What the Heck are Secondary Protein Sources + Why Should You Eat Them?
LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | STITCHER
Did you know I am aim to eat 140-150 grams of protein a day?
I know that may seem like a lot for you, right?
Protein seems to be the hardest macronutrient (amongst carbs and fats) to consume enough of daily. Carbs and fat are easy, they are in abundance in our diet, and they are also the tastiest and foods we crave most.
But no one ever has protein cravings. If they do, it’s rare. It’s not like you’re on your period and thinking "Oh my gosh I’m seriously craving chicken right now" the way that we do with carbs and fats.
Now, I’m not saying everyone needs to be consuming 140-150 grams of protein every single day. This is just how much my body needs. You need to figure out what your body needs. And once you do figure it out, you need to figure out how to hit that goal.
I know it seems like a daunting goal and maybe even impossible to do daily, and that’s why I want to introduce you to secondary protein sources.
P.S.: I know that counting macros can seem daunting, but I've made it extremely simple with my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy.
Basically, I calculate your macros for you, educate you on how I calculated them, and then give you all the tools you need to continue macro counting. You can get access now by heading over to macrocountingmadesimle.com.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real, let's get it, let's go.
Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode of the Embrace Your Real Podcast, I recently talked about secondary proteins on my TikTok, and I also shared it to my Instagram. So today we're talking all about what the heck are secondary protein sources and why you should eat them because so many people had questions in the comments, and I wanted to just make a quick episode on this so that I can point you back to this resource whenever you need it. But I personally, in that video said that I aim to eat around 140 to 150 grams of protein a day, and I personally find it super easy based on my experience and just finding foods that are higher in secondary protein. So really focusing on my core protein sources and having that be a base for each of my three meals, but then also getting super creative with my secondary protein sources.
And I know just working with thousands of women over the last eight or nine years, that protein honestly is one of the hardest macronutrients for many people to reach, especially when it comes to them trying to build the body that they want, and then they see this protein goal, but if they're not strategic or if they don't really know how to utilize secondary protein sources, it can feel very overwhelming. And I just wanted to flat out say that I don't believe everyone should be consuming 140 to 150 grams of protein every single day, I personally feel my best when I have about one gram to 1.1 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Again, I also have a normal, balanced eating preference where as other people might be vegan or vegetarian, or they might prefer other types of foods, or maybe they just don't love eating protein as much. And in those cases, I always recommend that you are at least eating 0.6 grams of protein per pound of body weight, but it's totally up to you, your preference and what your overall eating preference is.
I know that protein in of itself, even if it's 0.6, 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight can seem like a daunting goal, or maybe honestly in your case, it might seem impossible on a daily basis. And that's why I am a firm believer that you need to be well versed and understand secondary protein sources. And so that's why I want to talk about that in today's bonus episode. But before I do, I wanted to share this super sweet review comes from Lois Davis, she says, "Still my favorite podcast. I listen to this podcast on my morning commutes to college. These days, I have to search for episodes that I haven't listened to yet, a lot of the times I just re-listen to my favorites. I look forward to new episodes every week and have yet to find another podcast I love as much as this one, keep doing what you're doing Julie. PS. I love how much you've been incorporating faith into your newer episodes."
Thank you so much, I appreciate you so much for saying that. I have recently, probably within the last six months, I have just felt convicted to be sharing more about my faith. And I've always been a faith believer, I've always been a Christian, but really just using this platform to remind you guys that we are created in God's image and ultimately, our purpose on this earth is to serve Him and glorify Him. And so just trying to incorporate that and honestly, the reason why I do what I do every day is because of Him, and the reason why I've been able to get out of the pit of hell honestly that I was in for years, a decade of my life with my eating and body image disorder was by God's grace, and also by education, and empowerment, and health and fitness. And so I'm trying to create a podcast that really is something I wish I would've had back in college when I was really, really struggling.
So thank you for this review, I appreciate every single one of your reviews. If you scooch over to Apple Podcast, you can type in Embrace Your Real, click subscribe so that you never miss an episode on Monday and Thursday when they go live. And then also if you could leave a rating and review that really does help us out on the podcast, and you can also, if you tune in on Spotify now, you can not leave a review, but you can leave a rating. So you can click the rating at the top when you just type in Embrace Your Real, you'll see the rating section and you can leave that. All the ratings interviews just help us reach more people in hopes to inspire and encourage other people to embrace the real and really live out a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
Okay. So let's dive in to what the heck are secondary protein sources? Let's break it down. Your primary protein source is the protein source that your meal centers around. So this might be your eggs at breakfast, your chicken at lunch, or your ground turkey at dinner, this is where the bulk of your protein at each meal will come for from. But here's the thing, most of us aren't eating 30 grams of protein from eggs alone. That would be like five eggs in the morning, or maybe it's really hard for you to get 30 grams of protein, which is about four ounces of chicken or turkey or tofu or whatever protein that your primary source is at each meal. So that is where the secondary protein source come in, and I just want to briefly give an example of secondary protein sources so that you understand what I mean when I say that.
So I'm going to give an example of Dave's Killer bagels, which I'm going to use an example later in this show. But Dave's Killer bagel, a bagel is obviously a carb dominant food source however, the Dave's bagels that I use, I usually like the plain bagels, it's 44 grams of carbs for one bagel, and then the second highest macronutrient is protein. So it's 44 grams of carbs, 11 grams of protein, and I think it's about three grams of fat. So I call that a secondary protein source because even though it's a carb dominant food, it still is going to give me a good amount of protein, that 11 grams of protein is still going to add into my overall protein goal per day. So let's chat through some examples. So let's say that you need to eat 40 to 60 grams of carbs at dinner, along with your chicken or turkey, or whatever you have chosen for your primary protein source to be, you have a few options if you want to implement a secondary protein source.
So you could select a carb that's strictly sweet, such a sweet potato, or regular potato, or white rice, or jasmine rice or whatever, or you could select carb that can be used as a secondary protein source, or you can do half and half. You can do a little bit of rice and then add a little bit of the secondary protein source. For example, black beans. One cup of black beans contains 40 grams of carbs and 16 grams of protein. So again, you could eat 40 grams of carbs from potatoes with zero grams of protein, or you could choose 40 grams of carbs from black beans, with 16 additional grams of protein coming from the black beans serving. If at each meal you're eating an extra 16 grams of protein through secondary protein sources, you're easily going to reach your protein goals throughout the day.
And like I mentioned earlier, I shared this on my TikTok and then I shared it on Instagram, but I love me a good chicken salad. I posted my favorite dill chicken salad recipe, and people absolutely ate it up literally. They loved it on Instagram, I think it was my highest saved post I've ever done and I've been on, Instagram since 2013, so that says something. It is honestly one of my favorite recipes that I've created, I still eat it on pretty much a daily basis right now. I might get sick of it, but right now, and for the last like month and a half, I have absolutely loved it. So typically a chicken salad is made with mayo exclusively, you mix mayo alone and that's what makes it creamy, but what I found you can do, is mix a little bit of avocado mayo which, if you have not tried avocado mayo, it is so, so delicious.
But I do half what I normally would for mayo, and I do half avocado mayo, and then I do the other half that I would normally get from mayo and I use 0% Greek yogurt, and 0% Greek yogurt is awesome because it is basically just protein. Greek yogurt is a protein source. And so even though in my chicken salad, the dominant protein source is chicken, right? And typically everything else would be like fats added to it, like mayo is typically just strictly fats with a little bit of carbs, but because I'm using my Greek yogurt, it's adding additional protein that wouldn't normally be there and it just makes it so much more creamy. And on top of that with bread, typically bread is a carb dominant food source, which it is. And a lot of breads, just like with the potato example, you could use two slices of bread that maybe have one or two grams of protein for two slices and about 20 to 30 grams of carbs, or you could find a bread that has higher end protein.
For example, the Dave's Killer bagels, they have 11 grams of protein even though they're carb dominant food source, that 11 grams addition of protein, that's going to come in handy. Because when I did the four ounces of chicken, plus the Greek yogurt, plus the Dave's Killer bagel, it's 52 grams of protein for that meal. So if you haven't seen that video, you can just go to my Instagram or go to my personal TikTok and you'll see how to get secondary protein sources and I walk you through it. If you're a visual learner like I am, it can be super beneficial. But some other noteworthy secondary protein sources, are nuts and seeds. While most of us think nuts and seeds are a fat source, they are, they're a fat-dominant food. They still can contain anywhere from six to eight grams of protein per serving.
Like one cup of cooked quinoa has eight grams of protein, nutritional yeast, which gives your food a cheesy delicious flavor without any cheese, can give you an additional eight grams of protein with two tablespoons. Cottage cheese is another great option, it tastes so good mixing it in with your oatmeal or having it plain with some berries. Another secondary source is goat cheese, black beans, lentils, chickpea pasta, edamame, edamame noodles, which can oftentimes contain up to 20 grams of protein and hemp seeds, which are actually the highest source of protein for seeds and nuts and are considered to be a complete protein, and even vegetables like broccoli can contain a little bit of protein. So all that to say, you don't need to live off of protein shakes and protein bars to hit your protein goal.
Yes, I personally do have a protein shake and I also have a protein bar every day. I love them so much they're great supplements, but I always believe in real food first. And I personally just know that real food always fills me up and it's a lot more satisfying long-term. So if you can get your macros and if you can reach your macros from the majority of your food coming from real food, why not do it? So I want to challenge you this week, as you're putting together your meals and snacks, getting creative by using secondary protein sources and start prioritizing them. And again, I just want to emphasize that just because I personally mentioned that I eat 140 to 150 grams of protein per day, that doesn't mean that you need to eat that much.
I cannot recommend enough to find out what your specific body needs to properly nourish your body because your body is your body, your body is not my body, your body is not the influencer's body that you love to follow on TikTok or Instagram, your body is not your best friend's body, it's not the girl at the gym's body that you're jealous of. It is your body, and you need to find what your body needs to be properly nourished based on where you're currently at, what you do on a weekly basis and what your goals are. I know that prioritizing your nutrition can seem daunting, but I've made it extremely simple in my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy. We teach you step by step how to calculate your macros, we educate you on that. And then we give you all the tools that you need so that you can continue on your macro counting journey and you can start properly fueling your body. And not only that fueling your body with the foods that you love, not cutting any foods out, not needing to have cheat days, not only eating clean.
You can learn all about this program and get instant access by heading over to macrocountingmadesimple.com. I will also include the link in the show notes. Again, that's macrocountingmadesimple.com and I will include that link in the show notes. I hope that this was helpful for you, I would love to hear what came from it. I would love to know what maybe some of the secondary protein sources that you eat on a daily basis are, so you can always tag me on Instagram, juliealedbetter, I love connecting with you guys. Thank you again for tuning in and I'll talk to you in the next one.
All right sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, juliealedbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcast, to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me, it means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface, so go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.