I think I'm in a winter protein slump

Protein hot chocolate

Slightly awkward admission from someone who sells protein powder for a living. But seriously, who wants to down an ice cold protein shake at 7am when it's 2 degrees outside!? Not I, french fry.

Instead, I'm thinking about toast, porridge, a triple shot flat white with almond milk from down the road. Fast forward to 5pm and I've barely made a dent in my protein target, which means dinner has to do all the heavy lifting in a teacup-sized portion.

Before I know it, I've landed myself in another winter protein slump.

If you're eating less because you've had weight loss surgery, like me, or you're using a weight loss medication like Wegovy or Mounjaro, you already know how much brain space protein takes up. The two situations have more in common than you'd think. Add in a drop in temperature and a spike in the price of avocados, and the routine that was working perfectly well a few months ago suddenly goes to sh*t.

Soooo. How do we still meet those protein targets without relying on cold shakes we don't want?

Apparently, winter really does change how we eat

This whole blog started because I wondered if my winter protein slump was actually a thing, or if I'd just gone off protein shakes and developed a seasonal toast problem.

Turns out, there is research showing that what and how much we eat can change throughout the year. Temperature, daylight hours, activity levels, mood and our daily routines can all shift with the seasons, and so it seems our food choices shuffle along with them.

That's probably quite obvious once you think about it... What wasn't obvious was how much my own routine changed once it got properly chilly. Protein shakes are out the window, salads are a hard no, and I buy way more flat whites.

Not such a big deal, unless you already have a smaller appetite. Then these little swaps make quite a difference to your overall nutritional tally. And when there's only so much room left to catch up later, boom, slump.

We're in our protein era

Protein is having a bit of a moment right now, which is cool because those of us who've had weight loss surgery have been living in our protein era for yonks. Protein helps hold on to muscle and keeps us nice and full, and getting enough becomes particularly important when you're losing weight and eating considerably less food. If you want the full explainer, all your protein Qs covers it.

Weight loss doesn't exclusively come from body fat, and some muscle can be lost along the way too, which is one of the reasons protein and resistance exercise are getting so much attention alongside medications like Wegovy and Mounjaro.

How much you need is individual. Bariatric guidelines commonly start at around 60g a day after surgery, moving towards roughly 1g per kilo of body weight once you're up and running, and there's no magic number for weight loss medication either. Your dietitian, bariatric team or prescriber is the best person to sort yours out.

Whatever your number is, the challenge is much the same. We're trying to get enough protein into bodies that aren't asking for very much food, which means the food we do eat needs to work a little harder.

We need a winter menu

I've realised my mistake is expecting my summer protein routine to keep working when I don't actually want to eat the same things.

So I've swapped some hots for some nots and created a winter menu for myself, essentially just the warm version of what I was already doing:

  • Iced proffee → hot protein cappuccino
  • Cold protein shake → scrambled eggs
  • Overnight oats → porridge with whey stirred through
  • Salads → slow-cooked anything

My summer version of this is 45g of protein before 8am, and there are another 10 easy-peasy ways to top up your protein if none of these appeal.

If your protein shake has also been relegated to the back of the cupboard, there are heaps of warmer ways to get protein in. Eggs, anything with cheese on it, mince and beans, and slow-cooked meat are all useful places to start, especially when you build them into food you fancy eating.

And before I send you off to Google "high protein winter recipes", we already have loads of them on the My New Tum website. I've gone through our recipe stash and pulled out twenty-five that I'd actually put on a winter list:

For breakfast

For the lunch box (reheat and eat)

For the dinner table

For the snack cupboard

For your sweet tooth

Some of those use our Whey or Tasteless Protein and some get their protein from food, which is exactly how I prefer to approach it. Protein powder is handy for filling the gaps, but it doesn't need to become the main character of every meal.

Our Whey gives you 30g of protein per serve, and you definitely don't have to drink it as a shake. Use it in pancakes, muffins and baking, or mix it into a little cool milk first and pour that over your porridge. Whey and boiling liquid aren't great friends, so mixing first saves you ending up with weird protein lumps.

Unfortunately, I need to mention soup

I hate soup so much. Maybe it's liquid-phase PTSD. It's the reason you will only find one soup recipe on my website.

However, seeing as this is a blog about useful winter protein ideas rather than my personal vendetta against soup, I'll admit it's actually a great option for smaller appetites. It's warm, easy to eat and you can pack quite a lot into a small bowl, which makes it worth remembering on days when a proper meal feels like too much.

The trick is making sure there's some protein in there and this is where Tasteless Protein earns its keep, because it blends in without changing the flavour. Mine ends up in coffee, hot chocolate, scrambled eggs, porridge, mashed potato, pasta sauce, gravy, casseroles and mince dishes. One scoop gives you another 15g of protein without requiring another meal, which can be particularly handy when your appetite has already clocked off for the day.

This is worth knowing if you're on Wegovy or Mounjaro and having one of those days where your appetite has packed its bags completely. Something warm and easy to manage may feel considerably more achievable than sitting down in front of a slab of meat.

Don't leave it all until dinner

This is the part I need to remember myself. Quite often I'll get to the end of the afternoon, do some quick protein maths and realise dinner now needs to contain an entire rotisserie chicken.

There's only one problem with that plan. I can't eat an entire rotisserie chicken.

When you're eating smaller amounts, spreading protein throughout the day gives you a much better chance of reaching your target without expecting one teacup-sized dinner to rescue the whole operation. Post surgery portions is useful here if you are still working out how much fits.

That doesn't mean you need to track every gram forever. Most of us eventually get pretty good at protein maths. You know roughly what you're getting from your regular breakfast, your coffee, a couple of eggs, some yoghurt, chicken or whatever else you eat regularly, and you can see where the gaps are starting to appear.

So, are you in a winter protein slump too?

Let's do a Tuesday test. Pick a completely ordinary day, not a day where you've meal prepped, exercised, drunk two litres of water and generally behaved like the person you imagine you'll become every Sunday night. Pick a normal Tuesday.

Then work out how much protein you're actually getting.

If you're doing fine, fabulous. But if you're coming up short, I'd look at what's changed before deciding your entire diet needs an overhaul. Maybe your smoothie disappeared when the weather turned, breakfast has become toast, your lunches have changed, or you're getting to dinner with way too much protein still left on the scoreboard.

That's basically what happened to me. So I'm working with what I feel like eating right now: protein in my coffee, warm breakfasts, scrambled eggs, slow-cooked meat, hot protein choccies and, maybe, the occasional bowl of soup.

We don't need to be more disciplined

Your routine falling apart when the season changes isn't a discipline problem. It's just what happens when the food you feel like eating quietly swaps itself out for something else, and nobody hands you a memo about it. The fix usually isn't starting again from scratch. It's finding the warm version of what was already working.

Ask me again in summer. I'll probably have forgotten all about this and be back to putting a mountain of ice in everything.

In the meantime, could you do me a favour? If you know someone else who's eating less at the moment, whether they've had WLS or they've just started on weight loss medication, send them the Tuesday test. Winter catches people out, and most people on injections are working this stuff out with a lot less support than we had.

And if you've found a winter protein trick that actually works, I'd genuinely love to hear it. Especially if it's better than soup.

From my new tum to yours,

Emma

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