(00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone you know. So let’s jump right in.

(00:29):
Squats are bad for your knees, pushups kill your wrists, deadlifts are bad for your back. There are lots of exercise myths and a lot of moves that are being demonized is causing aches and pains out there. And today I really wanted to dive into why this is occurring, why people fear movements and what we can do about it because I firmly believe there really aren’t any bad or wrong or evil exercises. There are just misused moves and no one variation is not going to be right for everybody. But too often we label and move as bad as causing our knee pain, our back pain, our hip pain, and then we just simply avoid it. In avoiding that exercise, what we don’t realize is that we’re not training and learning to control a fundamental movement pattern often that we do in everyday life. And if we don’t learn to control this movement pattern, we’re going to put ourselves at greater risk for injury, stepping off a curb, trying to go upstairs, just moving to twist and put plates away in the kitchen.

(01:29):
So we’ve really got to see our workouts as a chance to rebuild and retrain those movement patterns. So I thought it was interesting even that it came up when I asked about movements. You guys wanted to hear about that someone brought up that they wanted something else besides back and front squats because they couldn’t squat because of their knees because this is the exact thing that I wanted to address. I also thought it was interesting and where this topic came from was off of the burpee video that I shared because I think it’s a fundamental movement that everybody needs to master, and I go over modifications in this new YouTube and one of the comments on it was, I disagree. I don’t think the burpee is right to use with clients. I think they don’t do it correctly and that because of all these other aches and pains, they shouldn’t do it.

(02:08):
And I put ’em on the paradigm bike instead and part of that, my reply to him was that the Dyne bike not only perpetuates a lot of the postures that contribute to a lot of the mobility restrictions we have, as much as I like the Dyne bike and use it, but also that when we’re not retraining these movement patterns, we’re not actually strengthening or reversing some of the things that we see and that leads to injury we can’t simply avoid. Because if you think about the squat, even with the squat, and I’ll even use the bench with the squat. This is sitting to a toilet, this is sitting to a chair, this is sitting down to a couch. You’re not going to be able to be like this and not do any flexion to get down very easily. So the more you can control that active knee flexion, the better.

(02:53):
A lot of times we don’t think about things that way and that’s what leads to other injuries. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve a client’s reaching for a pen, reaching for something and all of a sudden they get injured. It’s not even in the gym and it’s not that moves can’t cause injury. They 100% can, but we have to earn them. We have to understand that even form and recruitment are different things. Form is what the movement looks like. Okay, this move looks great. I’m squatting with perfect form, but if I’m watching myself and really I have a compensation and balance and I’m trying to force everything to stay in line when my body really wants to shift, that’s where overload and injury occurs, which is why we have to focus not only on what the movement looks like but what we feel working.

(03:32):
So I want to talk first about the squat. The squat is a move that is often demonized for causing knee pain. You’ve probably even heard the cue, keep your knees behind your toes and this cue came about because of that knee pain issue. When we sit back more, keeping our knee more over our ankle, that more vertical should angle not only helps us load our glutes a little bit more, but it doesn’t put as much strain and stress on the quads. Now, it is not bad for your knee to travel forward. The deeper you get in that squat, and especially if you go more as to grass, you’re going to find that your knee is going to travel forward. Where this becomes an issue is yes, if you have not built up those quads, yes, active knee flexion, depending on what you have going on with your knee, you need to really work up to it and the exact range of motion you include will vary.

(04:21):
But where this became an issue is that we didn’t have proper loading and people weren’t noticing that they weren’t keeping their heels down. And so that shift forward and weight not only puts more strain on the quads and you can even use that strategically amazingly enough, but that’s where that cue keep your knees behind your toes came about to help prevent people from squatting incorrectly and not actually sitting their butt back. Now if you do have knee pain and you’re like, there is no way I’m getting all the way down there, I don’t have that range of motion, I don’t have that control, I can’t keep my heels down, this is where we start to find variations that work for our build our body because even toes just being pointed straight ahead versus toes out versus their squat width, all those things are going to be based on our build.

(05:04):
And a lot of times with social media now we demonize any form outside of one specific mold and that’s just not correct. If you have longer femur and a shorter torso like I do, you are going to have more of a hip hinge squat. You’re not going to be as upright. But even in that you want to address any mobility restrictions from ankles to hips that might be impacting that if you are trying to get a more upright squat. So you can train that when you’re working on mobility, there are even modifications for that. That might be front loading a weight, it might even be pressing the weight out. That counterbalance to brace your core can help. But again, it’s finding ways to use the movement patterns work around our pain and retrain to earn all the different variations to control the full range of motion that our joints are supposed to do to strengthen the muscles involved in these fundamental movement patterns.

(05:50):
And that might mean as you’re starting out with a squat, you sit back to a box to help you load. You can then feel your feet pushing into the ground to drive up. You’re not feeling your weight come forward. You’re also protecting against the hip pinch as much because especially setting up at the bottom, you can focus on that drive up, but that helps you control the squat range of motion and hey, maybe coming back after knee injury, you’re using a higher box maybe right now you can’t control active knee flexion, so you use a wall sit or just a squat hole at the depth you can go. It’s not that you’re going to be able to do exactly the full variation that someone else does. So maybe back squat or front squat with a barbell is not right for you. But the point is is that you can easily find a variation that helps you build up.

(06:33):
The more you can help yourself build up and slowly progress, the more you’re going to earn harder and harder variations and be able to include more and more going move this back forward a little bit. Cool. All right, so I’ll actually use the barbell now because I wanted to go over deadlift next. Do you have to move back? My beautiful assistant is helping me out with Now. Moving on. I do want to touch on lunges. I also wanted to touch on deadlift. You know what? I’ll go back to lunges really quick just because lunges are really close in terms of being demonized often for knee pain, just like squats, and it’s because we haven’t been able to control the range of motion. If you are doing a front lunge, a lot of times what we see is that weight traveling forward, that heel coming up, weight not being centered, and that’s where you even see the shifts to get back where people can’t fully control it or we try and go into a deeper range of motion.

(07:25):
What we don’t realize is that lunges are also a hip flexor stretch. So when we do these things, we’re stretching our hip, especially because we’re squeezing that glute to drive the hip into extension. So if we don’t have the mobility, that’s where we can also see aches and pains. So when you are lunging, you want to think about keeping your weight centered. You can utilize different variations. So when you do that front lunge, the more your knee travels forward, if you don’t have the proper ankle mobility, the more you’re going to put strain on that knee. So you have to work on your ankle mobility to allow this to happen. But if that is too much strain and stress keeping that more vertical shin angle can help you load that front glute a little bit more. Potentially using a little bit more of a hip hinge can help you load that glute more.

(08:10):
Maybe right now the dynamic movement of the front lunge, you can’t control it. Maybe you step a little bit more narrow. Maybe you keep that back leg straighter to do an interior reach lunge. Maybe you even do a reverse lunge because that is slightly more glute dominant and you can keep that vertical shin angle. What I’m bringing up here is a lot of opportunity in using different options to make sure that we’re meeting ourselves where we’re at. But even in that, even if you can control the front lunge, you want to target your glutes more. You do a reverse lunge if you’re even building up and you’re like with all the movements, I can’t control everything. I can’t focus on what I feel working, we can start to do a split squat. So I actually like having clients set up even at the bottom of a split squat because that way they can focus on squeezing the glute to drive the hip into the extension.

(08:53):
They can make sure their weight is centered. They’re working through a full range of motion because again, this is the way we strengthen through a full range of motion and improve our mobility. Because if we’re only doing a split squat right here, we’re not strengthening through the full range of motion. So all that hip stretching we’re trying to do, hip mobility work we’re trying to do, we’re then going and reversing it by only strengthening and learning to control a portion of that movement. So by setting up at the bottom, and I’m going to knock myself over as I try and talk, you can learn to drive up evenly with your weight and then you can come all the way down and you’re strengthening through that full range. Now you might be thinking, I can’t yet control that full range of motion. Maybe you do have a hand support to help out a little bit to reduce some of the resistance, help with that instability or you even reduce the range of motion to control for it and then you slowly lower that block that you’re kneeling down to.

(09:41):
The key here is there are so many different ways to change not only the control, we have to feel those recruitment patterns but work through a range of motion safely. Again, if active knee flexion is something that you struggle with but you want to work your quads instead of avoiding the squat, instead of avoiding the lunge, find variations that allow you to build up and slowly strengthen the muscles, strengthen the movement pattern. Again, that anterior reach lunge, which has more of a hip hinge, has less knee flexion. That’s a great way to work your quads, load your glutes, even learn how to control maybe a forward movement and still be able to push back efficiently without your heel coming up. I do want to talk really quickly about ankle mobility because knee pain comes up a lot with both squats and lunges and the knee is generally caught in the middle of the ankle and the hip and injury there.

(10:28):
Even previous ankle sprains, hip pain, that’s what leads to movement compensations, which then as you can see, just moving at those two places impact our knee positioning, right? We can be squatting, we can see our knee cave in, so we might need to activate our glutes. We might need to address our ankle mobility as well, especially even if we’re seeing hip and glute issues. But with that, if you’re trying to assess where the mobility restriction is because you don’t necessarily have a hip injury or an ankle injury by putting weights here and putting your heels up, if you can then all of a sudden get lower without pain, you probably have ankle mobility restrictions that you need to work on. I can link out to some more tips to help with that ankle mobility, but you want to assess what’s going on. And even with the glute stuff, if you’re trying to work on activating your glutes, you are struggling to control your knees caving in, and a lot of it comes from your hips.

(11:18):
Put that mini band, I even like it above the knees or right below, but really close the knees so that you can focus on that tension. I love people starting it above just because I feel like that’s easier to focus on using the glutes to actually pull it open, but you can do that controlled squat that can help you really activate your glutes. And that being said, guys, while you want to get your glutes working during squats, during lunges, your quads are working. We’ve got to stop fearing our quads working during squats. They are a knee dominant movement, not a hip dominant movement, which now moving on to a hip dominant movement, the deadlift, so deadlifts often demonized as causing back pain and they are a hard movement to learn to control, especially because we spend so much time seated. We are in constant hip flexion and this is working on hip extension and we tend to overuse our lower backs and our hamstrings decompensate because our hips are tight and our glutes are underactive because of that hip flexor tightness.

(12:15):
So when we do deadlift, a lot of times what you might find is you end up leaning forward when you do the hip hinge, A great way to train it is against a wall pushing the butt back to touch the wall. You’re not bending your knees more, you’re just pushing your butt back. That hip hinge movement is so key when you do that. A lot of times we’ll think flat back, we’ll start to arch your lower back. This is where you have to pay attention to what you feel working. If you’re not paying attention and you’re trying to mimic a movement, you are going to seek out mobility from areas that aren’t meant to carry the load and you’re going to overload them. So you have to be conscious of what you truly feel working. While there are lots of different styles of deadlift from sumo to conventional, which has more knee flexion, but it’s still like a hip hinge, not like a squat where you’re trying to focus more on the knee bend or you can even do straight leg, which stiff leg, straight leg, RDL people use them interchangeably.

(13:06):
There are nuance to those things, but a straighter leg deadlift, we’ll just say for today, all these things can be used to your advantage to activate muscles to different extents. The conventional is going to use more quad versus you’re going to get and quad and back versus summa is going to be more leg intensive and R DLS are going to be more hamstring. You’re also going to do a lot of posterior chain, but there’s a lot working here. And I have the barbell out here because I wanted to highlight why the barbell can be so challenging to start because you have to drag this puppy up your shins, okay? Whatever variation you do, you’re keeping it as close to your body as possible. And part of this is stemming from your lot engagement, pushing the bar back, but that’s how you engage everything because when you create that lat tension, you are creating tension through your lat, through the thoraco lumbar fascia into your glute, and that bracing is what keeps everything tight.

(13:58):
And then you’re thinking about pushing the ground away. Too often the deadlifts is queued as a pull, which then makes us lose tension, and I learned it as it was called a stripper deadlift, but it was where your butt would come up first before your back would come up. And we don’t want that. We want consistent tension pushing the ground away, but you need that tension. You need that engagement, but it is uncomfortable to drag the bar ball up your shins. That’s why at competition you have to wear high socks. They don’t want blood on the bar constantly in between things. So if that is uncomfortable for you and that’s preventing you from being able to sit back correctly because you also can’t put it back between your legs, that’s where a kettlebell can come into play in that you can actually take kettlebells or dumbbells no matter whether you do sumo variation, whether or not you do more conventional, but you can set it back between your heels that can help you sit back.

(14:48):
And when you’re doing that conventional deadlift, again, it’s not about sinking your butt down as low as you can. It’s about thinking that you want to hinge at the hips and let the knees flex to be able to touch that weight down. So when you do it, you want to think about how can I sit back, hinging over to reach the weight, flexing my knees as much as I need, engaging my glasses, set it back, squeeze my butt, pushing the ground away, not driving my hips extra forward, but just squeezing and pushing the ground away as if I’m almost jumping off the ground and then set the kettlebell back. But it’s that setback, that hinge over that’s so important to do. And in doing that, we want to make sure that we’re not arching our lower back. And if you are arching your lower back to try and keep your chest up, address those thoracic mobility restrictions, address that glute activation through those activation moves earlier in your warmup, but notice what you truly feel being recruited during these moves, and then don’t be afraid to use other variations.

(15:42):
Think about the sumo deadlift where you’re setting again, the weight back between your heels, your toes are turned out. Push the ground away, pull your knees open with your glutes, drive the ground away, squeeze your butt at the top and then hinge back over and set it back. You want to use the different variations based on your build as well. But using a kettlebell, using dumbbells can be super helpful if you’re struggling with that hip hinge to start even doing a bandit hip hinge where you have a band link behind you to pull your butt back to squeeze your butt against can be helpful, but find a variation that allows you to retrain that hip hinge because you need it. Lifting a box off the ground, picking something up is a hip hinge in everyday life. And if you do not learn how to control that movement pattern, that’s where you’re reaching for the box and your weight is coming forward versus you being like, oh, there’s the box.

(16:29):
Okay, I need to go up to it and pick it up. I need it close to my shins. I need it back between my heels even versus reaching and then overloading because we want that lot engagement to be able to pull back as we use our glutes to drive up. The next thing I wanted to go over was the row. So you guys commented some great other things that I can share some other videos as well, but I wanted to go over the back row because I think a lot of times with back movements, and again, this goes back to our postures and positions, what do we do all day? What typing in our computer, typing in our computer, driving in the car, all those different things in constant hit flexion. We are rounded forward a lot of the time. I find myself doing that a lot of the time.

(17:13):
So activating our back and that scapular mobility, the ability to pull our shoulder blades together, the ability to pull our shoulder blades down, the ability to elevator shoulders, all these different movements, protract our shoulders. All these different movements are things we need to learn how to control, and a lot of times we’re not addressing that scapular strength. So if you’ve ever done back rows and you feel like you’re going like this and you’re feeling your bicep lot, you are not using your back. What you feel working in a move is what is getting the benefit? Doing an AB exercise, feeling your lower back, doing a deadlift, feeling your lower back. Those things are working, not the muscles you want to be working. And a lot of times we think, oh, well, the muscle’s weak. I need to strengthen it. Uhuh, a lot of times it’s getting overloaded.

(17:55):
So if you’re feeling your biceps a ton during your back movement, I want to encourage you to think about initiating that pull from your back. Don’t let your elbows bend until you sort of pinch the shoulder blades back. So do even the shoulder blade pinch and then pull with your back so your elbows, yes, are bending, but you are not just bending. You need to think about that movement of your shoulder blades towards your spine to engage that back. It can be very helpful, and I like doing the bent over variation, but just so you can sort of more see it. I like doing just the pinch of the shoulder blades back because that is that movement to initiate that pole, to engage that back. You should feel that movement. That’s where that pole comes from. And yes, you want it fluid, but it’s so important to do and change your grip.

(18:38):
Again, varying things up because a lot of times we’ll say, oh, it has neck pain, or I feel lower back pain when I do the different rows. Maybe you just start with a single arm and you put your hand and knee on the bench to help brace your abs. Maybe you lie down on a bench that’s inclined so it supports your chest so that you can do the row. Maybe you start with a band anchored out in front of you so that you can do that row. You want to think about different ways to support and prevent some of the aches and pains you have. And I can tell you, doing a little sumo chin tuck can really help if your neck is engaging, but a lot of times it’s because our shoulders are elevated, so change your grip. We can do overhand, we can do neutral.

(19:18):
You can even do under hand on a barbell or with weights here too. Whatever you feel working can be a great place to start to help you engage. There isn’t just one way to do a movement, but we want to be conscious when we do have these compensations because maybe going to a unilateral row if you can’t control it and you feel especially your shoulder or neck on one side can be very helpful because we can focus on that back engagement so that shoulder isn’t being overloaded in the wrong way. The bicep isn’t being overworked, but you need to find variations that allow you to build up and then even see opportunity in the options because the more we use these variations to our advantage, the more we can find progression through the same but different. Because as I mentioned with even the deadlift, they all work the same muscle groups, but to different extents with the pull up, even chin up versus neutral versus over handful pull up grip all just activate the biceps back to different extents.

(20:10):
They’re all beneficial and they can all be used. We just have to find ways that we can make sure that we’re working the right muscles. So those were the main ones I wanted to cover today. There are lots of different movements that can cause lots of different aches and pains, but I would encourage you to assess where your mobility restrictions are coming from to include that work as prehab, work in your warmup, foam rolling, stretching and activating, and then making sure that you’re using variations that allow you to work around, but try and rebuild. The one thing we should not be doing is avoiding the more fundamental movement patterns we avoid from overhead, pressing to horizontal, pressing to vertical, pulling to horizontal, pulling to squats, lunges, hip hinges, all those different things. The more we set ourselves up for risk for injury and everyday life as much as we want to, to often treat our workouts just as a chance to burn calories. As much as we want to work hard in the gym, we want it to be quality movement. We want to see the gym as a chance to retrain those movement patterns so that we move well in everyday life because that’s ultimately what’s going to help us build more muscles. It’s ultimately what’s going to help us see better body recomp. It’s ultimately what’s going to help us see a healthier metabolic rate, aging well, seeing the fat loss, muscle gains, all those different things that we want and feeling our bests. Guys,

(21:27):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript

Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

Cori (00:28):
Alright, let’s talk about making meal planning easier. It can be often the hardest part about trying to hit our macros, achieve a new goal. It can feel a little overwhelming, but the more we plan ahead, the easier it becomes to really see those results snowball, get in those healthy habits. So Michelle, I’m super excited to dive into some of the tips you have. As you mentioned, it’s that decision fatigue and we want to lighten that mental load. So can you talk a little bit about what you often see clients struggling with in terms of meal prep in general?

Michelle (00:59):
So the two biggest complaints are often feeling like they don’t have enough time to meal prep or feeling like it’s kind of like an extra chore or homework assignment. So I feel like we have to kind of dismantle what meal prepping actually means or meal planning means because so often when people hear meal planning, they hear meal prep and they’re thinking that they’re going to be cooking all their meals on one day. That’s not a bad thing. That’s not something. Some people can do it and be very successful at that, but it’s not for everyone. Meal planning is just making the decision of what you’re actually going to eat prior. So actually coming up with a game plan, and I know we all hear the cheesy saying, a failure to plan is a plan to fail, but it’s true if you’re not putting in that initial thought upfront, you aren’t going to most likely be hitting your macros. It’s kind of just crossing your fingers and hoping by the end of the day things kind of align. So we really want to make sure that we are making those decisions because otherwise we will fall back in our default mode setting. Whatever’s going to be quick, whatever’s going to be easiest. The quickest thing that comes to your mind is going to be the thing that you are going to then put in your mouth. So you have to come up with a game plan prior.

Cori (02:12):
We have to think about what is natural for us. And often what is natural for us isn’t necessarily what we were evolutionarily meant to do or what we were born doing. It’s the habits that we’ve ingrained and created over an extended period of time. So what is natural for us to do is potentially go into that fast food and grab something quick and easy when we’re really in a pinch reach for that sugary sweet treat, right? So we have to notice what natural patterns we have there, even what natural macros we’re hitting because a lot of times we’ll set a macro ratio and be like, well, I’m not hitting it. I’m really far off of it. Okay, well what have you actually changed? And often we haven’t changed anything. We’ve been just repeating the same meals the way we’ve always done. And that’s why sometimes even taking meal planning back to basics and saying, Hey, here’s what I naturally do.

(03:00):
How can I tweak what I’ve already sort of planned in a weird way because it’s what I’ve done for so long and now make adjustments so that tomorrow I can eat a little bit differently, but also based on my current lifestyle. So it is really planning ahead, but it doesn’t have to be this overly complicated, dramatic thing where you’re making all these changes. It can really be based on what you’re doing currently, but something has to change if you’re going to hit new macros. If you’re naturally hitting them, you would already be hitting them, right?

Michelle (03:25):
Yeah, exactly. I mean so often, usually it’s protein that’s usually lacking because oftentimes it’s the hardest thing to prep or kind of to plan in. So usually when you’re doing your meal planning, if you are going to plan your protein first, really build your meal around that protein because that’s oftentimes where we tend to kind of fail and tend to kind of be off in our macros.

Cori (03:48):
I love too that when we were talking about making meal planning easier, because I’m a lazy person, I loved your example or when you were talking about the struggles, right? You go to the fridge, at the end of the day, you’re really tired, you’re not feeling like cooking anything, so you reach for the easiest thing. And I know that I do that. I know that sometimes even microwaving meal prep that I have frozen for five minutes feels like it takes too long, which is very, very lazy. But I know that that can sometimes feel like even too much. So I have those meals frozen. I have things in the fridge that are quick to pull out that don’t require a lot of cooking. I have even healthy snacks, so when I’m on the go, maybe they’re not completely the whole natural foods I would like otherwise. Maybe it is a protein bar, protein shaker, whatnot. But I have those little handy things. Let’s start to dive into your top tips to make meal prep easier because part of what I’ve developed is knowing myself and I think there’s ways and strategies we can encourage people to start implementing to see what really works for them. So first thing that you would recommend besides planning those meals around protein, if you’re looking to make meal prep easier,

Michelle (04:52):
So actually set aside a dedicated time to plan, put it in your calendar, make a reminder on your phone, know what day you are going to do it and actually get it done. So often times we’re like, oh yes, we know this is important. We know we’re going to get to it, but very few of us actually schedule a time to set aside to do it. So again, if you’re not going to plan on getting it done, it’s not going to get done. It may seem like it takes a lot of effort, but it’s really one of those things that you put in a little bit of effort at the front of your week or midweek, whatever time you want to actually do your planning, it’s going to pay off for your future self.

Cori (05:29):
And what would you say to somebody who says, that’s great Michelle, but that feels like homework. It takes time. What would you tell somebody in terms of still embracing this fact, that planning ahead really is key.

Michelle (05:45):
So it’s going to come back a little bit, and this may be a little bit tough love, but there has to be a change and change requires a level of difficulty. It’s going to take you embracing something that seem a little bit hard and a little bit more like a homework assignment at first. But you are here to learn, you are here to try and gain knowledge so that you can improve. So sometimes your health journey is going to feel a little bit like class, a little bit like you’re doing a homework assignment, so I’m not being super nice there, but sometimes you just got to suck it up and do it.

Cori (06:19):
You do. It’s tough love, but it’s so key and nothing changes and nothing changes. And let’s face it, what’s comfortable is what we’ve always done. So we’re setting the time, we’re embracing that. Yes, it can feel like homework to start, but it will get easier as well. Now what are the first steps to creating meal plans and meal prep that actually work for you?

Michelle (06:40):
So be realistic with your calendar. Actually open up your calendar. One of the most frustrating things I see, and I shouldn’t say frustrating, that’s probably not the right word for it, but I will get so many people that want to show me the most perfect meal plan and they have created these, everything is high veggies, everything’s cooked from scratch, it looks fantastic. But the reality is if every single thing on your meal plan the entire week is made from scratch, the likelihood of you actually using that meal plan and creating every single one of those meals is very low. So I always recommend that you are actually focusing on very simple meals and then maybe one or two meals that are either new recipes or may have a little bit higher level of difficulty that you’re planning on those days that you have more time. Because the reality is most of us, the majority of us don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. So if you’re putting in where everything for breakfast, lunch, dinner is different and there’s no repeats and everything’s from scratch, you’re probably not going to do it.

Cori (07:49):
And off of that, I know one complaint that does come up at times is, but I want diversity. And just because you’re trying to keep things simple doesn’t mean you can’t have the diversity there. Just because you’re not using 50 different recipes doesn’t mean you can’t have diversity. You can bulk meal prep, a protein source to then use in a salad or use in a burrito bowl or use in tacos. You can have frozen vegetables as well as fresh so that you can include or swap in a diversity that allows you to not worry about them also going rotten. You can still include a diversity while keeping things simple. I even know yesterday I wanted random things, and I even said to Ryan at the time, I’m like, this plate looks ridiculous, but it was like random ground Turkey with carrots and broccoli and then I had a cottage cheese dip I made and then I put some sauerkraut on the side just because I wanted those things and I wanted to work in those things to hit my macros. And I had them all already prepped and it was easy to just mix and match because it was already in the fridge. So understanding even how the puzzle pieces can work together and having meals entered that you can then plug and play can also keep things simple without making it feel like you’re just eating the thing over and over again or don’t have opportunity for that diversity.

Michelle (08:59):
And that is really key. So many people don’t or they forget about taking advantage of the power of leftovers. And like you said, people are very worried about diversifying their diet, which as a dietician I love, but you can really do the mix and match game and as you said, batch cook, anything that’s very starchy where you can actually, and I got to put a plug in here because it’s one of my favorite tips to always share, but if you have a high starchy item and you batch cook it, you are actually going to make it healthier and more nutrient dense for you if you reheat that starchy item. So I’m talking about legumes, pastas, any type of lentils, potatoes even, because what happens is as you cook and then you cool that retrogradation actually increases the resistant starches in those foods, so you’re actually creating more high fiber foods as you do that.

(09:55):
And this is one of my favorite things because if you know that you love rice or you love grains, your rice, your quinoa, anything like that, bash, cook it, double it up. It doesn’t have to be this, I’m going to cook everything on one day and use it throughout the week. It can be, oh, this meal tonight, I know I’m going to have rice. I’m going to plan another meal the next day or eat it for lunch, so I’m going to make sure I’m doubling or tripling this recipe because that’s going to keep you from actually taking a lot more time to even meal prep and you’re going to save again, we’re investing for that future self you’re going to save. And all those items, those starchy foods freeze very well. So even if you don’t use it that week, if you’re putting it in your freezer, all of a sudden you have a week where you can just pull out a grain and add a little water, reheat it, and you’re good to go.

Cori (10:47):
And by having different sauces, if you make these things more basic in terms of flavor, in terms of seasoning, you can throw them in so many different things to have that diversity in flavors, meals over the week while keeping the meal prep simple because if you have chicken and you have rice, you could add salsa and guacamole or you could add tamari or soy sauce and all of a sudden have very different dishes. I like too that you mentioned two recipes per week. And I think this is key because not only can that keep meal prep easier, you can bulk make things have leftovers, freeze some of the leftovers if you don’t necessarily want to eat the same thing for six days a week. So you have maybe three days you eat it and you have three leftover for the next week or the week after.

(11:27):
But also the more recipes you start to experiment with and throw yourself even the challenge if you do tend to eat the same things of two different things to keep things interesting, you can create those two recipes, log them as recipes in your food tracker, have those macros already readily available, and then be able to have different puzzle pieces you can easily plug and play so that if something does come up during the day where you’ve had to change other meals or you simply do want something different last minute, you have items already logged that you can easily see how everything fits together as you get more comfortable with that planning. So you can slowly add up your databases. Basically what I’m saying over the weeks by just even testing out two new recipes per week.

Michelle (12:07):
Yeah, it really allows you to keep cooking and eating a little bit more interesting. But again, we’re not going to be putting a ton of that mental load on you throughout the week every day of the week.

Cori (12:19):
And off of this, you mentioned making a shopping list, which for me, I’m like, I need a shopping list if I’m going to the grocery store, otherwise I’m going to forget something. But I think that’s a key component. We don’t think about when making a shopping list any recommendations for people.

Michelle (12:35):
So always go to what you have on hand first. I mean this is going to reduce time in the store, it’s going to reduce the aimless wandering and also it’s going to save you money. So again, so often people are going to open that piece of paper, start filling out what they want to shop, but they’re either one, not planning how they’re going to utilize those ingredients in mills or they are putting down the mills and then they’re forgetting the ingredient and pretty soon the macros are way off because they don’t actually have what they need to create the mill. So make sure you’re doing it at the same time. First look in your pantry, look in your fridge, see what needs to be used up, build off of that, and then add your shopping list and make sure that you’re getting those staples. This again, I know it sounds like we’re telling you to put a lot more effort upfront, but when you take in the time that you’re going to save at the grocery store, when you’ve take in the time that you’re going to save every single day when you’re creating your meals and cooking, that is going to have a bigger difference at the end of your week and save you more time as a whole than the 20 minutes is going to take you to put together that shopping list and some meal plan ideas.

Cori (13:49):
It’s a little bit more time now for less time spent later, and it’s sometimes hard to remind ourselves of that, but it’s truly important. And also in creating that shopping list, a lot of times we can find sauces or spices or ingredients that overlap in multiple different dishes or can be used in multiple different ways. Even things like I got pistachios the other day and I’m like, okay, I can use this in oatmeal, I can use in my Greek yogurt. It can be a snack. Sometimes thinking about the diversity of ways you can use something so that you can keep prep easier or even have things on hand for other options. If you get eggs, hey, you can hard boil those eggs, you can make almonds with those eggs. You could make baked oatmeal with those eggs. There’s so many different ways to use them. And even having that idea of, okay, what could I even use this in if something were to go off in my day and I were to need to adjust my macros can be very helpful when creating that shopping list to get some staples.

Michelle (14:43):
And I love that too because I mean, we mentioned diversifying your diet and so often we forget that those sauces, toppings, those minor little things are really going to add in and help really help diversify. So your example of, I bought pistachios this week. If you bought pistachios instead of a different nut, or maybe you bought two or three nuts that week and you can mix and match them in your different meals, that’s going to help you add that diversity to your diet.

Cori (15:12):
And diversifying is easier than we think because it doesn’t have to be complicated recipes every time. It can be bulk prepping some of those different starches and freezing them so that you have potatoes that you can unfreeze when you need versus the next day you can use rice. It’s even thinking about things that don’t go bad. And I know when I say that people are instantly like, oh, that’s processed, that’s bad. Okay. There’s lots of different levels of processing a, but also freezing. We don’t often think about not only freezing those starches, but frozen vegetables, frozen fruit. I can tell you I almost live off of frozen fruit because it allows me to use it in smoothies easily. I love putting it in my Greek yogurt. It makes the Greek yogurt a little frosty ice creamy. I can even unfreeze it, microwave it and use it in so many different ways, but then I don’t have to worry about it going bad and it’s always there.

(15:57):
And if I overbuy one week, it’s still there for the next week. Nuts, you can get those and easily be able to use them for a very long time. They have a good shelf life. You can get jerkies can get oatmeal. There’s so many different things that are healthy and quality and even canned fish, there’s different things we can do that we always have on hand then. So then if something didn’t go as planned, and I always bring this up, didn’t go as planned because life is not going to go as planned no matter how much we even planned for it. And planning only helps us navigate some of the ups and downs and the unexpected things better. But the more we can have those easy things on hand, always readily available that we can always make sure stocked because they won’t go bad, it can be so helpful in that planning process and even reacting when we need.

Michelle (16:39):
Yeah, I love a well-stocked pantry and a well-stocked freezer to make those decisions easier. If dinner by chance you did forget an ingredient and you didn’t buy something or you need a five minute meal, I always like to challenge clients to have five recipes that they have ingredients for that they can create in under 15 minutes, and it’s because they’re using pantry staples and freezer staples. And I do want to address, because I know I’m going to get some questions on this, so I’m going to answer it right now and dispel the myth that is frozen better than fresh or worse. And the truth is oftentimes frozen is and fresh can sometimes be even equal or oftentimes even frozen is a little bit better. And I know that’s going to upset some people, but the reality is when those products are picked and for flash frozen, it’s going to trap in the nutrients. So you’re actually getting it oftentimes more at the peak of the season than you are otherwise. So if you’re buying fruits and vegetables out of season, sometimes their frozen counterparts are actually going to be a little bit more nutrient dense. So I’m not saying fresh is bad, I love fresh fruit and vegetables, but if you are one of those people that are a little bit nervous about having the healthier option, there’s absolutely no reason to not have those frozen items.

Cori (18:02):
And off of this, because again, we’re going for ease, lazy person here, I own it. I wanted to talk about some other tips besides just even cooking. So while the more we can cook whole natural foods at home, the more control we have, the more we can enter even in meals to our fitness tracker or our food tracker as well as all the ingredients we eat. Because the more you can even enter those ingredients, save those recipes, right? The easier it is when you’re in a pinch, when you’re short on a time or even when you’re just meal planning to save yourself time. But there are times where cooking is not a possibility or we’ve planned ahead really well, but we want to plan meals out. Can you talk a little bit about finding restaurants, planning and meals out, how to approach that too to strike a balance? Because I think so often we can then feel like a person on a diet or we can feel like we’re always having to do all this extra labor and some of us don’t like doing dishes, but meals out can be a part of it. Can you talk a little bit about how you have clients work those in?

Michelle (18:59):
Yeah, I think this has a lot to do with kind of the mental load that’s people as specifically when they’re dieting can feel like they’re carrying. So if you feel like you’re constantly depriving, you depriving yourself of nights out or those fun mills out with friends, then you are not going to be on a plan that’s going to work long-term for you because if that stresses you out, then we need to actually work it in now so you can be able to get that balance. So some of the biggest things is really making sure if it’s at all a possibility to actually plan the day out that you’re eating and being able to look at the menu beforehand, being able to even decide before you enter that restaurant what mill excites you that you want to make sure that you’re going to fit into your macros.

(19:48):
Again, if we’re just hoping that everything fits at the end of the day, that’s not most likely, we’re not going to hit everything correctly. And then you build your day around that mill. So if you know it’s going to be a little bit heavier carb, you may need to focus a little bit more protein earlier on in the day so that you can still have that mill and enjoy and enjoy it while still hitting your macros. And I want to say this too, because of course there’s always the 80 20 rule. If you are looking for super fast results, that’s going to take a little bit more sacrifice. If you are someone that’s really looking for the lifestyle, the maintenance, and being able to build habits that you can still get results maybe not as fast, but still get results and be able to have a little bit more relax around your diet, then you can definitely work in a day that you may be a little bit off.

(20:41):
As long as we’re still trying to keep things within reason. This isn’t a binge, this is just a mill out, then you can still enjoy that without worrying that everything is going to fall off and you’re not going to see any results. It’s really striking that balance and making sure that 80% of your diet of course, is going to be really what your body needs and is those healthy nutritious foods. But you can still enjoy that 20% of your diet from foods that may not be as nutrient dense, may be a little bit higher in sodium and fat than what we really would like to stick to that 80% of the time.

Cori (21:20):
I think we often put too much pressure on being perfect with things when we are making those habit changes and there is a learning process, not to mention, we have to think about what we would do in that situation otherwise. And often we’ll realize that going for that meal out, getting that fast food, even while being conscious of our macros and having planned it in often is better long-term because we’re hitting those macros still. We’re getting that food diversity. We’re not feeling guilty and throwing ourselves off of our plan or even eating something that was potentially worse. I know that sounds really negative, but often we don’t think, well, I would actually be doing something worse for myself right now if I wasn’t finding this balance. And so we just makes ourselves feel guilty because it isn’t the perfect thing we necessarily want it to do.

(22:04):
So I can tell you if I’m in a pinch, I have fast food restaurants that I know the macros on, different things that I could log. I’ve even gone to restaurants that I really like to go to frequently have taken takeout and then done my best to really break down the macros. You don’t even have to go that far. You can use visual portion guides, you can estimate based on nutritional information for other restaurants as well, but you can find the things that you do consistently or that you enjoy as part of your lifestyle now and just plan those in. It goes back to planning, but you can work in meals out. And I think the more we embrace this balance, we see that there has to be that consistency in what we can do. And we even say, is this better than what I would do in another situation? It allows us to truly move forward consistently, see those habits snowball, see things progress more than trying to force perfection in the moment.

Michelle (22:53):
And I’m going to add to that too. I think so often we do get a little uptight and very stressed out about our diet, like you mentioned being perfect. And oftentimes that actually is going to play an effect on and kind of have a domino effect on your overall health. If you are so stressed out about your diet being completely perfect and really stressed that you’re missing out on things, that stress level is going to negatively affect you and your results. So sometimes loosening up the reins just a little bit, and like you mentioned, knowing that you can still have the best of both worlds is going to actually give you the best results. And when in doubt if you happen to be at a restaurant that you didn’t choose, let’s say it was up to the group you were with or someone else chose it, and you’re still hoping to hit as close as you can to your macros, that you have no time to look anything up. We’re always focusing on protein first, veggies most. So when in doubt, let’s try and make your plate majority of vegetables. So if that means swapping out the side of fries with an extra serving of vegetables, and then really looking for those lean protein options, and of course standing by the old, let’s focus on grilled or roasted items. Those are usually going to be your healthier options when dining out.

Cori (24:13):
And I wanted to get your closing thoughts on this, but also add I for the longest time try to force perfection when I would try and do a cut lean down. And that ultimately sabotaged me. And I’m not saying that there isn’t sacrifice. It is sacrifice and hard work to reach a goal that you have never had. When I was first trying to get leaner, there were sacrifices because it wasn’t just doing what I’d always done. And let’s face it, if we could get away with doing exactly what we want every moment of every single day, we would, but that’s just not reality. So there is a sacrifice, there is a consistency. There is a hard work when you don’t want to do it, but I think too often we try and rely on that willpower versus realizing too that there is something to consistency. And the more you make those little improvements, the more on top of that you’re willing to make other improvements that might’ve even felt like something you didn’t want to give up before. So as much as you might say, I need to get results now, I need to be perfect. And as much as there is sacrifice, you have to find something you can truly be consistent with. So on that note, Michelle, any closing thoughts to help people lighten their mental load, make meal planning a little bit easier because it really is the secret to success.

Michelle (25:20):
I think you hit the nail on the head just with that comment. You do want to make sure that you are looking at things down the line. I think so often we look at the fast results now, but we forget that sometimes taking the slower route sometimes is actually going to lead to the best maintenance results down the road, or you being able to actually have the best results. And I wanted to say this earlier, so I’m just going to plug this in right now. Meal planning does mean that you can repeat if you are someone that you don’t want to have to think too often or we want to make sure you’re planning on those leftovers, that’s either eating leftovers for that lunch or eating the same meal maybe three days out of the week. If you’re new to cooking or you’re someone that used to eat out a lot and you’re trying to eat out more at home, repeat. Repeat your foods, repeat your meals that you’re going to have because that is going to be the easiest for you. And we are really trying to just make those slight changes. And again, if repeating sounds dull to you and boring, as Corey said, really take advantage of those toppings and those sauces to really mix things up so that you don’t feel like you’re necessarily having the exact same meal.

Cori (26:37):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again. This is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips.

Cori (26:43):
I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone.

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*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript