No matter what your goals are — whether it’s building muscle, losing weight, gaining weight, or navigating menopause — one thing remains constant: what you eat matters enormously. And right at the top of that list is protein.
Now, I could easily fill this page with the science of why protein is so important. But honestly? You can Google that. What I’d rather give you is something more useful — a real, personal experience. I’m 47 years old, and for the longest time, I was quietly battling severe hair loss. I tried everything I thought made sense: switching shampoos, avoiding harsh chemicals, and being gentle with my hair. Nothing dramatic changed. I accepted it as just… one of those things.
Then, separately, I started making a conscious effort to increase my daily protein intake. My goal at the time was simple — shift some of that stubborn winter weight. Hair wasn’t even on my radar. But something unexpected happened. The hair loss stopped. Not gradually — noticeably. Dramatically enough that I actually paused and thought, wait… what changed?
That sent me down a research rabbit hole, and what I found was fascinating. Protein plays a significant role in hormone regulation, cellular repair, and new cell growth — all of which directly affect the health of your hair. My body had simply been running low on the building blocks it needed, and once I gave it more, it got to work.
It was one of those moments that made me realise: the effects of protein go so much further than the gym.
What is hindering us from eating more protein?
- Processed food
In a time like now, where highly processed, convenience food is so common and so easy to just grab and go, it becomes something that we resort to. The problem with convenience food is that it is genetically altered to keep us feeling unsatisfied and craving more. Genetically altered flavourings are designed to hit pleasure centres within our brain that get us wanting more and more of the same types of processed foods. Have you experienced the difficulty of putting down a bag of Doritos after only trying a few crisps? It impossible. Our taste buds can’t get enough of it; it becomes a drug! The same goes for sugar; the shocking truth is that we are all addicted to at least one pleasure sensor trigger of some sort. We’re not babies anymore, so let’s put on our big-girl pants and get ourselves (with that I mean our palates) used to what real food tastes like. - Packing in too many carbohydrates
I’m an Indian girl, so I can also totally relate to this. Rice is a staple in my daily diet. If you are not Indian, maybe bread, pasta, noodles or even potatoes… sounds familiar??? I once told my trainer, I have a LOVE AFFAIR with rice. I can’t live without it. Does that sound familiar, too? Well, let me tell you about my toxic relationship with rice. It’s the sugar I’m addicted to, packaged in the form of a harmless-looking steaming bowl of jasmine rice. Again, those pleasure centres are getting that dopamine hit every time a spoonful of rice hits my tongue. Didn’t I just say we were addicts in some way or another??? 🙂 - Food for fuel and not for therapy
I’m not saying carbs or even processed food are bad, bad, bad… If you actually are an endurance runner like Forest Gump or practising kickboxing in a hot and sweaty outdoor gym in the back paddyfields of Thailand, these are actually amazing sources of fuel to get your body working like a well-fueled machine. However, as I sit here typing this, I think the most exercise I did today was to get up and walk to my car, to a coffee shop and order a double shot cup of oat milk cap, and then sit down to type this… then NO, I guess, I don’t really need 3bowls of hot, steamy jasmine rice with my daily meals. - Buying lots of meat is expensive.
OK, this is a sensitive one because I am not here to judge you and your life. But for the sake of making an important point. I will put myself as an example. I spend £5-10 daily on coffee and maybe a Danish outside of home, when I have a perfectly great espresso machine at home. In my shopping trolley, I also have £5-8 worth of crisps and biscuits. And once in a while, I go online and indulge myself in buying stickers, pens and general bits and bobs that are completely unnecessary.
(Now you know I have a bit of a stationary addiction too ~ great!). But I know I’m not alone. So what’s stopping me from packing more money into getting good, wholesome pieces of meat or fish? NOTHING. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. Also, if we can spend time scouring those discount racks in a clothing store, what’s wrong with scouring those half-priced offers in the meat section? - I’m afraid of looking too muscular.
This is another common one. I am embarrassed to say I am guilty of saying this before to my coach. The reality is, our body adapts to the environment we put it in. If you are a rock climber and have been rock climbing consistently for over 10years, your body will look like that of a strong climber. If you swam daily for 7 years or more, your body will look like afish!I mean, you will develop muscles like Michael Phelps. Similar to if you are a couch potato, your body will resemble that of a… ??? (you get the gist). Basically, the matter of fact is that if you are lifting heavy weights daily over a long period of time, of course, you will bulk! Bulk does not come from just eating protein alone. All that requires a huge amount of discipline, but if we are already struggling with excuses 1-4, it’s highly unlikely to happen. - I don’t have time
The dreaded “I have no time” excuse. Time, I believe, is never a real excuse — because we always make time for the things we love. Meeting friends, grabbing a coffee, or binge-watching the TV series we’re currently obsessed with finishing. So do we truly have no time, or is the real reason simply that pre-planning and pre-cooking meals feels like a chore?
I get it. Like all chores, we tend to put them off until they become necessary. But the purpose of this blog is to help improve someone’s life — even in a very small, very tiny way. I truly believe that when we begin to see physical improvements in our bodies, it starts to change us from the inside out. We become people who don’t make excuses. We know what it feels like to be in control of our choices — and from that control, we change biologically too. It is said that every cell in our body regenerates, and that within seven to ten years, our body is entirely different from what it was before. We are constantly changing. So why not make a point of becoming better than who we were?
Who we are is determined by the choices we make every single day.
