, I, you know, I say we're gonna work on sleep and I.
I believe your sleep routine starts first thing in the morning.
Einat Shinar: Mm-hmm.
Julie Michelson: Um, and so let's talk about kind of a little bit about the, that cortisol pattern and, and I'm curious for you to share, you know, your approach with clients regarding sleep. I.
Einat Shinar: Yeah, of course. It's one of my favorite topics to talk about.
Yeah. So like you just said, most people think that sleep starts when you walk into bed. Wrong. It starts the minute you open your eyes in the morning. Yeah. And we now know that, um, we have a circadian clock in our body. Right. And actually we have a major clock, and then we have a tiny circadian clock in every cell of our body.
If they're not synced. Then our entire day and night are going to be off. We really wanna make sure our wake and sleep cycle is regulated. And the way to do that is when we first wake up in the morning. For most people whose um, nervous system is regulated, we need to be waking up with high cortisol. That be should be ideally.
Yeah. Ideally that's what will take you out of bed because cortisol actually is a good. Hormone that gives you motivation to start your day. Yep. Then it is supposed to gradually decrease and decline during the day and reach the lowest low at night when we're sleep. And then I. Gradually go up at around 5:00 AM for us who are dysregulated.
It might look the other way around, and that's what we need to fix. So if you go outside and you are, you expose yourself to the sunlight. You don't have to look directly in the sun, please don't. But stand in the direction of the sun. And then first thing, for five to 10 minutes, I take that time to do my lymphatic system, drainage exercises, my warmup, my movement, my stretches.
So I'm out there anyway. And I sip on my lemon water. So it's not just, oh, now I need to stand. I actually do something for my body at that time. We get that natural sunlight, we get vitamin D, but our brain gets the idea, oh, it's morning. 'cause most people forget, we spend most of our time in artificial lighting.
So that's one thing that I do. The second thing, like I mentioned earlier, there's a caffeine curfew. Yes. If you drink coffee or any energy drink that are caffeinated. Make sure to cap that at 1:00 PM because if you drink any later than that, you might think it doesn't influence your sleep, but if you really get tested and get hooked up to machines, you will find that you are not getting that.
Yeah. Or even
Julie Michelson: tracking. I mean, I've, I've had an ora ring since 2016. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, any, and now there's more and more track sleep trackers out there that are just looking at your patterns and like, okay, what did I do today? Did I have that glass of wine? Did I have a four o'clock cup of coffee? Mm-hmm.
'cause I, I hear it all the time, oh, well caffeine, you know, coffee doesn't keep me up. And it may not keep you awake, but it is disrupting that restorative sleep. And so tracking is so empowering. Um, and I love that, you know, we don't have to go to a, a sleep center and because I can't imagine sleeping now, we keep track ourselves.
Yeah, yeah. True, true. I'm so glad that you brought that up, because that's like the number one argument. Oh, I don't, it doesn't, doesn't keep me up. Doesn't affect me. Yeah. But it is impacting your sleep.
Einat Shinar: For sure, for sure. And I would also say making sure you eat enough during the day. A lot of people tend to skip meals and then they get to eight, 9:00 PM starved, and that's when they load up on a heavy meal.
That's a mistake. When your body goes into sleep mode, it is not supposed to be digesting. We know that about 70% of our energy goes into digestion at night. We need that energy. For healing, for memory, for, uh, for our immune system. Activation for so many things that the body needs to do at night. So many actions, if we eat, we're missing out on that opportunity.
Plus, if we don't balance blood sugar throughout the day mm-hmm. Our blood sugar might drop midnight. That's when we wake up. Yes, because our body's hungry and cortisol is elevated and there's more inflammation. So make sure that you are eating, you know, at a good pace during the day. You're doing protein pacing, or you're eating protein throughout the day, the good carbs throughout the day, so your body's happy and balanced.
I love that. Especially
Julie Michelson: as I know, you know, you're, you're, you specialize in working with women and women have a tendency. To Undereat protein, it just in general. And then as we're entering perimenopause and menopause, we really need that protein to make sure we're putting, uh, able to put on muscle. You know, people don't think about the, you know, uh, protein is a building block.
Like if you're not eating the protein, you're not gonna put on, and nobody really. It's rare to put on weight 'cause you're eating too much clean protein. Like that's, that's not a, a problem. You know, a lot of women are protein averse. Mm-hmm. So share a little bit about, I love that protein pacing.
Einat Shinar: Yeah, so there's a lot of talk about protein.
Like you said, it's a building block. Protein pacing means that we want to introduce protein to the body at different times of the day. I like protein preloading, which means you get a lot of protein first thing in the morning. You can even get up to 40 grams in the morning and then you are so balanced, you're satiated for hours, your blood sugar is balanced, and then it can just drip in.
A little more protein during lunch and then snack and then at dinner time. So you get to the amount of protein that you need for your own body, and it changes from person to person. But what I really wanna emphasize on protein is many people don't know that protein is also in charge of blood sugar balance.
Mm-hmm. Because the bigger muscle mass you have. The better. Your muscle will absorb the glucose when you're eating, and so you have all this storage in the form of glucagon for the next workout. So think about men. Why do they lose weight so easily when they skipped in? They have bigger muscle nest just.
From being men. Yeah. And so we women really need to build up that muscle mass and we're not gonna become body builders. Right? Right. It's very hard to put on that amount, that amount of muscle mass. But muscle is our lifeline. The more muscle mass you have, the healthier you're gonna be. And preventing type two diabetes is one of the goals of many women, because that's a risk that increases with age for everybody.
Julie Michelson: So, uh, such gold right there. Like if that's the only thing people take away. Mm-hmm. So amazing. Yeah. Incredible advice. And, and it is. I love the so many people in the beginning when I'm like, okay, just what kind of, walk me through how you eat. You know, what's a typical day? And, uh, especially in this country, like people start their day.
With gross empty carb. Like it, it's so fascinating to me how you know when you're starting your day and then, then you're just. Perpetually, like, you know, craving the sugar. Yeah. Frosted flakes with milk. Oh my gosh. Like seriously. Yeah. Um, yeah. It's a, it's a problem.
Einat Shinar: It is. But I think people are slowly and gradually becoming more aware of the importance of eating a really healthy, balanced breakfast and having that protein, but also introducing more healthy fats.
Yes. And really good high quality carbs because our brain, people expect their brain to work all day, but they don't realize that if they don't fuel it right, it has nothing to work on. Right. So don't skip breakfast because it's probably, I do think that it's one of the most important meals of the day.
Whatever time during the morning, you eat it. Mm-hmm.
Julie Michelson: Your
Einat Shinar: needs, the fuel, it needs the fuel to serve you. So don't skip it.
Julie Michelson: S Preach it. Sing it. Yep. I love it. I actually, I have a good friend who's been, um, like really focused on health and wellness the past few years, and it's really interesting. She and I am not, everybody's different.
Like I went through a phase, like inter intermittent fasting works really well for me. Um, but we are all different and there is no one size fits all and she. Had been intermittent fasting for a long time, and then she shifted. She was skipping breakfast. Mm-hmm. And she wanted to keep the intermittent fasting, but she shifted it to the nighttime where, you know, then she's starting her day with a good breakfast, which is so important anyway, because especially, you know, she was working out in the morning and like she needed that fuel in the morning.
Um, yes. And so I, I love that you, you brought that up. Like, you know, the breakfast is if, if you think about what you wanna accomplish in the day, um, fueling. Your day is important and, and so, um, and protein forward is, it does make it easier to get enough protein. Also, if you're starting out with like this really good.
You know, serving a protein in the morning. 'cause then you don't have to eat like a, you know, you don't have to eat a rib eye at at night like you can
Einat Shinar: exactly. Even just make a small shake or even add a little bit of protein powder to your coffee or tea or matcha and just drink it. As long as you're getting something in your body, especially if you're expecting it to heal after a workout or.
Fuel yourself just before a workup. People just don't realize that working on empty. By the way, this is a really important point, especially women, and as we get to perimenopause, we wake up with high cortisol.
Julie Michelson: Yes.
Einat Shinar: And if you. Do not feed your body. The body gets into stress mode because, okay, where's my food?
Where's my food? I've been fasting for 12 hours. I need something. And so you actually raise insulin levels, which get you to fight or flight mode, right? Which is not a way to start your day. And so if you introduce food to your body, you were telling it. It's fine. We're safe. We're safe. Yeah. And the, and then metabolism will just start working and you'll be burning that fuel because the body doesn't need to hold onto it.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Einat Shinar: Okay. So that's important to understand too.
Julie Michelson: It is. It's, and, and you know, you mentioned satiety when we were talking about hormones that are released during and balanced during sleep. And I, I, you know, I don't know. I've been eating, I was fat deprived. It was part of, I believe, you know, a really important factor.
I. In me getting rheumatoid arthritis to begin with. Um, and it became almost like a light switch. Like I had already made all these changes, but when I put really, you know, high quality, healthy fats into my diet, into my diet really intentionally, it was like my brain came back on, you know, all the things.
Um, and, and so I am like. Again, I, after being fat phobic all through the eighties, nineties, oh yeah. You know, it's, I remember those days. Yeah. It's so important. Um, we need it, like our nervous system is made of fat. Our brain is made of fat, you know, so.
Einat Shinar: Yeah. And it's the best form of energy for the body.
Yeah. I mean, it's so wonderful. It burns slowly, and you know that one gram of fat has more than doubled the calories of a gram of protein. And, and the carb. I
Julie Michelson: love that you said that because you know, with your nutrition background, right, there is so much still, it always shocks me, I hear, and it depends on especially age too, but a, a lot of the ladies I work with or still like, oh, but that has so many calories, and it's like, okay, but what's in 'em?
Because Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A
Einat Shinar: hundred calories of an apple is not like a hundred, a hundred calories of a pretzel, so Right. The body can actually do something with the apple and it's got the fiber and the vitamins and the minerals people tend to forget. Yeah, and they also tend to forget that when you eat fat, the size of a thumb is a serving size.
So if you have seven olives or two tablespoons of, of any oil or seven pieces of nuts. That's enough that will satiate the body because it is digested slowly and gives you energy for the longest time. We don't really need to eat a lot. And when people realize that portion control is super important, you can eat anything.
Julie Michelson: Right? Yeah, and, and I love that you said that I have, especially you mentioned this. Blood sugar dysregulation and, and disrupting sleep. And it's one of the ways, you know, 'cause a couple different things and especially, you know, with your clientele there, there can be different reasons for wake up in, in, during, in the middle of the night, that two three o'clock window.
Um, and one of the things, especially as I'm helping people make diet change, one of the things I'll do to kind of test like, okay, is it a blood sugar? Problem. Right. Or they just, their blood sugar's crashing, which is really, you know, and then cortisol increases and they wake up. Is it cortisol? It's also increasing, you know, there's, it's always chicken or egg.
It's like a
Einat Shinar: domino too. It's like one in the hormonal
Julie Michelson: affect the other. There's always something. It's. So sometimes, and I am big on, so far, we're like speaking the same language. I think that there's a, you know, a, a caffeine curfew. I totally agree. I thought I was hardcore. I say two o'clock. I think one o'clock's even better.
I think getting out of the habit of afternoon. If you have an afternoon caffeine habit, why are you losing energy in the afternoon? You know? Yeah. Like eventually the curfew becomes like not even a thing. Um, but I'll have people if they're having that kind of wake up issue, so caffeine, you know, caffeine curfew, but also that the window of don't eat dinner and then go to sleep.
I. Right, because that's counterproductive to what we need to be doing, what our body's trying to do during sleep and, and, um, but then I will, here's my little caught all to that is I will have people like try having a little fat. Right before bedtime mm-hmm. To see if that satiety, if we can balance blood sugar, you know, is, is that playing a role in those middle of the night, wake up when they become a pattern.
Mm-hmm. And, and a lot of times it really does help. Um, and, and usually it's temporary as the body is adjusting to like, oh my gosh, I've been running on glucose and now I'm gonna be running on fat and protein fat. Yeah,
Einat Shinar: yeah,
Julie Michelson: yeah, yeah. It's a
Einat Shinar: different system and our body keeps switching between those, right.
So if it has fuel from glucose, it will, that's the easy way, right? That's the easy route. Yeah. If, if we don't give it glucose, it has to go the fat route. And I love that idea of giving a little bit of fat to people who do seem to have that glucose issue in the middle of the night and testing it out. I mean, it might work for some, it might not work for others, it might not,
Julie Michelson: but then it gives you, what a great idea.
Answer is to, you know, and I usually, I'm like right with you. I'm like, have, have a few olives, have a, you know, I, I have some people are like hardcore, they're like, oh, I do a, you know, a spoonful of coconut oil. Like, that's not my thing. Um, but whatever healthy fat works for you. Mm-hmm. And is taught, again, it doesn't have to be a lot.
It just, yeah, a little bit goes a long way.
Einat Shinar: By the way, a tablespoon of chia seeds and some hot water and just letting it sit and either drinking it or eating it. Like a little bit of jello uhhuh, because it'll become gel that will help you sleep. But that's also a great serving of fat and it will help you go to the restroom the next morning.
So got three for one. If you wanna try that,
Julie Michelson: and you can use it as an egg in your baking. So look at that. It's like magic. Oh yeah, exactly. Egg replacement. Yeah. True, true. Amazing. So, shifting gears, uh, although I know I, I promised I wasn't gonna keep you all day. Um. I do wanna touch on like why does sleep become dysregulated as women are marching through and sometimes they feel like they're dragging through perimenopause and menopause, but like, what is that?
It's not just because they're having hot flashes. And that's disrupting sleep, so, so what is going on there?
Einat Shinar: True. So we've got the culprits are the hormones, and as we all know, hormones are chemical messengers in the body. And what happens as we get to perimenopause, they start fluctuating. And people think that, for example, estrogen, which is the female hormone, that it just crashes.
It doesn't crashes. It doesn't crash. It actually fluctuates for a long time up and down until it. Then just disappears. And what happens with estrogen, it has so many roles in the body, but one of them is regulating melatonin and serotonin. And so once that declines, we have less melatonin, less serotonin, which are the calming, um, agents, a calming hormones in the body.
And then we have fragment more fragmented sleep. So that alone, just having less estrogen in the body. Boom. You are more likely to wake up and have fragmented sleep throughout the night. Second thing is progesterone. Progesterone is called the calming hormone. Yep. This is the one that really helps us wind down and relax, and when it declines and it will decline, oh, oh, it is estrogen and it goes first.
We lose that calming. Benefit of estrogen, and that's when women become irritable at night. It's when they wake up and they try and solve all the world's problems. Uhhuh find the cures, every disease, and of course they can fall back asleep and there's no way to really wind down. It's like you feel very.
Up and running at night. So that's due to that. And then there's cortisol we just talked about. Yeah. Having so many stresses during menopause or perimenopause, not just our changing bodies and putting on weight and not recognizing ourselves in the mirror and having all these new roles of being empty nesters and caregivers, that increases cortisol.
And when cortisol increases at night, we will wake up, our system goes into fight or flight mode, and our body is just in distress. And it cannot fall asleep unless we have the right techniques to calm it down. And thank goodness we do. And that's one of my favorite things to teach my clients, is how do we make that happen midnight and instantly fall back asleep?
So that's, uh, that's part of what really goes on, um, at night. And then melatonin, right? If we don't regulate our circadian rhythm throughout the day. Yeah, we won't get,
Julie Michelson: we, there's so many things that in modern times we need to be really intentional at this whole getting back to nature. Um, and. So many people are, are, I've heard from so many different women too.
Like, oh, well, it's just how it is, you know, and, and everybody has a different approach, you know? Um, I, I have a, well, having, having gone through that, I actually, um. Had a hysterectomy and my ovaries removed several years ago. So I went from the beginning of perimenopause to obviously, oh, menopause, medical menopause, um, overnight.
Uh, so, but I was supported all the way through that process with bioidentical hormones. Mm-hmm. Which for me was completely life changing. Now there are. Obviously certain cases where certain, some women are not a good candidate. Mm-hmm. Um, and that, and, and always, it's always more than one thing. Like it's not, hormones are magic and give, you know, all of the factors of life.
But also if you're not protecting your circadian rhythm and you know, and. Doing all of the lifestyle pieces, it doesn't mean, oh, I'm just gonna be a great sleeper 'cause I take progesterone or whatever. Fill in the blank. No, no, not necessarily. Yeah. So, um, before I ask you for your one thing, 'cause you said it and I'm like, Ooh, I wonder what her, her tip is.
Do you have or is it too big of a process? Like a, a simple tip for that middle of the night? Wake up, especially if we're talking about. You know, it's a, a, a hormonal process.
Einat Shinar: Yes, I do. So my favorite one is called cognitive shuffling, and it comes from the field of psychology. And what it is, it is a technique that takes your brain from a place of ruminating thought, ruminating thoughts, and to do lists and worrying to, um, to, there is a shift that happens that takes the brain.
To that feta phase where it falls asleep. And what it is, is really, um, having the brain think about things that are just, um, arbitrary, uh, random and some imagery. And I'll take you through the exercise. And I, if I wake up midnight or have a problem falling asleep, like if I watch. Something on TV, even early in the evening, that just gets my adrenaline going.
Mm-hmm. I usually don't have any problems falling asleep. I'm a really fast sleeper, but sometimes there's something that's keeping me awake. I will do that, and I can tell you that my mom, I. Did not sleep for 30 years. And when I introduced this technique to her, she said, you will not believe I'm finally sleeping at night.
So I'm excited to share. The way that it works is this, once you wake up and you wanna fall asleep, you wanna think of a word, just a random word that has no emotional meaning to you. So you could take a word like a dog. And now you wanna start breaking it into the letters. So DONG. All you wanna do is come up with as many words as you can for each letters.
So D, what words do I know that, start with a letter D. Okay. Drill down, dog date, drop whatever you can think of with that letter D. And do as many as you can until you've exhausted that letter. Then move on to O. Think of as many words as you can that start with o. I promise you, you won't even get to g. It is so amazing the way that it works.
So, so much
Julie Michelson: better than counting sheep.
Einat Shinar: And by the way, counting sheep. Sheep is similar. This, it works on the same mechanism. Yep. But this, because the words are so, um, yeah, it just makes your brain shift. Even though you think, wait, I'm thinking, how is that making me fall asleep? It switches on that part of the brain that creates feta waves, which are the short waves that make you fall asleep in the first phase of.
In the first stage of sleeping and it works like magic.
Julie Michelson: That is so amazing. I cannot wait to share. I will credit you. Um, I love that and I can see how I've tried counting sheep and I am a champion sleeper. Um, but when I. Shifted career this past year and, and, um, opened a functional medicine clinic and, and all, you know, had to learn so many things and all of a sudden went from solopreneur to having a staff of 10 and just, it was learning, learning, learning, learning.
I, I all of a sudden got busy brained and, and, mm-hmm. Um, and so I could see where this. Is ama, what an amazing tool. And so simple. I love that. And you could start with a short word. It doesn't have to be like, so Yeah. And if you're,
Einat Shinar: if you're done with the word and it didn't work, go on to the next one.
Sometimes we do need it, but I, when I wake up in the morning, I will remember what letter I got to, and I know I, I never, the last one, I always fall asleep. Yeah. So that, that really works. And that's just one I have a. A huge tool of nutritional and nutritional, uh, tools that work. EFT works amazing. I mean, all these things are just incredible.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, it is. It's so good. And, and, and every, the, that's the beauty of having a big toolbox because even, even, you know, for each of us, sometimes a different tool is the right tool, uh, at that time. But also not, you know, not everybody's gonna tap, and not everybody, you know. So just allowing for our, our uniqueness, you know?
Yeah. Which I love. Well, you've already given us so many tips, um, and so you could circle back or you could share another one, but if you had to, if you had to share one thing that you would want listeners to start doing today to help improve health or sleep or hormones, what would it be?
Einat Shinar: Wow. The one thing Uhhuh, I know it's so hard.
That's hard. I would say be aware. I'd say be aware of your action throughout the day. Starting the minute you get out of bed With gratitude, start the day with gratitude. When you wake up with gratitude, you are aware of your body, of your health, of all the good things in your life, and then it makes it easier for you to appreciate your body.
And do what is needed for you, because I always tell the women to come work with me. They want change. They want transformation. Transformation will not change if you don't like the version of you now. Mm. You need to love and appreciate who you are now and what you have in order to get to that. Upgrade the 2.0 upgrade of yourself, and it starts with awareness of who am I?
What do I already have, what tools do I have? What can I do right now? So step out into the sun, start with that. Hydrate. Give your body what it needs and listen to your body. Because with awareness comes that inner listening of what is my body trying to tell me? What, what do I need to do? What do I not need to do?
Yeah, I think awareness is a big thing.
Julie Michelson: It's huge. It's, it's spoken like a coach. It's the first can create change if you don't even know where you are now. So, um, so amazing for people that are listening on the go and aren't gonna check the notes, where's the best place to find you?
Einat Shinar: So I'm on Instagram, uh, and my handle is just, uh, at a, and I'm also on Facebook.
I actually have. A private Facebook group. It's called Feel Good Again, and we can put it in the notes as well. This is a free community for women who are over 40 who just wanna feel good again. And I just come on with tips and, and tricks and recipes and some wisdom for women who are looking for, for more advice, for more coaching.
Julie Michelson: And community is amazing. Community. Yes, of course. Yeah. That was a great community there. Uh, Anat, thank you so much. You have given us amazing gold and so many tips. Listeners, like just pick one and you'll start to make big changes.
Einat Shinar: Of course, of course. And I'm also gifting the listeners in EFTA free recording EFT session of 10 minutes to help them fall asleep, so that can be linked too.
Amazing. And so, and anyone who's interested in just doing this. Lying in bed, listening to it, and just tapping your way into sleep. If you've never tried this before, it's a huge tool and I'm just honored to share it with everybody
Julie Michelson: and I highly recommend you all take advantage of it and get that link in the show notes as well.
So for everybody listening, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. We hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did, and you can get those notes and transcripts by visiting Inspired Living Show. We'll see you next week.
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(Intro bumper)
Julie Michelson:(Episode Intro) Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson, and today we're joined by Einat Shenar, a nutritionist, mindset and wellness coach who helps professional women over 40 understand how their food and lifestyle choices affect their health, weight, sleep, and energy, so they can confidently thrive during their midlife journey.
In today's conversation, we're talking about the role sleep plays in wellness and weight loss, her tips and strategies to optimize sleep, as well as to address those sleep disruptions, which really can play a big role in women's lives.
Julie Michelson:(Main Interview) Einat, welcome to the podcast.
Einat Shinar: Hi. Thank you so much for, uh, having me here. I'm excited.
Julie Michelson: I am as well. I wanna start by just having listeners get to know you a little bit. What, tell me a little bit about your journey of how did you decide to become a coach and, and really, you know, just grab onto this wellness space.
Einat Shinar: Sure, sure. So, um, I'm actually a teacher. Um, in my, my, my first degree was, uh, in English teaching. Um, I'm an educator at heart, so I was a teacher for. A long, long time. Um, even had my own afterschool program here in Atlanta for many, many years and, um, I got into coaching through my own experience. When I turned 40, 41, I started feeling like something was off with me.
I had suddenly gained almost 40 pounds of weight, which was just part of the problem. I actually couldn't sleep at night. I had. Night sweats and hot flashes. I was just exhausted all day. And as a teacher having to go and teach in the afternoons, that was a bit of a problem for me and I had to figure out what was going on.
And for me, that was the second time gaining weight. The first time was pregnancies. So the first time around I went to see a clinical dietician, uh, which was a very traumatic experience for me because I just got a list. Eat this, don't eat that. Here's your meal plan. See you in three weeks. Yeah, and for a person who probably has a pretty low metabolism, that did not work.
And eventually I lost the weight that first time when we relocated to the US and not because of that successful diet. So the second time around I, that was after my second pregnancy. Tried every diet in the book. You named it. I tried it and I did lose weight, but I gained double and triple, but I felt horrible.
Yeah. And then it was just a miracle meeting this woman who was the wife of a colleague that I used to work with at a school, and she brought this system that I could buy online and be supported by that, which looked. Seemed very improbable that it would help me, but I was so desperate for some kind of help, and I just say yes because there was a 30 day money back guarantee.
Long story short, it actually helped. I started cleansing my body, which I had never done before. I started eating different kinds of foods. And I started losing the weight and you know, it wasn't about the weight. It was a feeling of rediscovering myself and finding my self-confidence again in this. Yeah, my husband looked at me five days in and he said, I'll have what you're having.
I don't know what it is. And so I was with that company for a few years. Love the product. Today, I'm no longer with them, but. It expanded my horizons in the way that I attended conferences and learned about nutrition. And so while I was running my afterschool language program, I started learning about nutrition and science, and women started approaching me.
How did you do it? Right? Yeah, and myself. I want what you have. I want what you have. Yeah. And initially I shared the, the shakes, the program, but I felt very irresponsible coaching them because people call themselves coach when they sell products.
Julie Michelson: Yep.
Einat Shinar: And I thought that would be very irresponsible. It might work, but it's not just about the food.
And so I went back to school, got my nutrition certification, got my, you know, wellness and um, health and wellness re-certification. Then Reiki found me, I became a reiki master. Mm-hmm. And then I heard about EFT tapping. So I went into that and I gradually built my toolkit and started working with women while I was still running my other business.
So it all just grew together. And then three years ago I decided to retire from a 27-year-old. Wow. Coaching career? Teaching career.
Julie Michelson: Wow. Amazing. Yep.
Einat Shinar: Into this full time.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Wow. Well, it's, that's what happens as we heal or learn and, and we just deeper, deeper into the rabbit hole, and then it's like, oh, we have to share what we're doing, so I, mm-hmm.
I can only imagine the impact that you make and the women that you're working with. Um, and I know, you know, people hear nutrition, they're like, oh, here we go again, nutrition. Um, but what I really wanna talk about is the importance of sleep. And, and it, I know it ties into your journey. Um, and I have so many different directions and questions about sleep, but I, I.
Share with us. 'cause, and one of the things I really appreciate about, uh, appreciate about you is that you are, it is science driven, right? It's experience, but also then what's the science behind it? Mm-hmm. Um, and so often I've had conversations with clients and they think I am a lunatic. When I, you know, I'm like, we really need to optimize your sleep.
If you wanna lose the weight or, you know, if we wanna balance hormones or if you wanna reduce inflammation, you know, oh yeah. All the, if you wanna detox, if you wanna, so yeah, sleep is that important, but tell us a little bit about your approach and, and, you know, what is that connection between sleep and, and weight loss?
Because my audience knows, like when weight loss, it, it, inflammation is at the bottom of all of this. Mm-hmm. Um, and so, you know, I say, you know, when we get to, when we can reduce the inflammation, the weight falls off, right? Sure. It's the, it's not, they're not separate. Um, so what is the role that sleep plays and, and why is it so important, especially for us women?
Einat Shinar: Yeah, it's a great question. And you know, when I first started coaching, I thought it was the nutrition stuff and the exercise. And when I got deep into the studies and the research, I found that it was sleep. That is the most important pillar, and that's one of the first things I actually work on with my clients.
It's not the food. Let's talk about how you, right, and so why is it so important? Sleep is not just for relaxation. Yeah. It's for, it's for repair. Restoration and recovery, and when we sleep, we go through several stages, right? There's four stages of sleep that we cycle through during the night, and each of them has its own kind of main ingredient.
Main point, right? So initially we go into the feta phase, which is the non-REM sleep. Its slight sleep, which is fall into sleep. Then we have another non-REM sleep. Where we fall asleep a little deeper, and that's where we start making memories. And then we fall really deep and that's when the hormone, the growth hormone starts to be produced, and then the immune system starts kicking off.
And lastly, we dream. And that's where a lot of the cognitive stuff happens. But what most people don't know is when we sleep, we also detoxify not only our body, but our brain has its own. The detoxification system, it's called the glymphatic system. And the glymphatic system causes the brain to shrink by about 60%, and that allows for this very unique pressure, um, system to go through and get rid of plaque if we don't detoxify our body and our brain.
Nothing happens. And that's what people don't understand and it doesn't take these crazy juices and you know, and, and only fasting really. Yeah. Making sure we sleep and the body has its own tools to do the job. Now the other thing that happens while we sleep, which is really amazing, is our hormones are balanced.
And I wanna talk about three in specific. So one is called grelin. That's the hormone that tells our brain, I'm hungry. I need energy. Let's put something in our belly. Right? Second one's called leptin. Leptin is the hormone that tells the brain we're full. We don't eat anymore. When we get a really good night's sleep, I.
They're balanced. So we usually wake up with more leptin, which is the satiety hormone. Mm-hmm. And less gh. But when we get disrupted sleep and dysregulated sleep, and like you said, especially us women, and I specialize in women in perimenopause and menopause, sleep becomes an issue then. Right. And if we don't use the tools, which I hope to share later.
Yes. Then don't sleep. We don't get that ram sleep that really deep, high quality sleep. We wake up with more grilling. They actually did many, many studies, and I wanna share one where they tested people who slept less than six hours versus people who slept about eight hours. And they found when these people woke up, and they tested this for over a few weeks, six weeks, I believe, the people who slept less than six hours had a leptin dropped by 18% and they're rein up 28%.
Yeah. Now, not only were these people who were sleep deprived, deprived. Hungrier, but guess what? They wanna eat cars and salads.
Julie Michelson: I love, I love that you, that you brought that up because it is, it is. So many people say, you know, when I, when I start to inquire about sleep and, and they're like, oh no, but I, you know, I don't need that much sleep.
Uh, while there are a really, really small amount of people who are super sleepers, most people who think they are are not. So, I agree. Um, it is amazing the amount of, you know, it's just become this norm in our society, right? Like, I wear the hat, I'm busy, or I don't sleep. I don't have time to sleep. Oh, sleep when I'm dead.
It's like, well, you might sooner than you think if you know.
Einat Shinar: And you know what? I even see a lot of my clients come in and they drink a lot of coffee and they, especially when they're in perimenopause and menopause, stress levels are so high because we take up so much, you know, our, our kids live the nest and then we have to take care of our.
Um, you know, aging parents and there's maybe career changes and so they indulge in a glass of wine at night and they're like, but this helps me so much. And I always say, alcohol is a sedative. Yes. But what happens once it metabolizes, then you wake up. Alcohol is a system wide disruptor and it will promote inflammation.
It will disrupt your immune regulation. It will, uh, it will cause frequent wakes up at night, maybe even heart palpitations. And it impairs melatonin production, which is our sleep drug. It's our natural sleep drug. So women might fall asleep really quickly, but when they wake up later at night, that messes up their REM sleep, and that's when all the important things happen.
Same for coffee, by the way. If you don't have a coffee curfew, coffee has a halflife of eight hours. So having your coffee at 5:00 PM you'll be awake half the night. So it's so important to understand we need to balance these hormones. Uh, also cortisol. If cortisol is high at night, you'll be waking up very early in the morning and that will mess up your hormones, which leads to overeating during the day.
And women need to understand it's not their fault. If they're hungry, they just need to prioritize sleep.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, I love that. And I, you, you brought up so many, so many good points. Um, I want to, this leads into, I know you're, you're itching to share some of your, your tips and, and, and hacks with us with sleep.
Um, which is like my favorite thing. And, and people are always surprised. And you mentioned cortisol. And the stress and the changes in perimenopause and menopause and, and the, I mean, we could do three hours on each of those things. Oh, yeah. Um, but people are always surprised when we, I, you know, I say we're gonna work on sleep and I.
I believe your sleep routine starts first thing in the morning.
Einat Shinar: Mm-hmm.
Julie Michelson: Um, and so let's talk about kind of a little bit about the, that cortisol pattern and, and I'm curious for you to share, you know, your approach with clients regarding sleep. I.
Einat Shinar: Yeah, of course. It's one of my favorite topics to talk about.
Yeah. So like you just said, most people think that sleep starts when you walk into bed. Wrong. It starts the minute you open your eyes in the morning. Yeah. And we now know that, um, we have a circadian clock in our body. Right. And actually we have a major clock, and then we have a tiny circadian clock in every cell of our body.
If they're not synced. Then our entire day and night are going to be off. We really wanna make sure our wake and sleep cycle is regulated. And the way to do that is when we first wake up in the morning. For most people whose um, nervous system is regulated, we need to be waking up with high cortisol. That be should be ideally.
Yeah. Ideally that's what will take you out of bed because cortisol actually is a good. Hormone that gives you motivation to start your day. Yep. Then it is supposed to gradually decrease and decline during the day and reach the lowest low at night when we're sleep. And then I. Gradually go up at around 5:00 AM for us who are dysregulated.
It might look the other way around, and that's what we need to fix. So if you go outside and you are, you expose yourself to the sunlight. You don't have to look directly in the sun, please don't. But stand in the direction of the sun. And then first thing, for five to 10 minutes, I take that time to do my lymphatic system, drainage exercises, my warmup, my movement, my stretches.
So I'm out there anyway. And I sip on my lemon water. So it's not just, oh, now I need to stand. I actually do something for my body at that time. We get that natural sunlight, we get vitamin D, but our brain gets the idea, oh, it's morning. 'cause most people forget, we spend most of our time in artificial lighting.
So that's one thing that I do. The second thing, like I mentioned earlier, there's a caffeine curfew. Yes. If you drink coffee or any energy drink that are caffeinated. Make sure to cap that at 1:00 PM because if you drink any later than that, you might think it doesn't influence your sleep, but if you really get tested and get hooked up to machines, you will find that you are not getting that.
Yeah. Or even
Julie Michelson: tracking. I mean, I've, I've had an ora ring since 2016. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, any, and now there's more and more track sleep trackers out there that are just looking at your patterns and like, okay, what did I do today? Did I have that glass of wine? Did I have a four o'clock cup of coffee? Mm-hmm.
'cause I, I hear it all the time, oh, well caffeine, you know, coffee doesn't keep me up. And it may not keep you awake, but it is disrupting that restorative sleep. And so tracking is so empowering. Um, and I love that, you know, we don't have to go to a, a sleep center and because I can't imagine sleeping now, we keep track ourselves.
Yeah, yeah. True, true. I'm so glad that you brought that up, because that's like the number one argument. Oh, I don't, it doesn't, doesn't keep me up. Doesn't affect me. Yeah. But it is impacting your sleep.
Einat Shinar: For sure, for sure. And I would also say making sure you eat enough during the day. A lot of people tend to skip meals and then they get to eight, 9:00 PM starved, and that's when they load up on a heavy meal.
That's a mistake. When your body goes into sleep mode, it is not supposed to be digesting. We know that about 70% of our energy goes into digestion at night. We need that energy. For healing, for memory, for, uh, for our immune system. Activation for so many things that the body needs to do at night. So many actions, if we eat, we're missing out on that opportunity.
Plus, if we don't balance blood sugar throughout the day mm-hmm. Our blood sugar might drop midnight. That's when we wake up. Yes, because our body's hungry and cortisol is elevated and there's more inflammation. So make sure that you are eating, you know, at a good pace during the day. You're doing protein pacing, or you're eating protein throughout the day, the good carbs throughout the day, so your body's happy and balanced.
I love that. Especially
Julie Michelson: as I know, you know, you're, you're, you specialize in working with women and women have a tendency. To Undereat protein, it just in general. And then as we're entering perimenopause and menopause, we really need that protein to make sure we're putting, uh, able to put on muscle. You know, people don't think about the, you know, uh, protein is a building block.
Like if you're not eating the protein, you're not gonna put on, and nobody really. It's rare to put on weight 'cause you're eating too much clean protein. Like that's, that's not a, a problem. You know, a lot of women are protein averse. Mm-hmm. So share a little bit about, I love that protein pacing.
Einat Shinar: Yeah, so there's a lot of talk about protein.
Like you said, it's a building block. Protein pacing means that we want to introduce protein to the body at different times of the day. I like protein preloading, which means you get a lot of protein first thing in the morning. You can even get up to 40 grams in the morning and then you are so balanced, you're satiated for hours, your blood sugar is balanced, and then it can just drip in.
A little more protein during lunch and then snack and then at dinner time. So you get to the amount of protein that you need for your own body, and it changes from person to person. But what I really wanna emphasize on protein is many people don't know that protein is also in charge of blood sugar balance.
Mm-hmm. Because the bigger muscle mass you have. The better. Your muscle will absorb the glucose when you're eating, and so you have all this storage in the form of glucagon for the next workout. So think about men. Why do they lose weight so easily when they skipped in? They have bigger muscle nest just.
From being men. Yeah. And so we women really need to build up that muscle mass and we're not gonna become body builders. Right? Right. It's very hard to put on that amount, that amount of muscle mass. But muscle is our lifeline. The more muscle mass you have, the healthier you're gonna be. And preventing type two diabetes is one of the goals of many women, because that's a risk that increases with age for everybody.
Julie Michelson: So, uh, such gold right there. Like if that's the only thing people take away. Mm-hmm. So amazing. Yeah. Incredible advice. And, and it is. I love the so many people in the beginning when I'm like, okay, just what kind of, walk me through how you eat. You know, what's a typical day? And, uh, especially in this country, like people start their day.
With gross empty carb. Like it, it's so fascinating to me how you know when you're starting your day and then, then you're just. Perpetually, like, you know, craving the sugar. Yeah. Frosted flakes with milk. Oh my gosh. Like seriously. Yeah. Um, yeah. It's a, it's a problem.
Einat Shinar: It is. But I think people are slowly and gradually becoming more aware of the importance of eating a really healthy, balanced breakfast and having that protein, but also introducing more healthy fats.
Yes. And really good high quality carbs because our brain, people expect their brain to work all day, but they don't realize that if they don't fuel it right, it has nothing to work on. Right. So don't skip breakfast because it's probably, I do think that it's one of the most important meals of the day.
Whatever time during the morning, you eat it. Mm-hmm.
Julie Michelson: Your
Einat Shinar: needs, the fuel, it needs the fuel to serve you. So don't skip it.
Julie Michelson: S Preach it. Sing it. Yep. I love it. I actually, I have a good friend who's been, um, like really focused on health and wellness the past few years, and it's really interesting. She and I am not, everybody's different.
Like I went through a phase, like inter intermittent fasting works really well for me. Um, but we are all different and there is no one size fits all and she. Had been intermittent fasting for a long time, and then she shifted. She was skipping breakfast. Mm-hmm. And she wanted to keep the intermittent fasting, but she shifted it to the nighttime where, you know, then she's starting her day with a good breakfast, which is so important anyway, because especially, you know, she was working out in the morning and like she needed that fuel in the morning.
Um, yes. And so I, I love that you, you brought that up. Like, you know, the breakfast is if, if you think about what you wanna accomplish in the day, um, fueling. Your day is important and, and so, um, and protein forward is, it does make it easier to get enough protein. Also, if you're starting out with like this really good.
You know, serving a protein in the morning. 'cause then you don't have to eat like a, you know, you don't have to eat a rib eye at at night like you can
Einat Shinar: exactly. Even just make a small shake or even add a little bit of protein powder to your coffee or tea or matcha and just drink it. As long as you're getting something in your body, especially if you're expecting it to heal after a workout or.
Fuel yourself just before a workup. People just don't realize that working on empty. By the way, this is a really important point, especially women, and as we get to perimenopause, we wake up with high cortisol.
Julie Michelson: Yes.
Einat Shinar: And if you. Do not feed your body. The body gets into stress mode because, okay, where's my food?
Where's my food? I've been fasting for 12 hours. I need something. And so you actually raise insulin levels, which get you to fight or flight mode, right? Which is not a way to start your day. And so if you introduce food to your body, you were telling it. It's fine. We're safe. We're safe. Yeah. And the, and then metabolism will just start working and you'll be burning that fuel because the body doesn't need to hold onto it.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Einat Shinar: Okay. So that's important to understand too.
Julie Michelson: It is. It's, and, and you know, you mentioned satiety when we were talking about hormones that are released during and balanced during sleep. And I, I, you know, I don't know. I've been eating, I was fat deprived. It was part of, I believe, you know, a really important factor.
I. In me getting rheumatoid arthritis to begin with. Um, and it became almost like a light switch. Like I had already made all these changes, but when I put really, you know, high quality, healthy fats into my diet, into my diet really intentionally, it was like my brain came back on, you know, all the things.
Um, and, and so I am like. Again, I, after being fat phobic all through the eighties, nineties, oh yeah. You know, it's, I remember those days. Yeah. It's so important. Um, we need it, like our nervous system is made of fat. Our brain is made of fat, you know, so.
Einat Shinar: Yeah. And it's the best form of energy for the body.
Yeah. I mean, it's so wonderful. It burns slowly, and you know that one gram of fat has more than doubled the calories of a gram of protein. And, and the carb. I
Julie Michelson: love that you said that because you know, with your nutrition background, right, there is so much still, it always shocks me, I hear, and it depends on especially age too, but a, a lot of the ladies I work with or still like, oh, but that has so many calories, and it's like, okay, but what's in 'em?
Because Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A
Einat Shinar: hundred calories of an apple is not like a hundred, a hundred calories of a pretzel, so Right. The body can actually do something with the apple and it's got the fiber and the vitamins and the minerals people tend to forget. Yeah, and they also tend to forget that when you eat fat, the size of a thumb is a serving size.
So if you have seven olives or two tablespoons of, of any oil or seven pieces of nuts. That's enough that will satiate the body because it is digested slowly and gives you energy for the longest time. We don't really need to eat a lot. And when people realize that portion control is super important, you can eat anything.
Julie Michelson: Right? Yeah, and, and I love that you said that I have, especially you mentioned this. Blood sugar dysregulation and, and disrupting sleep. And it's one of the ways, you know, 'cause a couple different things and especially, you know, with your clientele there, there can be different reasons for wake up in, in, during, in the middle of the night, that two three o'clock window.
Um, and one of the things, especially as I'm helping people make diet change, one of the things I'll do to kind of test like, okay, is it a blood sugar? Problem. Right. Or they just, their blood sugar's crashing, which is really, you know, and then cortisol increases and they wake up. Is it cortisol? It's also increasing, you know, there's, it's always chicken or egg.
It's like a
Einat Shinar: domino too. It's like one in the hormonal
Julie Michelson: affect the other. There's always something. It's. So sometimes, and I am big on, so far, we're like speaking the same language. I think that there's a, you know, a, a caffeine curfew. I totally agree. I thought I was hardcore. I say two o'clock. I think one o'clock's even better.
I think getting out of the habit of afternoon. If you have an afternoon caffeine habit, why are you losing energy in the afternoon? You know? Yeah. Like eventually the curfew becomes like not even a thing. Um, but I'll have people if they're having that kind of wake up issue, so caffeine, you know, caffeine curfew, but also that the window of don't eat dinner and then go to sleep.
I. Right, because that's counterproductive to what we need to be doing, what our body's trying to do during sleep and, and, um, but then I will, here's my little caught all to that is I will have people like try having a little fat. Right before bedtime mm-hmm. To see if that satiety, if we can balance blood sugar, you know, is, is that playing a role in those middle of the night, wake up when they become a pattern.
Mm-hmm. And, and a lot of times it really does help. Um, and, and usually it's temporary as the body is adjusting to like, oh my gosh, I've been running on glucose and now I'm gonna be running on fat and protein fat. Yeah,
Einat Shinar: yeah,
Julie Michelson: yeah, yeah. It's a
Einat Shinar: different system and our body keeps switching between those, right.
So if it has fuel from glucose, it will, that's the easy way, right? That's the easy route. Yeah. If, if we don't give it glucose, it has to go the fat route. And I love that idea of giving a little bit of fat to people who do seem to have that glucose issue in the middle of the night and testing it out. I mean, it might work for some, it might not work for others, it might not,
Julie Michelson: but then it gives you, what a great idea.
Answer is to, you know, and I usually, I'm like right with you. I'm like, have, have a few olives, have a, you know, I, I have some people are like hardcore, they're like, oh, I do a, you know, a spoonful of coconut oil. Like, that's not my thing. Um, but whatever healthy fat works for you. Mm-hmm. And is taught, again, it doesn't have to be a lot.
It just, yeah, a little bit goes a long way.
Einat Shinar: By the way, a tablespoon of chia seeds and some hot water and just letting it sit and either drinking it or eating it. Like a little bit of jello uhhuh, because it'll become gel that will help you sleep. But that's also a great serving of fat and it will help you go to the restroom the next morning.
So got three for one. If you wanna try that,
Julie Michelson: and you can use it as an egg in your baking. So look at that. It's like magic. Oh yeah, exactly. Egg replacement. Yeah. True, true. Amazing. So, shifting gears, uh, although I know I, I promised I wasn't gonna keep you all day. Um. I do wanna touch on like why does sleep become dysregulated as women are marching through and sometimes they feel like they're dragging through perimenopause and menopause, but like, what is that?
It's not just because they're having hot flashes. And that's disrupting sleep, so, so what is going on there?
Einat Shinar: True. So we've got the culprits are the hormones, and as we all know, hormones are chemical messengers in the body. And what happens as we get to perimenopause, they start fluctuating. And people think that, for example, estrogen, which is the female hormone, that it just crashes.
It doesn't crashes. It doesn't crash. It actually fluctuates for a long time up and down until it. Then just disappears. And what happens with estrogen, it has so many roles in the body, but one of them is regulating melatonin and serotonin. And so once that declines, we have less melatonin, less serotonin, which are the calming, um, agents, a calming hormones in the body.
And then we have fragment more fragmented sleep. So that alone, just having less estrogen in the body. Boom. You are more likely to wake up and have fragmented sleep throughout the night. Second thing is progesterone. Progesterone is called the calming hormone. Yep. This is the one that really helps us wind down and relax, and when it declines and it will decline, oh, oh, it is estrogen and it goes first.
We lose that calming. Benefit of estrogen, and that's when women become irritable at night. It's when they wake up and they try and solve all the world's problems. Uhhuh find the cures, every disease, and of course they can fall back asleep and there's no way to really wind down. It's like you feel very.
Up and running at night. So that's due to that. And then there's cortisol we just talked about. Yeah. Having so many stresses during menopause or perimenopause, not just our changing bodies and putting on weight and not recognizing ourselves in the mirror and having all these new roles of being empty nesters and caregivers, that increases cortisol.
And when cortisol increases at night, we will wake up, our system goes into fight or flight mode, and our body is just in distress. And it cannot fall asleep unless we have the right techniques to calm it down. And thank goodness we do. And that's one of my favorite things to teach my clients, is how do we make that happen midnight and instantly fall back asleep?
So that's, uh, that's part of what really goes on, um, at night. And then melatonin, right? If we don't regulate our circadian rhythm throughout the day. Yeah, we won't get,
Julie Michelson: we, there's so many things that in modern times we need to be really intentional at this whole getting back to nature. Um, and. So many people are, are, I've heard from so many different women too.
Like, oh, well, it's just how it is, you know, and, and everybody has a different approach, you know? Um, I, I have a, well, having, having gone through that, I actually, um. Had a hysterectomy and my ovaries removed several years ago. So I went from the beginning of perimenopause to obviously, oh, menopause, medical menopause, um, overnight.
Uh, so, but I was supported all the way through that process with bioidentical hormones. Mm-hmm. Which for me was completely life changing. Now there are. Obviously certain cases where certain, some women are not a good candidate. Mm-hmm. Um, and that, and, and always, it's always more than one thing. Like it's not, hormones are magic and give, you know, all of the factors of life.
But also if you're not protecting your circadian rhythm and you know, and. Doing all of the lifestyle pieces, it doesn't mean, oh, I'm just gonna be a great sleeper 'cause I take progesterone or whatever. Fill in the blank. No, no, not necessarily. Yeah. So, um, before I ask you for your one thing, 'cause you said it and I'm like, Ooh, I wonder what her, her tip is.
Do you have or is it too big of a process? Like a, a simple tip for that middle of the night? Wake up, especially if we're talking about. You know, it's a, a, a hormonal process.
Einat Shinar: Yes, I do. So my favorite one is called cognitive shuffling, and it comes from the field of psychology. And what it is, it is a technique that takes your brain from a place of ruminating thought, ruminating thoughts, and to do lists and worrying to, um, to, there is a shift that happens that takes the brain.
To that feta phase where it falls asleep. And what it is, is really, um, having the brain think about things that are just, um, arbitrary, uh, random and some imagery. And I'll take you through the exercise. And I, if I wake up midnight or have a problem falling asleep, like if I watch. Something on TV, even early in the evening, that just gets my adrenaline going.
Mm-hmm. I usually don't have any problems falling asleep. I'm a really fast sleeper, but sometimes there's something that's keeping me awake. I will do that, and I can tell you that my mom, I. Did not sleep for 30 years. And when I introduced this technique to her, she said, you will not believe I'm finally sleeping at night.
So I'm excited to share. The way that it works is this, once you wake up and you wanna fall asleep, you wanna think of a word, just a random word that has no emotional meaning to you. So you could take a word like a dog. And now you wanna start breaking it into the letters. So DONG. All you wanna do is come up with as many words as you can for each letters.
So D, what words do I know that, start with a letter D. Okay. Drill down, dog date, drop whatever you can think of with that letter D. And do as many as you can until you've exhausted that letter. Then move on to O. Think of as many words as you can that start with o. I promise you, you won't even get to g. It is so amazing the way that it works.
So, so much
Julie Michelson: better than counting sheep.
Einat Shinar: And by the way, counting sheep. Sheep is similar. This, it works on the same mechanism. Yep. But this, because the words are so, um, yeah, it just makes your brain shift. Even though you think, wait, I'm thinking, how is that making me fall asleep? It switches on that part of the brain that creates feta waves, which are the short waves that make you fall asleep in the first phase of.
In the first stage of sleeping and it works like magic.
Julie Michelson: That is so amazing. I cannot wait to share. I will credit you. Um, I love that and I can see how I've tried counting sheep and I am a champion sleeper. Um, but when I. Shifted career this past year and, and, um, opened a functional medicine clinic and, and all, you know, had to learn so many things and all of a sudden went from solopreneur to having a staff of 10 and just, it was learning, learning, learning, learning.
I, I all of a sudden got busy brained and, and, mm-hmm. Um, and so I could see where this. Is ama, what an amazing tool. And so simple. I love that. And you could start with a short word. It doesn't have to be like, so Yeah. And if you're,
Einat Shinar: if you're done with the word and it didn't work, go on to the next one.
Sometimes we do need it, but I, when I wake up in the morning, I will remember what letter I got to, and I know I, I never, the last one, I always fall asleep. Yeah. So that, that really works. And that's just one I have a. A huge tool of nutritional and nutritional, uh, tools that work. EFT works amazing. I mean, all these things are just incredible.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, it is. It's so good. And, and, and every, the, that's the beauty of having a big toolbox because even, even, you know, for each of us, sometimes a different tool is the right tool, uh, at that time. But also not, you know, not everybody's gonna tap, and not everybody, you know. So just allowing for our, our uniqueness, you know?
Yeah. Which I love. Well, you've already given us so many tips, um, and so you could circle back or you could share another one, but if you had to, if you had to share one thing that you would want listeners to start doing today to help improve health or sleep or hormones, what would it be?
Einat Shinar: Wow. The one thing Uhhuh, I know it's so hard.
That's hard. I would say be aware. I'd say be aware of your action throughout the day. Starting the minute you get out of bed With gratitude, start the day with gratitude. When you wake up with gratitude, you are aware of your body, of your health, of all the good things in your life, and then it makes it easier for you to appreciate your body.
And do what is needed for you, because I always tell the women to come work with me. They want change. They want transformation. Transformation will not change if you don't like the version of you now. Mm. You need to love and appreciate who you are now and what you have in order to get to that. Upgrade the 2.0 upgrade of yourself, and it starts with awareness of who am I?
What do I already have, what tools do I have? What can I do right now? So step out into the sun, start with that. Hydrate. Give your body what it needs and listen to your body. Because with awareness comes that inner listening of what is my body trying to tell me? What, what do I need to do? What do I not need to do?
Yeah, I think awareness is a big thing.
Julie Michelson: It's huge. It's, it's spoken like a coach. It's the first can create change if you don't even know where you are now. So, um, so amazing for people that are listening on the go and aren't gonna check the notes, where's the best place to find you?
Einat Shinar: So I'm on Instagram, uh, and my handle is just, uh, at a, and I'm also on Facebook.
I actually have. A private Facebook group. It's called Feel Good Again, and we can put it in the notes as well. This is a free community for women who are over 40 who just wanna feel good again. And I just come on with tips and, and tricks and recipes and some wisdom for women who are looking for, for more advice, for more coaching.
Julie Michelson: And community is amazing. Community. Yes, of course. Yeah. That was a great community there. Uh, Anat, thank you so much. You have given us amazing gold and so many tips. Listeners, like just pick one and you'll start to make big changes.
Einat Shinar: Of course, of course. And I'm also gifting the listeners in EFTA free recording EFT session of 10 minutes to help them fall asleep, so that can be linked too.
Amazing. And so, and anyone who's interested in just doing this. Lying in bed, listening to it, and just tapping your way into sleep. If you've never tried this before, it's a huge tool and I'm just honored to share it with everybody
Julie Michelson: and I highly recommend you all take advantage of it and get that link in the show notes as well.
So for everybody listening, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. We hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did, and you can get those notes and transcripts by visiting Inspired Living Show. We'll see you next week.
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My Guest For This Episode
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Connect with Einat Shinar
Einat Shinar
Einat Shinar is a nutrition, mindset, and wellness coach who helps professional women over 40 understand how their food and lifestyle choices affect their health, weight, sleep, and energy, so they can confidently thrive during their midlife journey. With credentials from Precision Nutrition, The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and specialized certification as a Menopause Specialist from Girls Gone Strong, she brings a comprehensive approach to women's wellness. Her transformative work combines science-backed nutrition strategies with mindset coaching and powerful emotional healing techniques, particularly EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) tapping, and as a Reiki Master, she integrates energy healing into her practice.
Based in Atlanta and serving clients virtually worldwide, Einat offers personalized 1:1 and group coaching alongside her signature programs "Thrive," "Sisters in Wellness," and "The Let It Go Seasonal Reset." Einat has been featured in Canvas Rebel and Shoutout Atl
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