FHP 661 – Self Care Isn’t Selfish

FHP 661 – Self Care Isn’t Selfish

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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 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. So let’s jump right in. Super excited to be joined by Jessica. She’s a fabulous coach and part of my leadership team and just an all around amazing person. So Jessica, thank you so much for joining me today.

Jessica (00:38):
I am so excited to be here. Literally, I’ve got goosebumps because this is one of my absolute favorite topics, is truly helping women live the life of their dreams. And it starts with taking care of you. It really does. So thank you so much for having me. I love it.

Cori (00:52):
Well, when you think about taking care of you, it seems like a selfish act, and I would say a lot of us are about taking care of everybody else in our life and deprioritizing ourselves. How can we get out of that mindset and what does it really mean to take care of ourselves?

Jessica (01:09):
Yeah, it’s such a really good question because I think it’s so deep rooted in just who we are. Typically as women, we are givers. We like to take care of others, and I want you to think about if you’re a mom, I’m a mom, I’ve got three kids, two of them are married. So yes, that ages me a little bit. Holy crap. But it is, it’s like you take care of your kids, you take care of at work, you’re taking care of other people. That’s typically what we do. But if you can look at those people that you take care of and put yourself in their shoes, would I want my daughter undervaluing herself? Absolutely not. I would tell her the exact opposite. If my son was not taking care of himself and he was constantly school work, all of the things, I’d be like, hold up buddy. What are you doing for you? And so if we cannot actually flip that script just a little bit about what would we tell other people to do for themselves and reflect it back on us, I think it helps us change that mindset.

Cori (02:15):
It really is sort of taking that practice what you preach, lead by example attitude with things. Because if we’re not doing it, how can we expect other people to do it? And we do want to be that great role model, and we’ve all heard that expression. You can’t pour from an empty cup, but I don’t think we really take that to heart. How can we even start to recognize that maybe we aren’t doing the things we need to take care of ourselves?

Jessica (02:40):
Yeah. I would ask you actually some really important questions because they’re the little things in your life. Are you sleeping well? That’s one of the biggest ones. In fact, Corey and I, okay, we were literally chatting before and we’re like, okay, do we ever sleep? Yes and no. It’s a loaded question because there are times, but is your sleep affected? Do you have motivation to do the things that you love to do? I love to mountain bike, I love to ski. There’s things like that, and it’s times when you’re like, oh, I don’t even want to do that. I don’t even have the energy. So I’d ask you to take a look at the little itty bitty things in life, whether it’s you’re snacking and you’re just constantly looking for little things to fill yourself with energy because that’s what it is. Food is calories. Calories or energy. It’s like are you filling those little voids with other things or do you just not have the motivation to do it? So it’s really taking a deep look at ourselves and what we’re doing to say, am I actually filling my own cup or is my cup kind of empty? And it’s the little things that are the biggest triggers.

Cori (03:50):
And I think that’s a theme that I see popping up in any aspect of life. Anytime we want to make a change, anytime we want to reach a goal, it’s that pause and self-reflection. This thing we at least want to do and we want to find something new to take action on. But if we don’t truly assess what’s going on, we can’t make accurate changes that add up. And that’s where we even see ourselves stressing ourselves out by adding on more that doesn’t really match what we need. So in diving into that, what are some really good questions we can start to ask ourselves to build that self-awareness and see where we can make adjustments?

Jessica (04:25):
There’s two questions that always come to my mind. Always, always, always. And so if you can actually take a little notebook, I always have a notebook with me. So grab yourself a little notebook, draw a line right down the center of it, and on one side of it, put what do I want more of in my life? And on the other side, what do I want less of in my life? And start listing those things out because that’s going to give you, I think, some of the first indications of maybe what do you need to take out of your life? And then what do you want to add into your life? And again, it starts with this simple little thing. So some of the things that a lot of even myself included is I want less idle TV time in the evenings. That’s an easy one.

(05:10):
So that’s something that I’m going to cut out. I don’t have to do more of it. I can actually cut it out. One of the things that I want more of in my life is I actually want more music in my life. Sometimes you get finished working whatever, and I’m cooking dinner and I just don’t throw music on. I’m like, why don’t I do that? It’s those little things that actually fill your cup. So I would really look at those two columns. What do you want more of in your life? What do you really enjoy? What makes your body happy? What makes your soul happy? Is it sunshine? Whatever it is. And then what do you want less of in your life? The little things that you’re tolerating that maybe you don’t want to tolerate anymore.

Cori (05:53):
And I think there’s a key word that you put into both of those want, because it’s not, don’t want, it’s not have to do, it’s not should do. It’s what do you want more of and what do you want less of? Because I think so often when we cut things out, we are thinking restriction, we’re thinking, I shouldn’t be doing this, but really assess what don’t you want? What doesn’t serve your ultimate goal? What doesn’t sort of benefit your why? And the more we do that, the more we’re in a positive mindset to reflect further and even see other areas that we might’ve let slide that we didn’t even recognize we’d sort of let go of that were very important to us.

Jessica (06:34):
Yeah, it is. And that’s what self-care is. It’s like verbalizing our wants and our desires. It’s getting to the root of who we are. Think about it, how were you when you were eight years old? How were you when you were 12 years old? What did you want in life? And kind of get back to that little kid mentality and actually verbalizing it. If you think about a baby, a baby cries when they want something or need something, right? Well, what do we do as adults? We may not cry. Sometimes we do, but I mean, we act out in other ways. And again, it’s those little things. So self-care really is verbalizing and self-reflecting on it, and it makes it a healthy environment for you to kind of get back to what does my soul really want? What do I want?

Cori (07:23):
And it’s stepping back, not just in the moment of what we want, but really to the core of who and what we are and the life that we want to lead, which I think we can sometimes lose. How can we reconnect with those core values, really understand our why a little bit better when there are so many immediate little, I’ll say paper cuts that we’re getting, but we even treat like they’re knife wounds when they’re really not. How can we refocus on the values that truly matter to us and doing more of the things align with that.

Jessica (07:50):
Yeah, I think it is. It’s the self-reflection piece. And it’s hard because when you’re first getting into this and you start reflecting on it, you’re like, well, crap, I suck, man. I didn’t do good at this. You start beating yourself up. And so, okay, let go of that. And actually, I want you to start thinking about dreaming and what are your dreams? Because a lot of times as adults and especially as women, we stop dreaming and we stop thinking about what do we want in life? Where are we headed? You’ve heard of the bucket list and all the things put in your bucket list, but what do you want your life to be like? If you could design your life, what would that be like? Another thing that is a really interesting thought is who are you jealous of? Now, I know that sounds really odd, but if you think about, okay, Corey, for you, oh my gosh, I’m so jealous of your shoulders and biceps. Okay, well yeah, see, but what did you have to do to get there? You had to put work and effort in. And so instead of being jealous of it, I want to be inspired by that. And so you can flip that emotion of jealousy to, well, maybe it’s because that’s what I want in my life and I’m going to be inspired by it.

Cori (09:15):
I love that flipping that comparison to something that is motivational, aspirational. And I think you hit on something so key that I see every day, honestly online is, oh, I can’t achieve that because I’m X age or I can’t do that because of this other priority. And if we don’t own our priorities, they do become our excuses. But excuses can also be busted if we have a strong enough reason, we want to achieve something and we look to meet ourselves where we’re at. But so often we just hold ourselves back and we do set these boundaries that we’ve never tested or question in years, and we look at somebody else having something and instead of saying, well, how did they get there? How can I follow in their footsteps? We just say, I can’t have that. And it’s something of, or I always take the sort of perspective or outlook of, well, what can I at least do to improve? Yeah, sure. Maybe I won’t get to that goal in the exact way. I see it in my mind right now, but what can I do to improve? Because there’s always a way to move forward and what’s the point of not at least trying? Right,

Jessica (10:15):
Exactly. What’s going to be the worst case scenario if you try nothing, there’s no worst case scenario. I mean, even if you don’t meet that super high goal, are you going to be one step closer? Absolutely. Are you going to learn something about yourself along the way? Absolutely. Are you going to see what’s working? Yes. Are you going to see what’s not working? Yes. Are you going to, there’s no risk, so go for it. Give it a shot.

Cori (10:48):
Everything ultimately moves you forward. And in shooting for the stars, maybe you don’t hit the stars, but you’re going to get a lot further than you would if you didn’t shoot for ’em. And so the more we can see it as opportunity in always seeking growth and always wanting more while celebrating all that we’ve accomplished, all that we are, the more we will be taking care of ourselves. Because I think there’s nothing that holds us back more than not believing we can achieve more, but in believing we are capable of more in questioning our own boundaries. That is almost the best thing we can do to take care of ourself. But it’s a challenge to do that. And it’s all well and good that we say that, but how do you keep that comparison from becoming a negative, from becoming envy? How do you get yourself taking steps that are in line with what you truly want for you in your life?

Jessica (11:36):
Yeah, I call it a roadmap because it is. It’s actually prioritizing your feelings and saying, yeah, these are my wants and my desires, and yeah, I’m going to go for it. And even if I don’t, like you said, if I’m not going to hit the moon, at least I’m going to hit the stars. You’re going to get somewhere up in that solar system. But it’s having that roadmap. And so that’s where, again, if you know, okay, here’s what my goal is. Okay, here’s the things that I need more of in my life to be able to reach that goal. Here’s the things that I want less of. And then what are the steps that you’re going to take along the way? But then also how are you celebrating yourself as you meet those little goals? So you have to set out a roadmap. Again, like I said, I keep little journals.

(12:21):
You have no idea how many of these little books I literally keep planning around because it helps me to roadmap for myself constantly to achieve those things. And so if it’s a journal for you, do that. If it’s, I’m trying to, the vision boards, putting things together and you have it in your closet or whatever it may be, but finding something that you can actually visually see where you want to go because then you can again take those little steps towards it. And if you start getting way off track, it’s assessing it, assessing yourself, reflecting on it and then coming back to it and saying, well, yeah, I got pulled off to the left side because of this. Maybe I need to switch gears just a little bit.

Cori (13:09):
I think you touch on so many key components there of it’s the self-reflection because we learn so much more in reflection than even in doing the action. And it helps us see the things we’re doing that are serving us and not serving us. It also reminds us of why we started the things we want more of, the things we want less of. But even in writing that down and that reflection and how much that helps us, I think even having the notebooks around like you do or having that vision board, it’s not only a vision of what we want to remind us of or why, but it changes the environment. And I bring this up too because I think so often in the habit changes, we don’t recognize that it’s not that we’re just doing the habit, it’s all the things that prepare us to do the habit.

(13:45):
So going to the gym, if we put our clothes out the first time, we don’t put our clothes out, we might not go to the gym because it’s not just the habit of going to the gym, it’s the habit of putting the clothes out, which then remind the other habit. So it’s like in having those notebooks around, you are reminding yourself to constantly reflect. You’re reminding yourself of even what you wrote down in that book or to even reassess am I in line with that? And I think that’s such a key component because that’s really what spurs the action.

Jessica (14:11):
Yeah, it is. It is. Those visual reminders. So quick story. So this is many, many years ago, my two oldest kids were really young. So when my daughter was born, she’s more two months premature, and my son was 16 months old when she was born, and my husband traveled for work, which meant I was pretty much a single mom for most of the time. I went through postpartum depression, the whole thing. A couple of years later, I had my third baby and he still traveled for work. And so I felt like my life was so out of balance. And that’s where for me, I went back to this of, I had to reflect on why was I feeling this way? What did I value as myself? I had given up all my hobbies because I was giving everything to my babies. And so I had to have those visual reminders.

(15:03):
I actually went to a craft show where they have the 10 by 10 boos up everywhere and all the homemade goods. This lady was selling pottery. And with her pottery at the stand, she had these necklaces and it was a little piece of pottery, just really little. And it had the Japanese symbol for balance on it. And then on the backside of it, she’d engraved the word balance in English. And I was like, balance. That’s what I need more of in my life. And so I bought that necklace and I wore it until it broke. And every single time I felt like I was out of balance. I was out of whack. I wasn’t valuing myself. I would actually touch right here. And you’ve probably seen me do that multiple times today. It’s because it’s ingrained in me now because when I touch here, it reminds me that I matter and that there’s balance.

(15:54):
And so for you, it may be bracelets, these little bracelets that I actually make these bracelets, it’s just like one of those little hobbies because I wanted not idle time in my life in the evenings. So it might be a little visual reminder, a piece of jewelry, something special that you wear. Maybe it’s a picture on your wall that’s that visual reminder of what your goals are, what your dreams are. Because when you start achieving those things, you’re going to feel better about yourself. And that is true. It’s not a massage, it’s not a pedicure. It’s like living your life.

Cori (16:34):
It’s what I’ve heard you call those out of the box ideas of how we can do that self-care. Because we do think of habits as this is the habit. This is what you do, self-care. You go get a mani-pedi, you get a massage, you do these things. But self-care really is about doing something that matters to you. That’s it. And it might be even saying no to something that you don’t want to do and feeling confident in saying no. And I bring this up because I really want you to touch on the power of no, because I know that you really advocate for that too. Because I think so often we do just think about adding more, doing more, wanting more, not about what we want to do, less of, not about the things that might be detracting from our self-care that don’t need to be done by us, but we’re prioritizing other things. So can you talk a little bit about the power of saying no to things?

Jessica (17:26):
Okay. I am going to tell you another story. You guys, I’m so full of ’em because with age, it comes a lot of stinking experience. So when my kids were little in kindergarten, they used to ask for parent volunteers, and I’m like, I’m going to be the best mom ever. I am going to go volunteer in the class once a week. And so I would literally carve out this amount of time. I would go and I would volunteer, and I’m pulling my hair out because I love children, but I am not meant to be a teacher. My youngest daughter, she is a born teacher. I am not. And it just didn’t serve me well, and I would feel so drained. It came to the point where I literally had to say, no, I’m not going to do that, but I can serve my kids and my kids’ teacher and their class in different ways.

(18:24):
I was asked so many times to also run the concession stands for different sporting events. So what is in the concession stands? Hot dogs with chili out of a bag and cheese out of a bag that is full of all of the crap. And like, oh my gosh, literally it makes me cringe. And I would go in there and I’m like, here’s these athletes. They’re out there performing their little hearts out and I’m giving them just not the best foods. And again, I ended up saying no to those opportunities because it didn’t fill me up. It made me feel worse. And so I had to say no. And I think if you can look at your life too, there’s probably a lot of things that you’re doing that you’re, again, I’m going to use the word tolerating. You’re tolerating it. You’re like, I’m doing it, but I don’t like it. What are those things? And can you actually start saying no to those and start saying yes to some other things that are going to serve you better because you’re going to be a better person because of it.

Cori (19:30):
You’re going to play to your strengths and ultimately probably serve everybody even besides yourself a lot better. And I think we don’t recognize that so often when we are doing things outside of our strengths, we’re not doubling down on the things we’re really good at. We end up spending more time, more energy, not doing things as well, which then even drags us down more because we don’t feel successful with those things. Instead of saying, again, that self-awareness, that reflection, what am I really good at and how can I use that to my advantage to not only fill my own cup, but help others a little bit more? And it does come back to saying no. And the more we get opportunities, the better the opportunity we’re going to be saying no to. And I know I struggle with this where I’m like, I want to make sure that everybody feels supported, that they know I’m doing enough, that I’m there for them, that I’m not relying on other people.

(20:17):
But in doing that, we often just end up making the situation a lot worse and making everybody else’s experience even a lot worse. So it is very important that we do take that time to self-reflect and say, what can I say no to that will give me more of doing more of what I want and also eliminating the things that I know I don’t want to do that don’t fill my cup, but really playing to my power and owning my power because in that we are so much stronger and everything does function so much better. It’s like a hard thing to do.

Jessica (20:52):
It’s, it’s really hard to do because we want to be good at everything. We want to be seen as that person that no matter what I can be counted on. But again, if you can switch that language that they can count on me to do my best at what I do best. And if I know that somebody else is going to do it better, then they know that I’m going to tell them that somebody else is going to be better at that. And so I want to kind of finish the story about the concession stance because seriously, it was awful for me. Just great. When you see some of that food, you’re just, and knowing what these kids were doing. So what I ended up doing is I would actually buy fruit and I would get protein bars, and I would take them to the coach and say, here you go.

(21:43):
And those things were always gone first. And I actually felt empowered by that, and I actually got energy from doing that, especially seeing those kids eating better foods for themselves instead of running to the concession stand. And so it’s the same thing when you start saying no to something and saying yes to something that actually gives you the energy and also leaning on other people. It was really cool because other parents started to catch on and other people did it too. And you can actually create, Corey, you talk about a snowball a lot. We snowball our results well. We can also snowball, snowball the results of our self care when we play into our strengths.

Cori (22:25):
Not only that, but I think you hit on something that’s really key when it comes to self-care. A, it’s not selfish, but B, it doesn’t have to be even about doing something for you directly. And while changing the food they were eating was for you because you didn’t want to be feeding them that food. So it was, I guess, drawn from what you wanted. It was for other people. And sometimes doing for other people in the way we want to be taking care of them is that self-care we need. And the more we do, the more we do, which means sometimes putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations. But I do think it’s really key to note that everything you want to do won’t be about, again, things you want to do just for yourself alone. It might be things you want to do because the impact they will have on other people’s lives as well.

Jessica (23:12):
Oh my gosh. So many times we do things for selfish reasons, but there’s this really cool byproduct. I really think one of the biggest ways to get yourself out of a funk is serving somebody else. Because you look around and the things that people go through, and Corey, you and I and the rest of the coaches, we see some of the challenges that our clients have and the things that they have to go through. And we’re like, man, that’s a tough thing. And in that area of life, maybe I’m a little bit more blessed. And so by helping them, it’s selfish because we also get the rewards back.

Cori (23:50):
I always like to say that you can be selfish and selfless at the same time because a lot of times in wanting to take care of somebody else, you are getting good feelings back and it’s not bad to own that. But I think there can be that balance and we can really take care of ourselves through taking care of others. It’s just, again, really reflecting on what we want more of, what we want less of, where our priorities lie. Now in this, I want to ask you if someone’s looking to do more self-care, struggling with some comparison, they’re struggling with figuring out what might fill their cup. How would you go about recommending they find ideas to take better care of themselves, build that self-awareness if they’re struggling to ask those harder questions or really find their deeper rooted why?

Jessica (24:35):
Yeah. One of the things that I love to do, and this is Corey, I think you’ve seen this with me over the years. I love reading books, listening to podcasts, really doing personal development and professional development. I think that’s one way that you can start to learn a little bit. But one of my favorites is it’s called the five love languages. So if you are not familiar with it, the five love languages are words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service and receiving gifts. And if you want to, there’s a quiz like go take the quiz, just Google it, whatever. Because what that tells you is how you actually feel loved. And so for me, my top love language is quality time. And so for you, it may be something different. It might be words of affirmation. And if it’s words of affirmation for you, you can actually ask somebody, tell me something that you enjoy about me, or what have I done? Well, and you can ask friends, spouses, coworkers, whoever. But if you can play into how you feel loved the very, very most and understand that about yourself, then you can start asking for those things. That’s probably one of the biggest and best ways that I could say to start understanding yourself a little bit better.

Cori (26:04):
And even understanding how you like to receive love or you feel love. You can see the things that might be detracting from that. If you do like positive words of affirmation, if you do like some of these different things, you might notice that, hey, by going on social media and seeing certain accounts, they don’t really suit you because they sort of drag you down. They don’t affirm what you want to hear, good things about yourself. They make you start to think negative things about yourself. So maybe you unfollow some of those. There’s lots of ways that you not only find to ask for that positivity in your life, but also ways you see are detracting from it that you might not have realized before.

Jessica (26:42):
Oh my gosh. So true. I am a true believer in social media cleanses. I just am. And I’ve had, it’s called my zero tolerance policy. See, again, there’s that word tolerant or tolerate. Because when I see a post from somebody that makes me feel less about myself, that pulls me down even in it that I have a hard time reframing my mind around it. I’m like, yeah, you’re out. I’m like, I just don’t need that. But on the flip side of it, I really do seek for who are some positive influences. People again, that I’m inspired by, follow more of those. And that’s a simple way because let’s face it, social media, it’s a beautiful part of our world, and you can either choose to engage in some of the more negative aspects of it, or you can choose to be engaged in the amazingly positive aspects of it, and you can learn so much. So again, even there, it’s about reframing your mind, but think about your social media. How are you feeling your brain?

Cori (27:57):
I want to go back to, I mean, I think those are really great tips to cleanse your social media. Of course not of redefining strength because we’re fat. Amen. You want to hear everything from We’re inspiring. Yeah, we’re inspiring. But off of that, and I totally get that because there are definitely accounts that I’m like, I can’t watch this account because there’s just things that it puts me into a negative mindset or even frustrates me as a coach where I’m like, don’t say that to their own clients. But that’s a whole other story. But going back to a word that you brought up a couple of times that I really want to touch on because I think it’s so important, tolerance tolerating, because I think this is something that we don’t recognize our choice in the matter of as much. We just tolerate it. We just let it go. But we have to recognize that we have a choice what we tolerate, how can we recognize even when we’re tolerating something we shouldn’t and go about changing that because our tolerance level has to go down if we want more out of our life.

Jessica (28:57):
It is something that I’ve had to learn over the years. And so I think one of the best ways to do is if you can even just again, put some type of physical reminder, if it’s the word tolerate is your screensaver on your phone or your desktop or whatever it may be, just so that it’s like in the forefront of your mind. Mind. We feel emotions in our body in different ways. Some of us will feel it here in our chest. Some of us will feel it in our gut. Sometimes. For me, it is the tip tops of my ears. They feel like they’re so hot, they’re going to explode. But it’s weird things. It could be a lump in your throat, whatever it may be, but for maybe a day, two days, three days, you really think about going through your life. Where are you feeling those emotions?

(29:44):
What is triggering to you? And start recognizing it and paying attention to it. And as you start paying attention to it, I think that gives you a little bit of an instance of like, man, I’m tolerating this. It may be like you open up the cabinet and you’re like, dude, I have got so many expired foods in here that I’m just hollering. I am just not getting rid of them. Or maybe it’s foods in there that are not going to serve your body and your goals the way that you want them now. Feel that in your body. Start recognizing when you’re like, ick, that doesn’t feel good. Or, oh, I should really get that done. Listen to those feelings, listen to them.

Cori (30:32):
And then in listening to them take action on them. I think that’s something that we don’t give ourselves permission to do a lot, where if there is a food there that you really don’t want there, throw it away. And recognize too, that strength is built through what we overcome. We just think strength is given to us a lot of times, and it’s not. It’s something that we do build. We get comfortable being uncomfortable in a lot of different ways, and that is that strength being built. But if you think about the workout, you didn’t want to do the meal prep, you didn’t want to eat that, you did all these different things. That’s where we really feel our best on the days you do something you didn’t want to do. So if you have that feeling and you throw that food away, you’ll be surprised by how much that small action can really lift you up, because it’s the act of taking care of yourself and showing yourself how much more is really possible even.

Jessica (31:20):
Okay, let’s go back to what do you want more of in your life and what do you want less of in your life? You want more of those happy feelings of like, dude, I accomplished that, or Man, that has been bugging me for a while and I just took care of it. You took action on it. You feel proud about yourself. Isn’t that what ultimately you want more of? Yeah. Yes,

Cori (31:42):
It’s exactly. You want those actions that allow you to have that feeling. And I think even recognizing that that feeling is what you’re seeking and what really correlates with that in terms of the actions you can take. And it makes me all think about the fact that we can’t a lot of times control the thought we have, the emotion we have in the moment. It is natural, it is innate. It’s built on patterns that we haven’t even necessarily revealed sometimes. But even in having that thought, that feeling, we can always control our action or reaction to it. And so with all of this and building that self-awareness, starting to bring to light all those thoughts that you have, all those feelings that you have that maybe you can’t stop, but you can stop the next thing that happens from ’em. And I think that power of choice, that decision we all have, that taking agency and ownership is so key. So in that, Jessica, if someone is looking to take care of themselves, wanting to make this change, what would be some closing thoughts, recommendations to help them take what they’re feeling and really turn it into those actions that move them forward?

Jessica (32:43):
Yeah. Self-reflection, period, end of story. It’s really assessing who you are, what you want, what your desires are, what your goals are, what are you tolerating, what do you want? More of the list of questions that we’ve talked about. And I think as you’ve been listening to this today, you’ve probably been like, oh, that sparked something in me. Oh, I felt that in my core. Those things are telling you. Those are the reflections. So pause for a moment, pull out a piece of paper, jot those things down, reflect and from those reflections, draw a stinking arrow. You’ll see this with so many things that I do. I’m like, okay, here’s the thing. Draw an arrow. Write the word action. What is the action that you’re going to take because of it? And then start putting them on your calendar. Start telling people about the actions because it’s going to help hold you more accountable to those things. I mean, doesn’t that sound better than going and getting a pedicure that’s going to last for two weeks to really change your life? Doesn’t that sound better, you guys?

Cori (33:49):
Well, I got to say my feet are ticklish. So I’m not the biggest fan of pedicures. Manicures are another thing, but I love that you first said, when I even said action, you said reflection. Because I think we so often don’t think of the thinking about it as an action, but it is. And if we don’t take that action first, we can’t set other actions in place that will truly move us forward and make us make a change because we’re going to repeat the same things we’ve always done. We’re going to search for a new macro ratio, a new workout, a new place to go get a manicure, a new massage place. But none of these things are actually going to address what do we want more of? What do we want less of? So that reflection first to start is just so key. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, 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 life with someone.

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

FHP 659 – Stress Proof Your Diet

FHP 659 – Stress Proof Your Diet

LISTEN HERE

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WATCH HERE

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TRANSCRIPT

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OPEN 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 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. So let’s jump right in. Stress and your diet. When we think about stress and we think about our nutrition, often we think about the things we do or do not eat out of stress. But our diet can not only be impacted by stress, but also impact the stress levels we feel. And I’m super excited to dive into all this today with Andrea. Andrea, thank you so much for joining me today.

Andrea (00:49):
Thank you. I’m super excited to be here as

Cori (00:50):
Well. So let’s talk about stress in your diet. What is the impact stress can have on our diet and what impact can our diet have on our stress?

Andrea (01:00):
Sure. So nutrition plays a role in managing and reducing stress. The relationship between diet and stress are mutual. Not only can stress influence our eating habits, but you can also impact your stress levels and the different foods and the way your body reacts to stress as well.

Cori (01:17):
Now, I think a lot of us are a little bit more familiar with the impact that stress can have on our diet, whether we eat out of stress and some foods that are more comforting than they are nutritious or even having stress impact us in a way that we don’t eat. Can you talk a little bit about why we even turn to specific things? Often when we are stressed,

Andrea (01:37):
So when we’re stressed, we’re looking for something to self-soothe. So we want to make sure that we’re trying to find a way to make ourselves feel better. Either we go in and we hide or we go out and we eat something. So we’re trying to self-soothe. So it’s just innate way for us to make ourselves feel better when we have a reaction. Either we’re nervous, we’re anxious, or we’re stressed, so we turn to something that’s going to make us feel better. And food being one of the things that help us, makes us feel better.

Cori (02:05):
And a lot of us can even think of when we’re talking about stress, like those foods we turn to. I know I’m a desserts person, a sweetss person, so I turn to those things. Why do you think that we often turn to specific foods when we are stressed to help ourselves, comfort ourselves?

Andrea (02:20):
Sure. So we’re looking for that increase in mood, that increase in feeling better in that sense. So a lot of times, like you said, you turn to desserts, candies, and cookies. Those can lead to rapid increases in blood sugar, but also rapid drops in blood sugar, and that causes our mood sinks to go up or down, but it also can cause our stress. And then on the other setting cause inflammation as well, which negatively impacts our stress too. Sometimes we also turn to caffeine or alcohol. A lot of times where I’m really stressed out, I’m going to turn to, I’m going to have a glass of wine. Yes, that makes us feel better at first. It helps us relax, but then it also disrupts our sleep, which in wins in a long time can increase our stress levels as well.

Cori (03:02):
It’s kind of interesting to think about, but we turn to these things out of comfort and then in comforting ourselves momentarily, we actually create more stress for ourselves or a lack of sleep, which creates stressors. Another way, inflammation. That is a stress around our body. So it’s like we turn to sugar, we turn to alcohol, we turn to caffeine, all these things that ultimately negatively impact us and keep us stuck in that cycle. And it’s something that I think we’re all prone to. And it’s not just those foods, right? It’s even processed foods that we can turn to. What impact do they have in then? How can we break the cycle?

Andrea (03:37):
Sure. So the impact specifically for processed foods, there’s a lot of diets high in processed foods, but they’re going to lack those essential nutrients and leading to deficiencies, which then can often turn increase our moods, affect our moods and our stress levels. A lot of additives and processed foods like food colorings, MSG also have an impact on our mood as well as our cognitive function. But to break that cycle, that’s where it’s a little hard because this is a habit that we’ve always done. So when we need to recognize that it is a habit, but also we have to take a step back and realize what are the other things that we can do to relieve stress? Is it going for a walk? Is it doing deep breathing? Is it journaling? Is it something that we don’t have to turn towards food or can we get those bad? Not those bad. Can we get those foods out of the house, out of sight, out of mind, and maybe turn to something that might be a little bit more helpful in terms of how to deal with stress.

Cori (04:31):
It’s hard though to break those patterns and behaviors. And I think the first step is giving ourselves grace when we do repeat that stress eating pattern that we’ve always fallen into, but then step back and recognize why it’s occurring, what stresses led up to it. And then I love those replacement behaviors. Sometimes it is simply removing something from our environment. Sometimes it’s saying, Hey, when I walked this cabinet, instead of going right for the thing in there, I have to go take a walk around the neighborhood, or I have to go do my workout, I have to do something else before. And if I still want it, then I can even work it in. And even sometimes saying, Hey, I can work this in and if I want, can help us alleviate any feelings of guilt which might contribute to us than eating out stress and even feeling worse from it. But not only are there replacement behaviors, there are nutritional strategies we can implement or things we can focus on in our nutrition to help us not only not eat those things out of stress, but better manage our stress levels. What are some things we can start to focus on if we are finding ourselves stressed or wanting to repeat that same pattern in terms of adjusting our diet?

Andrea (05:30):
Sure, there’s five nutrients that we want to look for, specifically complex carbohydrates like whole grains. They increase the availability of tryptophan. Tryptophan is in the brain, which is converted to serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, and serotonin helps us increase our mood and our relaxation. And then on the other side of that protein, protein amino acids are precursors to the neurotransmitters which we just tryptophans in Turkey, chicken, dairy, those types of things. And those are the precursors to serotonin, which then again leads to increased mood and relaxation. There’s also healthy fats. Omega threes specifically found in fish, flax seed, walnuts. They’re crucial for your brain health and they can help reduce inflammation and stress. And then there’s a couple of vitamins and minerals that we really want to focus on. One being vitamin B, it’s essential for energy production in our brain. You can get that in whole grains, meats, day, eggs and dairy.

(06:33):
But then also magnesium, which Michelle talked about a couple of weeks ago, helps regulate our cortisol and helps promote relaxation. We can get those in dark leafy greens, nuts, seeds, and whole grains as well. And then vitamin C, which helps support our adrenal functions, right? That’s where we kind of really feel that lull when we’re really stressed out, really feel that fatigue. So to reduce that, we can eat our citrus fruits like oranges, strawberries, bell peppers and broccoli. Those will really help bring those vitamin C levels up. And the last but not least, we can’t forget our antioxidants, berries, nuts, dark chocolate. Who doesn’t want dark chocolate when you have that craving for dark chocolate or something sweet rh not turned to dark chocolate and some raspberries. You’re getting both antioxidants in both and it’s a great snack. But that’s going to help combat our oxidative stretch, which can contribute to anxiety and depression.

(07:22):
So those are a couple of foods that we really, really want to focus on, but we also then can turn to some different patterns focusing on nutrient dense foods like fruits, vegetables, more whole foods, right? We want to get more from the source, more out of the original source. And then balanced meals, really eating at a regular time every day, every couple hours because we all know when our blood sugar gets low, we become that really hangry person and we’re going to be really irritable and really stressed. And so why not get onto a balanced plan where you’re eating every couple hours, but eating balanced meals to prevent blood sugar fluctuations, reduce stress and anxiety as well.

Cori (08:02):
Really by addressing some of these things in our diet, we can help prevent stress levels from rising even more in the first place. But we can even think of some of these things as the replacement for the more processed foods we might grab. If you’re craving something salty, go for those nuts, get those healthy fats. If you’re craving something sweet, go for the dark chocolate and maybe berries even mix in a Greek yogurt parfait to get that protein. We can think about using some of these things to not only replace the more or the less macro friendly things we would have that would bring us into this negative cycle of feeling guilty then for eating, which takes us down the spiral, but we can also help alleviate future stress. And I do love that you mention the meal timing as well, because I think a lot of times we know when we’re going to have a stressful time period of life.

(08:43):
We know when life is going to be shifting slightly, whether it’s priorities with work or kids going back to school or whatever it is. And so proactively we can even consider, hey, what are my stress levels going to be? How can I make sure that I’m not getting hangry or not feeling so deprived? And how can I create that interval or eating schedule that will help me stay consistent and get in those nutrient dense foods? If you’re working with somebody who is going to be having a stressful period, what sort of recommendations do you make for them? Andrea to, I’m going to call you Michelle from the magnesium, but Andrea, all the good nutritional things, dietician approved, but what strategy would you sort of implement with them to make sure that they’re getting ahead of things? Because I think the more we plan for those times where we would usually eat out of stress, the better off we’re going to be

Andrea (09:32):
100%. And it’s all about planning and setting yourself up for success. The kids are going back to school, right? It’s a change for you. It’s a change for them. It’s a huge new season in your life. So why not pre-plan for it and try and set yourself up for success, but also have grace because those moments of stress are going to happen working in some of those foods that you know that are going to be a feel good food for you. So maybe pack your meal, packing your lunch for the day when you’re going back to work. Maybe you’re a teacher going back to work and it’s the first week of school. It’s a little stressful, but setting yourself up for success, maybe putting in kind bars that have a little bit of dark chocolate and some nuts in there that’ll help you with that sweet craving when you’re stressed that you know can grab to.

(10:15):
But making sure you’re eating those snacks throughout the day. Maybe limiting your sugar intake or limiting your caffeine intake because there’s that fine line when we’re feeling a little bit tired, we gravitate towards caffeine to pers up, but then if we go too far, we’re going to get a little anxious. So making sure that we’re limiting our caffeine intake. And we forgot one specifically about staying hydrated throughout the day. Staying hydrated throughout the day is super, super important for your energy levels to help you feel full, to help you fiber go through all these different things that we’re looking for that can help our cognitive function. But setting yourself up for success on those days when you know you can preplan, maybe do some ingredient prep, but also just try and do what you think is best, that 1% difference than the day before. And actually get yourself into that normal schedule.

(11:04):
See what worked for you, see what didn’t work for you. At the end of the day. Assess your stress levels. How am I feeling? What if I went for a walk? Is this going to make me feel better? Yes, I really want that candy bar. Okay, what if I went for a walk and thought about maybe listen to a podcast and I come back, do I still want that candy bar? Why don’t I have half today and maybe have the other half tomorrow if I still need it? I’m not going to say that you can’t have that food that you want, but just work it into your schedule and making sure, okay, I’m going to go for a walk, I’m going to eat an apple, and if I still want it, then have it because you’re going to eat five different things to get to that craving anyway. So planning your success throughout the day, but using those different techniques, breathing, journaling, maybe reading a book or gardening, going for a walk, drinking water before you go for the candy bar, just trying to milk yourself out of that knee-jerk reaction so that way you’re not going for it all the way and analyze, do I really need it? Do I not? What could I do differently? And just having that little conversation with yourself really helps you step into that other fork in the road in that different direction to change that habit.

Cori (12:06):
It really is that self-awareness and that little pause to reflect that makes the difference, because it’s not bad to have something we’re craving. It’s not bad to say, I do want some caffeine. I do want my glass of wine. I do want my processed food. But you want to strike that balance and also not have it be something you just default into and repeat that same cycle. Creating more stress, more guilt, not seeing the results you want, snowball. It’s why tracking to even work those things in so that you don’t feel restricted can be key. And it is why taking that time to have that water and then say, what do I really want? Because as you pointed out, if you keep trying to willpower your way through cravings that you truly want something, ultimately, often we end up still eating it and we’ve eaten five other things in the meantime, or we go overboard with it because we feel so guilty and we take that flat tire and then go slash the other three tires. So it is about really assessing what you want and just trying to break the instant pattern of going to that comfort food to help alleviate your stress over saying, what do I really want? What is my balance? So in summarizing all these tips for people, if you were to give them sort of a checklist of here’s how to navigate stress a little bit better through your nutrition, what would that be?

Andrea (13:16):
I would start off with eating balanced meals, making sure you have everything representative in your plate, your protein, your carbohydrates, your fruits and vegetables, your fats, healthy fats as well. And then try not to skip meals. Try to make sure you’re packing healthy snacks. And apple’s really portable oranges are super poor bananas. Those kinds of things are really portable throughout the day. Carrot sticks, just if you want something crunchy. So setting yourself up so you’re not skipping those meals and keeping that blood sugar at a consistent level. And then of course, limiting the sugary snacks and the caffeine, like you said, go ahead and have that coffee, but maybe have a latte with almond milk instead of the vanilla with it, or whatever it might be. But enjoying that, but at a different level, maybe having a herbal tea instead. Staying hydrated is the number one thing that I really want to drive home, because that will definitely help you feel full, but it’ll help with your digestion as well.

(14:14):
And then mindful eating, I think this is the hardest one, but mindful eating, being self-aware of where you’re at throughout the day can help you reduce stress and think about different options that you could do differently next time. And of course, stress is going to happen. Stress is always there, waiting for you. What worked for one day might not work for the next day, but really having that self-awareness of saying, okay, I did this yesterday. It worked. I’m going to try it again and see if it works. And pretty soon you’ll notice that that habit is going to be changing and you’re going to go in a different direction.

Cori (14:44):
It’s trying to change those mindsets, the environment that we’re in, trying to break that instant response so that we can actually pause to assess what we want. I think that’s so key and so important to really highlight in that yes, you’re trying to get that protein, yes, you’re trying to eliminate processed foods, but a lot of it is just making sure that you are truly consuming something that you want striking your balance and not creating more guilt or more stress around the decisions you’ve made, but actually trying to move forward to feel and fuel your best. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout 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

FHP 658 – The One Minute Productivity Hack

FHP 658 – The One Minute Productivity Hack

LISTEN HERE

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WATCH HERE

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TRANSCRIPT

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OPEN TRANSCRIPT

Speaker 1 (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. So let’s jump right in. I’m going to tell you the secret to creating lasting habits. The secret to creating discipline. And it’s not a magic macro ratio. It’s not a magic trick or a workout or willpower even that I’m going to tell you you need to have. It’s actually one single thought, and the thought is just do one minute.

(00:50):
So when we hear just do one minute of something, we think, what can I accomplish? In one minute it goes to even saying, just read one page, just cut up one food. Just do one exercise. But all of these things lead to us doing a whole heck of a lot more, but they get us over what’s often the hardest part to truly creating new habits, new routines, success, which is getting started so easy. So often, it’s easy to let ourselves off the hook to not even do anything. And the more you do, the more you do. When we don’t do anything, we tend to do more of nothing. When we do things, we tend to want to add on other habits because we start to feel successful with those habits. So the thought, just do one minute. Even if you set that timer for legitimately one minute and do something for it, that is going to make progress.

(01:36):
And a lot of times when we do that one minute, we end up doing a lot more than that. One minute, I can’t tell you how many times I said, okay, just do one minute of the workout. If you really want to stop after that, you can stop. Generally, I would say there’s probably only a handful of times where I’ve actually stopped after that one minute because I just didn’t have the time or mentally there was something else going on. And even then when I stopped at that one minute, I generally didn’t skip the workouts the rest of the week versus when I’ve not done something, it’s really easy to let one day become 2, 3, 4. But I did that one minute and was like, I pushed as much as I had right today. And that alone made me feel good. It made me feel successful, made me want to do more.

(02:11):
I stuck with my macro still that day. I did all the other habits that I need to do. I mean, I hate folding laundry, and if I tell myself, just fold laundry for one minute. Once you have the pile out there and you’re starting to do it, you do a lot more. Same thing goes for workout, same thing goes for meal prep. Same thing goes for all these different things. Once we get over that hurdle of getting started, we often do exactly what we wanted ourselves to do, but we need to lower that barrier to entry and even give ourselves permission of like, Hey, if really this is all you have for today, you did something. And that success does allow us to build a lot more easily and often keeps us in other habits a lot more easily than if we did nothing. Because our motivation, our momentum can shift that quickly.

(02:50):
So if you have that thought, just do one minute. Think about how that workout feels, even when you’ve pushed through that workout that you told yourself, you only have to do one minute and you end up doing the entire thing. A lot of times you feel even fricking better about that than you did about the workout that you did because you felt good and you wanted to do it that day. You feel better about that and you feel more successful. And that’s where we see confidence and strength really built. And that’s where you tend to want to do a lot more. You dial in those habits a lot more intensely. You start to see that discipline happen because you start to remember how good you even felt pushing through that hard and pushing yourself just a little outside your comfort zone. But that one thought too can get you to do so many different things.

(03:29):
And that’s where discipline’s really built. It’s not that you want to do things all the time, you don’t. It’s not that we always have motivation. It’s not that we don’t let certain habits slide, but often we let a lot less slide and we see that habit stack happen where we’re doing a lot more of those basics and they become a lot more ingrained because we have that thought of just do one minute. We have to recognize where the hurdle is. It’s not often that we don’t have enough time. It’s not often that we can’t, it’s simply that it’s really hard to bust out of where our momentum is going and do something get started. So if you want the secret, have that thought. Anytime you don’t want to do something, just do one minute. Just do one thing. The easiest thing that almost feels ridiculously silly, simple to do, it’s not going to add up to anything. But over time would a snowball. But B, will also get you a lot of times over that initial hurdle to do more, and then you’re going to feel even better about it. And a lot of times that can keep the momentum going so much more forward or even help you find that motivation again. So what is your just do one minute thing that you’re going to focus on for this next week.

(04:32):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, 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 somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life of someone.

FHP 657 – MEAL PREP Tips & Tricks (You Need To Know)

FHP 657 – MEAL PREP Tips & Tricks (You Need To Know)

LISTEN HERE

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WATCH HERE

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TRANSCRIPT

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OPEN 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 work on 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. So let’s jump right in. Failing to plan is planning to fail. I’m going to butcher this morning. It’s going to be good, but we’re talking about hacking meal prep because it’s so important that we really do plan out how we’re going to hit our macros if we want to see results to start, because often we aren’t necessarily naturally hitting them. It’s a learning process. So I’m super excited to be joined by Julia, my fabulous registered dietician today to talk about hacking meal prep and really making sure that you’re hitting your macros efficiently and effectively For all of us. People who especially like me, are slightly lazy. So Julia, thank you for joining me.

Julia (01:04):
Of course. Thank you for having me. I am so thrilled to be here and so excited to jump on in and talk all things meal prep today.

Cori (01:12):
So let’s start out just talking about what the benefits of meal prepping really are.

Julia (01:17):
Sure. So I mean, first off, we know that it saves us a lot of time and money. We’re not having to eat out throughout the week. We kind of have those meals planned out and we’re able to actually utilize that food that we’re getting and we’re just buying what we need so no food is going to waste. It also reduces that midweek stress. So for people who again, have a really busy schedule, they’re not able to plan as well, this can really help you have that plan in place so that you don’t even have to think about it. It also helps us to increase our nutrient density in our diet to add in more produce vegetables, protein, foods that you may otherwise not really grab for in a pinch. And then it also ensures, like you said, that we are meeting our nutrition goals. So failing to plan is planning to fail, so it really just puts us ahead of the game ready for that success and also dismisses the question of what to eat when you are hungry because it’s already there ready to grab and go so you’re not having to scramble around.

(02:13):
Ultimately though, I think everything connects is that it really sets us up for success in the long term.

Cori (02:21):
It it makes a change because usually when we are working to hit macros, we are changing ratios, we’re making a change to our diet, we’re working towards a specific goal. It makes it easier because the more you’re having to think about things and try and adjust in the moment, the harder it really is and it’s easy to get busy and fall back into old habits. So with that being said, who do you recommend meal prep for? Besides lazy people just like me.

Julia (02:46):
I mean especially for anyone who is very busy, if you work long hours, if you are a busy parent or just anyone with a really packed schedule who may find it hard to find that time to sit down and cook a meal throughout the day, like you said, for someone who is struggling to hit their macro goals. So if you know that you are someone who struggles with that, planning ahead is really going to be key for that success. And then finally, if you feel like you’re someone who maybe you just snack throughout the day and you don’t really have that meal structure, it’s really hard to make good decisions in the moment when we let ourselves get really hungry. I tell my clients all the time, I would be the worst dietician if it wasn’t for meal prep because I wouldn’t make the best decisions in that moment. But it is really all about setting yourself up for success so that when you have those moments where you are hungry, your body’s telling you that you need to fuel yourself, you have that option ready to go right there, and it gives you that meal structure that you need.

Cori (03:38):
Often in making habit changes, it’s like trying to bring to light old patterns as we create new ones and it’s stressful, it takes a lot of willpower. We’re having to use a lot of mental capacity, and part of what meal prep really does is it makes things a little bit more mindless. We don’t have to think about what we’re eating, we don’t have to think about where we’re going to go to get it. We don’t even have to think about the macros or any of those different things. It also not only makes things more mindless, which makes it easier and less stressful to make the changes, but it does shift our environment. It allows us to have those foods on hand so we’re not necessarily defaulting back into old patterns going to the cabinet when we’re stressed. We know we have something in the fridge, which holds us a little bit more accountable too, versus if we don’t have anything, it’s easy to be like, well, let me have these other things going off of that before we dive into some tips to really get started, meal prepping if you haven’t done it before, if you are a parent, I think often we get into this thing of like, I’m prepping meals for other people.

(04:32):
How do I prep for myself as well? So with getting started and even potentially making meals for other people, what tips do you have? How can you really find that balance so you can hit your macros, not have to make a bazillion different dishes, but also make things easier and get started with it?

Julia (04:48):
Yeah, that’s an awesome, awesome question. I feel like it’s a really common struggle is that people feel like they see meal prepping, they see the demands of it and they’re not sure how they can adapt it to really fit their lifestyle. If you are someone who you are a busy parent, definitely customize it to your needs. So there’s not a one size fits all when it comes to meal prep. Don’t be afraid to play around with certain recipes and portion sizes if you need to maybe give your child a little bit more rice and if you want a lower carb split, you can maybe take that away and add some avocado on top to add a little bit more fat and just make those little tweaks, but you still can have those similar meals laid out. Ultimately, I think just strategizing and knowing what your needs are, knowing what your pain points are, right?

(05:30):
So if you are someone who maybe you struggle to get in enough vegetables, then you can strategize. Choose recipes that are really rich in vegetables, things like stir fries, salads, soups, or even utilizing frozen or pre-cut vegetables. If you are someone who maybe you struggle and you don’t have time to cook on the weekends, you’re a busy parent, you’re running around, you have kids soccer games a lot on your plate, make extra meals ahead for the weekend that you can save and freeze and just pop in the microwave real quick or plan your meal prep around the weekend and make those your eat out meals. If you are someone who you struggle to hit your protein goal, choose meals with really easy protein sources. Things like Greek yogurt, eggs, deli meats, rotisserie chicken or just prep some proteins in advance. We kind of call that like a bulk meal prep where we just pick some things like chicken or a shrimp and just have that on hand, ready to throw in salads, bowls and ready to go. If you are someone who maybe struggled with breakfast, you have a busy day ahead of you with work, then prepare something the night before that you can just grab and go, but whatever it is, I think these are all very different examples, but they all show that you’re identifying what your weaknesses and where you can really optimize your meal prep and get ahead of the game.

Cori (06:44):
I love those tips because I found that I use a variety of them even depending on the time of year or what goal I’m working towards, where there are times where I want more recipe based things and I make those recipes even casseroles and then I cut them up. But there’s also times where I want a little bit more flexibility in the meals I’m eating because I’m not as sure of other meals, and so having that bulk prep of just vegetables on the side and different options of vegetables or different options of carb sources or different options of proteins, I can then combine ’em in different ways, whether I do make the salad or the stir fry out of the chicken or I add it to tacos or whatever else, I have things that could be used in multiple different ways even based on how the rest of my day went, which I find super helpful. So it is really key. We find those different ways of meal prepping that fit our lifestyle and realize there’s opportunity in all of these options that meal prep doesn’t just mean one thing, but if we are going into a meal prep session and we are really looking to hit specific macro ratios, how would you recommend that someone approach breaking down those meals to even determine what type of recipes they might need or what type of meal prep might work best for them?

Julia (07:51):
Well, first off, if you are someone who you are tracking macros, just taking a look at what those macros look like and maybe even dividing them by the amount of meals and snacks that you want to have throughout the day just to get a rough estimate of what that looks like. So for example, if you goal is 130 grams of protein, maybe you can divide that by three or four to account for at least three meals or one to two snacks throughout the day, and that gives you roughly 30, 35 grams approaching that you want to aim for at each meal. From there, you can begin to look at recipes that really match those macros, and the same for carbs and fat. Obviously it doesn’t have to be perfect meal to meal, but it really just gives you kind of that blueprint that you’re working with to hit those goals because we can meal prep in advance, but it’s not as beneficial for hitting our goals if we’re not making sure that we’re choosing recipes that are really working with those goals and then going off that just making it as simple and as realistic for you as possible.

(08:45):
So don’t throw in a bunch of new recipes at once. I always say just try to introduce one new recipe a week. If you love it, your family loves it, that it’s one of your staple recipes as we it, and you can cycle that in week to week, but definitely make it as realistic for you as possible. Like we said, don’t be afraid to play around with portion sizes if you need to for your family and just make it as realistic for your lifestyle as possible.

Cori (09:11):
And as you do that too, and even if you bulk prep some different things, think about family meals like the taco bar or the salad bar, all those are options where you can have all the ingredients prepped and bring them out for your family and everybody can sort of make something that hits their own macros, but I love that dividing up to really see what you would need at each meal because you can even then start to think about different ways that really make it fit what you need. I know I want to work in certain snacks or certain desserts or certain things, and so then I can work other meals around it even being like, okay, I’m not going to divide protein and carbs and fats evenly. I know sometimes people will be like, well, what’s a really high protein snack? And I’m like, I don’t use protein at my snack.

(09:49):
I try and keep carbs and fat for my snack and then work my other meals around it. So within having that breakdown of what you need to hit at each meal, you can start to say, Hey, maybe I’ll shift a little bit more here or a little bit more here to work in things that I love. What are some other suggestions you have for people if they’re really looking to make meal prep work for their lifestyle and find that balance? Because we don’t want to just be forcing some mold on ourselves that really isn’t sustainable, that we’re just dreaming of going back to what we used to do because then we’re not actually going to have the habit stick and we’re going to lose all the results we’ve worked hard to build.

Julia (10:20):
Yeah, I love that question because again, I think we see meal prepper, we hear it, and we think of all those containers laid out for every single meal throughout the day, and that can seem really overwhelming and not realistic for someone who isn’t able to do that. So again, just going back to the drawing board and adapting it to your lifestyle, remembering that there is no right or one way to meal prep, like you were saying, it’s all about identifying what works best for you. So this can look really different person to person. This can be prepping one to two recipes and eating the same meals for several days at a time. This can be, like you were saying, prepping several staple items, so maybe a ground Turkey, a rice, maybe some hard boiled eggs, maybe chicken salad, and then using them interchangeably throughout the week where you need to.

(11:03):
This can also look like just doubling the recipes that you’re making. If you’re making a dinner for your family, maybe you’re just going to double that so that you can have that for lunch for the next day or the next few days to have on hand or even prepping as you go. This can be as simple as you’re going to throw a crockpot recipe in there in the morning or you’re going to prep something for breakfast the next day. You’re going to have your smoothie ready to grab and go in the freezer, or you’re going to have an overnight oo on hand that you can grab and run out the door. So it doesn’t have to be as complex as we may think it is. It’s all about kind of finding out what your lifestyle needs are and how do adapt it to that so that you really can optimize and hack your meal prep

Cori (11:46):
And in that bulk preparation and keeping things simple, which I personally think is so key. I can eat the same meal over and over again for a certain period of time, and then I get really bored and then I’m like, I can’t look at this again. But for people not like that, I’ve even found where I can bulk prep things and use that simplicity and then freeze them and I don’t have to eat that the rest of the week. If I do tend to get more bored, like more food diversity, I can freeze that and use that the next week or the week after that. So there is even some flexibility to create diversity while creating that simplicity in that you can then have a ton of different things frozen in different ways to pull out when you’re in a pinch or even to allow yourself more diversity over that week.

(12:25):
Off of that. When you’re thinking about meal prep and we’re thinking about some of those things, right? Prepping for ourselves might be good, but in the freezer I also have meal prep I’ve purchased or cooked items I purchased because I am at times that lazy that I don’t even want to cook the things, which is great, right? It allows me to be lazier, but it can also add some cost. If someone was looking to potentially cut costs with meal prepping, what recommendations would you have to make sure that this is really budget friendly as well?

Julia (12:55):
First off, if you are buying for a family or just wanting to meal prep, similar things, buying things in bulk. So again, even buying a bag of rice or oats will be so much cheaper than buying it in a smaller container. If you’re going to have these recipes on repeat, that can be super, super helpful. Even things like canned foods, nut butters, just easy things that you can buy in those large amounts and they won’t go bad. Also, not being afraid to take advantage of the frozen section. So I know frozen produce kind of gets a bad rep, but it’s usually harvested and frozen when it’s rip, meaning that it contains more nutrients for a fraction of the price than the fresh fruits and vegetables that we’re seeing. So do not be afraid to utilize that to throw that into things like chilies, soups, stir fries like we were saying, and really take advantage of that.

(13:42):
Also, of course, shopping the sale. So if you are someone who may be on the weekend or whenever that time looks like for you that you are going to plan out when you’re going to meal or prep and you’re writing out that grocery list, look up the store near you and look up what their sales are and see how you can incorporate those foods into your meals throughout the week to save you money. Another great tip is shopping this store brands. So for items like nut butters, like we were saying, there’s a lot of things that you can find that are similar ingredients if not the same ingredients of those name brands for a fraction of the price again. And then finally just prioritizing the perimeter in ear shopping. So we hear this all the time, and that’s because the perimeter is packed with those whole foods, which often offer a lot more micro and macronutrients than prepackaged foods in the middle aisles, again for a fraction of the price. So making sure to kind of work them into your recipes, and again, this is a huge benefit of meal prepping is that we can really be intentional about it and it chooses recipes beforehand and work these foods in.

Cori (14:44):
We can make sure nothing goes to waste. We can buy in bigger bulk because we can prep and then even freeze it again to use over a longer period of time. We can buy those frozen things, which lasts a lot longer too if we are worried about something going bad. But there’s lots of ways to really make it work. Even in the recipes you pick, I’ll try and pick recipes that use the same sort of ingredients to be able to buy one thing that I use in multiple different ways, and that way I’m not having to buy more diversity, which can really add up now off of this. So we have the being very budget friendly, potentially having to do a little bit more work. It often comes with it, and then we have the being a little bit lazier. If someone’s on the lazier side and willing to spend a little bit more money on something, what would you recommend to give them some hacks to really make meal prepping that much more of a lazy person game? I’m selfishly asking. I have a few of my own, but I’m selfishly asking.

Julia (15:39):
Yeah, of course. Just really taking advantage of those kind of more convenience foods. So again, if you’re able to get things like precut vegetables or fruits, if you’re able to do things like rotisserie chicken and then maybe you’re just chopping that up when you get home and throwing that in salads, bowls, things throughout the week. Also, things like canned tuna, canned salmon, chicken, canned beans, those are awesome options. Again, you’re just drilling them out of the can and able to throw them in right away. Even buying things like hard boiled eggs, again, it just doesn’t have to be super complex things. You don’t have to sit there and cook these foods for hours. You can typically get them already precooked. Even the same thing with chicken. A lot of times stores will have it frozen grilled chicken that you can easily just heat up when you get home, pop it in the fridge and it’s there to grab and throw in meals throughout the week. So definitely just taking advantage of those convenience items and also knowing where your weak points are. If you struggle to maybe get in carbohydrates, maybe you’re going to lean on the prepackaged rice instead of having to cook it yourself every week, but just not being afraid to really take advantage of those foods

Cori (16:44):
And in knowing your balance where you are wanting to be a little bit lazier, you can potentially spend a little bit more and then budget for the other things. But I know the easy microwave rice, all those different things, they can save a lot of time and make it easier even as you’re easing in even if you don’t necessarily want to do that long term. So it’s remembering too that sometimes we have to lower that barrier to entry, get ourself taking that action and getting that momentum building to then do more. I also want to bring up eating out when it comes to meal prep because I think a lot of times we think this is only cooking stuff at home, but part of meal prepping is even planning in those meals out and knowing go-to restaurants where you can hit your macros and work those things in because that allows us in a pinch when something does come up where maybe we can’t have our meal prep that we even planned to be able to have those go-to items, but also find that lifestyle of balance. Do you have any recommendations if someone is looking to work in meals out to their meal prep and to hitting their macros?

Julia (17:37):
Yeah, I would say just trying to kind of have a weekly menu in place, as we call it. So even if that’s you sitting down maybe a Sunday morning or whenever it looks like for you that you had that time to at least write out a rough plan, and I’ll even do this where I’ll leave maybe like a Friday night or a Saturday night or something open. I know those are going to be meals that I’m going to eat out and I really plan my meals around those and kind of write out even when I’m going to have for breakfast maybe those days just to have that rough plan in place. And this is also something really great that you can do if you have a family and you can really make it a fun experience for everyone. Let your kids chime in and kind of see what meals they want to have throughout the week and then plan around that, see where you can add in your lunch, your breakfast, those types of things. But really just giving yourself that plan ahead of time that you have so that you know that can default to that, and you’re working in those fun food experiences as well. So it’s not like you get to a point where you’re upset that you have to continue to eat your meal prep. You’re still working in those fun experiences, which I think is so key to making it enjoyable and sustainable long-term.

Cori (18:40):
You can find that lifestyle balance like meal prep isn’t just about prepping chicken and broccoli and only having to eat chicken and broccoli. It’s really about, as you mentioned, planning out that weekly menu so that you can say, Hey, we love pizza and game night on Friday night. I’m going to plan that in. How can I work the rest of the week to make that work so that you’re not skipping those things. It is that plan in place to create that lifestyle balance. Off of that key takeaways, things that someone looking to get started, you want to give as key reminders for someone meal prepping who might start to feel like if we get habit fatigue at times, what would you tell them in terms of getting them motivated to do this meal prep, to use these tips to really make changes that add up?

Julia (19:20):
Just remember that it doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, the more simple that we can make it, the more likely we are to follow through with it and at least stick with it at the beginning. But planning ahead is going to be what sets you up for that wary free week. I think a lot of the times we get overwhelmed with the work that we have to put in order to do meal prep, but when we look at the benefits that we get out of it and the time that we’re not spending throughout the week worrying, stressing, cooking, there are more benefits than there are cons to it for a lot of us. So just remembering, like you said at the beginning, that failing to plan is planning to fail. Just like you wouldn’t go into a test without studying, just like you wouldn’t buy a house without budgeting, all of your other goals require planning and preparation and so does hitting your macros.

(20:05):
So do not be afraid to take the time to sit down and plan it out a little bit. Even the most experienced coaches, everyone will tell you they utilize these meal prep and planning head stove because it is so, so key to success. So if you are someone looking to get started, you’re not sure where to get started, definitely check out our meal plan builder handout that we had dropped in the Facebook group. That is an awesome way to really show you the different options that you have when it comes to meal prepping and how to adapt it to your lifestyle,

Cori (20:33):
And I think that’s a key component. Adapt it to your lifestyle. When we’re talking about meal prep, we’re not talking about one specific way of doing it. There’s so many options and opportunities in that. So really think about what your lifestyle is, even maybe how you’ve approached meal prep in the past and what has and hasn’t worked and where you are right now to make it work for you because one size doesn’t fit all, and that applies to just about every habit that we’re going to implement, but the more we see the opportunity in the options, the better off we’re going to be. Thank you so much, Julia, for joining me today. Guys, I would love to hear how you use meal prep to help you hit your macros and what meals are your go-tos when you’re prepping ahead of time. 

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

FHP 656 – Reframing Habits – DO IT FOR YOU!

FHP 656 – Reframing Habits – DO IT FOR YOU!

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OPEN 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 work on 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. So let’s jump right in. We all have those things that we feel we have to do to get results, but the more we can reframe these things as things we get to do, the better off we’re going to be. And that’s why I’m super excited to dive in today with my fabulous coach, Liz, into changing that mindset so that we’re doing things for us. So thank you Liz, for joining me today.

Liz (00:50):
Awesome to be here.

Cori (00:51):
So let’s talk about how can we shift this mindset from have to get to

Liz (00:58):
Well, I think the first thing is you have to sort of take a pause. You have to start to recognize that that is what you’re actually and how you’re actually viewing it. And once you bring that sort of to that frontal lobe, as I say, in terms of catching yourself, getting up in the morning and saying, I have to clean the bathrooms today, or I have to walk the dog or I have to do my workout. That can really set the tone for your entire day and sometimes your week, your month, your year. So the acknowledgement and sort of catching yourself in the act, if you will, can really be the first step to that big change. And once you recognize how you use your language, the words you use, how you sort of phrase that for yourself, and even the slightest shift in the way in which you’re saying it, the tone in which you’re saying it in your brain changes how powerful that can be to change the entire perspective of all those things, many of which we view as chores, but can quickly become things that we actually say, I get to get up and do those things because one, I’m strong enough, I’m privileged enough to be able to do those things and they’re going to lead me to be able to do other things that I even enjoy more.

(02:25):
And I think that shift can really set our day off in a way that really changes everything going to the grocery store and people getting in your way, someone’s stealing your parking spot, whatever it is, it all spills over in how we start with those things that are part of our regular routine.

Cori (02:44):
I love that you bring up that self-awareness because I think that’s often something that, well, it’s at the heart of every change that we’re going to make. We have to be aware of a pattern we’re repeating in the language we’re using before we can make that change. And when we start to see all of the times we say I have to, it’s not just the words, right? It is the words in that we’re saying have to versus get to, but it’s the attitude behind them and the mindsets behind them and not even recognizing the why behind why we’re doing those things. We say, oh, I have to clean the kitchen or I have to clean the bathroom. And while I don’t know if anybody will fully think that’s fun, and if you do think that’s fun, come over, please do mine. We can shift our mindset around the have to and the attitude behind that into, Hey, I love having a clean house. It makes me feel way less stressed. It makes me feel so much happier. It really changes my whole mindset. I know when my house gets cluttered, it does sort of pull me down and you can put it into the why behind it and sort of tie it back to something bigger in terms of that with some of the habits, especially around fitness and nutrition, how do you make sure that you are tying things back to your why so that it feels like something you get to do?

Liz (03:54):
Absolutely. And I think part of the changing the have to get to, I mean the words I have to actually trigger that stress response in us. And so when we start out with that stress response in our bodies, whether it’s first thing in the day that’s going to set the tone for the other things that we get to do. And so when we start looking at things such as I have to get up and do my workout, it becomes more, I get to do my workout and I get to do those other things too. And I love using the parallel of instead of using the word but using the word and I get to clean that kitchen and I get to work out because then it becomes inclusive and it becomes part of just our day-to-day routine, if you will. And it takes away that extra stress of I have to do that in order to do that.

(04:45):
So it doesn’t become mutually exclusive or an either or. It becomes an and I think when we start to view things with the way that we take care of ourselves, whether that’s self-care, that’s knowing that we get to go for a walk if we do these other things, it all adds up to the way in which we sort of approach every single day. And there’s a quote I love that is be that person you want to be that when your feet hit the floor, the rest of the world is going, oh no. Right? Because when you get up out of bed and you have that attitude of when my feet hit the floor, everybody else better be ready. That’s already where you’ve kind of made this awareness that you want to hit the floor and you want to be running and you want to be out there with a really positive attitude regardless.

(05:32):
And I think when we start to rationalize not being able to do things because of other things we have to do, it becomes that slippery slope of if I have to do that, then I can’t do that. Instead of it being I get to do this and I can do this. And that just changes our whole outlook on the way we take care of ourselves. It’s a little bit of putting on own mask before putting on somebody else’s. If we’re not putting our own mask on by getting to do the things that we want to do and need to do for ourselves, filling our buckets, putting deposits in our banks, then we will forever be trying to figure out how to get to that place, how to get to the get tos. We’ll always be thinking of it as the have-tos.

Cori (06:17):
It’s tying the habits back to the importance for you, but also connecting things that you already are inspired to do that you get to do to things that maybe you don’t necessarily yet feel that way about. And I love that use of and to do that because you are connecting things that maybe you are prioritizing in your life to things that you haven’t yet prioritized through that. And I even think it goes so far as to start your morning with something you already feel you get to do or you want to do. Because as you mentioned, that really does set the whole tone when you have this feeling of I have to do this, I have to get up and do this, I have to do things. I don’t necessarily yet prioritize or value as much as maybe I should because I haven’t seen that connection to my why or haven’t felt that connection to my why. The more you can even start the day with something you get to do that you are inspired to do, the more you set that tone then to even change your mindset towards other things that maybe you haven’t yet found that priority in or that value in potentially.

Liz (07:18):
No, and I agree and I think the why piece is so powerful and we’re all in different places on that. We all have whys that might start here but evolve into here. And as those whys become more clear or become stronger or even change, and that happens as we evolve through this journey is our whys potentially maybe get more clear and maybe they change, but at the end of the day, we all want to feel energized, we want to feel good. So we know intellectually those feelings that we want to experience, we’ve experienced them and sometimes we have to sort of prioritize that as I get to get up and do this because I know that I’m going to feel amazing, strong and energized when I am finished. And that becomes the why. And it also I think sometimes helps the prioritization. And when we try to prioritize the things that are most essential in our lives, there’s a lot of noise, there’s a lot of distractions, and we sometimes have to get right back to one, making sure that that’s something that is maybe not negotiable.

(08:27):
That’s sometimes a way in which to look at things that we get to do versus what we have to do. But also it ties back really to how we know we’re going to feel. And that gets back into the why I want to feel really good because I know that I’m a much better mom, I’m a much better spouse, I’m a much better whatever friend when I have that why fulfilled. And it comes down to I think the idea of feeling as if we have that worthiness to validate that that is really important to us and that we are so lucky to be able to get up and lift that heavier weight if that is in our workout today or we get to be able to go fill our plate with nutritious foods and those are things that just become part of our muscle memory over time it becomes more so the get to as opposed to the have to, the more we practice it, the more we get up and just say I get to as opposed to I have to.

Cori (09:26):
And sometimes even if the habit doesn’t feel like something you get to do and you’re mentally thinking, okay, I can repeat get to, but it feels like something I have to do, we can tie it back to something that makes it feel more like a get to even in overcoming some of the challenges. Because I can tell you the workout that feels the best is the one that you do when you feel like you have to over you get to. And so even in thinking that on a day where you’re like, oh gosh, my mindset is I have to do this, be like, Hey, I get to do this and I get to feel extra strong because I’m going to have done this when maybe my original mindset, my original thought was the have to. And in thinking that sometimes you can even shift the mindset of, oh yeah, I feel so much better when I do something at a time maybe I don’t want to do, it’s not like a glossing over everything or a Pollyanna in everything, but it is recognizing to the value in those things and even the things that you maybe don’t prioritize right away the and can be so valuable.

(10:24):
Because I know for me sometimes in the morning to do things that I will otherwise let slide from the day because they aren’t yet priorities for me. I will do them and say, I am doing these things and then I get to do this other thing that maybe I do really feel I get to do. That excites me. And by doing those things first I’ll make sure they get done. Ultimately they feel less have to because they’re tied to something even that’s positive and we forget that association sometimes between something we maybe don’t yet have that positive feeling toward. That feels like a have to and tying it back to that get to change the perception of it because it is that. And as you mentioned,

Liz (10:59):
Yeah, and I totally agree, Corey, to your point, it is really important to acknowledge that there are definitely have tos in our life. I mean, we tell our kids you have to brush your teeth otherwise you’re going to have issues when you get to be older. And so it’s not to say that there isn’t an important aspect of the things we have to do because I mean we all have things we have to do. It’s the way we look at it and even that have tos can be like I have to mow the lawn. Oh, that’s awesome, but maybe I get to, but that doesn’t really do it for me, but I have to mow that lawn. Okay, good. Just approach it with a great attitude because as you say, when I get done mowing that lawn, I’m going to get to go stand up paddling. So in some ways it is, yes, it is that habit linking I like to call it, it’s almost like those pairing of habits. I get to do this and then I get to do this and has a much louder sort of voice and calling to you. And sometimes it’s the motivator too. It’s the thing that motivates you to get through the first, get to the second get to.

(12:14):
I think it’s really important to distinguish between cheerleading and really supporting. It’s like I need to make sure that I approach this with the right mindset versus I’m just going to convince myself that this is good.

Cori (12:32):
Yes, we don’t do well at the fake it till you make it. It’s more the act as this. And in that with the get tos too, it’s doing it for you. And I bring this up because I think that’s an important thing that we also gloss over that we’re doing these things for us. But that’s also why so often we do let some of the get tos slide and we can even feel like they are have tos when we do enjoy them. We do enjoy our workout, but we feel like we get to do our workout and we feel a little guilty and then it becomes a have to because we want to prioritize other things for other people. How do you help clients sort of work through the feeling of potentially even guilt with saying, I am doing things for myself and I want to do things for myself, but I feel like I get to and then it becomes a have to because I feel like I shouldn’t be prioritizing myself.

Liz (13:23):
And that is huge for a lot of people. I mean people who are taking care of others a lot of their lives. And I think there comes a point in time when there then almost becomes this resentment to the other parts of their lives where they get so far down that road that it’s very hard to pull back to a place where they feel good. And the first thing that typically I’ll encourage a client to do is to sit down and really write down what are the things that fill their energy bank. And I use the bank or the ATM sort of analogy because I think it’s very visual for people to see. We have a bank and if we always have withdrawals of those have tos, we lose sight of one why we’re doing them. Our bank becomes overdrawn and we lose sight of what we need to make those deposits.

(14:19):
And I mean time is a resource. We have so much time, it’s finite. And how we use that time becomes a matter of priority but also desire. How do we want to use that time? And I always say that with your ATM, you have so much time in that ATM, right? So much money in that ATM, what are you going to do to make deposits to that, that’s going to fill that why? That’s going to give you a sense of purpose and fulfillment for some people that is working out, if we use working out as an example, for some people that is working out for other people not so much, but they know the benefits and they do it because they know that it is good for them, but they would much rather be out hiking. So I think that there’s an element of knowing, having awareness, acknowledgement over what are the things that you need to deposit into your bank because you got to be making deposits in some way, shape or form.

(15:17):
And some of those are get tos and a lot of those are get tos. And there are probably a few have toss in there too, but as long as there’s always more deposits than there are withdrawals on a regular basis, you’re always going to have some kind of balance in the bank. And I think that when a client starts to recognize what their deposits are, many times some of those have tos actually become get tos because they realize actually they are for them. And it’s not so much of a chore that it’s actually something that does fill their bucket. It does give them a deposit and it helps to minimize some of the withdrawals. For some people the deposit is also a withdrawal. So when we look at how do we constantly reframe some of these things that we are doing to change that attitude with ourselves, first of all, it’s okay to have a bad day.

(16:09):
I mean I would say that it’s okay to have a bad day. The most important thing is how do you respond the next day? How do you take that, what you’ve learned today, what was the challenge you had today and where’s your opportunity to change that for tomorrow? And when they start to think about, well, what is it that’s going to make me start my day off better tomorrow or maybe change something that happened today that I can do differently tomorrow, all of a sudden it becomes a much more mindful practice as opposed to a reaction. And the response starts to be much more proactive as opposed to reactive. And I think sometimes when we get in that I have to mode, it’s a lot of times because we lose sight of being proactive and seeing things that we know might be coming and coming up with a plan and a response that’s going to help us to keep that attitude sort of where we want it to be.

(17:04):
Not because somebody else wants us to change our attitude, but because we want to change the way we look at it so that it’s coming from internally and not the external constant noise of what we have to do or what other people expect us to do. How do we do these things for ourselves? And that’s I think a big shift for some people to even just quantify or articulate is a better word, articulate what that is, what are those things? And once you know that you can go back to those time and time again and they’re often tied back to why you’re doing those things. And it all comes back around to where we started of how do we start with the right attitude of we get to do these things.

Cori (17:54):
But I think you hit on it right there. It’s tying it back to that why and realizing that everything you do is your choice. Because so often we do act like all these things are acting on us and we are doing absolutely everything for ourselves, even taking care of other people. Yes, it’s for them, but we’re doing this because it makes us feel good as part of who we are. We get to even do those things. And that reframing of that mindset, it doesn’t happen overnight, but it is so key. And the more we recognize truly stepping back, we’ve set our why. This means that when you set your why, everything you’re doing for your why, you’re doing for you and not in a selfish way, in a good way. And the more you do, the more you do, as you mentioned, if we get into that haveto mode, everything becomes a haveto.

(18:37):
Even things we truly enjoy on a daily basis. I mean I’ve had those bad days where it’s like I have to do this and I have to do that and I have to do this, and half those things I even want to do slash put on my calendar to do because they were get tos. But because I got into that mode, it became a have to. And then we have to remember the more you do, the more you do. So the second you feel yourself getting into that mode saying, Hey, how can I flip this? How can I even pause in all the things I now feel I have to do and put in something I feel like I get to do? Because again, it goes back to the, and you can say, now I get to do this. I want to do this on this day despite everything else that has happened and after that, all of a sudden now I get to do this and this and this because of doing that. But it’s recognizing the direction of your momentum, so to speak.

Liz (19:22):
And I think that there’s so many ways to approach it. And one of the things that seems to be a common thread, I think for many people, myself included, is that we get this sense of busy equating to purpose. And I always say busy is a four letter word, but it took me 55 years to figure that out. And so when you get to that place where you recognize that being busy isn’t necessarily fulfilling a purpose or serving us in terms of doing things for ourselves, we stop and need to pause. And one of the things, another thing that I find really helpful with clients who come from a place of a lot of overwhelm where they might be involved in a million things and all of a sudden they wake up and they go, boy, I have really got to focus on myself, right?

(20:16):
Well, you can’t just flip the switch. You can’t just all of a sudden say, unless you’re going to move to an island, I am just not going to do any of that other stuff and all I’m going to do is take care of myself because that isn’t typically the way it works. And instead really sitting back and starting to take a look at again, just sitting back and bringing some clarity and articulating on the things that are most important to them. Again, the why. And I think when you can identify what are the things that are most important to you, and then identify what are the actions you need to take to align with that and start with the most simple step. So in other words, getting out of bed in the morning and then you first say, I have to go do X is the first step is stop, wait, I just heard myself.

(21:11):
I say I have to, right? That’s the first thing. And the more that you practice catching yourself and making that change, the more progress you’re going to make. And it really comes back to really taking a look at, there are a couple of things that I think are wonderful ways to look at our lives and the way all of this fits in this big puzzle as we call it. And part of it is, is that the pieces of our pie constantly shift. That’s just life. And we know there are times that we can prioritize certain things more and certain things less. And one of the visuals that I find really powerful is the visual of a dial. There are times when we need and want to dial up and there are times that we need and want to dial down. And how we do that really is up to us and how we choose to prioritize things.

(21:58):
And sometimes we don’t always get our way, that’s life. Sometimes we have to make choices, but at the same time, we also know that when we say I’m making the choice to get my workout in this morning because I can and I get to that, that’s a priority that you’re choosing. And it’s important because it is for you and it’s not because somebody else says you should because the other piece, we’re not listening to what we should be doing. But instead, because we know it’s a commitment we’ve made to ourselves and that we’ve identified, that is something that is really essential in our lives. And the most powerful thing that I think that we can recognize is when we need to say yes to less with all the other stuff and how we then can start to make space for these things we get to do to minimize or mitigate how they become the have tos. And we actually find that bandwidth to be able to enjoy and really engage in it.

Cori (23:05):
I love that phrase, say yes to less because I think that really is in the heart of the busy being a four letter word. We think of all the things we should do have to do, even the things we get to do are in there, but it’s all these things. And we often even turn to trying to do more when we want to hit our why, when we want to reach our goal, and then we get super frustrated because the effort doesn’t always equal the outcome. And a lot of times we feel like we’re giving so much more to get what we’ve gotten back in return. And a lot of it isn’t actually the changes we’ve made, the things we’ve done truly in direct progress towards our goal. It’s all these other things that we just feel like we should add in. And the more we do go back to that why, but even consider, what does your lifestyle truly look like right now?

(23:51):
What are your should feelings, your have to feelings, your get to feelings or things and looking at the person you want to become with the goal that you want to achieve, what are maybe the shoulds have to get to potentially there? And what does that lifestyle look like? Because I think in a lot of that reflection, we’ll realize a lot of the extra things we’re even doing that have absolutely no relevance to where we want to go. And we’re clogging up a lot of our mental space, our time with those things over saying, Hey, here’s one other thing that is part of the lifestyle that I want to lead part of the person I want to become. How can I add that in and shift my priorities? Because in doing that, something that was a should or a have to might get to become a get to or it might even completely fall off the list. But we’ve got to do that honest assessment of where we’re at and where we want to go because we do let busy become our excuse and it ultimately slightly holds us back.

Liz (24:50):
It’s true. And I think when we have that vision of who we want to become or in some ways it’s what do I want things to look like? And whether you use a week, a month, a year, three years, five years, wherever you are in your stage of life, if you will, for some people a week out is far enough for others, five years, it might be a certain benchmark in your life, a milestone in your life, but whatever it is is really taking a moment to step back and say, what do I want that to look like? And then reverse engineering and really taking it step by step backwards of what do I need to do starting today to move in that direction? What are the actions that I can do now that will move me in that direction starting now, not in two weeks, not in a month.

(25:53):
I’ll get to it next year when I don’t have to be the room parent for. So-and-so’s class, and it goes on and on and on. And I think this is the biggest shift that as people who are fully engaged in our lives, and I always say that a full life is a great life. It’s prioritizing what you want to fill your life with. And one of the things that is I think an evolution process for many people is getting to a place where we have the confidence to say, my plate is as full as I would like. Not my plate is full. My plate is as full as I would like. That’s my choice. And I may have said yes to, I may have not agreed to do some things that aren’t serving me as well, may have decided that these things that I’ve been doing forever aren’t serving me because I’m focusing on what I want to look like in five years or be light in five years, and that’s my north star, that is my guiding star that I am moving toward in that direction.

(27:07):
And I think when we have the power of that vision, now the first thing is sitting back and really starting to articulate it too. I mean that’s not easy, is that starts to align our decisions and it gives us the opportunity to do it with confidence and really lean into it, leaning into those get tos and saying it with confidence. I know I’ve got 50 other things to do, but I get to go do my workout right now and leaning into it with not letting those other things become the detractors and those pressures. And I think that’s a huge, huge movement that can change the trajectory of that long-term vision.

Cori (27:55):
It is that shift, and going back to even what you said of don’t do it in two weeks. If someday is going to be the day, why not make someday today? But in that you have to give yourself something actionable. And with you talking about doing more of less, saying yes to doing less and even thinking about what’s on your plate and making sure it’s only as full as you’d like, it really got me to thinking even about with trying to get started to find your get tos to know you’re doing it for you to really prioritize things. Even making a list of all the things you do in a day and saying, do I really need to be doing all of these things every single day or are there overlapping things? Are there things not serving me well? But even then, taking that list and crossing things off and prioritizing maybe a circle around three different things, it can really highlight some of the wasted energy that we’re spending on things or things that we’ve kept in because they fit a different part in our life, but we never really assessed what we need.

(28:51):
Now off of this, if you were to give someone a way to take action today versus saying someday, what would be three things you would have them do to recognize the get tos versus the have tos? Recognize that language and even potentially realize and own that they are doing these things for themselves. And that is a positive empowering thing, not a selfish thing.

Liz (29:14):
Yeah, it’s such a great question because everybody is so different. Everybody approaches things differently. Some people get up in the morning and they start the day great, and then within an hour and a half something goes south and it completely derails them for the rest of the day. But I think the overarching theme, if you will, or I should say effort that can really be turned into almost this momentum is what are the things that you want to get to do? What are those things? When we know when we can articulate and we know what are these things that we get to do and can do and we can articulate it and we can put it up on the refrigerator on a sticky note that we look at every single day multiple times, then we’re more likely to look at those and incorporate them into our day-to-Day lives, looking at priorities.

(30:05):
I would say that’s one of the biggest things. Like you say, what do you do in a day? Where are things that really and truly don’t align with your doing it for yourself, your get tos? Are they things that can be maybe dismissed or changed? And I think the final thing is, is know that every day is not going to be perfect. This is not about perfection. This is not about doing things for yourself and all of a sudden it being magically perfect. It’s this messy, imperfect lives that we live. We love them and we learn from them. And what can you learn from today if you got up and say, I get to do my workout, and then it still didn’t happen, what do you learn from that? It’s not a you thing, it’s a thing. It’s not a you thing. So what is it that needs to go maybe one step further on that?

(31:02):
Yes, you get to maybe it’s the wrong time of day. So those are the things I think strategically when you know what your get to list is, right? And I’ll be honest, sense of humor. Okay, so sense of humor about failing and getting back up again and all that. That can be really helpful when you have get tos that all of a sudden become half tos. But it really is, I think, articulating what it is that are your get tos, prioritizing those within the context of your lifestyle, not your next friend, your best friend or your neighbors or your sister-in-laws or somebody else’s, but within the context of your life of what is doing it for you. And understand that as much as sometimes those distractions that are all around us, the noise around us every day, all day, what’s most important is what’s important to you? What is essential for you? Is it friends? Is it family? Is it you’re lifting a heavier dumbbell for your bicep curls? Is it that you’re going to hit your macros within two grams? You name it, you decide it and then you go after it?

Cori (32:14):
Yes, that’s the perfect way to end it. Yes, go after it. But I have to add to that, with everything you were saying, it even made me think it’s not just the habits or the actual tasks that we’re doing that we get to do. It’s the learning from the failures. It’s the mindsets behind it. And I think we don’t even consider that sometimes when we’re thinking about get tos, but hey, I get to learn from doing something new and probably failing at it. And if we can think about the get tos behind even some of the actions, it can really help. Not to mention, I love that you brought up a slight change to our environment, seeing the things that you prioritize, seeing, the things that you value, because we don’t realize how much our habits are a product of our environment. And the more we put those things forefront, the more those visual reminders.

(33:02):
As silly as, I mean I sometimes think it’s silly to have a quote or whatever else, but I have my to-do list. And in a weird way, that’s the same thing. It’s creating the environment, putting out the clothes you go work out. All these things are visual reminders, changing your environment to remind you of the things you get to do. And we have a lot of visual reminders, often of the have tos. So why not use that in that positive direction to put us in a positive mindset? And again, still not every day is going to be perfect, but it can really help.

Liz (33:30):
And it really is the overall, it’s the way that we approach it overall. I mean, I look at the three pillars, vision, desire, action, and how we put that together for ourselves with the support of somebody else, with the support of a coach, with the support of experts. But it really is ours. And I think that’s one of the things that is really important for all of us to remember that this is our decision and choice as to how we want that to look and really making sure that it’s coming from our heart, it’s coming from what we see. And then behind all that is your strategy and plan. I call the nuts and bolts and the vision. So we can do nuts and bolts all day long, but if you don’t have the vision, we don’t know what we’re building.

(34:23):
I think even within those nuts and bolts comes that attitude. How am I approaching those nuts and bolts, right? Am I loving them or not? And the piece that I think can really be impactful from just an emotional change is from the learning perspective, is always remain curious, always have a curiosity about the why, whether it’s your why or a why that somebody else is trying to explain to you. But always remain curious about what can happen, what can occur, what can you do? Because when we remain open and we sit in some discomfort sometimes, and we get a little sticky and icky in some places, and we don’t necessarily know why, a lot of times if we remain open, I always say, you have to remain open to receive. If you sit there with clothes like it’s not working, I can’t do this, it’s all terrible, it’s all have toss, take me away.

(35:27):
And you’re not open to receive. You’ll never see it. It’ll go right by you. And I think one of the things that we can do for ourselves is always ask, are we open to receiving? Are we remaining curious? Are we allowing ourselves to shift the way we look at things, our attitude toward even the nuts and bolts of things, or are we letting those things just stew? And I think when we start to really look at that bigger picture, if you will, all of a sudden you start to see so much more, and not just what we’re capable of, but what we want to be capable of.

Cori (36:11):
We see the potential, and I think there is nothing better that we could do even today, is just to be open, be curious, sit down, and really think what are things I’m saying I have to do and how can I reframe them as things I get to do? Using that and as a powerful tool to even tie in things, to really inspire ourselves, not to get into that have to mode, but to get into that positive mindset of embracing our choice and our decisions to really reach our why and make our vision come true. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, 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

FHP 655 – Home Workouts – Better Results Using What You Have

FHP 655 – Home Workouts – Better Results Using What You Have

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OPEN 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 work on 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 Training at home and worried you won’t see as good a result as if you were at the gym. Well never fear. We’re going to discuss all the different training techniques, tools, ways you can get the most out of those body weight movements training at home. And here to join me is Michelle who told me selfishly she wanted do this one because she wanted to even find more ways to use her personal home gym to her advantage. So Michelle, thank you so much for joining me today.

Michelle (00:52):
Thank you for having me. I’m excited. I know I’m going to learn probably just as much as anyone else, so thank you.

Cori (00:58):
Well, and Michelle is a fabulous trainer herself, which she isn’t giving or telling you guys, but talking about the home gym. So Michelle, I want to go over a little bit first starting out, just like if someone doesn’t have any equipment, I know we can jump to what tools can I add to my arsenal, but I think that’s not valuing what we already have on hand enough because there are times where we might be traveling even or something comes up and we don’t have any tools and I think it’s really important that we still see the opportunity in this. So your go-to is when training without anything, what do you like to try and use that might be around the house?

Michelle (01:34):
Well, first and foremost, it’s going to be my body weight, right? That’s going to be your biggest tool. And a lot of people, I don’t think you can get a lot of results from just using your body, but that’s going to be a big one. And then for me, it’s really about having those everyday items because as you said, sometimes you are traveling, sometimes things come up, sometimes you’re not where you can get to a gym. And the more you can keep those excuses of like, oh, well I just wasn’t able to find some dumbbells or do anything like that and it’s not worth it, the better you’re going to be just not just with consistency, but actually seeing those gains. So things as simple as towels, chairs, cushions, all those can really make a good body workout even better.

Cori (02:19):
I love that you started with, you use your own body weight because I think we still undervalue just our own body weight in terms of a way to progress moves even. And we turn to fancy tools, we turn to loads because they are easy ways to create progression. And I 100% value lifting heavier. I love lifting heavier personally. However, I always return to body weight movements. Even when I’m at the gym, I’ll use them because there’s so many different ways that you can really learn to activate, establish that my body connection progress those moves through tempos, through ranges of motion, even through instability, going for a unilateral versus bilateral move. And if we don’t value those things, a lot of times we won’t even get more out of the tools that we do add. So not only do you want to think about the different training techniques you can use with just your own body weights and those other methods of progression, but then yes, there’s so many household items and I actually thought this was a really fun challenge personally when I would start out with clients of, they’d be like, well, I’ll get any tools.

(03:15):
You tell me. I’m like, nah, let’s use what you have around the house because as you mentioned, there are so many things from cushions of couches or chairs or whatever else, pillows that you can use for instability towels so that you can reduce the resistance. Even your kitchen is full of different weighted items and awkwardly weighted items that you can use. I mean if you think about farmer’s carries this activity, we do, and I know I always used them in Boston because I wanted to carry as many groceries back from the grocery store as possible. You could pretend that you’re doing, your farmer’s carries with your grocery bags and walk around a little extra. Your neighbors might laugh at you when you’re walking back and forth from your car extra times, but there’s so many different things that we can really use. What’s one of your favorite household items to use for different movements and what movements do you even like to do with it?

Michelle (04:00):
So I really do like the cushion because everyone has something, whether it’s, like you said, a couch cushion, a pillow because it creates that instability kind of like a basu ball would. So you’re standing on it and your muscles are having to contract, they’re having to help you balance, and because of that you’re actually activating more muscles than what you used to. So not only are we working on balance, but now all of a sudden we’re activating more muscles as we are just simply standing on a different surface. And I think that one is probably my most favorite because one, truthfully I suck at it. My balance is not always the best. So I find it really challenging, but it also just helps me stay engaged and in the moment in that move, I will be the first one to, I think MINDBODY connection can be so hard, and this is one, if I notice I’m kind of getting lazy or not quite paying attention to my form as well, I’ll actually stew the move on that pillow or that cushion because now all of a sudden I’m paying more attention.

Cori (05:05):
It helps you to focus in on what you feel working. And what we don’t recognize is that so much of strength, so much of power, so much of our reaction time in everyday life is about that neuromuscular control. And so when you add that instability in, all of a sudden you’re having to make your brain work harder to really recruit muscles to stabilize. And this is where that ability to recruit the correct muscles to the correct extent in the correct orders really pays off for functionality in everyday life. And then even when you do add in weights or other types of progression, you are able to recruit muscles more efficiently to be stronger, to be more powerful, to react more quickly. So I can’t say enough about that either. And it makes you take ego out of things sometimes where you’ve tried to progress moves too fast, and then even using the unilateral moves, you’re using another form of progression with that off of this, one of my favorite is using the towels or even paper plates on carpet because they act as sliders because you can buy sliders, you can buy furniture movers, but these things are great tools to have on hand that you can easily also I guess clean your floors potentially if you really want to during it.

(06:05):
But they can be used in so many different ways to reduce resistance from side lunges to doing fly pushups so that you can work your chest a little bit more to doing even side lying, side lying slides where you actually end up working your lot unilaterally. But there’s so much diversity you can do with towels in terms of progressing lower body, upper body, and even core movements that we don’t often recognize off of this. What other tools do you use? And I can think of a whole bunch with, as I mentioned, the grocery bags, the wall, the doorway. What other tool do you really like to use?

Michelle (06:40):
So I know I shared this in my post, but I have a long board. I’ve honestly had it since I was 16 and I probably have used that more for my ab roller and for lunges and things like that than I probably have actually written it in that amount of time. And it does, it stays in my gym because I use it so much for various moves and I know not everyone’s going to have that, but as you said, paper plates, even furniture movers, anything that’s going to help you kind of have that slide back and forth is going to be something that you can utilize in a lot of different ways. And so that’s probably a big one that I actually utilize a lot just in my own day-to-day activity. And a lot of times people have said, well, why aren’t you just going to go get one?

(07:25):
I was like, because this does the job. Like you said, if you can find items that are doing a good job at what your end goal is, it’s not necessary to go out and just get every single tool. And there’s a lot of tools for gyms and they can be exciting and make things fun, but you don’t have to have a lot. So that’s going to be a big one. And then one that I know everyone has is just a chair. Just being able to have a chair that’s sturdy that you can either step up on or do dips on or something along those lines. You all of a sudden have a lot of different moves that you can add to your workouts.

Cori (08:04):
It’s not only progressing moves, but also modifying moves, especially when we’re starting back where we might usually sit to a bench for our squat, you can use a chair for that. Even stairs if you don’t have a chair or a chair is too high, you can use stairs to create that deficit split squat. So increasing the range of motion or as a lower step up if the chair is too high. But all these different tools can be used to not only progress moves, but also modify moves to fit our needs. And I love the longboard because you can do extensions on there, you can do glute bridge and curl on there. It’s a fabulous tool. And the chair is something where you can do bent over rows on, you can do planks off of it or pushups off of it, or if you have a bench or table, all those things.

(08:40):
Again, it’s not only progressing moves, but sometimes modifying them or if you want to progress the pushup, right, instead of doing the incline, you maybe do the decline with your feet up on it. But it’s all these household items that can be used in so many different ways if we really see the opportunity in them and we even get creative with them like caustic squats where you’re trying to sink down deep into that side squat and it’s a very hard move, having that little hand assist on the chair might be what you need to do that movement versus you wrote it off as too hard for a little bit. There’s ways to even, as I said, modify moves. Then going off of this, I mentioned I like the wall and I like the doorway, or you can even use a banister, but this way you can work your back.

(09:20):
And I think that’s an often underworked area of our body when we’re thinking about home workouts. We do pushups for our chests and triceps. We can think about lunges and squats easily for our legs or single leg squats to the couch, the chair. So we have some of those things, but we’ll be like, well, how do I work my back? I don’t have a pull bar, I don’t have any of these things. A doorway row is a great option and I will even link out to that video in the comments. But the doorway row is a great option. Scapular wall holds are a great option. You can roll off a banister. There are so many different ways to even get in that back engagement. I even like doing lying moves where you’re doing some of those backies and really focusing on what you feel working.

(09:58):
You can add in soup cans if you want to add weights, right? There’s little ways that you can really modify and progress moves, but it’s also thinking about all the different muscle groups and how you can work them. And then even going back to your like, why would I get more tools if I have the longboard? It’s even using the tools that you have in ways that they’re not necessarily meant to be used. So going into some of the equipment we might want to get for our gym, I want to open it up to you and what you might use, but it made me think of the rower. Okay, so if you don’t have a suspension trainer, you don’t have the ability to use towels or paper plates for whatever reason. If you happen to have a rower in your workout space that can be used for AB extensions, putting your hand on it, that can be used for the side lunges that you might do on the slider because you’ve put your foot up on the seat and slide in and out. It could be used for the GL bridge and curl. So it’s also even getting really creative with some of the equipment you might have that you only use for one purpose. So in terms of what you have in your home gym that you bought that you found very valuable, what tools have you included?

Michelle (10:54):
So for me, some of the big things that I’ve used have been, I mean, I wish I would’ve bought one sooner, and I actually saw even someone put post in Facebook as well. They’re like, if I was to do one thing, this is what I wish I would’ve bought sooner. And it was probably the rack. And I’ll be honest, it does take, I mean it’s a bigger piece of equipment, but I use it. I do my pull-ups there, I do my dips there, my bench is there, so I can do all these certain different moves off of that. And then like you said, if I need a suspension thing, which I’ll be honest, I do have a suspension thing, but before, because it’s actually even broken at one point and I had to fix it, I did just use the rack with some Taos and that’s what I was using for kind of that TRX to be able to do those moves off of that. So just having, and it sounds so silly, but having a good solid rack that makes a big difference in your gym.

Cori (11:53):
And I love having the rigging, but I even go the other way of when someone asks me, what do you want in the space? As much as that, if you have that space that is everything can be contained. You can do back, you can do chest, you can do all the different moves. So it’s a great thing if you have the space. I even like clients to start with a mini band and resistance bands, and I’m not talking about even dumbbells or any of those other things. And I like those two things because the mini band we think of as glued activation type stuff, but there are single arm rows. You can do backies, you can do tricep, push downs, bicep curls, all these different things with even just the mini band. But on top of that, resistance bands, and I like resistance bands because you can use them in the doorway anchored.

(12:30):
You can use them not anchored around anything. You can anchor them around a railing or banister that you have, but you can anchor them in so many different ways to create tension from different angles to work your back in different ways, to work your legs in different ways. But those two tools to me are so easy to just throw in a corner, throw underneath something, and they add that resistance and apply resistance in a unique way that you can use whether you do have something sturdy, whether you do have any space, whether you are traveling and even want something that goes with you. So those are actually my go-tos. And I love the rigging and can’t say enough about it, especially if you do want to add some weight to your home gym. But I think that those other two things are often undervalued too.

(13:08):
As we see resistance bands is somehow less than weights, but they’re great. And then if you do get any weights, you can even do the two different types of resistances together. So if you’re limited on the dumbbells that you have, you can use resistance bands and dumbbells together to even create tension in two different ways, but progress moves without having to add more dumbbells to your space. And then I love that you use the towels off the rig when you didn’t have the option because I think that just shows how much we can get creative with what we really do have.

Michelle (13:37):
And I love what you were saying too because I think the most important thing is progression is you’re wanting see continual gains is that you do need to progress. And yes, mini bands, you are always going to add that extra level of difficulty to a move and even using them differently. So like you said, you may have one around your legs and you may be using some to even add resistance because you don’t want to be just purchasing more weights constantly. And I think that’s a big thing too. And it is so huge that people, like you said, people underestimate them and they think dumbbells are the key, but you can do a lot of work with just the bands.

Cori (14:20):
And it’s even remembering that the more advanced you are, the more ways you have to find to create progression because you aren’t just going to be able to add five pounds every single week, week after week. There is a point where you’re going to hit that max load where ego is going to start to take over and you’re going to start trying to add weight where you really can’t recruit muscles correctly. And at these points, it is time that we really find other forms of progression and there are three drivers of muscle growth. And when we’re only thinking about loads, we’re only really utilizing one of them, maybe two. But by using these other forms of progression, we’re establishing that my body connection, we’re using not only muscle tissue damage, but mechanical tension and metabolic stress to our advantage. So it is thinking creatively not only in the household items that we have, thinking creatively in the ways we use the tools that we might have, again, going back to even the rower and using that more than just a rower, but it’s also using different forms of progression with whatever we do have on hand.

(15:12):
And I brought this up a little bit when you were talking about the pillow, the cushion, but it’s thinking unilaterally, can I take a bilateral squat? So if the basic body weight squat is easy, can I take that and make it unilateral? Maybe I don’t have a chair I can sink down to on one leg or I can’t do the full pistol squat, but can I do an 80 20 variation where I’m putting 80% of my weight on one leg and sort of staggering just on the toe of the other foot to make it a little bit harder? Can I slow down the tempo? Can I change the tempo to be slowed down and quick up? Can I add in that jump? Well, we don’t necessarily want to make everything cardio, but that plyometric could be valuable at some point. Can I even twist and turn and move in different directions?

(15:49):
Can I add instability? Again, going back to the cushion, but how can I create progression in different ways? And I thought of this when you brought up the mini band because you might be using a mini band around your legs as you’re doing that goblet squat to help you activate your glutes better as you’re using two different forms of resistances to make sure that glute medias is working as you’re really working your legs, but you can combine different things in different ways to really see that full benefit. In terms of this, when you’re using, let’s just say you’re using your rig, what would be one of your favorite moves to do that might combine different training techniques that you’ve learned or implemented with clients?

Michelle (16:28):
I mean, I’ll go back. I do love using it kind of as the TRX system because I am one. We are adding that resistance, but they’re doing their body weight and sometimes just being able to see have them do moves that they’re like, oh, I didn’t realize I could move my body weight like that. It just gives a bigger win versus actually using it as, I mean, my favorites are going to be things like squats, which I say they’re my favorite, but I actually really don’t love squats, but I know they’re so good for you and I love seeing the gains that come off of that. But as you said, just having even those squats where they are using a band as they go down makes such a big difference. And I see that even in myself as well. So those are probably my two favorite ones to go to. But I mean, it’s kind of hard because I really do feel like the options are just so endless of what you can do.

Cori (17:25):
And that’s a great part, seeing the opportunity in it versus letting your brain come up against the heart of like, oh, well, I don’t have the traditional things I use. And I love that you brought up the suspension trainer system because I think so often we think about it as just adding instability or even sometimes in modifying moves, but it can help us work through even a bigger range of motion. And that range of motion being increased can be incredibly useful. Going back to when I mentioned the stair, if you put that front foot up, when you do that traditional split squat, so just sinking down and up in the lunge and you put your front foot up, all of a sudden you’re increasing the range of motion, which is going to make it harder. It’s going to improve your mobility. And I bring this up too, because even if you’re usually training the gym or you like training with loads and you’re not able to, some of these other things can help you get back to lifting more when you get back to the gym.

(18:08):
It can keep you moving forward instead of saying, eh, well what’s the point of doing anything? I can’t do my ideal progression. If you have that day where you’re short on time, you can do 15 minutes at home. And going off of this in terms of how you create the workouts, I know there’s lots of different training techniques we use because when you don’t have loads, you do have to think of progression in different ways. And so this is where using maybe a compound move followed by an isolation move or an isometric followed by a move with reps or even using intervals instead of just counting reps or using a little bit more training volume or those time circuits tweaking the way that you’re using workouts can be really key. Michelle, are there any training techniques specifically that you find more enjoyable when you are training at home?

Michelle (18:52):
I mean, it goes back to utilizing the stabilizers. And I’m going to kind of use this as a little bit of a tangent, so bear with me. But I find when people, like you mentioned are kind of like, oh, well I can’t get to the gym. I was only able to do this at home, and I was like, you were able to can get a good workout in 15 minutes at home. But one thing I do think people fail to recognize is oftentimes I find that there can be a lot of injury prevention that these move to allowed because when, like you said, for me it’s the stabilizing and I know I’m the hiker, the runner background, that was kind of what first introduced me into kind of the workout world. But because of that, I know how important those joints, those ankle, the ankle stability, and how many times have people just walked off the curb wrong and rolled that ankle or had something happen where their balance was just a little bit off.

(19:47):
But if you’re able to actually train with some of these stabilizing muscles because you’re using the cushion, because you’re using those bands, that’s going to force you to have to use your stabilizers more in your ankle and of course your core, you’re actually going to be able to prevent future injuries better. And that’s probably my favorite kind of, I guess, training technique for what I’m doing is actually utilizing that. But I don’t think we give it the recognition it deserves because we just think, oh, this is what I have, so this is all I’m able to do. When sometimes there’s some moves that you can actually get a little bit more out of by using some of these techniques at home.

Cori (20:27):
I couldn’t agree more. We do get ego in the loads in progressing in using fancy equipment over going back to those basics. And the basics are really what build results. And we have to remember the fundamental principle of if it challenges you, it will change you. And so often we only see challenge in one way, and we see it only in the way we’re honestly comfortable being uncomfortable, and that really limits us and seeing the full progress as fast and efficiently as we possibly could. I can tell you more and more as I’ve gone through even at the gym where I have gobs of tools, I will take things back to basics with body weight and constantly include them. I will drop heavier loads and go back to different forms of tools. So I’ll use cables over just dumbbells. I’ll use resistance bands over dumbbells.

(21:12):
I switch it up in that way because I’ve realized the value in progression in these different forms in different tempos and different stability. So I’ll do a single leg deadlift, one progression, and the next progression, I’ll do a bench single leg deadlift, and then I’ll do a cable single leg deadlift. Even though in some ways I have to sometimes go back in loads or I’ll add more instability to something, I’ll have to go back in load. So check my ego with that. And you can feel like, oh, well, I’m not lifting as heavy. How is that going to be beneficial? But it is because it’s not just about those weights that challenge our muscles to create progression. Again, we have all those different drivers of muscle growth and sometimes what is not a clear progression forward ultimately allows us to become stronger, to have that better mind body connection, to lift more and do more and do harder variations down the road, which is what then keeps us moving forward faster versus as you even brought up, if we’re out with injury, we can’t train hard.

(22:02):
If we don’t have those stabilizers strong, we aren’t going to be able to lift more. We aren’t going to be able to keep progressing. We’re going to end up putting ourselves out so that we can’t keep moving forward in the way that we’d like, and we’re going to hold ourselves back a lot longer than if we had taken that time to rebuild. Now, one thing we haven’t talked about and probably something that I think is the most important thing to have in a home gym. We talked about what tools we get, the rigging or the resistance bands, the mini band, what do you think I’m going to tell you everybody needs in their home gym no matter what, and I’m putting you on the spot here, but I realize we hadn’t covered it yet. I mean,

Michelle (22:35):
I would say the Cory response would be some foam rolling,

Cori (22:40):
Ding. Yes. Bingo. That is correct. I would say the one thing that I really do think is essential is that I think you get a great workout, which is your body weight. Anything you have around the house, you can make use of it. I make use of it all the time with clients. You can just do that, have a great result. But I do think if you do not have a lacrosse ball, a tennis ball, a dog toy to use an edge of a counter that you can foam roll out on a corner of a wall that you can foam roll out on and see, I’m even getting creative with that. I think having those foam rolling tools can be really beneficial because I do think it is an often overlooked part of that pre-app process that helps us even get more out of the body movements to then move through a full ranger motion. And Michelle, I know that you have a love hate relationship with foam rolling. What benefits have you seen with including some of the prehab work?

Michelle (23:23):
Yeah, so I’ll be honest, I was always the guilty party of like, oh no, I’m a mom. I’m busy. I have stuff to do. I’m going to skip that and I’m going to go straight to the workout. I need to get that workout in. And that was my mentality for a really long time. And honestly, it was you who kind of shifted my perspective on that because I was like, I’m going to do it all. I’m going to let me see what this program is about, let me actually do it how it’s attended. And I’m the type of person that when I jump into things, I am always like, oh yeah, I’m in good shape. I can just jump in. Which I would always tell people to take it slow. But what I found was the amount of, because I would always judge if I got a good workout in based on my level of soreness.

(24:09):
What I found was my soreness went way down, which meant I was more likely to get in more gym sessions. I was more likely to push and progress faster, and I could have those deeper ranges of movement like we’ve already talked about. But the biggest thing was I just felt a lot more energized for my workouts, which sounds weird, but I think it just prepped my body. So I was ready, but also warm up, cool down, definitely a step. Don’t be like me, learn from my mistakes and actually put it forth because you’re going to get so much more out of your workouts. And we always talk, and I talk to people about this on the nutrition side, part of being able to build muscle and break down fat is actually increasing. Even blood flow and foam rolling helps with that, which sounds silly, but it does. So you’re able to get those nutrients, Ashley, even better to the areas that you’re getting ready to activate.

Cori (25:08):
It’s all the little components, not just what we do in our workout that really yield the results. And we could go on and on about that forever. But I love that you’ve seen the benefit of foam rolling and that you brought all of that up. Because I think too, when we’re training at home, when we think about heavy loads, we think a little bit more about prepping our body, whether or not it’s using lighter loads to build up body weight moves to then build up. But when we’re doing more body weight based training, we often take for granted that we still need to warm up because we think, oh, well, I’m not really challenging myself, but you are. And you can challenge yourself more if you’re warm from that very first rep of the moves that you’re going to do. Versus so often when we skip our warmup, we’re wasting time in our workouts warming up, increasing that range of motion, not getting as much out of it, and not necessarily utilizing muscles to the fullest. So even if you’re training at home, do not skip your warmup, get in that foam rolling, make sure you’re doing that stretching and activation. You’ll be surprised by how much more you truly get out of these moves, and you can even progress ’em in ways using tools around your house. So Michelle, any closing thoughts for someone training at home looking to get in their best workout?

Michelle (26:07):
So I think the biggest thing is, as you’ve already mentioned it, is get creative, look around and share what you’re doing because there’s been so many times where I was like, oh, I never even thought to use it like that. I’ve been known to even use my treadmill just before I had my rigging to even use that as dips and things like that. I use the arm rails. So actually utilize and look around and be like, Hey, this is something that I can use as you put it in even multiple ways and share, because I guarantee you if you share something, someone else is going to be like, oh, I never thought of that. Or you’ll even get more of that from someone else as well. So that’s something I really want to say just even in Facebook. Please comment, what are you doing now and read other people’s comments. You probably are going to pick up a few tips in there as well.

Cori (26:55):
I love that challenge. What tools around your house are you using as equipment that aren’t really technically equipment? And what equipment do you even have in your house that you’re using in creative ways that it wasn’t truly meant for? Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout in 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 somebody 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 I.