 Hi friends, welcome back to my channel and a very special welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen. I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach and I'm on WW personal points. I am back with another video all about protein. A couple of weeks ago, I put out a video sharing with you my favorite high protein foods. The foods that I eat to get in my protein every day and see huge results with weight loss. If you're new to my channel, I've lost over 115 pounds and a big contributing factor to my success is getting in protein. Protein is king when it comes to weight loss. In that video I shared with you my favorite protein foods. I'll make sure that I link that video down below which was kind of the start of this protein series. So today I'm going to be sharing with you six of my top tips on how to eat more protein. This video has nothing to do with protein foods but is all about tips and tricks to get in enough protein every day to see results. So if you're excited to give this video a big huge thumbs up, it really helps out my channel and of course lets me know that you want to see more protein related videos. Also check out that description box down below for nutrition coaching. I do offer personalized macros and calories. I can tell you how much protein you need to eat every day to see results and I offer one-on-one coaching for accountability and if you would like to chat with me directly. Links, discounts to my favorite healthy things as well as my Facebook group definitely come over. Join us there. We'd love to have you be part of that community. So let's jump in to my six top tips on how to eat more protein. Like I said, protein is absolutely king when it comes to weight loss. There are a lot of reasons why getting in enough protein every day is essential to see success on the scale. I could do an entire video on why protein is essential for weight loss. If that's something that you would like to see, definitely let me know down in the comments. But today I want to focus on the six tips that I implement into my life that have helped me lose over 115 pounds and why they're important when it comes to losing weight. I have quite a big protein goal every single day. Now my protein goal is based on me. We're all different people so we're all going to have different needs when it comes to protein. Like I mentioned, I do offer the personalized macros and calories which includes your protein goal every single day. I highly recommend that because we're not a one size fits all community. All of us are different. We're all individuals and the amount of protein that we all need is substantially different. So what I eat every day for protein is not going to be what you eat every day for protein. But I will tell you that I eat a lot of protein and these tips have really helped me consistently get my protein in every day. Tip number one and probably one of my biggest tips for you is to take your overall protein goal and break it down into meal. This is going to make it feel a lot less overwhelming and daunting. So for the sake of the video today, let's use 100 grams of protein every day as our overall goal. And let's say that I eat five meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner and a couple of snacks. What I'm going to do is take that 100 grams of protein, divide that by five and that is the amount of protein that I need to eat every single meal. So whether it be breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks. Hand in hand with this is in order to get in your protein goal every day, it's important to make sure that you're eating enough meals. So if you're someone that only eats maybe two, three meals a day, it's going to be pretty hard for you to reach your protein goal because it's going to mean that with that 100 grams of protein that you need to eat 30, 40, 50 grams of protein per meal, which is really, really hard to get in. So it's better overall for our protein goal as well as for our metabolism and our body in general to break down our meals into more per day, ideally four to six meals per day. Not only is that going to help you get in that big lofty goal of protein, it'll help keep you more satisfied throughout the day where you're not going into the next meal ready to eat your arm and also will help keep your metabolism revved and going throughout the day. We need to be fueling our body all day long because we're burning calories all day long. So it makes sense that we need to eat enough meals during the day to always be stoking our body and metabolism and energy throughout the day. So by breaking down that big protein goal it's just going to make it a little bit less daunting and overwhelming and manageable. I will say that when I figure macros and calories for my clients, I do break the protein goals because I give you two protein goals down by meal which definitely helps make it a little bit easier. Tip number two is really important as well and this is to build your meals around protein. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and all of your snacks should be built around protein. So what I mean by that is when you are thinking about your meals or your snacks, the first thing you want to think about is what source of protein am I going to have? So let's say that it's a snack. You want to make sure that that snack is built around a protein source. So maybe you decide to have a Greek yogurt or a meat stick or some beef jerky or maybe a cheese stick. You know what source of protein you're going to have for that meal and then you can have whatever else you want. Maybe you're going to have a bag of pretzels with your cheese stick or maybe you're going to have some almonds with your meat stick or your beef jerky or maybe you're going to top that Greek yogurt with some granola. Just making sure that all of your meals and snacks, the foundation of them is protein will not only help you reach your protein goal but will also help that meal or snack be well rounded and that's the best way for our body to process meals and snacks is when they're well rounded and contain more than one macronutrient. And just a little side note because I get this question a lot, macronutrients are made up of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. So when I say building meals and snacks around more than one macronutrient, make sure that you have a protein and a carb or a protein and a healthy fat. Don't just eat protein. Make sure that it's well rounded. That's what our body likes and that's how our body processes what we eat most efficiently. So when we think meals, we think protein and then we add to that protein source. Tip number three is to utilize protein supplements. In fact, I tell all my coaching clients that it's going to be really, really hard for you. I mean, really hard for you to reach your protein goal strictly on whole real food. Because let's be honest, how much chicken breast or beef jerky or yogurt can we eat in a day? It is such a filling, nutrient dense food that it fills us up rather quickly. So just based on whole real food every day, it's going to be pretty hard for us to reach our protein goal. And that's where supplements come in. And when I'm talking about protein supplements, I'm referring to things like protein powders and protein bars and even water enhancers that have protein in them. In that video that I did all about my favorite protein based foods, I shared a lot of my favorite protein powders, protein bars and what water protein supplements I use. I will link everything down below for you because let me tell you by utilizing at least one to two protein supplements a day, it's going to help you get to your protein goal without having to eat pounds and pounds of chicken every day. One of the ways that I start my day off with a bang with protein is to add a protein shake to my coffee every day. I have an espresso machine at home so I pull my shots of coffee, add my protein shake, add some ice and enjoy that as my morning cup of coffee. And it starts my day with 20 to 40 grams of protein depending on what protein shake I choose. I also love utilizing protein bars as quick, easy snacks throughout the day and protein water enhancers are really beneficial as well, not only to help you get in your water but to also give you a big boost to protein. The ones that I use have about 20 to 25 grams of protein which I don't know about you but that sounds pretty good by adding some flavor to my water and getting 20 to 25 grams of protein. So don't be afraid of protein supplements, utilize them at least one to two times a day to help you reach your protein goal. Tip number four is to think outside the box. When we think of protein, we automatically think of meat. You gotta eat a lot of meat to reach your protein goal. That is not necessarily the case. There are a lot of things that are a little bit outside the box that can help you get in your protein. I mentioned protein supplements but there's a lot of other foods out there that have a good punch of protein that may be a little bit outside the box. One is nuts, nuts are a great source of protein and a great source of healthy fat. They're an excellent snack choice because they keep you nice and full. That also pairs hand in hand with nut butters. Nut butters are great because they're again a source of protein, a source of healthy fat. My favorite way to eat nut butter as you know is to spread it on a rice cake. That way I'm having a well-rounded snack like we talked about a few minutes ago. I have protein, healthy fat and a carb. It's actually a perfect snack choice. I'll link American Dream Nut Butter down below for you which is my favorite nut butter. Another way to think outside the box when it comes to protein is think about upping the amount of protein that you're eating per meal. Let's talk about chicken because we all gravitate towards chicken or ground turkey or ground chicken or turkey breast as a lean source of protein and don't get me wrong. It is one of the best sources of protein out there but instead of focusing on the traditional palm size or three ounces of chicken in a meal how about upping that to maybe four, five or even six ounces of chicken? Not only are you going to get in a good lean source of protein, you're going to double the amount of protein that you would have had in that three ounce breast of chicken. You can also add extra ground chicken, ground turkey or even lean ground beef to spaghetti or tacos to really up your protein. So think outside of those normal protein sizes and just add to that an ounce, two ounces, three ounces, even double the amount of that protein source and it's just going to doubly get you closer to your protein goal for the day. Tip number five is one that I find to be very, very helpful and that is to pre-track any meals or snacks in the beginning of the day while you're drinking your morning coffee, while you're eating your breakfast that you know that you're going to consume that day. That way you have it in your tracker and you know where you are towards your protein goal. So for example, maybe I've already tracked my breakfast, my lunch and a snack for the day because I know that's what I'm going to be eating and after tracking all of that, I'm at 60 grams of protein for the day and remember my goal is 100 hypothetically so I'm over halfway to my protein goal for the day. So for my other snack of the day and my dinner for the day, I just need to get in 40 grams of protein. So by pre-tracking, you know where you are towards getting to your protein goal for the day and this is really, really beneficial. That way you're not just flying by the seat of your pants and hoping that by the end of the day that you've hit your protein goal or ending up at dinner with needing 50, 60, 70 grams of protein which is almost impossible to get in in one meal. So by pre-tracking we know where we are calorically, where we are in protein and it also helps us stay on track because I know for me, if I track something, I don't want to have to go back in and change it or delete it or modify it. I'd rather just keep it in my tracker so it helps me eat that item that I've pre-tracked during the day and also helps keep me on track for my food and my health goals every single day. So pre-tracking not only saves time, helps you reach your protein goal, it honestly helps you stay on track all day. And tip number seven is to eat vegetables that have protein. You may be a little bit surprised but there are a lot of vegetables out there that pack a huge punch of protein. Not to mention that vegetables are a high volume nutrient dense food which basically means that you only have to eat a little bit of them to reap the rewards of all their nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein. I like to have vegetables with most meals throughout the day because it helps keep me full and satisfied. Again, for very, very little calories, also helps me reach my fiber goal which is really important for me but vegetables can also deliver a big amount of protein. This may be a bit of a surprise to you. You may not have thought of vegetables as a protein source but some of the highest vegetables with added protein are things like spinach, broccoli, mushrooms and alfalfa sprouts. I love alfalfa sprouts on salad and it's something that I kind of forget about but it adds a nice crunch taste and texture to salad so utilize these vegetables to get in your protein. When you're building your meals whether it be breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks lean on the vegetables that are higher in protein. Not only are you going to get your veggies in for the day but it's going to help you reach your protein goal. So those are my six tips for you on how to get in enough protein every day, how to see maximum weight loss results, how to feel full and satisfied throughout the day and how to get in a large amount of protein without it being overwhelming, frustrating, daunting and really seeming impossible. When you see a big protein number you can immediately go whoa, there's no way that I'm going to reach that but by utilizing these six tips that's going to make it a lot less overwhelming. These six things I do literally every single day and this is a huge contributing factor to me losing over 115 pounds, keeping that weight off, feeling full throughout the day not really missing foods or feeling like I'm not satisfied I'm always satisfied every single day and it's also really been a big contributing factor for healing my relationship with food is by focusing on protein-heavy meals and snacks so that I'm not gravy and I'm not binging on unhealthy foods later in the day because I'm just not satisfied from my meals. I really hope that today's video helps you reach your protein goal. Of course, down in the comments leave any questions you have and also any tips that you have for getting in your protein every day and don't forget about personalized macros and calories. I can't stress enough how important this is for a healthy lifestyle and how incredibly important this is for reaching your weight loss goals. Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it and that way I know to keep putting out lots of protein content for you and check out that description box for personalized macros and calories. My Facebook group, we'd love to have you and links and discounts to my favorite protein sources. I'll link a lot of those down below for you as well. Thank you so much for watching friends and I'll see you in my next video. Bye.