Why Adding Works — and Why Your Body Prefers It

Why Adding Works — and Why Your Body Prefers It

Most nutrition advice focuses on removing:
cut this, avoid that, restrict more.

But if you're a woman in midlife, you’ve probably noticed that restriction often leaves you feeling hungry, stressed, and disconnected from your body’s signals.

There’s another way.

Adding foods and habits that support your physiology helps your body feel steady, nourished, and safe — and your internal cues become clearer. Here’s what’s happening underneath the surface.

1. Adding Protein + Fiber Helps You Feel Satisfied Longer

When you add protein and fiber to your meals, your body releases natural fullness hormones — including GLP-1 and PYY.
These hormones help you:

• feel comfortably full

• reduce mid-meal and post-meal cravings

• stay satisfied longer

• tune into what “enough” feels like

Instead of forcing yourself to control your hunger, you’re supporting the hormonal pathways that help your body self-regulate hunger and fullness — gently and naturally.

2. Adding Plant Variety Supports Your Microbiome

Color and variety in your meals feed a more diverse microbiome — the community of beneficial bacteria that plays a role in:

• digestion

• mood and stress regulation

• inflammation

• blood sugar steadiness

• appetite signaling

A more diverse microbiome helps your body send clearer internal messages: hunger, fullness, energy needs, and even what foods you’re drawn to.

In other words:
a thriving gut makes it easier to hear what your body needs.

3. Adding Calm Helps Your Body Shift into “Rest and Digest”

Before you take your first bite, your nervous system sets the stage.

If you’re rushing, stressed, or distracted, your body may be operating in “fight or flight,” which slows digestion and blunts fullness cues.

When you add a moment of calm — a few deep breaths, a pause, or a mindful first bite — you activate your vagus nerve, which helps your body shift into rest-and-digest mode.

This allows digestion to work more smoothly, and your fullness cues become clearer and easier to trust.

4. You Don’t Need a Full Overhaul

Your body doesn’t need extremes.
It doesn’t need an all-or-nothing plan.

It responds beautifully to small, doable additions:

• adding veggies or fruit

• adding more color

• adding protein to a meal

• adding a pause before eating

• adding hydration

• adding a supportive routine

These small adds help you feel steady, supported, and more connected to your natural cues.

Little shifts → meaningful change.

5. Begin With Your Gut

If you’ve been stuck in cycles of trying to “fix” your eating by doing less, restricting more, or cutting things out, try flipping the script.

Start with adding.

✨ Small adds → big shifts.
Follow along as we Begin with Your Gut and reconnect with what your body has been trying to tell you.

Sources

Satiety & Fullness
• Leidy et al., 2013 — High-protein meals increase fullness (human RCT)
• Chambers et al., 2015 — Fermentable fibers support satiety signaling (human RCT)

Gut Diversity
• McDonald et al., 2018 — Plant variety → increased microbiome diversity (large cohort)
• Le Chatelier et al., 2013 — Microbial richness linked to metabolic and inflammatory markers (large cohort)

Vagus Nerve & Digestion
• Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004 — Stress responses suppress digestive capacity (meta-analysis)
• Noble & Hochman, 2019 — Slow breathing increases parasympathetic activity (human physiology review)

Behavior Change
• Lally et al., 2010 — Small habits become automatic (longitudinal study)
• Raynor & Champagne, 2016 — Additive strategies improve adherence (review of human trials)
• Elliot et al., 2017 — Approach-based goals more sustainable (meta-analysis)