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5 Ways To Easily​ Add Protein Everyday​

5 Ways To Easily​ Add Protein Everyday​

by | Oct 9, 2022 | Blog, Diet

If you want the best and fastest possible weight loss and fat loss results, you need to focus on two things when it comes to your nutrition…

1. Creating that small calorie deficit
2. Increasing your protein

Often creating that deficit is the easier part of the equation for most of us. We simple cut something out or shrink one of our portions a bit.

Increasing protein on the other hand can feel oddly overwhelming, especially when it requires us to adjust other things as well to create that calorie deficit.

But increasing protein is more key than we realize.

Studies have shown that when it comes to fat loss, this macro really is essential, leading to not only faster results but more muscle mass retention and fewer metabolic adaptation, which also ultimately makes it easier to not only lose fat but keep it off.

How many carbs and how much fat you consume can even vary and fluctuate and still work for weight loss if protein is kept higher. Although you may find that you have macro ratios that work better for you based on a variety of factors from activity level to genetics and age.

But studies have even shown that the macro ratio used for weight loss with higher protein, regardless of where carbs and fats fall, always leads to better fat loss and body recomposition results!

And while we may want to strategically adjust carbs and fats to match our activity levels and lifestyle, if tracking macros and tweaking them all at once is overwhelming, the key is just to start with a protein target.

So if you’re starting to adjust your diet and struggling to increase your protein, think about just small changes of even 10 grams a day.

And here are 5 tips to help you increase your protein without feeling like you’re having to fully overhaul your diet.

Because small changes add up!

 

5 Tips To Increase Your Protein:

#1: Tweak your current portions.

Often we think dramatic changes over small adjustments.

We feel like we have to create completely different meals. Or we just turn only to supplements.

Or we even focus on trying to find ways to force protein into meals we don’t generally eat a lot at – like making super protein packed snacks or desserts.

But instead of trying to make big changes, think about how you can adjust what you’re currently doing with as small a change as possible.

If you’re eating 3 ounces of a protein at a meal, try just increasing that portion to 4.

That little adjustment can add up!

And it doesn’t even have to be adding an ounce more ground beef to your burrito bowl or chicken to your salad.

It could be another ounce of any other type of protein as well that you add on!

#2: Find quick go-to options out.

Often if we are constantly on the go, it can feel hard to get in protein quickly.

It’s why planning ahead to start can be key and it can be helpful to look at the options you do have out at restaurants or easy to grab and go from a grocery store.

These quick protein-centric meals and snacks can help us stay consistent and bump our daily protein intake so it doesn’t feel like we are trying to play “catch up” at dinner.

Take a look around your grocery store and log in a few options to see how they can impact your day.

Things like jerky, hard boiled eggs, shrimp cocktail, and Greek yogurt are all great go-to options.

You can often even find pre-cooked, very simple chicken that you can even re-heat or eat cold…whether you chow it down on it’s on or add it to a wrap or salad packet you pick up.

There are even great options at many fast food restaurants. While maybe not our ideal because of the food “quality,” they can help us maintain a balance overall and stay on track.

Places like Chick-fil-a with their grilled chicken nuggets are a great option.

And often even restaurants like Chipotle allow you to adjust the portion size to match your needs and goals.

Take some time though, as annoying as it may be, to research a few dining out options close to you. It can help you during those times you’re in a pinch or even don’t feel like cooking!

#3: Think swaps! Use those “complementary proteins.”

So not only do we often just need to swap the cut of meat to adjust for the amount of protein vs fat that we are consuming, but we can make even little swaps to the veggies and other carbs we include that can really boost our protein intake over the course of a day.

Often we don’t know how to cut down on the fat in our diet while bumping protein when it can be as simple as eating a chicken breast over a chicken thigh.

And if we want to include red meat, maybe we just change the cut of steak, or even go with 90% lean ground beef over 85%.

Or maybe you don’t like leaner ground beef or chicken breast. Maybe instead you keep that same cut of meat and swap half the portion for shrimp or a white fish with less fat.

Maybe doing that surf and turf combo is all you need to bump the protein while lowering the fat you’re consuming.

Or maybe in your morning omelet you cut back on the full eggs and include some egg whites.

Or we choose to include low fat or fat free greek yogurt over full fat.

Small changes like that can pay off.

So can potentially adjusting the types of carbs or veggies we use to get more amino acids over the day, including more spinach in our salads or mushrooms in our casseroles or broccoli in our stir fries.

Maybe you focus your carb sources more on quinoa over rice or buckwheat pasta over regular pasta.

Maybe we even swap in plant based sources of protein like tofu or tempeh or seitan instead of adding more meat. Or add in edamame to a seafood poke bowl.

We can even include nutritional yeast in a smoothie, sprinkled on salad or added into a sauce to add a cheesy flavor!

Small little swaps add up and can even help us find meals we enjoy more, make us feel fueled and full as we work toward our weight loss goals!

#4: Don’t fear supplements.

While supplements are supplemental and we want to focus our diet on whole, natural foods, we also have to recognize that we make changes when the PAIN of staying stuck outweighs the PAIN of change.

So even if we want to lose weight and fat, if it feels too overwhelming to get started adjusting our diet, there is a good chance, we will never make the changes we need.

Starting out, to make things easier, you may find you do add in a whey or other protein supplement as a snack to quickly and easily bump your protein 20-30 grams per day.

You can include protein powders in baked goods, oatmeals, smoothies or a simple shake.

It can even be good as something to keep in your purse, desk or backpack to mix quickly with a milk or water when you’re on the go!

You could even stir it into a quick microwaved oatmeal to add a protein boost and even some extra flavor!

#5: Mix and match!

Often we get stuck thinking more of the single protein source we already have in a meal, instead of mixing and matching protein sources to increase our protein without it feeling like we’re just eating pounds of the same thing.

For fried rice with chicken, try adding in egg whites for a little texture and a protein boost.

For a little extra protein in a pasta or enchilada bake, think some cottage cheese or greek yogurt with your ground beef.

Even swap the type of pasta you’re using. There are some great edamame, chickpea or even buckwheat options that could give you a boost.

For a stir fry, think shrimp and chicken. Or add in edamame. Diversify those protein sources in your dishes to make things tasty while helping you achieve results.

Don’t be afraid to mix and match protein sources and even try and include more than one in meals! It can be a great way to reduce your fat or carbs while increasing your protein to create the calorie intake you need.

SUMMARY:

Small changes really add up. Think about how you can use these 5 tips to make small changes to your daily meals and even weekly averages.

You can then choose even just one small swap to start with.

Planning ahead and even experimenting with how these things can make an impact can help you when you are pressed for time and on the go.

So list out some ways you can use these 5 tips in your daily life to see results!

Ready to dial in your macros and see the results you deserve?

Learn more about my Metabolic Shred!

 

The Muscle Gaining Mistake EVERYONE Makes (And What To Do Instead)

The Muscle Gaining Mistake EVERYONE Makes (And What To Do Instead)

by | Oct 2, 2022 | Blog, Diet

You’ve lost the weight you wanted to lose. But now, you want to gain a bit more muscle while maintaining your fat loss.

You’ve got your workouts all set, you’ve adjusted your macros, you’ve increased your calories…

You’re feeling good.

You’ve felt yourself even starting to get stronger this first week.

Then…you step on the scale.

DUN DUN DUUUUUN…

You’ve gained weight!

You feel yourself starting to freak out and you want to instantly slash your calories and change everything.

But DON’T!

You’ll only sabotage yourself.

This is why it may be key you STOP weighing yourself if you want to focus on building muscle.

 

Back Away From The Scale:

When you’ve worked hard to get leaner, to lose weight, it can be a mental battle to see that scale start to go the other direction.

But it most likely will.

This isn’t even due to pounds of muscle piling on OR fat immediately being gained.

Changes simply don’t happen overnight.

And especially the more training experience you have, the slower you’re going to pack on those muscle pounds!

Often this scale fluctuation up at the start of your muscle gaining phase is simply due to you coming out of a deficit and even increasing your carb intake.

Full glycogen stores mean also water weight being gained.

And this will cause a quick increase on the scale.

With every gram of glycogen stored comes 3-4grams of water weight.

Basically this means when you CUT carbs, you can deplete your glycogen stores to lose up to 6.6lbs or about 3kg pretty instantly.

And you can also GAIN as much just as quickly.

Not to mention with the hard training sessions, you may find that inflammation within your body increases – again leading to weight gain.

So if you want to truly focus on building muscle, you need to put away your scale for a bit.

Not to mention, you may want to even consider a slight diet break after a fat loss phase to really create that new set point and have your body fully adapt to your new leanness level so you feel more confident in maintaining your results before you move into that muscle building phase.

So…If You Can’t Use The Scale, How Can You Make Sure It’s Muscle And Not Fat?

When your focus shifts to building muscle, you want to have ways of actually measuring how much muscle you’re building.

The hard part about measuring body comp is, many more accurate tests aren’t easily available and are super expensive making it harder to do consistently OR they are less accurate home handheld devices super impacted by hydration levels even.

Every tool has its downsides. And while you can make things work by using tools repeatedly to at least see progress from previous measurements even if the measurement isn’t the same as a reading by another tool, two very simple ways to also track at home are…

– Progress Pictures
– Measurements

Progress pictures are a great way to see changes in body recomp over time. Just make sure to take them from multiple angles as you may be making strides, but in areas you don’t see or care about first.

And when you do take pictures, take them first thing in the morning, ideally in the exact same place. This way lighting is consistent so you can’t feel like you look worse or better just because the light has changed. And you haven’t consumed anything to impact how you look.

Note that even pictures will change at times DAILY due to muscle tissue damage and inflammation. After a hard arm workout, you may find your arms aren’t as defined the next day.

It’s key with EVERY measurement we watch trends.

Another great way to track progress is with measurements.

I recommend taking measurements of the areas you want to grow BUT also the areas that are lean that you want to stay lean.

By comparing lean area measurements over time, you can watch for fat being gained, while you can also track growth in the areas you are working to build muscle.

Just make sure you’re consistent in where you are measuring and when you are measuring.

Just like the scale, how we look in our photos and even our measurements can change over the course of the day with food consumption and training!

Whatever tools you do decide to use to measure, make sure to use them consistently and track trends over time, not getting discouraged with slow results or ups and downs.

Slow results are truly REAL results.

SUMMARY:

It’s key we realize that the scale doesn’t show the full picture.

And even seeing a gain over time on the scale can mean better body composition.

If you gain two pounds of muscle and even lose a pound of fat, you’ll see that scale increase despite a fantastic improvement in your body recomp and even fat being lost while you’ve gained muscle.

So if you want to truly focus on building muscle, it may be time to ditch the scale and really stay focused on those daily habits, progress pictures and measurements.

Remember if you’re tracking what you’re doing, you should be able to trust in the process as you have a clear picture of what you’re doing to adjust over time!

If you’re looking to learn how to fuel according to YOUR needs and goals, check out my Macro Hacks!

–> Learn More About The Macro Hacks

How To Build Muscle ( 5 HABIT CHANGES)

How To Build Muscle ( 5 HABIT CHANGES)

by | Sep 18, 2022 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

Often when we want to achieve a new goal, a new result, we look for a new program, a new set of routines or habits to implement.

But too often we don’t assess habits we may currently have that we actually need to STOP doing.

And many of these old habits even sneak into our new programming ultimately holding us back from our new goal.

Many of these habits we hold on to because they worked for our previous goals – say for weight loss or fat loss.

But when our focus changes, our habits need to shift as well.

And to gain muscle we can’t repeat the same habits that worked for weight loss. Gaining muscle means embracing habit changes.

We have to remember that what worked for one goal may not work for another and could even hinder us from seeing results.

That’s why I wanted to share 5 habits many of us excuse that we actually need to STOP doing if we want to gain more muscle.

 

5 Habits To Stop Doing If You Want To Gain More Muscle FASTER:

It’s hard at times to let go of habits that “worked” or that we enjoyed even when we logically know they no longer fit our goals.

But it’s key we do make sure our lifestyle is evolving to match our changing needs and goals.

Habit #1: Working Out Every Day

“But I love working out!”

“I feel guilty if I don’t do something every day.”

Many of us have said these statements as an excuse to train every day.

And while we may “get away with it” more in a fat loss phase, even then this mindset backfires.

Our body rebuilds and functions optimally when it has time to rest and rebuild.

You need quality recovery. You need proper fueling. You need quality sleep.

You need days where your body and mind can relax and repair so you are prepped to push hard in the following training sessions.

Make sure that you are designing your workouts progressions to give areas rest over the course of the week and even cycling your training intensity.

Getting results doesn’t have to mean, and shouldn’t mean, destroying ourselves every session.

Especially as we get older, our recovery times can increase. This means designing programs strategically to account for this. While it doesn’t mean we can’t still train 5-6 days a week, the way we break up our sessions and the volume we create may vary!

And remember it isn’t just your body but also your MIND that actually needs the recovery time.

It is fatiguing really trying to mentally push yourself every workout to create that progression you need to see results.

You want to be focused and intentional every training session – not just go through the motions.

So we have to recognize how taxing mentally that is, especially combined with a stressful day.

Give yourself time to rest and recover so every session is quality!

We rebuild when we rest and that’s how we see those muscle gains!

Habit #2: Changing your workouts up constantly

While it can be fun to do different things often, we need to design a clear progression to follow if we want to see results.

Changing up our workouts doesn’t allow us to strategically push and get the full benefit of each move.

It can also make us constantly sore, which can negatively impact muscle activation and subsequent training sessions.

Include a variety of movements to work muscles in different ways over the course of the week, but clearly lay out a progression you repeat for a few weeks.

How long you repeat a progression may depend on:

  • How much room for growth you have with moves
  • How much you find ego starts to get in the way when you are hitting your upper limit with an exercise (encouraging you to lift more than you probably should with form that isn’t ideal)
  • How much you do even find your mental focus drifting as you get “bored”

Progressions don’t have to be done for months upon months.

Just remember too that being able to push and see how far you can go with an exercise can be exciting!

Over time you can test out different workout designs and movements. But without repeating a set progression for a bit, you can’t know what does and doesn’t work. It allows you to actually see yourself progressing with one extra rep, 5lbs more or even that full pull up when you couldn’t do one prior!

But that progression is needed if you want to dial in those muscle gains efficiently so you actually are truly progressing moves and not just making yourself sore with different and new!

Because soreness really isn’t an indicator that you’re building more muscle, especially not more muscle faster!

Habit #3: Staying in your comfort zone

It can honestly be hard to push every training session.

While fun in a torturous way, it is at times mentally and physical hard and uncomfortable to push for another rep. Use a bit more weight we aren’t sure will go up for that final rep.

Do that new variation that really challenges us.

It is easy to keep repeating the same exercise variations, with the same loads for the same reps or sets at times.

But muscle growth is the result of challenging our body to have to adapt and repair to become stronger.

That means we need to focus on that progression in our loads, tempos, variations, training density…

Sometimes it may be one more rep in one set.

Sometimes it may be just 5lbs more.

Sometimes it may be moving on to a different tempo or posture or position for a move to use progression through the same but different.

This though is also why a clear workout progression and schedule is key.

It allows us to make those incremental adjustments to push ourselves outside our comfort zone each week.

And over those progressions, we also can’t fear testing out new workout designs and training methods.

Especially the more advanced a trainee we are, the slower our results will be so the more some advanced strategies, training techniques and workout designs may need to be used at times. Not only to challenge our body but also keep us wanting to push mentally with something new in our workouts.

You may experiment with things like rest-pause technique, drop sets, density training…It isn’t just loads we can use to challenge our body and push ourselves outside what is comfortable to create that muscle growth and change!

Habit #4: Going Low Carb

So I’ve talked a ton about training so far, and it’s because you can’t build muscle without a proper training routine and resistance to create growth.

While weight loss and fat loss are so much about diet, building muscle requires you to train in a way that forces your body to adapt and build back stronger.

However, our diet can’t be ignored if we want the best results from those intensive training sessions! We don’t want our hard work in the gym to be wasted!

That’s why it is key we give our body the fuel it needs to rebuild and repair and have the energy to train hard.

And carbs are truly a key part of having that readily available energy to not only push hard during our sessions but rebuild post workout.

They create that anabolic environment optimal for muscle growth.

Carbs are not only that immediate energy to be able to push at our full intensity during training and create that progressive overload but they are also protein sparring.

They protect your lean muscle from being catabolized or used as fuel and they can help make sure that the protein you consume is used to actually rebuild.

This is extra key if you are an endurance athlete or enjoy steady state cardio and refuse to fully cut back on mileage. Cardio already makes it harder to build and retain lean muscle, so carbs are even more key to serve as that immediate energy source and aid in our recovery.

So while you may have dropped your carbs during your weight loss cycle, you may now find boosting them to be extremely key.

Too often we keep ourselves in that energy deficit and then wonder why we aren’t gaining muscle. But growth can’t truly happen when we don’t have the fuel to repair or even optimize hormone levels.

So increase those carbs.

Even if you start by just timing more carbs around your training sessions, you can’t fear carbs if you want the most efficient muscle gains.

Habit #5: Staying In A Deficit

Just like we may have cut carbs during a fat loss phase, we often focus on that calorie deficit to see results. You do need to consume less than you expend to see that fat loss because you need to tap into that stored energy.

But to gain muscle as efficiently as possible, you now need to make sure your body always has the fuel it needs. So you can’t fear eating more.

Eating too little will keep you training hard and not seeing any gains. It can also lead to burn out, constant fatigue, constant soreness and an inability to recover.

Basically you could feel like you’re working so hard to literally not see any gains.

If you are transitioning out of a fat loss phase, you may simply start by increasing your calories to more of a maintenance level while increasing carbs. From there you may enter a small surplus.

Eating more doesn’t give you the excuse to go crazy. If you do a dirty bulk and skyrocket your calories, you’re going to gain fat and ultimately not really see better results.

A surplus as little as 100 calories may be enough although you may find you need to increase up to 400 above maintenance, which is why it may be helpful to do a maintenance phase prior to learn what you need to maintain your current body comp.

By focusing on protein and not ignoring this essential macro, you can even gain muscle while in a deficit so a slower transition, increasing calories can help you avoid gaining fat.

But we have to remember that the leaner we get, and the more we aren’t eating sufficiently to fuel our training, the more we put ourselves at risk for losing muscle even with higher protein ratios.

You need that fuel to grow those muscles!

And making sure that you’re eating enough is essential even as we enter menopause!

Often under fueling and extreme dieting habits can create metabolic adaptations which hold us back from not only losing fat, but gaining muscle as we enter menopause.

So focusing on increasing your calorie intake and building muscle is KEY as we get older to keep our metabolic rate higher!

Just remember because you can “get away with” something when you’re younger doesn’t mean that dieting practice won’t catch up with you later!

If you are peri-menopausal or nearing that age, really focus on making sure you’re building that lean muscle and not under eating or you could be setting yourself up for unwanted fat gain and muscle loss as you get older!

SUMMARY:

So if you’re looking to build muscle as quickly as possible it is key you change your habits, especially from the habits you used to lose weight or fat.

Focus on challenging yourself with your training and eating enough to support that muscle growth.

For accountability and support to see better results FASTER, apply to my 1:1 Coaching.

–> 1:1 Online Coaching

Why Can’t I lose Weight? 8 Common Weight Loss Mistakes To Avoid

Why Can’t I lose Weight? 8 Common Weight Loss Mistakes To Avoid

by | Sep 11, 2022 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

We can be our own worst enemies when it comes to achieving the weight loss results we want.

Often we keep ourselves stuck. We end up working super hard to ultimately derail our own consistency.

We think, “Do more,” and often overhaul our entire lifestyle for some new popular program. When really we should be focusing on small, realistic changes to create the healthiest version of our personal lifestyle.

Too often we don’t actually recognize our priorities in life and then they become the excuses that derail us.

I don’t have time to train because of my job.

I can’t track macros because of family meals.

When really we should shape our new routines and habits AROUND what truly matters most to us.

But we don’t do this because we fall prey to the fad diet out there promising overnight results.

Because of these fad diet, overnight transformations we see online, most of us do tend to overestimate what we can accomplish short term while even underestimating what we can accomplish with long-term consistency which allows those results to snowball.

But I want to save you the heart ache of starting another program, working super hard, to only ultimately end up worse off than where you started.

That’s why I wanted to share 8 common weight loss mistakes I see people making and how to avoid them.

#1: Setting unrealistic short-term goals and expectations that cause us to give up in frustration.

Think about the last time you were actually at your goal weight. Was it 10 years ago? Or 6 weeks ago?

Or was it maybe NEVER?!

Because this timeframe WILL impact how fast you see results.

If you just gained the weight, your body will be more responsive and be more comfortable getting back to what it still may see as normal.

If you just gained the weight, your body will fight the loss of it less.

Whereas if you haven’t been at your goal for years, or maybe even EVER, your body won’t want to change from where it is now – what it sees as a normal balance.

It’s why we can’t just expect to even reverse years of damage in months – despite those months feeling long and like we’ve really been working hard.

We need to realize that progress is never linear and there will be periods where we even feel like we’re taking a step backward before we move forward.

It’s why it is key we find multiple ways to measure progress, celebrate the daily habits and the repetition of them consistently as wins themselves AND take time to step back and watch overall trends.

Remember that results take time to snowball!

#2: Eating too little.

You need a calorie deficit to lose weight.

Whether you create this through eating less or working out more or maybe a little bit of both, you need to eat less then you expend to lose.

However, this doesn’t mean a great deficit will mean better and faster results.

Often eating too little, or even training too much, will sabotage our results, especially long term.

And eating too little in the past may actually be making your current attempts at weight loss even harder.

Our body puts survival as its top priority. And when we eat too little, our body fears for our survival and will regulate what it can to conserve energy.

This is why our metabolic rate can drop and we can even lose muscle mass over controlling as much as possible for fat loss when we drop our calories too low.

This is why we need to focus first on macros and second on that smaller calorie deficit when trying to lose weight.

It may even be why we need to NOT focus on weight loss for a period even if that is our ultimate goal.

Sometimes we first need to do a period where we’re rebuilding our maintenance calories, retraining our body to eat more and properly fuel before we can even consider then creating a small deficit to lose weight.

Otherwise we may find ourselves in the situation of eating 800 calories but still not losing while training for hours each and every day!

#3: You fear heavy weights.

Let’s get one things straight…lifting heavy will NOT make you bulky. It isn’t easy to gain muscle, especially the more advanced a trainee you are.

And especially when you’re trying to lose weight because you’re eating in a deficit NOT the surplus often required to build more muscle.

We need that surplus often to build lean muscle because muscle is metabolically costly. More muscle means more calories burned at rest which means more calories needed to KEEP that lean muscle.

This is why we want to be conscious not to cut our calories too low and also focus on protein in our diet. This helps us retain our lean muscle mass. And the higher protein macro ratios can even help us potentially gain muscle while in a deficit.

But to gain muscle and keep our metabolic rate higher, we need to lift heavy. To build muscle, we must force our muscles to be challenged so they have to rebuild stronger!

As you train to lose weight, do not skip those weight training sessions. Do not cut our rest. Focus on heavy weights that really challenge you to get close to failure and eek out those last couple of reps.

Don’t just use a weight you kind of “feel” or could easily do more reps with or don’t really need rest to recover between rounds to maintain the loads.

Challenge yourself. It should feel heavy no matter the rep range you use so you don’t want to have to do all the reps you’re going to perform.

If the range says 6-12, you don’t want to be able to do 15 reps. 12 should be a struggle and you may find as you increase loads, you even hit a weight where you just barely hit 6. Then maybe you stay there for a few weeks as you build up to being able to do 12 reps with that load before increasing.

But you don’t want to just stop with a weight because you hit the top of a rep range or like the number you’ve performed.

#4: You cut out foods you love.

Here’s a question we all need to ask ourselves – Will I be able to cut this out long term?

Now, achieving a new and better results always means sacrifice. And the faster we want the results, the more we may be willing to sacrifice at least to start.

But we can’t do this at the expensive of creating something sustainable. We can’t do this with no plan as to how to add in the things we love when we are ready.

Because the simple fact is, you can’t do one set of habits to lose the weight then simply go back to what you were doing prior.

Your habits have to have changed even though you won’t be doing exactly the same weight loss habits as you maintain your results.

It’s why it’s key we learn how to balance in the foods we love and maybe even start by tweaking AROUND those foods.

I’m 100% pro macros and tracking. This is truly the best way to see what you’re currently eating and learn how to adjust YOUR lifestyle.

You can also plan in the thing you want first and adjust your other meals around that snack or dessert or meal to then hit your overall macros for the day.

And you can even learn how to eventually make swaps to strike your balance.

But too often we simply cut out the things we enjoy even though we will eat them long term and never learn to strike that balance.

A healthy diet has to be one you’re going to stick with if you want to lose weight and KEEP it off.

#5: You estimate portions. You eat intuitively.

If you’re looking to lose weight, I’m sorry but you don’t yet intuitively know what you need. You can’t just fully listen to your body and fuel.

You don’t truly know the portions you need to see results.

You need to LEARN what your proper portions are and truly relearn how to listen to those natural hunger cues.

We have to remember that there are so many things that fight against us actually being able to tell what our body needs – from hyper palatable foods that don’t cause us to feel full when we should, to stress and lack of sleep making us feel hungry when we aren’t to even distorted portions we are just used to eating and consuming that now feel normal!

Learning what you need to reach the weight you want, means tracking and measuring. It means giving yourself an accurate picture of what you’re consuming to adjust.

We are really bad at estimating our portions until we’ve truly seen what the correct portion sizes are.

So while your ultimate goal should be to learn what you need to do, you first need to start by tracking and measuring everything.

That is the only way to have that objective outside look at what you’re doing.

What we measure gets managed!

Don’t deceive yourself by not giving yourself that clear picture. Don’t let yourself feel frustrated that nothing is working when you can’t truly know what you’re doing.

Track and measure to learn what your body needs and be able to adjust even as your needs and goals change over time!

#6: You don’t focus on sleep.

We often focus on our workout and diet routine when we want to lose weight. And part of that is because it truly is easier to “control.”

It’s hard to be like I need sleep and then get more sleep!

But we can’t ignore the importance of getting adequate rest.

Not only is sleep key to recovering and rebuilding from our workout session, and even making us want to push hard during our training because we are energized, but getting enough sleep is also key to helping us avoid overeating!

A lack of sleep can basically make you feel hungrier!

This isn’t your imagination.

It is due to the fact that a lack of sleep can raise ghrelin levels while lowering leptin levels. Ghrelin increases your appetite while leptin surpresses your appetite.

So you can see how increasing ghrelin and decreasing leptin can literally cause you to feel hungrier during the day so you feel like you need to eat more. This is also why tracking and not just eating intuitively to start can be so key!

The hard part is…how can you focus on getting more sleep?

Creating a pre-bed routine to help you wind-down can be key. And even getting in the habit of going to sleep and waking up at the same time can help you build that pattern to get better quality of sleep.

And as weird as it sounds, you may even want to adjust your workout design and schedule so you aren’t always sacrificing sleep for training if you do train early in the morning.

While working out is essential to our overall health, we can design for the time we have while caring about the quality of our sleep to get more out of every training session!

#7: You don’t focus on a proper warm up.

Ever notice if you don’t do a warm up that you feel like you’re not as able to squat as deep or perform that bench press as well for the first few rounds?

Like it takes you time to WARM UP and fully get the most out of moves?

It’s because you’re basically wasting rounds of your workout warming up and you’re potentially putting yourself at greater risk for injury with improper recruitment patterns, which could lead to you actually having to take time off of training.

Time off from working out won’t make losing weight easier.

And by not warming up and not necessarily using the correct muscles as efficiently, you may not really be getting the full benefit of moves.

This can mean subpar muscle growth and even fewer calories burned simply because you aren’t getting the most out of moves.

Your warm up doesn’t have to be long, but with a combination of foam rolling, stretching and activation for 5-10 minutes you can help yourself get so much more out of each second of your workout.

You may be surprised by how much more efficiently you are able to run or lift and how much more you feel the correct muscles working to truly benefit!

Because if the correct muscles aren’t working, we aren’t only putting ourselves at risk for injury but potentially not even building the muscle we want to build to improve our resting metabolic rate and make losing weight even easier!

#8: You force yourself to skip meals or to eat 6 small meals a day.

Starving yourself with Intermittent Fasting only to find yourself so hungry you overeat later?

Forcing in 6 small meals a day so that you never really feel satisfied or full but instead constantly feel hungry and overwhelmed by the meal prep?

There is no one magic meal timing that is guaranteed to work.

You need to adjust your fueling to match your schedule and lifestyle. And no matter how you feel best breaking up your meals, you need to track your macros.

If you hit those macros, you will see results.

So don’t try to force a meal timing that leaves you stuffed or starving or overwhelmed with the meal prep.

Find a sustainable schedule for you even experimenting to see what makes you feel best.

But eating before a certain time of day or after a certain time of night isn’t going to magically make you gain fat.

If you need the calories, you need the calories. If you overeat, you’ll store the excess energy.

SUMMARY:

If you’re looking to lose weight, avoid these 8 common mistakes.

And focus on meeting yourself where you are at.

Ultimately small changes based on YOUR needs and lifestyle will be best. Don’t just get caught up in doing more.

Stay focused on doing these basics to see amazing results!

Ready to map out what YOU need to succeed? Ready to get your leanest, strongest body at any and EVERY age?

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How To Lose STUBBORN Fat (3 TIPS)

How To Lose STUBBORN Fat (3 TIPS)

by | Aug 28, 2022 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

Have you felt like you are just DOOMED to always have those stubborn areas of fat that will never go away?

The simple answer is YOU AREN’T!

But by no means is the fat loss process easy.

However, I’m going to share with you 3 tweaks you can make to your workouts and diet to finally lose that last frustrating bit of fat from YOUR abs and hips.

But first I want to discuss why certain areas are harder to lose from and how our body fight against the fat loss process so you fully know why the struggle is real and you aren’t alone!
 

Why Are Certain Areas Just More Stubborn?

It isn’t your imagination, there are areas that are harder to lose from.

And these areas are often the ones we want to change first that end up being the LAST to go!

Fat loss from these areas, like specifically our love handles, belly and hips, thighs and butt, can be harder partly due to our genetic predisposition, so where we genetically tend to store more fat, but also because there is generally less blood flow to these specific regions.

Less blood flow makes it harder to mobilize and utilize fatty acids from these areas.

And not only that, but there are different types of fat cells in our body – alpha and beta – and both respond differently to the fat loss process.

Alpha cells respond better to lipolysis, or fat loss, and accelerate the process while beta cells don’t respond as well and make it harder to lose the fat.

And guess what areas generally have greater numbers of those beta cells?

Those stubborn areas like our belly, hips and thighs!

A greater concentration of beta fat cells in these areas is why they are so hard to lose fat from!

So not only do the different types of fat cells make it easier or harder to lose from certain areas BUT especially as we get leaner and leaner our body is going to fight back against the weight loss process more and more.

Why Does Our Body Fight Back?

Simply put, our body fights weight loss in general out of our survival instinct.

Our body perceives a calorie deficit as a threat to survival. We have less energy coming in than we are expending and our body doesn’t know when our next meal is coming.

Of course we have our fat stores our body can tap into for energy, but, even when we have more than enough fat for survival, our body doesn’t want to do this. It wants to store that energy as much as possible for later.

So our body does things to try to conserve energy and even get us to eat!

And as we get leaner and leaner, and have less and less stored energy to draw from, not to mention we may have been in a deficit for longer and longer, our body is going to resist losing more and more – triggering us to crave salty and sweet foods even more.

When our body is continually under fed, ghrelin (grel-lin) increases, which is the hormone that triggers hunger, particularly for sweet and fatty foods while leptin decreases, which is the hormone that regulates energy intake by telling the brain to stop eating.

Basically, your cravings are going to increase and try to fight against you staying in that consistent deficit.

And not only are your cravings increasing, BUT your daily energy expenditure often decreases.

Because you have less energy coming in, and your body isn’t sure of when it will get more fuel, it will find ways to expend less of your stored energy.

This may be why you see a decrease in your workout performance or you even find you’re less motivated to move and fidget throughout the day.

It’s also why metabolic adaptations occur. Your body is finding ways to maintain energy for survival over everything else.

It is why it is so key we are conscious of not just trying to do MORE and out exercise or out diet time.

When we turn to more cardio, a bigger calorie deficit, we can actually make these metabolic adaptations WORSE and further slow down our fat loss process from these stubborn areas.

This happens because it causes our body to try to conserve energy even more or find energy from other sources, like our muscle mass.

Muscle is metabolically costly, making it super valuable if we want to get lean.

More muscle means more calories burned at rest.

But because muscle requires more energy to maintain, it is something our body will catabolize when low on fuel.

It’s why we want to avoid doing more activities that put us at risk for losing muscle.

It’s also why we need to avoid creating too big a calorie deficit and focus on our macros to try to prevent as much muscle loss as possible as we seek to lose that last bit of stubborn fat!

Now what are the three key tips to help us lose that stubborn fat?

3 Key Tips To Finally Lose That Stubborn Fat:

I’ll tell you first what is NOT a tip to get better results faster…and it’s often the thing we WANT to do most…

We want to do this because it makes us feel more in control…

We want to do MORE.

We cut out more types of foods. We cut our calories way lower. We train longer and add in more reps, sets and rounds…heck even a second or third session in a day.

But all of this so often is what truly backfires.

The annoying answer is you can’t out exercise or out diet time.

It’s why these 3 tips are so key to help you build something that you can do to allow TIME to actually create the results you want!

Tip #1: Track Macros NOT Just Calories. And Track PRECISELY.

I’m all for a focus on what is sustainable. I’m all for finding a balance and focusing on progress over perfection.

I think we need to remember that one size doesn’t fit all and to build off of our currently lifestyle to create a balance.

BUT I also don’t want to lie to you.

To lose from stubborn areas, to get that last little bit off and reach a level of leanness you’ve never achieved before, you have to get ready to embrace being SUPER precise in your tracking.

And often you do need to implement more aggressive tactics in your macros and calories.

You also can’t be lax in your tracking.

Precision is truly key.

No bites, licks or nibbles can not be logged.

Everything must be tracked so you can truly move forward.

And focusing on that protein will be key.

High protein ratios have been shown to help us build and retain lean muscle while in a deficit and even help us avoid unwanted fat gain while in a surplus.

So increasing your protein gives you a bit more wiggle room in your calorie intake while helping you prevent and avoid metabolic adaptations.

We want to do everything we can to keep burning more calories even at rest.

Think ratios where you’re even keeping protein over 40%, playing around with carbs and fats based on your activity level and even what you function best off of.

And avoid those extreme calorie deficits. Start with even just a small deficit of 200 calories.

If you do hit a plateau, instead of just dropping your calories more too, switch macro breakdowns! Sometimes a slight switch in your source of energy can get things moving!

The more we can use those macros to adjust, the more we can not only allow a greater diversity of foods to prevent ourselves from feeling restricted and avoid more cravings, but we can also mentally help ourselves not just feel more and more deprived from having to drop calories lower and lower!

Tip #2: Stop Doing Too Much In Your Training!

Too often we just view our training as a chance to burn more calories.

And I know it’s tempting to try to burn more calories to create that greater deficit through your training, but ultimately all that does is cause us to be hungrier and lose muscle mass.

It can actually even lead to greater metabolic adaptations as our body finds ways to conserve energy over the course of the rest of the day DUE to the fact that we trained extra.

Not to mention it can just make us hungrier, which mentally only makes repeating our healthy habits and eating the way we need harder!

So ultimately that extra hard work may simply be backfiring and causing us to exert a lot more effort that is sort of just wasted.

It can ultimately make us feel like we’re doing so much work to only GAIN weight while even being in a calorie deficit.

It’s why, if fat loss is our goal, we need to focus on doing what we can to build muscle over just burn calories in our training.

By focusing on strength work, we can create the stimulus to even BUILD muscle while in that calorie deficit, especially if we’re focusing on higher protein macro ratios.

And more muscle means a higher resting metabolic rate and more calories burned even at rest!

One key thing to note though too is, we don’t just want to turn our strength workouts into cardio so that we feel more worked in our sessions.

Don’t cut out rest. Don’t add in a ton of wasted volume.

Focus on lifting heavy weights or doing movement variations that challenge you.

Think about quality over quantity.

And then add in small tweaks to use every tool in your tool box.

No we can’t spot reduce an area by doing 1000 crunches to lose fat from our abs.

But as we get leaner, and once we have our diet and strength work dialed in, we can focus on ways to utilize more of the mobilized fatty acids from those stubborn areas.

Because areas like our belly, hips and thighs have less blood flow, we can help mobilize more fatty acids from those areas by working the muscles near the fat tissue.

So by including isolation exercises to target those areas in our strength work, even say as a finisher at the end, followed by some low intensity steady state cardio like walking, we can help improve the fat loss from those regions.

We used the isolation moves to mobilize more fatty acids and then utilized those mobilized fatty acids with that low intensity cardio.

And that low intensity cardio is helpful because it burns a higher portion of calories from fat while also not really fatiguing us further!

More movement but in a way that doesn’t detract from future training sessions or put us at risk of losing more muscle!

Tip #3: Embrace The Suck.

Mindset matters most when it comes to achieving any goal we have.

And while it is way more “fun” trying to search for another action or habit to do, ultimately our mindset is what dictates our success.

To give ourselves the best chance of succeeding, I think it is key we go into any goal knowing the positives and negatives.

And the more we even OVERSELL the negative and recognize the challenges we’ll encounter, the more we set ourselves up to succeed.

Because then when we do encounter something hard, we are mentally, and physically prepared over being caught off guard and feeling like we’re the only one that struggles.

So I just want to remind you to embrace the suck.

It isn’t easy reaching a level of leanness you’ve never achieved before.

It will take you embracing being hungry at times. Embracing not necessarily indulging when you’ve had a stressful day or are out with friends.

It may take you training on a day when all you want to do is curl up with the pups on the couch.

The key is reminding yourself of why this goal truly matters to you and even having enough of an incentive to keep going at that time instead of just pushing things off!

So get ready to embrace the challenges and be willing to push through.

Set a strong why, or WHYS, and set a firm end date that really keeps you invested in the process so that you can’t just say “I’ll start tomorrow.” Or “One this one bite, skipped workout, won’t hurt.”

SUMMARY:

So if you want to lose that stubborn fat and achieve your leanest physique, remember you can’t out exercise or out diet time.

You’ve got to embrace the process and realize your body will fight against you at points.

Be ready to embrace the suck as you dial in those macros and calories with precision while focusing on that strength work!

Ready to create the right “recipe” for results so you can achieve your leanest, strongest body WITHOUT creating metabolic adaptations that sabotage you long term?

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9 Tips For Faster MUSCLE GROWTH

9 Tips For Faster MUSCLE GROWTH

by | Aug 7, 2022 | Blog, Diet, Exercises, muscle-featured

Gaining muscle, especially without gaining fat is not an easy process. Especially if we’ve usually just focused on weight loss, it can require a very different focus for our training and fueling.

That’s why I wanted to share 9 tips to help you dial in your workout routine and diet to see the best muscle gains without doing a dirty bulk, causing you to ultimately gain a ton of fat you just have to lose later!

#1: Use All Three Drivers Of Muscle Growth

There are 3 drivers of muscle growth – muscle tissue damage, mechanical tension and metabolic stress. So often we try to rely just on muscle tissue damage, lifting heavy and seeking to be sore.

We even skip those silly looking pumper exercises with mini bands that have small ranges of motion and really burn.

But when we don’t use these different moves with different ranges of motion, different points where the muscle is under the most tension, we miss out on using all three drivers of muscle growth.

We have to remember that soreness not a great indicator of how hard we’ve worked, we also may constantly be beating ourselves down, instead of using all 3 drivers to allow for the best results as quickly as possible.

Don’t only just focus on those heavy compound lifts and heavy weights.

You don’t just want to use big range of motion movements that load the muscle most when stretched like squats and deadlifts. Also use moves like hip thrusters, where the muscle has the most resistance applied where it is strongest (mechanical tension). And even use moves that create that pump and burn to benefits from the hypertrophy created by metabolic stress. Think mini band moves and smaller ranges of motion where the muscle is constantly under tension!

#2: Don’t Fear Protein and BCAAs

Protein is the building block of muscle. We need to make sure that we’re giving our muscles what they need to repair and rebuild.

And especially as we get older, we become less able to utilize protein efficiently.

It’s why timing even more protein, and specifically amino acids, right around our workouts can be key to create that anabolic environment.

This is extra essential for any women in menopause. It’s why you may find it essential to supplement with BCAAs prior to, or during your workout, while following up your workout with a quick protein shake or lean protein meal.

With hard training sessions, and our changing hormone levels, we are actually at risk for catabolizing muscle mass if we don’t get sufficient fuel to support growth even while focusing on lifting.

So using this timing around workouts, and optimizing everything with a BCAA supplement can help us get better results faster by making sure you get your muscles the fuel they need to repair when they are primed to do so.

#3: Stop Cutting Down Your Rest Times

Too often we try to make our workouts harder by cutting out rest between moves. But the more we reduce rest, the less we recover which means we may be able to lift less each and every round.

When driving toward muscle growth, we want to avoid just turning our workouts into cardio by eliminating rest. We want to focus on making each round through moves or supersets or trisets as hard as possible through how much we lift and maximizing each rep so we NEED the rest to recover for the next round to keep maintaining, or even increasing the weight.

The heavier you lift, the more you should want and use that rest to recover between rounds.

So as you change from even weight loss as your focus to gaining muscle, consider increasing rest and upping those weights!

#4: Focus On A QUALITY Calorie Surplus

I know we see these bulks where people chow down on all sorts of crazy delicious foods, but these extreme calorie surpluses don’t lead to better results faster. And often they just lead to a ton of unwanted fat gain we have to deal with later.

Instead focusing on a moderate surplus of even 100-400 calories is enough. Starting smaller and increasing based on your results can even be a good way to go if you’ve been more focused on weight loss previously and haven’t maintained your current level of leanness for long.

It can also be key to keep the calorie surplus smaller, or even a very small deficit of just 100 calories, if you aren’t as lean as you’d like to optimize fat loss while gaining muscle. Just make sure that you’re focused on increasing that protein.

And of course, the more quality our fuel, the better our body will function. So while it’s super tempting to eat a ton more…well…not so whole, natural foods, remember to stick with your 80/20 balance.

We want to enjoy the foods we love, but also still make sure our body gets not only the macros, but micronutrients we need.

#5: Focus On Compound Lifts First

When lifting to gain muscle, you want to think about working in multiple rep ranges to not only create muscle hypertrophy or growth but also build strength. Let’s face it, the more you can lift, the better your muscle gains will be.

So when you’re freshest, start with your biggest, heaviest lifts. Focus on big compound moves for slightly lower reps with longer rest periods at the start of your workout.

You can even separate these lifts out to be done on their own before any supersets, trisets or circuits.

Think even about working in that maximal strength rep range of 1-5 reps for 3-5 sets. Consider rest periods of even 3-5 minutes.

If you aren’t as advanced a lifter or really don’t enjoy getting near those max attempts even 5-8 reps can really be a great way to go!

But use those heavy lifts to help you gain strength to then be able to lift more as you do other more accessory compound moves in the 6-12 rep range for 3-4 sets, with more like 1-3 minutes of rest.

Lifting heavy will NOT make you bulky but will cause your muscles to have to repair and grow!

#6: Cut Back On Cardio

If you’re an endurance athlete, I’m not asking you to stop your passion. BUT you do want to recognize that steady state endurance cardio can be catabolic to muscle tissue and make it harder to gain muscle.

So if you can reduce your mileage for a time, it may be key to making better muscle gains more quickly.

We also don’t simply want to turn our lifting sessions into cardio workouts. If you want to optimize your muscle growth, now is not the time for more metabolic strength workouts. It’s not the time for tons of high intensity interval training.

Now is the time for focused lifting and longer rest periods!

#7: Strategically Finish With Isolation Moves

After you’ve focused first on those heavy lifts, you can strategically use isolation moves to capitalize on all 3 drivers of muscle growth and really target those stubborn muscles to fully fatigue them.

If you’re short on time, compound moves should be your focus, but if you have a lagging muscle group or an especially stubborn area, isolation exercises that hone in and target this area are super key for better results faster.

When you include these moves, use them at the end to fully fatigue the muscle so you don’t compensate in earlier moves. Consider higher reps even for many of these movements (12-20) and just a couple of rounds 1-3 at the end. This will encourage more muscle fiber recruitment for better results.

And ladies, working to fatigue for muscles may actually be even more key for you to see the hypertrophy results you want!

#8: Don’t Fear Carbs

Especially when trying to lose weight, many will cut out carbs. But when we train hard, and our focus especially shifts to gaining muscle, we need those carbs to create that anabolic environment and serve as immediate fuel for our sessions.

While it can be hard if you’ve recently lost weight to see the scale slightly increase as you increase carbs, it is truly key to embrace the process.

To start even, you may not increase carb intake overall for the day, but simply time them more around your training sessions as you transition into a gaining muscle phase.

Some complex carbs prior to your training to make sure you have full glycogen stores followed by some simple carbs post workout to replenish depleted stores can really help you make sure you’re fueling growth!

But do not fear those carbs! They truly are key to optimize hormone levels and fuel that lean muscle growth which will increase our resting metabolic rate and even help us look leaner while being functional stronger!

#9: Increase Your Training Frequency

We see so many bodybuilding programs with body part splits, training areas even just once a week. But you may actually get better results by increasing your training frequency, especially for stubborn areas.

Consider designing your workouts progressions to work areas even 2-3 times a week. While this may mean not doing as much per session, this increase in training frequency can really pay off.

Hemisphere splits or upper/lower splits and even full body training sessions may be helpful, especially if you don’t have as many days to train.

But if you’ve got a lagging area, don’t fear working it multiple times a week as long as you’re working it in different ways and still giving the muscle time off to repair and rebuild!

Bonus reminder:

While it can be tempting to try to train more to get results faster, there will be a point of diminishing returns. A point at which we are beating ourselves down and NOT rebuilding. We do NOT want to waste effort and hard work doing more than is needed, especially if it actually holds us back!

I know it can be hard to take a day off, but you’ll only see the results of your hard work in the gym if you give your body time to repair! Dialing in our recovery, from our fueling to making sure we get enough sleep, is so key if we want results as fast as possible.

Remember to design your workout progression so areas get rest over the week and you’re not constantly beating down your body!

SUMMARY:

Use these 9 tips to improve your muscle gains and see better results faster without the unwanted fat gain often associated with traditional bulks!

And if you’re looking for help and guidance to get the best results as fast as possible, check out my 1:1 Online Coaching!

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