by Cori Lefkowith | Aug 6, 2017 | Blog, Diet
“How many calories do I need to eat?”
This is a question I get numerous times a day.
And it’s an interesting question with an answer that is based on, not only your goals, but a few basic things…
These three things are…
1. To lose weight, you have to be in a calorie deficit.
2. To gain weight, you’ve got to eat to support muscle growth.
3. Calories are not created equal. Quality and type matter.
These three things are KEY when figuring out how many calories you need.
They are often also why we get into trouble with our diets.
Too many people know #1 and therefore cut their calories way too low.
They end up starving themselves, which not only can slow their metabolism and cause them to store fat BUT also leaves them so hungry and angry they end up binging.
HOWEVER, on the flip side, so may people today use Fitbits and other fitness trackers and see they burned 300-500 calories and think that entitles them to eat even more.
I mean if you burn more, you get to eat more, right?
Yes BUT overtime our bodies become more efficient as we workout. They adapt to the stresses placed on them.
Are you accounting for that?
Are you sure your fitness tracker is accurate?
Also, what is your baseline based off of that you are ADDING IN extra calories you burned?
And on top of that, you then have to cycle UNDER on days off. If you’re cycling up on workouts, how often are you cycling UNDER on days you don’t move much?
All that cycling just makes for madness. And it’s freaking hard to track which leaves us guessing at what is working.
Ok so probably right now, all I’ve done is confuse you more.
I’ve said you can’t cut your calories too low. But then I’ve said too much is bad too and that adding in the calories you burned during workouts is a more challenging and complicated process than we account for.
So what do you do?
This right here is why #3 is so important. Quality and type of calories MATTER.
200 calories of meat, veggies and rice is way more filling than 200 calories of M&Ms. It also helps our body function correctly, sleep better and fuels our workouts more effectively.
This is why a 1,200 calorie diet with proper macros may be enough while 2,000 calories of crap may leave you hangry and starved. That doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy the foods you love, it just means that getting quality foods will help you stay full, energized and get the results you want FASTER!
And I’m not saying everyone should be at 1,200.
I’m just saying there is a HUGE difference in how you’ll feel and how your body will operate eating the same number of quality vs. crap calories.
If you can dial in these ratios, you’ll be giving your body what it needs vs. empty calories that leave you hungry even when you’ve technically consumed enough calories.
Quality calories will make you feel fuller even on a calorie deficit and one of the benefits of high protein is that it is hard to gain weight even if you “eat too much.”
Eating these ratios, you can change your body composition WHILE fueling your muscle growth by giving it the building blocks it needs EVEN if in a slight calorie deficit.
And then instead of cycling, just set one calorie goal.
That way on recovery days you get your body what it needs and you fuel your workouts. You won’t have to cycle down or up.
So you’re probably still wondering…How many calories do I need?
But my point is the quality and type is even more key to determining that.
It’s why I’ll get people saying “Holy crap I thought 1,300 calories would be too little but I’m stuffed.”
But it’s also why people say “Holy crap I thought I’d gain weight eating 1,800 calories, but I’ve lost inches when I used to eat 800 and still not lose all of the time.”
All of this is why I recommend if you want to lose weight, you start with 11x goal bodyweight (in pounds) and if you want to change body composition or maintain your weight while looking leaner you start with 13x goal bodyweight (again in pounds).
Of course it still always DEPENDS and each of our metabolic rates are different, but I always tell people…
START HERE. There has to be a starting point. If you don’t give something a shot, you’ll never know if it works.
Focus on the ratios and from there you can add or reduce calories as you hit those ratios. But hitting those ratios and getting QUALITY CALORIES is key!
For more tips to help you calculate calories and macros as well as amazing recipes and even sample meal plans, whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle, train for a marathon or deal with the dreaded weight gain often associated with menopause, check out my Macro Hacks!
Learn more about my Macro Hacks Challenge –>
by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 7, 2017 | Blog, Recipes
I love healthy snacks that don’t taste “healthy” aka like crap. I like snacks that you can have around that taste delicious, satisfy your cravings while also helping you hit your macros.
And it’s even better if they are easy to make so you don’t add on to your meal prep and can even squeeze in making them during a busy, stressful week. (I love snacks you can make and even freeze for a few weeks so you always have something on hand!)
Because let’s face it…When you’re stressed and tired and bored…and simply want to eat, you’ll reach for whatever is around. Which most often ISN’T healthy. Because most of the time the healthy food we keep around when we are “on a diet” is well…not satisfying.
But if you can have something TASTY AND HEALTHY easily available, you’ll not only satisfy your cravings but also keep yourself on track.
That is why I love these Cinnamon Vanilla Protein Balls.
They are basically a one-bowl recipe. AKA you put all of the ingredients in one bowl, mix, roll into balls and eat! You can freeze them for a few weeks so you always have something around and they are easy to take with you to work or out and about if you’ve got errands to run.
So if you need a quick and healthy treat to satisfy those cravings, you’ll love these protein balls from my Macro Cycling Shred Book!
Cinnamon Vanilla Protein Balls
Servings 16 (1 ball per serving)
INGREDIENTS:
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 cup Gluten-Free Oat Flour (take oatmeal in a food processor to grind up)
1/4 cup All-Natural Nut Butter of choice
1/4 cup Almond Meal/Flour
2 tbsp Raw Local Honey
2 scoops Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
1 tbsp Cinnamon
***Note you may need to slowly add tbsp of water depending on the whey, oats and almond meal you use to reach the desired consistency.
First make sure to grind up oats in a food processor or buy oat flour.
Then add oat flour, almond meal, whey, cinnamon and nut butter to a bowl. Stir all of the ingredients together.
Then add honey and vanilla extract. Mix well again with hands until dough comes together,
If needed, slowly add a tbsp of water at a time until dough complete comes together.
Then roll into 1-1.5 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. You can choose to roll in additional cinnamon and even vanilla whey if desired.
Freeze for 20-30 minutes then transfer to a ziplock bag. You can freeze them for up to 6 weeks!
MACRO BREAKDOWN:
1 ball
Calories: 108
Protein: 7 grams
Carbs: 12 grams
Fat: 4 grams
Looking to dial in your diet? Love the idea of a diet where no foods are off limits? Curious about Macro Cycling and how you can get the lean, strong body you want with a diet that fits your lifestyle?
Here’s more information on Macro Cycling –>
by Cori Lefkowith | Jun 10, 2017 | Blog, Foam Rolling, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief
All too often we go to the gym with the intention of just getting our workout DONE.
We lift the weights and do the movements and try to push ourselves to work hard.
But when was the last time you asked yourself, “Where do I feel this? Are the right muscles ACTUALLY working?”
The sad part is…Most of us haven’t thought about that in awhile. We don’t really think about WHERE we feel a move or what muscles are working.
Because most of what we see promoted in fitness is how much you can lift or what crazy moves you can do…or even how fast you can finish a workout.
It is all about doing something GNARLIER…something better or more advanced.
It’s about pushing harder, doing MORE.
But guess what the often unknown side effect of that push harder, do more culture is?
INJURY!
And it is all because our proprioception SUCKS.
Now I’m not telling you not to work hard in the gym. To not go lift weights. To not have fun taking on crazy new hard challenges.
But what I am telling you is, you also need to include proprioception work in your training.
So what the heck is proprioception?
Well simply put proprioception is our body awareness. Our ability for our mind and body to communicate and understand where our body is in space.
It is our mind’s ability to recruit the muscles of our body to act.
Sounds like something you should be able to do naturally, right?
I mean, if you can squat, your mind and body are communicating properly, right?
So you think this maybe doesn’t relate to you because you can run and squat and deadlift…
WRONG!
We’ve heard sitting is bad for us – that it creates poor posture.
But what we don’t realize is that all of that sitting at a computer, sitting watching TV, hunching over our phones texting or even driving in the car not only leads to poor posture, but also imbalances that kill our proprioception.
All of that forward flexion (aka rounding forward as we sit with our heads forward) causes our mind to want to use the WRONG MUSCLES to perform movements.
So yes, your mind will connect with your body and recruit muscles to perform a squat.
Heck, if you are athletic, it may even recruit muscles so you perform a seemingly PERFECT looking squat.
The problem is YOUR MIND IS CONNECTING WITH THE WRONG MUSCLES. It is recruiting muscles that can’t handle the load to perform a movement!
It is compensating.
Our bodies take the path of least resistance to perform the movements we ask of it.
It is a wonderful and horrible thing. Our mind wants to do what we ask so it recruits the muscles available. Muscles that may be overactive because of our daily posture.
Muscles that aren’t necessarily the best option for the job.
But because those are the only ones your brain can easily recruit, it calls on them. And then you are able to run and squat and do the movements your workouts and daily life require….
However, we can only ask so much of these muscles. And the loads we ask them to carry because we can’t recruit the right muscles is too much for them.
And that is why we end up injured.
The injury may happen when you are doing something seemingly innocent and easy.
Heck, it could happen when bending over to reach for a pencil on the ground.
We’ve all had friends do that…or maybe it has happened to us even. We “sleep wrong.” Or we just turn to look or reach or bend for something and WHAM! pain and injury.
But it wasn’t really that event that injured you. No…that was just the “straw that broke the camels back.”
That final thread just finally snapped.
But it was really a build up of things that caused it. A build up that started because we lacked proper proprioception.
Because we didn’t have that mind-body connection to begin with.
So…long story short…Proprioception is the mind-body connection.
And hopefully now you’re starting to see that being able to squat or run doesn’t necessarily mean you have great proprioception or even any mind-body awareness for that matter.
Repeating a movement doesn’t mean the right muscles are working.
Ever wonder why you squat but your glutes never change? All you feel is your quads working?
Or ever wonder why people will say their back is sore after rows or pull ups but all you feel is your arms or maybe even your neck and shoulders?
That right there is the sign that you aren’t recruiting the right muscles for the job.
But that requires you to start THINKING about the muscles that are working WHILE you workout.
You can’t simply try to “get through” your workout. You can’t simply try to go fast or lift more.
NOPE!
You’ve got to actually THINK about the muscles that should be working.
That is the first step to not only realize that the right muscles AREN’T working, but also the first step toward getting the right muscles activated.
It is the first step in restoring proper proprioception!
That is why I asked, “But when was the last time you asked yourself, “Where do I feel this? Are the right muscles ACTUALLY working?'”
Because you’ve got to start thinking about what muscles are working when you move. If you think about recruiting the right muscles, you can start to rebuild that connection.
But it can be difficult to start doing that during compound lifts such as the squat or deadlift or even when you run when the muscles are inactive.
You may NOT feel them working. And you may not be able to focus on them working without risking your form breaking down or further compensations.
So to get yourself to be able to start thinking about what muscles are working, you need to include activation exercises in your routine.
You need to return to basics.
It’s kind of like how children learn to walk and then run. They don’t just jump right into running, right?
First they crawl. Then they stand while holding on. Then they stand on their own. Then they stand, but hold on to start walking. Then finally walking a few steps on their own…Until they are able to not only walk, but run.
They had to build that mind-body connection slowly, starting with the basics.
You’ve got to do the same.
It sucks to regress movements…I know…trust me.
But if you want to keep yourself healthy and even lift more and run faster, no matter how advanced you are, you’ve got to return to the basics.
Basic, bodyweight exercises that ISOLATE the muscles you want to get working correctly. Muscles that on their own don’t want to work because of our daily lifestyle.
These aren’t moves you are going to try to load down with tons of weight. These are moves that help you focus on the muscles that should be working so you can get them engaged BEFORE you go do more compound lifts.
By doing these moves, you can help yourself KNOW the muscles are turned on because they may even be “burning” before you go do your workout.
You feel them engage through the isolation of them so you can then more easily think of them working during your lift.
For example, you are going to run or even go deadlift.
And you want to get your glutes activated because you now realize they are inactive and have been causing you some low back and even hip pain.
You struggle to think about them engaging and never feel them during your runs or lifts.
So you decide to try using some activation moves before you workout.
You do bodyweight glute bridges, focusing on extending your hips and squeezing your glutes. You engage your abs and make sure your low back and hamstrings don’t take over. You start to FEEL the contraction of your glutes and they start to burn.
You then add in some fire hydrants and a few other basic moves. Your really feel those glutes “burning” by the end. Not tired. Just really AWAKE.
You go right into your lift and run ALREADY feeling your glutes.
And guess what? When you think about the muscle during your workout, you actually KNOW you are using it because there was already a pump going.
That burn beforehand makes it easier to be aware of what is working.
You are able to make your glutes work because of the basic activation moves that got them engaged. Your brain has established a connection with your glutes before you do more compound moves where it has to recruit more muscles at the same time.
You started restoring your mind-body connection. You started developing proper proprioception!
Exciting, right?!
I mean the right muscles working so you can run faster, lift more and avoid injury!?! HECK YES!
Now while it would be nice if it only took one activation session and BAM! results, it often doesn’t work that way.
I do activation as part of every warm up and have my clients do the same. Especially on days when we are working muscles, like the back and butt, that often don’t want to engage naturally.
And, as you start to turn muscles on, you may need to regress other movements in your workouts so that you don’t cause those newly activated muscles to shut off.
Loading down movements with too much weight or doing a super high volume when you are just learning to get muscles activated may lead you to keep compensating.
If you’ve been doing pull ups with neck pain and decide to start working to activate your back with activation exercises (and maybe even get it working with those moves), but then jump right back in with weighted pull ups or even a super high volume of repetitions, you may still end up with neck pain.
Because you are still overloading a muscle that your brain is still just beginning to learn how to recruit.
And at the first sign of too much stress, guess what?!
Your body reverts back to the easiest to recruit muscles. Your body reverts back to the path of least resistance aka what it knows best!
And you’ll still end up with aches and pains.
So what does this all mean?
It means you’ve got to regress to progress and put ego aside.
It freaking sucks. I know. None of us want to go “backward.”
But it isn’t going backward.
It’s taking one step back…Ok maybe like 10 steps back…But we are taking those steps back to end up 20 steps ahead of where we were!
So stop allowing aches and pains and injuries to hinder your workouts. Stop letting the desire to do MORE or be gnarly(…aka our ego…yes we all have it…I know I do!) hold us back from ACTUALLy lifting more or running faster in the long run.
Regress to progress.
Start being conscious of your body during your workouts and stop just powering through. Especially powering through the pain.
Ask yourself, “Where do I feel this? What muscles are working?” and start rebuilding your mind-body connection. Restore proper proprioception and start moving and feeling better TODAY.
And if you need some help, you’ll want to start with a 3 part process – Foam Rolling (Self Myofascial Release), Stretching AND Activation. This is what I call the RStoration Method.
You are relaxing those muscles that want to try to engage and carry a load they can’t. So you are relaxing them so your brain doesn’t want to recruit them. And then you are getting the right muscles for the job engaged and working.
Through that three part process, you can eliminate pain for GOOD and get more out of your workouts.
Here are some great articles to help you get started covering each of the three part in the RStoration Method!
Self Myofascial Release aka Foam Rolling:
Stretching:
Activation:
by Cori Lefkowith | May 25, 2017 | Blog, Butt, Core, Runner's, Workouts
“Trouble zones”…You know…those areas we all seem to want to work, but struggle to get to look the way we want.
Areas like…The triceps…”the bra fat”….the glutes…and the inner thighs…to name a few.
And while we know we can’t spot reduce, it doesn’t prevent us from feeling like we’d still really like to work those areas and do all we can to tone and make them look their best.
That is why I wanted to share this Glutes and Inner Thighs “Trouble Zones” Workout.
This workout will activate and strengthen your glutes and inner thighs using a combination of compound and isolation exercises. Not only can it target those “trouble zones” to help your legs look stronger and leaner, BUT it is actually an essential workout if you’ve ever had low back, hip or knee pain.
It is an especially great workout for all of you runners as well!
It will help you build core, glute and inner thigh strength to improve your movement patterns!
While you can’t spot reduce, you can use a combination of compound and isolation moves to really work those areas for the best results possible!
So try this Tone Those Trouble Zones – Glutes And Inner Thigh Workout!
Tone Those Trouble Zones – Glutes And Inner Thigh Workout
WARM UP
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Quads
Groin
Hamstring
Hips/Glutes
Back/Chest
Shoulders/Forearms
WORKOUT
Complete 3-5 rounds of each circuit, resting as needed between rounds. Rest 1-2 minutes between circuits. Focus on adding weight or trying more challenging variations; however, make sure that you use a full range of motion. Don’t add weight at the expense of not completing a full range of motion!
CIRCUIT #1:
20 reps Glute Bridge with Squeeze
6-8 reps per side Cossack Squat
8-12 reps per side Side Plank Bench Lift
CIRCUIT #2:
10 reps per side Side Plank Clams
10-15 reps Sumo Squat
10-15 reps Peek-a-boo
COOL DOWN
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Quads
Groin
Hamstring
Hips/Glutes
Back/Chest
Shoulders/Forearms
NOTES: Modify moves as needed, and add weight to make moves more challenging if you can still work through a full range of motion. This workout should help activate your glutes, strengthen your adductors while also improving your mobility!
For descriptions of each move, see this post 21 Inner Thigh Moves for a video of the moves.
Ready To Strength Your Core And Tone Those Trouble Zones!?!
If you can dial in these ratios, you’ll be giving your body what it needs vs. empty calories that leave you hungry even when you’ve technically consumed enough calories.
But what we don’t realize is that all of that sitting at a computer, sitting watching TV, hunching over our phones texting or even driving in the car not only leads to poor posture, but also imbalances that kill our proprioception.
First they crawl. Then they stand while holding on. Then they stand on their own. Then they stand, but hold on to start walking. Then finally walking a few steps on their own…Until they are able to not only walk, but run.
You do bodyweight glute bridges, focusing on extending your hips and squeezing your glutes. You engage your abs and make sure your low back and hamstrings don’t take over. You start to FEEL the contraction of your glutes and they start to burn.
You are relaxing those muscles that want to try to engage and carry a load they can’t. So you are relaxing them so your brain doesn’t want to recruit them. And then you are getting the right muscles for the job engaged and working.
