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Why You Aren’t Losing Weight

Why You Aren’t Losing Weight

by | Apr 17, 2025 | podcast

Listen:

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Transcript:

Open Transcript:

Cori (00:00):
Welcome to the Redefining Strength Podcast. Everything you need to succeed on your health and fitness journey, even the stuff you don’t want to hear. What if not having changed anything is truly the problem? So I had someone comment, I haven’t changed anything, but all of a sudden I’m gaining weight and getting that comment, I slightly smiled because I think often we think, well, I’m not doing anything different, so why am I getting a different result? And my comment back to her, I could tell it slightly surprised her, but my comment back was, have you considered that not changing anything may actually be part of the problem? Because guess what? Your body, your lifestyle, your mindset, your goals are constantly evolving. And if you aren’t adjusting your workouts or diet to match that mismatch now with what used to work when your body and lifestyle and goals were all in a different place might be part of the problem.

(00:57):
What we do to reach one goal can often hold us back from reaching the next, even if our goal is still weight loss. And I bring this up because I think over the seasons, we need to assess what does and doesn’t work for our lifestyles. We need to assess where our mindset is right now. But in thinking about all this, when we think about sustainability, we also think about this as one thing. So think about what was sustainable for you in college? What was sustainable, maybe as a newlywed, what was sustainable when you had young kids? What’s sustainable when you’re an empty nester? All these things are going to be different. Sustainable is going to mean something different to you at each of these phases. And if you try and clinging to what felt comfortable and confused, comfort with sustainability, you’re going to ultimately hold yourself back because nothing works forever.

(01:40):
And everything is constantly changing. And I bring up the seasons too, because I think we think often, okay, yes, now I’m older, so I have to adjust, or my goals have changed, so I have to adjust. But even over just the course of a year, your habits are not going to look the same, driving towards the same goal. And the more we own that, the more we can come back to the fundamentals, but evolve the exact implementation of habits before we fall off. So if you think about a workout plan, you’ve done a workout plan, or maybe you’ve done a diet plan even, and all of a sudden you’re like, oh, this is just not sustainable any longer. Well, how has your lifestyle changed? What’s happened? Is it simply that you’re hitting that hard? Where at 21 days you always start to give up? Okay, well maybe that’s the case.

(02:23):
Maybe it’s just a timeframe thing. It’s not that anything else in your lifestyle has even changed. Well, then how can you get over this hurdle still doing more than you would’ve done in the past? What works in January when you’re super motivated, all of a sudden it’s summer, you’re traveling more. Those habits might not work. And if you keep trying to clinging to them, that’s where you can end up falling off and sabotaging yourself. Same thing with the holidays. So the more we’re constantly assessing, okay, A, am I getting the goal or reaching the goal I want, maybe then I do keep the habits. But if I’m not seeing the results that I want, or even going backwards and I haven’t started to fall off my plan to get less consistent, what is a mismatch that I need to address? And I think it’s really key that not only do we do a lot of reflecting along our journey and set those checkpoints, so not only a deadline for our ultimate goal, but even, and I won’t say deadlines because I think deadlines mean, oh, we’re supposed to be done here.

(03:12):
I do like to call ’em checkpoints, but just times to check in, be like, okay, every three weeks I’m going to do a check-in. I’m going to assess how things have gone, assess my true consistency, and then reflect on what it can change. Because it’s kind of like we’re a mechanic on our car. You don’t want to have your car and then not do the check-ins, the oil changes, all those different things. You want to be doing those things so that your car works really well. But so often we’re not doing those checkups, so to speak, on our diet and workout routines as we’re working towards our goal. All of a sudden we’re just like, oh, it’s not working. The car’s broken down. I’m just going to set it on fire and leave it there and go do something else. No, you wouldn’t do that.

(03:47):
You got to take care of that car. So it keeps moving. You don’t want to have to go buy a new one. You can’t buy a new body. So you got to do those checkups. But I want you to really reflect if you are struggling with seeing results, what other things have changed? Because sustainable doesn’t mean that it is comfortable. It doesn’t mean what we’ve always done. It is going to mean that there is some hard, it just has to be something built off. Those basics that we can consistently do that we know will drive us forward. And that’s even where we so often see that response of, oh gosh, why didn’t I do this sooner? Well, it didn’t feel sustainable to start, but now it does. But you embraced the why behind it. You reflected on what you needed to meet yourself where you’re at.

(04:25):
You went from those January habits where you could do six days a week, one hour in the gym to realizing all of a sudden that felt like the effort wasn’t getting the outcome that you wanted and it wasn’t feeling worth it. And so you’re going to give up. But instead you’re saying, no, no, no, I’m going to do three days a week because there is no ideal. It’s just about meeting myself where I’m at. And in that evolution, in that willingness to change, in that willingness to even say, Hey, it’s not a right or wrong thing. It’s just that nothing works forever. What I did in college doesn’t work for me now. Right? That reflection is what ultimately drives us forward to create sustainable patterns that will evolve. Because sustainable means being open to evolution so that we’re always meeting ourselves where we’re at. So if you have been frustrated by your lack of progress and say, but I haven’t changed my healthy habits, really dive in and reflect on what in those habits might need to evolve because something else in your lifestyle, even if it’s a mindset, even if it’s a routine because of work, a family life, that you’re not going to change, especially, how can you then evolve everything else to match what your body, your goals, your lifestyle needs right now?

 

*Note: This transcript is autogenerated there may be some unintended errors.

Add This To Your Shoulder Workout (AT HOME!)

Add This To Your Shoulder Workout (AT HOME!)

by | Apr 15, 2025 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises, Workouts

When training at home or when we travel without access to equipment, it can feel like there are some body parts that are hard to hit and exercises that are hard to replicate.

But we can get in a killer workout no matter what.

That’s why I wanted to share a great replacement exercise for the overhead press if you want to target your shoulders without any weights.

That move is the Pike Push Up.

However, this push up variation is much harder than we realize and you don’t want to…well…drop yourself on your head while doing it.

Please regress to progress and make sure you build up to this deceptively hard yet simple move.

To help you build up I’m going to share some form tips to implement this move correctly but also an amazing modification.

Because with the pike push up you can mimic that vertical press to work not only your shoulders but also your triceps and core!

The key is actually performing this push up variation though as the vertical press!

First, let’s break down the form on the full pike push up.

If you want to get the vertical pressing benefits of this push up variation, you’ve got to make sure you’re actually performing a vertical press.

It is easy to let this move become more of a horizontal push as you fatigue. But the more you start to let yourself drift into more of a traditional push up position, the less you’re going to emphasize your shoulders and triceps and the more your chest is going to begin to work.

You may find your pike push up turns more into a decline variation, which isn’t bad, it’s just not working the same muscles to the same extents!

To do the pike push up, you want to place your feet up on a bench or couch or stair. The higher the platform, the more challenging this move will be.

The platform allows you to shift more weight onto your arms for added resistance.

Walk your hands back so your butt is up in the air and your chest is facing back toward the wall behind you with your arms extended.

You want to try to create as straight a line as possible from your hands up to your butt.

As you begin to lower, you will shift forward just slightly as you lower your head toward the ground at about your fingertips.

Think about the similar movement of the overhead press but in reverse.

When your head is near the ground, that’s like the bar at about your chest.

Then as you extend your arms out to push back up in the pike, that’s like you pressing the bar overhead.

You want to think “vertical press” and push your butt up toward the ceiling.

You just don’t want to end up rocking so forward your hands are at your shoulders or chest. This isn’t that incline bench or decline push up.

You can even lower your head down to lightly touch the ground before pressing back up. Really focus on pushing that ground away with your entire hand.

As you get tired it is easy to not notice you start to push forward off your feet and move into less of that vertical position.

While you ARE pushing off your toes on the bench to load your weight vertically, you want to push your butt up toward the ceiling not rock back and forth.

If you notice as you fatigue your hands creeping out from the platform or your butt sinking, pause and reset or even modify.

This seems simple, but is much harder than it looks.

That’s why you may want to start first off the ground from a more downward dog position, doing the Downward Dog Pike Push Up.

With this variation your feet will be on the ground and you’ll set up almost as if you’re doing the downward dog.

But even off the ground you have room to modify more or less.

The more forward you walk your feet, the more challenging the move will get.

You want to even shift your weight a bit forward onto your hands if possible to make it harder.

You then want to maintain that nice straight line from your hands on the ground up your spine to your butt as you lower your head between your fingertips then press the ground away to extend your arms straight back out.

Just be conscious you don’t rock forward and drop your butt or you’ll end up turning this into more of a regular push up.

You want to focus on those triceps and shoulders and feel like you’re pushing your butt up into the air.

If you film yourself doing this, you want to still see an angled press with your arms in line with your body and spine as you extend out.

Visualizing that barbell or dumbbell press can help!

You can walk your feet closer to your hands and really push up onto your toes before then moving your feet to a low incline to progress.

If you’re struggling to control the more downward dog position though, do not walk your feet in toward your hands yet

Instead even consider putting your hands on an incline like a stair.

By raising your hands up, you reduce the resistance on your upper body, helping you practice that vertical press with a lighter weight.

Regress to progress and focus on the proper movement and feeling your shoulders and triceps working.

There is always a way to match our fitness level and even the equipment we have on hand to get in a great workout based on our needs and goals!

But try one of these pike push up variations, using what you need based on your abilities now.

Just like we change up tools and weights and reps to create progression with the overhead press, you can vary resistance through inclines and foot positions with the pike push up.

You can even change up the tempo you use to perform the pike push up, slowing down just parts of the exercise.

And then you can use it for interval work or different rep and set designs as needed.

When we don’t have access to equipment we can still challenge ourselves and build muscle and strength with fabulous workouts!

Want amazing workouts you can do anywhere?

–> Check Out Dynamic Strength

Tips For Healthy Eating (And How To Be More Mindful)

Tips For Healthy Eating (And How To Be More Mindful)

by | Apr 10, 2025 | podcast

Listen:

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Transcript:

Open Transcript:

Cori (00:00):
Welcome to the Redefining Strength Podcast, everything you need to succeed on your health and fitness journey, even the stuff you don’t want to hear. Let’s talk about being more mindful. When we munch, it can be very easy to eat for a whole host of reasons and not be conscious of the calories we’re consuming and the impact they’re having and what this is really doing to our body. So I’m super excited to be joined by amazing registered dietician, Julia, to talk about being more mindful when we munch. Julia, welcome. I’d love to hear your thoughts on mindful munching.

Julia (00:38):
Thank you. I’m happy to be here. As we know, eating mindfully really helps us bring that intention to the food that we’re choosing and eating, like you said. So the ultimate goal with mindful munching is really to cultivate a healthy relationship with food, to improve our digestion and really learn how to eat in a balanced way that allows us to hit our goals.

Cori (01:00):
So as you know, and I know you are too, we’re big advocates of macro tracking, and I don’t see being more mindful as the opposite of macro tracking. And I do want to get into intuitive eating and how that plays a role and what that really is, but how can being more mindful go with macro tracking to help you really reach your goals?

Julia (01:23):
Yeah, definitely. So the first thing is it really allows us to be intentional, like you were saying. So when we don’t take the time to think about why we’re eating, we can allow those temporary emotions to take over, whether this be stress, boredom, social pressures, or even just aimlessly eating whatever is in front of us because we’re hungry in the moment. So that tracking really helps us bring that intentionality back to the choices that we are making. And then the next issue that we kind of find is that a lot of times when we’re rushed, food can enter our stomach before it’s even ready. So with tracking and being intentional, we’re able to really also kind of dial in on that digestion process where we’re able to better break down our food, chew it properly, improve our digestion, and give our natural satiety signals a chance to really kick in, which also prevents overeating. So through that mindfulness, we’re able to stimulate the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, often referred to as that rest and digest. So not only is this going to help boost our gut health or digestion, but it’s also really key for those of us looking for weight loss and body recomposition through macro tracking as well.

Cori (02:32):
It’s such an interesting thing because we think what feels natural or our hunger cues are just, well, they’re there, right? It’s our body telling us something, but we don’t realize how much of what’s natural, what our body is. Singly is something that we’ve trained even through previous dieting practices, and so that can make it hard to eat intuitively when we have a specific goal. Can you go over what intuitive eating really is and how being mindful is slightly different from it and how all this works together?

Julia (03:04):
Yeah, so intuitive eating is a way that you’re eating to honor your cravings, your hunger and fullness cues. But the goal being to foster a healthier relationship with food in theory, it is a wonderful concept that we as humans should be able to have the ability to choose what our bodies are needing day-to-day. However, like you brought up, for those of us who have a history of undereating emotional eating or eating a poor quality diet, because our food system is saturated with highly palatable addictive foods, our intuition is probably not going to be the most accurate reflection of what our body actually needs because our current cravings are heavily influenced by how we currently eat, like you said. So you look at someone who has a history of extreme dieting, they probably don’t have the proper hunger cues telling them when they need to eat because their metabolism is downregulated and adapted to that low intake.

(04:00):
You look at someone who craves sugar constantly throughout the day, that could be the result of dysregulated blood sugar from undereating on certain foods like protein, fat, and fiber. And I also just really quickly want to highlight a study that was done, I believe in 2023. It was pretty recent, and it actually showed that as humans, if our protein needs are unmet, we’ll continue to overeat predominantly on carbohydrate and fat rich foods leading to weight gain in an efforts to meet that goal and get that satiety. So while intuitive eating is a great long-term goal for most of us, it’s often not the first step that we need to take to get there.

Cori (04:39):
It’s all about learning what portions we need. And I bring this up too because I think a lot of times we’ll start tracking macros and we’ll get frustrated that we’re not hitting the ratios, but it comes back to, well, if you were hitting the numbers you needed, you’d be at the goal you wanted to be at, but you’re not. So you have to relearn to look at those portions. And in this process of relearning those portions and even tracking things to start, you are learning to eat more mindfully. You’re learning to eat more intuitively because you are seeing what you’re actually consuming and then the impact that it’s truly having. And I think that’s something we don’t talk about enough, the benefit that tracking can truly have to make us more mindful.

Julia (05:23):
Yeah, I definitely agree. I mean, tracking serves as that data to show us what is and what isn’t working for our bodies. So it allows us to go in and separate our actual reality from our own perception of our reality, which is really key because sometimes we can feel like we’re doing great, we can feel like we’re eating the right portions, like you said, we can feel like we may be eating a lot of protein, but it may not always be the case. So tracking is kind of that gateway that allows us to better understand what our bodies need in order to thrive. And over time, as we’re able to shift our palate and really reap the long-term benefits of supporting our metabolism, we’ll find that we’ll be in a much better place to implement these intuitive eating practices. But we need to first put that work in, do that tracking, get that data in order to better educate ourselves and really rewire our metabolisms.

Cori (06:14):
You use the word feel a lot in that, and I think it’s very important that we come back to this word because feelings are not data yet with being more mindful. We have to try and trust in our feelings more, but we have to build more accurate feelings, we’ll say, or mindsets through tracking. But if we’re just allowing how we feel to dictate what we do, think about a fun event. When you’re celebrating excited and it’s fun and the food tastes good, you’re going to be willing to or want to eat more. When you’re stressed after a long day and you’re looking for that comfort and a food gives you comfort, you’re going to go to that food. I know simply when I want more of an ice cream or the peanut butter or whatever else it is, I feel like a portion should be bigger than it is and the portion becomes bigger than it is. Feelings aren’t data, but they can really impact how we ultimately fuel. How can we start to separate out what is a feeling and driving us towards not the correct portions and what’s truly data-driven decisions?

Julia (07:20):
The first step is really just understanding and bringing awareness to it, like you said, right? So a lot of people think that we do these compulsive behaviors like emotional eating because we just lack the willpower on food. Like, oh, I just don’t have the self-control. When in reality we often do it because it’s the only way that we know to either self-soothe or to give ourselves that boost of happiness or whatever. It’s that we’re really seeking from that food. So most of us have heard as dopamine as it’s an important part of our brain’s reward pathway and it causes us to feel good, right? It’s a very pleasurable thing to have. So we also know that foods can give us this dopamine boost really highly palatable foods. So sugary foods, high fat foods. So what makes sense from a scientific standpoint that we are going to reach for these foods, whether it be that ice cream or that glass of wine to make us feel better in these moments because scientifically it’s boosting that dopamine and making us feel better.

(08:19):
But the key takeaway here, and the big point of bringing that awareness to it is that we have to understand that it’s often not the food we’re seeking, it’s the feeling that the food gives us. So the issue is that we’re not really solving the problem at the root. We’re just coping in an unhealthy manner that can contribute to waking and health issues over time. And when this happens continuously, we’re wiring our brain to immediately turn to food when we feel stressed, scared, or even happy. So this is where I always call it the power of the pause that can come in and just allow ourselves to ask those appropriate questions. Am I actually hungry? Am I hoping to relieve feelings of stress, of sadness? Is this food going to satiate me? Am I just eating because I’m at a party and every single person around me is eating?

(09:04):
But ultimately bringing that awareness to it, taking that pause can help us recognize that it’s not really the food that we need, and over time we can begin to replace it with healthier habits. And this is why again, tracking things before eating them can be so helpful because it forces you to take that pause. Not only does it help you be more proactive with our goals as we know, but it really allows you to take a step back outside of the situation, detach from those emotions, and really just pause and think about how we are going to eat and how that lines up with our goals.

Cori (09:39):
It’s that reflection that’s so powerful to give us choice in what we do. And this isn’t to demonize any foods because you are going to want to just enjoy a food that you love, that you grew up with that has memories attached. You’re going to potentially want to sit down to a Thanksgiving meal or have those Christmas cookies, and there’s nothing wrong with these things. I know I am not giving up my summer margaritas and chips and guacamole, especially when the reed avocados are ripe, and it’s not a bad thing to have feelings associated with food, but it’s being mindful then of the choices you’re making when you do consume these things and the impact they’re having on your results. Because when we’re mindful in that way, we don’t create guilt too, which only creates more of a spiral with some of these things. However, pausing is easier said than done. And I love that you bring up tracking beforehand because that allows you to assess what you really need. But let’s just say something comes up and you do eat out of emotion. How can you then use the power of the pause to learn from that?

Julia (10:39):
Yeah, that’s a great question. And that’s where again, we always say tracking services that data to have. So even I have all my clients track your off days, track those moments that aren’t so perfect because that’s data that allows us to then peel back those layers, go back and see what could have led to this, what could have caused this. But again, kind of just that power of the pause in the moment, even if you’re out at a restaurant with people socially, it allows you to come back to things and check in with yourself and check in with what you actually need and want in that moment. And like you said, sometimes you are going to want to go for the cheesecake or the ice cream or whatever it is, and you are going to want to enjoy it. And I think that’s totally okay to even allow yourself to acknowledge like, yes, I want to go for this.

(11:21):
And even if you’re going to try to work it in with your goals, whatever that looks like. But again, just making sure that we’re taking that pause and if it’s going to be something that we’re going to go for, we’re going to enjoy it, savor it, enjoy the experience with the people that we’re around versus feeling that guilt around it. And if it is something that we’re like, I’m not really going to enjoy this. I’m extremely stressed right now, I’m uncomfortable. This is not what’s going to serve me in this moment, then that’s okay too. And that’s again where the power of the pause allows you to det from.

Cori (11:53):
It’s realizing that being more mindful of what you’re consuming is also understanding why you’re consuming it. And on the flip side, while I’m actually guilty of both, while overeating with stress, sometimes we can even undereat with stress and we’re not mindful that we’re eating too little and that’s impacting our results. How do you navigate if you are undereating due to stress? Because we talk a lot about overeating with it, but undereating can also be an issue.

Julia (12:20):
Yeah, definitely. And it’s kind of that idea of that fight or flight response which you can get, which causes us to overeat can also cause us to undereat like you’re saying. And sometimes people feel like they can’t really switch gears from experiencing that stress that they are experiencing firsthand. So even just again, practicing mindfulness by meeting ourselves where we’re at, remembering that food is still fuel, and this could mean even just adjusting your plan for the time being. Maybe you’re going to rely more on things like small calorie dense snacks, things like protein bars and shakes, things like yogurt bowls where you can add a lot of nuts and seeds and kind of bulk that up a little bit. Things like smoothies where you can add in yogurt, nut butters, or even using an eating schedule and setting reminders for yourself throughout the day, that can be huge. As silly as it sounds, just setting an alarm on your phone or scheduling it in your calendar when to eat, that can be huge just to remind you, Hey, I know I may not want to eat right now, but it’s important to fuel my body and still give myself as care in this moment. And just having that little reminder can go a really long way to helping you to still accomplish that goal and get in that fuel when you’re feeling a little bit stressed.

Cori (13:31):
It’s that accountability and outside perspective that we’re often missing because again, feelings aren’t data and what’s going on inside our head can often take us down a path that’s not correct if we let it. And so being more mindful is assessing where those feelings are coming from. With that being said, we can track ahead to help hold us accountable, whether we overeat or we even undereat, and especially if we’re undereating, we might think, well, this is even good for my weight loss goals, which is a whole other subject, but not necessarily the case, which is why meal planning can be so key so that you can track ahead, you can hold yourself accountable, you can give yourself that outside perspective. Can you go over some tips to help with that? I think that is often the biggest struggle that pre-planning, but if we don’t do it, we’re setting ourselves up for failure. And as odd as it sounds to have a plan in place that makes us more mindful.

Julia (14:25):
Yeah, definitely. I mean, even just pre-planning or pre logging, whatever that looks like for you can really help us bring that intentionality and just ensure that we are hitting our goals and we’re usually sitting down to plan in a time that we’re not hungry or tired, so we’re able to make more mindful choices. So we’re really just setting ourselves up for success. Like you said, sometimes you aren’t able to be mindful simply just because our environment doesn’t allow for us make long choices. If you’re someone who you work 10 to 12 hour shifts and you don’t have a plan for what you’re going to eat when you get off shift, then of course you’re not going to make the best choices. You can’t expect yourself to do that. But pre tracking really helps to come in and reduce any questions of what you should have, reduce any food noise throughout the day and just allow you to set up a plan.

(15:11):
And this can look different for every single person. For some people it can be meal prepping individual meals. For some people it could be bulk prepping, maybe a few protein items or veggies, if that’s what you struggle with, so that you have them easily available to throw into meals, even if it’s coming home and chopping up your produce, your fruits and veggies and just having them ready to grab in the fridge to pair with something for when you get off that shift, that can go a huge way or a long way just to help you have that readily available for you and give you that crutch to lean on when you are needing it.

Cori (15:45):
You’re using that power of the pause to plan ahead so that you can be more mindful because you’re not letting emotions or stress or fatigue or any of these other things come into play. You’re sitting down to really assess. And I think it’s key at these points that we reflect on even what our emotional triggers are and how we respond to them and why they come up, and even what our coming week or coming months, even the coming year looks like in terms of some of those stressors to really plan ahead for it. Because if we don’t own what’s going on, all those priorities that come up are what become our excuses. So off of that key takeaways, if someone wants to be more mindful so that their priorities aren’t sabotaging them, their emotions aren’t sabotaging them, they can be more mindful in their eating to see the best results.

Julia (16:33):
I mean, just going off of that, obviously dialing into what your personal causes are that lead you to eat more mindlessly. So could it be that lack of preparation? Could it be emotions? Could it be that you’re on the go and you’re very busy? It could it be lack of time? It could it be just distractions during mealtime that you’re experiencing, but whatever it is, really dialing in and figuring out what those biggest challenges are for yourself will allow you to then come up with a plan to implement the necessary changes. So for those who stress eat, for example, this could mean leaning into that power of the paws and working to find healthier stress releases unrelated to food or even facing the stress at the root for those who are busy and on the move. This could mean planning a few meals out, maybe going for overnight oats or a smoothie that you can take with you on the go in your car, or even keeping some macro friendly, convenient snacks on hand like beef jerky, roos, edamame, protein bars in your gym bag for whenever you’re in a pinch. But again, this is where tracking will service that data and allows us to see those areas throughout the day in the weeks where we are struggling and allow us to see those huge room and areas of growth.

Cori (17:45):
Being more mindful isn’t just being aware of how your body responds to the food that you eat or how full you feel. It really is about having that outside perspective of how everything works together and how your fueling is impacting you and how your emotions are impacting your fueling. So it’s so much more than just intuitive eating, truly at its heart. And again, we are human and that voice inside our head can really sometimes sabotage us. So having that outside perspective and using tracking to our advantage, whether it is in a food tracker and if someone’s maybe struggling with the food tracker, struggling with macros, struggling with even becoming a little feeling that they’re obsessive with the numbers, what would you recommend they do to track to help them have that outside perspective to be more mindful?

Julia (18:31):
Yeah, that’s a great question. I would say even just taking a more modified approach to tracking, whether it be just a protein goal or again, if you’re really struggling with a certain meal, even just focusing on that meal, maybe it’s just breakfast or it’s just your snacks and really just trying to start small, and then over time you can build up and gather more data. But even just that will allow you to then go in and see how you can make just those little 1% changes day to day.

Cori (18:58):
I love that. And I even think taking pictures of the meals you want to eat, you plan to eat that will fuel you well. And then even taking pictures of the things that you maybe consumed that weren’t on what you had planned to eat, to sort of be able to compare, to have that data, to understand even writing out some notes on why you then had those things. There’s so many different ways to hold yourself accountable and give that outside perspective to then assess your feelings, how they’re impacting your fueling, and be more mindful in how you choose to fuel. Julia, any other closing thoughts? This has been fabulous.

Julia (19:32):
Just again, kind of figuring out what those possible causes are for you, and this is where it looks different for every single person and not being afraid to even dive in if it is something more so like stress, if it is something, whatever it may be for you, just not being afraid to dive even into it, because often it’s things beyond food, right? It’s that planning, it’s that accountability. So just not being afraid to dive into it and make those small changes over time, that is what adds up to that lasting change.

Cori (20:01):
It’s all in the reflection guys. Hopefully this was really helpful for you to really step back, see how you can be more mindful in your fueling. Love to hear your biggest takeaways. Julia, thank you so much for joining me today. Have a great rest of your week.

 

*Note: This transcript is autogenerated there may be some unintended errors.

5 Tips For Muscle Growth (GAINS 101!)

5 Tips For Muscle Growth (GAINS 101!)

by | Apr 6, 2025 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

So you want to build muscle…

Put down your cardio crown and get ready to eat more.

In this video I’ll cover muscle building 101, or bulking, and it’s going to require you to go against many of the dieting and training practices you’re used to, especially if you’ve found yourself constantly on that yo-yo dieting cycle over the years.

Now if you’re wondering, “Should I do a bulk?” here are some things to consider…

Are you thin and wanting to see more muscle definition?

Have you dieted down but aren’t as defined as you’d like?

Are you going through menopause and seeing weight creep on around your middle?

Are you feeling like your metabolism is broken?

Have you plateaued in your weight loss journey after being in a deficit for 6 months or more?

If you said yes to any of these, it may be time to focus on a muscle building phase.

Building muscle can improve our body composition if we’re already pretty lean, making us look leaner and more defined…

It can also improve our insulin sensitivity and metabolic health to avoid gaining unwanted fat as we get older…

And a bulking phase can even help us ultimately bust a weight loss plateau through a period of time focused on performance, metabolic health and hormonal balance while gaining muscle so we look leaner as we lose.

But I’ll tell you the thing that most often holds us back from seeing the amazing muscle gains that are possible…

And it isn’t even a nutritional mistake or workout one….although there are a few common ones I’ll go over to help you avoid them…

It’s the fear of gaining weight on the scale!

Many of us have worked hard to achieve our weight loss or fat loss goals. Often a number on the scale is tied to that.

Especially if you’ve lost weight more recently, the idea of seeing that number go up can freak you out.

But honestly, it might and you may look even leaner as it does.

If you’re serious about putting on muscle, consider ditching the scale and instead focus on body measurements and progress pictures for a bit.

If you do use the scale, be ready to see even an initial jump as you move to eating more, focusing on more carbs and even see more muscle tissue damage and inflammation from pushing hard in your workouts.

This isn’t fat nor muscle being gained. Sorry doesn’t happen that fast.

We have to remember that simply by no longer being in a deficit we won’t be depleted and our body is going to store the extra we’re giving it.

This means full energy stores. And as you build more muscle, the more you can store. But these stores are needed to see those gains.

And then as you build muscle, the scale may go up. Because if you gain 1lbs of muscle and don’t gain any fat, the scale is going to go up 1lbs.

Not to mention, more muscle means more storage capacity.

With pushing your lifting hard as well to promote those muscle gains, you’re also going to see jumps on the scale due to bodily process to recovery.

So to summarize, the scale will go up and may show big swings daily.

On top of this, as you see the scale go up, especially over time as you build muscle, you may even then need to embrace eating more to retain the lean muscle and increase in metabolic processes!

This is why measurements and photos can be key. Too often the scale jumps and we instantly cut back when we need to do the opposite.

It’s why we never truly make progress.

Gaining muscle is hard, especially the longer we’ve been training for. And a big part of what can sabotage us is the scale mind games.

Measure areas you want to build muscle in and those that you want to avoid gaining fat in, like your waist.

Watching trends in each can help you see where those gains are happening and how your body composition is truly changing.

Now, the how-to of bulking.

And I don’t know about you, but I want to build muscle efficiently while also not having then to backtrack a ton to lose fat.

I want to do things in a sustainable way that leads to optimized long-term results.

So I say this with still wanting you to see those pure muscle gains without gaining a ton of fat….

Ditch the steady state cardio other than walking. Stop the long HIIT sessions. Focus on lifting.

While both may have helped you lean down, they both work against those pure muscle gains.

We have to remember that what got us to one goal often works against us getting to the next level.

Cardio, especially the long run and endurance rides, is catabolic to muscle mass and depletes our glycogen stores. It can hinder us from lifting heavier and optimally recovering and rebuilding from our strength work.

It can raise cortisol levels and put our body under chronic stress.

If you want to gain muscle faster and have even been frustrated by a lack of results, ditch the cardio for a time.

This also means not turning your strength workouts into cardio sessions.

Too often to feel more worked from our workouts, because we equate feeling tired with a workout being “good enough,” we cut back on rest.

This can make us get more out of breath or feel shakier.

But it also doesn’t allow our muscles to truly recover to lift as heavy the next round. And if we can’t truly push the weights and exercise variations we’re using to work closer to true muscular failure, we aren’t going to create the same stimulus for muscle growth.

Don’t avoid longer rest periods the heavier you lift. If you’re using a big compound lift like a deadlift or bench and really trying to work to fatigue at 5 reps, you may need 2-3 minutes of rest.

You actually want to feel like you earned that and don’t fully want to get back to the weight even with that much rest!

Too often we lift submaximal loads, just stop at the top of the rep range and cut our rest to make it feel harder. But this won’t lead to the same muscle growth.

And on top of dropping the cardio, and not just focusing on our workouts making us feel tired and out of breath, you probably need to eat more.

Now if you’re thinking, “I need to burn fewer calories AND eat more?! Won’t I just gain a ton of fat?!”

The answer is, NO, especially if you are strategic in how you increase your calories and dial in your macros.

You may see an initial jump on the scale as you eat more and even potentially bump carbs, but this increase is glycogen storage and water weight retention.

Both of these things are needed to help your muscles repair and rebuild, not to mention provide you the energy in the first place to train hard and actually create progression to drive growth.

But just creating a huge surplus isn’t the answer. You want to increase your calories over what you’re consuming to maintain your weight by 100-300. The bigger the deficit, the more you may see fat being gained.

And while you may not care about gaining some fat in the process to ultimately gain more muscle, there is a point of diminishing returns where gaining fat can ultimately hinder your performance and, especially if you aren’t focusing on quality fueling, lead to slower recovery.

You also then will have to do more of a cut after if you want to lean back down and risk losing some of the muscle you worked hard to gain.

The more we end up in this bulking, cutting cycle, the more we can find ourselves gaining and losing the same few pounds over truly just slowing down to focus on recomp happening.

So a small, sustainable surplus you can increase as you make progress can help you build while staying leaner to ultimately retain more of your muscle long term.

And then focus on QUALITY – both in your workouts and your diet.

While it may be tempting to not care how you’re hitting your calories and macros, and you SHOULD work in foods you love, you do want to focus on nutrient dense foods to help your body recover optimally, and help you feel your best in your training sessions.

Eating crap, well, it makes you feel crappy and often even sluggish in your training.

Proper fueling and hydration can also help you avoid being as sore and fatigued. And the better you recover, the harder you can train and the better your gains!

The quality of your workouts is also key. Too often we go through the motions with our training. Stopping when the weight feels kind of hard and we hit the number of reps we were supposed to do.

We aren’t super intentional and focused to maximize each and every rep and push as hard as possible.

We aren’t focused on what we feel working to maximize muscle engagement.

We even rush through over paying attention to tempos and ranges of motion.

A lack of attention and focus doesn’t allow us to optimize our training sessions. The more experienced a lifter you are, the more this lack of attention and focus will hold you back.

Don’t ignore the importance of really focusing on quality not just quantity in everything you do. It isn’t just about more moves.

It’s about having a purpose for everything you include.

It’s not just about more calories or carbs, it’s about quality and even playing around with timing.

Don’t overwhelm yourself with the details, especially to start, but be conscious of all that you’re including and track and record how you feel.

The more you understand all the habits you’re implementing, the more you can tweak as you go to truly see results build!

Want a custom plan and guidance to build your leanest, strongest body no matter your age?

–> Learn more about my 1:1 Coaching and schedule a consultation

Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

by | Apr 3, 2025 | podcast

Listen:

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Transcript:

Open Transcript:

Cori (00:00):
Welcome to the Redefining Strength Podcast. Everything you need to succeed on your health and fitness journey, even the stuff you don’t want to hear. What if not having changed anything is truly the problem? So I had someone comment, I haven’t changed anything, but all of a sudden I’m gaining weight and getting that comment, I slightly smiled because I think often we think, well, I’m not doing anything different, so why am I getting a different result? And my comment back to her, I could tell it slightly surprised her, but my comment back was, have you considered that not changing anything may actually be part of the problem? Because guess what? Your body, your lifestyle, your mindset, your goals are constantly evolving. And if you aren’t adjusting your workouts or diet to match that mismatch now with what used to work when your body and lifestyle and goals were all in a different place might be part of the problem.

(00:57):
What we do to reach one goal can often hold us back from reaching the next, even if our goal is still weight loss. And I bring this up because I think over the seasons, we need to assess what does and doesn’t work for our lifestyles. We need to assess where our mindset is right now. But in thinking about all this, when we think about sustainability, we also think about this as one thing. So think about what was sustainable for you in college? What was sustainable, maybe as a newlywed, what was sustainable when you had young kids? What’s sustainable when you’re an empty nester? All these things are going to be different. Sustainable is going to mean something different to you at each of these phases. And if you try and cling to what felt comfortable and confused, comfort with sustainability, you’re going to ultimately hold yourself back because nothing works forever.

(01:40):
And everything is constantly changing. And I bring up the seasons too, because I think we think often, okay, yes, now I’m older, so I have to adjust, or my goals have changed, so I have to adjust. But even over just the course of a year, your habits are not going to look the same, driving towards the same goal. And the more we own that, the more we can come back to the fundamentals, but evolve the exact implementation of habits before we fall off. So if you think about a workout plan, you’ve done a workout plan, or maybe you’ve done a diet plan even, and all of a sudden you’re like, oh, this is just not sustainable any longer. Well, how has your lifestyle changed? What’s happened? Is it simply that you’re hitting that hard? Where at 21 days you always start to give up? Okay, well maybe that’s the case.

(02:23):
Maybe it’s just a timeframe thing. It’s not that anything else in your lifestyle has even changed. Well, then how can you get over this hurdle still doing more than you would’ve done in the past? What works in January when you’re super motivated, all of a sudden it’s summer, you’re traveling more. Those habits might not work. And if you keep trying to clinging to them, that’s where you can end up falling off and sabotaging yourself. Same thing with the holidays. So the more we’re constantly assessing, okay, A, am I getting the goal or reaching the goal I want? And maybe then I do keep the habits, but if I’m not seeing the results that I want, or even going backwards and I haven’t started to fall off my plan to get less consistent, what is a mismatch that I need to address? And I think it’s really key that not only do we do a lot of reflecting along our journey and set those checkpoints, so not only a deadline for our ultimate goal, but even, and I won’t say deadlines because I think deadlines mean, oh, we’re supposed to be done here.

(03:12):
I do like to call ’em checkpoints, but just times to check in, be like, okay, every three weeks I’m going to do a check-in. I’m going to assess how things have gone, assess my true consistency, and then reflect on what it can change. Because it’s kind of like we’re a mechanic on our car. You don’t want to have your car and then not do the check-ins, the oil changes, all those different things. You want to be doing those things so that your car works really well. But so often we’re not doing those checkups, so to speak, on our diet and workout routines as we’re working towards our goal. All of a sudden we’re just like, oh, it’s not working. The car’s broken down. I’m just going to set it on fire and leave it there and go do something else. No, you wouldn’t do that.

(03:47):
You got to take care of that car. So it keeps moving. You don’t want to have to go buy a new one. You can’t buy a new body. So you got to do those checkups. But I want you to really reflect if you are struggling with seeing results, what other things have changed? Because sustainable doesn’t mean that it is comfortable. It doesn’t mean what we’ve always done. It is going to mean that there is some hard, it just has to be something built off. Those basics that we can consistently do that we know will drive us forward. And that’s even where we so often see that response of, oh gosh, why didn’t I do this sooner? Well, it didn’t feel sustainable to start, but now it does. But you embraced the why behind it. You reflected on what you needed to meet yourself where you’re at.

(04:25):
You went from those January habits where you could do six days a week, one hour in the gym to realizing all of a sudden that felt like the effort wasn’t getting the outcome that you wanted and it wasn’t feeling worth it. And so you’re going to give up. But instead you’re saying, no, no, no, I’m going to do three days a week because there is no ideal. It’s just about meeting myself where I’m at. And in that evolution, in that willingness to change, in that willingness to even say, Hey, it’s not a right or wrong thing. It’s just that nothing works forever. What I did in college doesn’t work for me now. Right? That reflection is what ultimately drives us forward to create sustainable patterns that will evolve. Because sustainable means being open to evolution so that we’re always meeting ourselves where we’re at. So if you have been frustrated by your lack of progress and say, but I haven’t changed my healthy habits, really dive in and reflect on what in those habits might need to evolve because something else in your lifestyle, even if it’s a mindset, even if it’s a routine because of work, a family life, that you’re not going to change, especially, how can you then evolve everything else to match what your body, your goals, your lifestyle needs right now?

 

*Note: This transcript is autogenerated there may be some unintended errors.