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

(00:28):
So you want to see those muscle gains. Well, I’m going to talk about 15 reasons why you might not be seeing the results that you want, because there’s nothing more frustrating than feeling like you’re working really hard to not see the results snowball in the way that you feel that they should. And while effort doesn’t always equal outcome, there are lots of practices we often clinging to that we think are good, that we’ve heard are good for our health that helped us lose the weight that are actually sabotaging us moving towards another goal. Because what worked for one goal, what worked in one stage of life doesn’t mean it’ll be right for another stage, another goal. And often what even worked for one goal might hold us back from achieving another, especially when it comes to weight loss. So if you’ve done some of these practices to lose the weight and you’re a little scared to let go of them, I’m going to tell you, you might have to if you now want to focus on gaining muscle.

(01:13):
And there are ways to gain muscle without gaining fat, and it’s all about the systems working together. So I want to touch on 15 reasons you might not be seeing the results you want and what you should really focus on. So number one, you are not eating enough. It’s scary when we’ve lost the weight to first come out of that deficit because we’re going to see the scale increase because we’re no longer deficient in anything. You’re going to see those glycogen stores become full, and that means you’re going to gain some water weight. You are not gaining fat, but because you are no longer depleted from being in the deficit, you’re going to see a little scale increase. This is why the process of retraining your body to eat more needs to be done slowly. But if you clinging to that calorie deficit, if you clinging to trying to eat less and you fear that scale going up, you are not going to see the muscle gains that you want.

(01:55):
And the scariest part about all that is that as you see the scale increase, you might even need to increase your calories further to help you build and retain that lean muscle. Muscle is built slowly, but especially coming again out of that deficit, you’re going to see those stores become full and that is needed to be able to build the muscle. So make sure you are eating enough, make sure you’re slowly increasing those calories, maybe a 50 to a hundred daily and maintaining that over a couple weeks before you then increase again. But you need to eat more and as the scale increases in you’re training hard, you might even need to increase calories further because you’re burning more at rest. And this isn’t just the muscle mass itself that’s burning more calories, but it’s all the processes in place and even the thermic effect of the food that we’re eating is going to have an impact on how much we’re burning to digest it.

(02:35):
So again, building lean muscle, you’re going to have to eat more. Next, you are training fasted. I like intermittent fasting, I like training fasted, but also if you are struggling to build and retain that lean muscle, it might be because you are training fasted, you don’t have the energy supply there that you really need to be able to lift as much as possible. You’re not getting your muscles what they need to repair and rebuild right after. So I’m not saying that you have to give up training fast. If you feel best doing that, you’re training first thing in the morning, but if you’re unwilling to change that meal timing, consider adjusting your meal late at night the night before or even consider for this muscle building phase because you are a hard gainer because you’re really struggling to get in more calories to really create that calorie surplus you need.

(03:17):
Consider not training facet even if it’s something small and make sure that your meal timing even after is really good. But just because training facet worked really well for fat loss just because maybe it even feels best overall, if you have a specific goal you want to drive towards and you want to see better results, especially if you’re a more advanced exerciser where those 1% improvements and tweaks are really going to pay off because you’re adapted to so much training stimulus already, you might want to consider getting in a little meal pre-workout even if it’s a simple carb and a protein source as well. But you want those glycogen stores full because it’s not only energy, but it’s getting your muscles needed fuel to repair and rebuild quickly. Number three, you’re not eating enough protein. So while our protein needs are potentially a little bit higher when we’re in a calorie deficit to help us protect that lean muscle mass while we’re dieting down, and if you are in that deficit and trying to build lean muscle as you’re still continuing to lose fat, then yes, protein is even more essential.

(04:08):
But if you’re starting to go into that calorie surplus because you are at your desired level of leanness, you still want to keep that protein high because that’s going to help you avoid gaining unwanted fat. Your muscles also need amino acids to repair and rebuild. If you don’t get them the appropriate amount, they are going to break down muscle tissue to try and get the amino acids to build muscle tissue back up, which is going to basically negate all of your hard work in the gym. So make sure that you are getting plenty of protein to help you rebuild off of this. Number four, you can’t fear carbs or a meal timing. And I bring these up together because I already slightly touched on the facet training, but often we do fear carbohydrates, especially when trying to lose because you see more jumps in the scale, you see more fluctuations on the scale when you increase carbs because you also gain water weight.

(04:53):
Now the thing to note too with carbs that is extra interesting, at least in my opinion, is the more muscle you have, the more fluctuations on the scale you’re going to see potentially daily because the more glycogen storage you can actually have with more muscle, you can store more glycogen, which is really good because it helps you build more muscle. It helps you even if you’re going to train for a race and you want to be able to PR and have those energy stores, it’s great, but it can lead to more fluctuations. But you can’t see our carbs despite seeing that change on the scale or those fluctuations on the scale because they are that immediate fuel. When we’re training hard, a lot of times we feel like I’m going at a hundred percent intensity. I’m really, really working hard, and then we’re not quite pushing those loads in the same way.

(05:30):
We’re not quite advancing in the same way, and it’s because a hundred percent doesn’t mean a hundred percent, it means a hundred percent of what you have that day. So if you’re not fueling correctly, you might feel like you’re giving it all, but you’re going from a depleted state. So you need to make sure that you actually have the energy there to be able to push hard to keep progressing in your workouts, to see that stimulus for muscle growth. So make sure that you are getting enough carbs. They’re also protein sparing. That means that you can potentially protect your lean muscle mass while being in that deficit can also get the needed fuel. And then you’re not going to necessarily need even more protein to see the same results because it is protein sparing. And with that, it’s all about the meal timing. So if you’re like, I’m in menopause, I’m doing better on low carb ratios, but I really do want to see those muscle gains, or you are somebody with a health concern that might dictate lower carb being right, you can adjust your meal timing and this is where again, potentially giving up your FT training might be key or even making sure that you’re getting more carbs right around your workout.

(06:24):
Even post-workout can be especially important. So don’t fear adjusting your meal timing, whether you’ve usually done maybe two meals over six meals or six meals over two meals. Don’t fear adjusting your meal timing or even the breakdown of how you’re splitting up your macros over the day to make sure that you’re getting them when your body needs. And this is also why I don’t recommend carb cycling or changing macro ratios day to day because your body needs fuel on the days you’re not training to repair and rebuild. And also keeping those stores full so that you go into your next training session, not in a depleted state is especially important when you’re trying to gain muscle without getting fat. Number five, you’re timing your cardio wrong. What I mean by this is a lot of times we will put our cardio as priority in our workouts, whether it’s because we’re training for a race or we think that that’s going to help us lose fat faster.

(07:13):
I see a lot of people putting cardio first, and if you put cardio first when you’re trying to build muscle, you’re going to go into your lifts more fatigued, and so you’re not going to be able to push the weights in the same way. You’re not going to see that same progression and growth. So you need to make sure that your timing, your lips lifts first. You also want to consider that you’re not doing your cardio in a way that impacts subsequent workouts so that you’re again, training in a depleted state. So make sure that you are timing your cardio if you’re doing any cardio after your lifting sessions around them so that you are maybe doing the cardio on a day where the next day you might be doing more upper body and so you’re lower body if it’s fatigued from the cardio, it won’t really impact the next workout.

(07:50):
Even consider how you’re timing your workouts based on your stubborn areas. So if you want to lose more fat off your thighs, if you want to lose more fat off your upper body, your core, what you train earlier in that workout will impact where the fatty acids are mobilized from. So no, you can’t spot reduce scenario, but if you are trying to really get lean and you’re dialed in your workouts and you’ve dialed in your nutrition and you’re still trying to maintain that lean muscle mass while losing fat, think about timing your workouts after those stubborn areas that you want to lose from. On the flip side with trying to focus on building lean muscle, do not put your workouts after an area that you are struggling to gain on. You want to focus those cardio sessions on days opposing like muscle groups that are not areas that you’re struggling to gain.

(08:34):
If you’re struggling to gain muscle on your legs and thighs, do not put cardio after it’s going to be catabolic, it’s going to hinder your results. So really be strategic in how you’re designing your workouts and where you’re putting that cardio. Number six is you’re doing too much steady state cardio if you are including more steady state cardio, and if you’re a runner cyclist, you love doing it. I’m not telling you not to include it, but I want to make you aware of the reward and cost of everything you’re including. That is a more catabolic activity to muscle mass. So I always recommend for my runners that we’re really trying to build new muscles so that they can PR in their next race that we lower the mileage for a point to make it easier, especially the more advanced in exercise where they are because they already have adapted to more stimulus to training progression so they’ve adapted to that they can handle more, so it’s going to take more to see the same results.

(09:18):
It’s those 1% improvements. So if you’re doing a ton of study, say cardio and wondering why you’re not seeing those muscle gains, this might be why, especially if you aren’t really, really extra super conscious of your nutrition, again, dialing in that diet to really make sure you’re in that surplus, you’re getting enough carbs, you’re getting enough protein can be especially important, so you have to be very aware of how everything’s working together, but it could be a perfect time if you want to focus on building muscle to lower your mileage and again, focus on that timing of even those cardio sessions so you’re not putting ’em after an area that you’ve struggled to gain muscle in. Then number seven, you aren’t creating true progression in your workouts. Part of this goes back to what I’ve mentioned a couple of times in that you aren’t actually training at a hundred percent intensity.

(09:57):
You are in a depleted state, you don’t have the energy, so while it feels like you’re giving a hundred percent, it’s not the a hundred percent you could truly lift because you don’t have the energy to do that. Also, a lot of times we’re not following a schedule. I’ll see people being like, why am I not gaining muscle? I’m like, well, what does your weekly schedule look like? Well, I kind of do this here and I kind of do that here. How can you track progression? You can’t say, Hey, I’m doing a reverse lunch and I lifted forties here and I’m going to lift 40 fives the next week. Or I lifted forties here and now the next week I did forties for an extra rep, so then therefore I lifted more loads. You can’t track the progression if you don’t do the same workouts week over week.

(10:28):
This doesn’t mean you have to have boring workouts over the course of the week and repeat the same workout multiple times. I don’t recommend that, but you want to have a weekly schedule. You do repeat and that you’re pushing progression in some way while staying focused on what you feel working, but you need that schedule so you can progress week over week. I also don’t recommend doing the same workout multiple times in the week because one day you’re going to be fatigued from another day, and so you won’t see progression the same way if you’re doing a sumo deadlift three times with a barbell, and that can lead to you tearing down the same muscles in the same way, which will not allow you to rebuild stronger and not see the same results. So with this being said though, when you’re creating the progression, you don’t want to stay on a progression too long.

(11:06):
I will find people get very comfortable with workouts and then they feel like they’re working really hard because it still hurts, but they’re not pushing that progression. They get a little too comfortable, they’re clinging to the same things, the same forms of progression, and therefore they’re not pushing themselves outside their comfort zone using those other ways to stimulate muscle growth. So don’t get so caught up in repeating a progression for too long that you aren’t really pushing that progress. Even though it might feel hard, then don’t fear a rep range or other forms of progression. I love lifting heavy. Lifting. Heavy is a great way to drive muscle growth is one of the easiest ways to drive muscle growth, but it’s not the only way. And the more advanced an exercise you are, the more you might hit some of those upper limits of what you can lift, especially without potentially addressing some weaker links or using other forms of progression.

(11:48):
Some of those things can make you realize, I actually haven’t hit my cap. I just was only pushing progression one way. So I would tell you, even if you love that heavy barbell deadlift or that heavy back row, try a unilateral move while it might feel uncomfortable, while you might not enjoy the instability because you have to really check your ego to go down in weights, that progression through the same but different by creating instability, by using that unilateral move can really pay off in even helping you increase weights in other movements. But it can also help you drive that muscle growth because there are so many ways besides loads to really drive that progression, create that stimulus from muscle growth. And it’s not only doing different movements, harder variations with different ranges of motion, it’s using different rep ranges. It’s maybe saying, Hey, I’ve been working in that eight to 12 rep, the six to 12 rep range with hyper hypertrophy, but I maxed out the loads.

(12:34):
Maybe I need to do some maximal strength to see if I can improve my strength to lift more for that hypertrophy rep range. Or, Hey, I’ve been neglecting the higher reps because I don’t really enjoy them or I have heard that’s not as essential for muscle growth, but that too can drive muscle growth because there are different drivers, three different drivers of muscle growth and using the high rep range can be really beneficial. Even how we combine those things can really pay off. So we can’t fear working outside our traditional hypertrophy rep range. We can’t fear not only or we can’t only focus on heavy loads as well. Number nine, you’re not using isolation moves. Compound moves are going to give you the most bang for your buck. If you are short on time, go to compound moves. Do not deviate from compound moves. And what I mean by compound movements or compound exercises is these are exercises that work.

(13:19):
Multiple joints require lots of large muscle groups to work together in unison. They’re things like deadlifts, they’re things like squats, lunges, the barbell row, the pushup things that require lots of muscles to work together. They’re going to help you burn more calories in a single session and they’re going to require you to move heavier loads. They’re going to be a great bag for your buck if you want to build muscle and see that great body recomp. However, isolation moves are really important if you are a more advanced lifter, if you do have the time to work them in, especially for stubborn areas because they’re going to help you bring that muscle to fatigue, especially some of the larger muscle groups potentially that with the compound exercises won’t be worked to fatigue because smaller muscles might fatigue first, but you need to include some of those isolation moves to really target and hone in on those moves to target and hone in on the stubborn muscles.

(14:07):
Hopefully I said that correctly brain cut out there. But number 10, you’re sticking with body parts splits. We see body parts splits all the time for the bodybuilding competitors, but not only are they generally using other things which impact recovery, how much they can lift all that jazz, but a lot of times we just don’t have the schedule ability to fully optimize those things. Not to mention, a lot of studies have shown that with pushing ourselves two to three times a week, training an area, especially stubborn areas can be really beneficial. So I would tell you if you’ve really fallen into the bodybuilding, ask type workouts where you’re doing glutes one day, biceps another, make it a little bit easier on yourself and make your schedule a little bit more efficient, make sure that you’re also getting that training frequency in for areas, because a lot of times you’re not going to stretch your workouts out to hours long and include a ton rest between things and it’s just not as efficient.

(15:00):
And with some of the advanced bodybuilding training techniques that we’ve sort of lost the old school techniques like compound burner 6, 12 25, you can get a lot of bang for your buck by increasing your training frequency. So let go of the body parts splits if you’ve been clinging to them, consider hemisphere splits. So upper, lower, consider anterior posterior of front backside. These things can help you really be efficient and even spend less time in the gym while seeing better results. And they can mix it up too if you’ve been clinging to those old or the more traditional body parts splits and not seeing the results that you want as you become more advanced in your training. 11, you don’t push to true failure, so you’re not embracing being comfortable in ways outside your comfort zone. A lot of times, again, going back to the thing I mentioned at the beginning, we’re not fueling adequately.

(15:44):
We’re not in that calorie surplus. We’re not giving yourself enough fuel to be able to push. Also with this, we’re not embracing discomfort through the unilateral moves, through creating that instability through increasing the drainage of motion, we get comfortable being uncomfortable in certain ways. We are okay feeling challenged by the heavier weight with specific movements. We might even avoid specific exercises. I know I personally really don’t like step-ups, but I’ve made an extra effort to include them because I know part of the reason I don’t like them is because they challenge me in a way I’m not comfortable with. And the more you do them, the more comfortable you become with that. But that can help you push to true failure. And I even bring this up when it comes to rep ranges because I’ll have people sort of fight against me sometimes with the higher rep ranges when I include a move, even specifically with the compound burners, I’ll have them do a compound exercise like a lunge and followed it up with 15 to 20 reps on a more isolated movement, whether or not it’s like a glute exercise or a quad exercise depending on the lunge variation, and they’ll sort of fight me on those higher reps until they really try it out and then they’ll realize wholly moly, I’m taking that muscle group to failure in a new way where I even have to stop at 15 reps with a lot lighter load than I thought.

(16:47):
And then even when I go back to that next round of lunges, that way feels so much heavier and that really pays off. So we have to find different ways to take ourselves to true failure and not just stop when something feels hard. There’s a lot of times we’ll stop put down the weight, and it’s like, could you do two more reps? Sometimes you got to try it, and yes, we don’t want our form to break down and put ourselves at risk for injury, but even if you’re a little afraid of pushing through, maybe you do rest pause technique. You say, I did my A reps. Put it down for just 15 seconds. Pick it up and do two more just to make sure your form is on point, but you’re still doing two more reps. But we have to push that failure, especially for women.

(17:21):
We are more endurance based and whether or not it’s truly genetic or whether or not, it’s also how we’ve always the sports we’re more usually into when we’re growing up, we can handle a lot more volume often and we can also, we have a lot more strength endurance. So pushing a little bit more to failure is really key for us, especially as we go through menopause. Number 12, you want to be sore and are constantly sore. Seeking to be sore is not our focus when we want to build muscle progression, seeing that we’ve done a little bit more each and every week throughout the weeks is what we need to see when we seek to be sore. A lot of times what we’re not realizing is that we’re just including movements that cause muscle tissue damage and not using the other drivers of muscle growth.

(18:03):
We’re potentially not recovering correctly and we’re not fueling correctly. So seeking to be sore is not what we want to do. It probably is holding us back, and it’s probably even meaning that we’re not repeating workouts consistently that we’re, again, not recovering, but then stringing together random new things, which is just keeping it sore because new makes us sore more than anything else. Muscle tissue damage, so moves like the deadlift and things that put more stretching the muscle under load are what caused more muscle tissue damage and that soreness, and it’s not a bad thing to be sore, but you should see over your progression that you’re becoming less sore as you’re able to handle more loads because you’re adapting and recovering correctly to build that lean muscle, then you’re not focusing on recovery. We can only train as hard as we can recover from Recovery is undervalued.

(18:46):
I’ll tell you that we focus so much on how can I burn more calories? How can I do more in the gym? How can I lift more? But if you’re not recovering, you’re not going to be able to push in the gym the way that you should. So focus on your sleep, focus on your fueling, focus on the macros that you’re using. Focus on the mobility work to get more out of your training sessions. But don’t ignore your recovery. Not every workout should be a hundred percent intensity. Even there are going to be some workouts that should feel easier so that you’re rebuilding in that time. We rebuild when we recover. So you need that recovery to see the results that you want in those muscle building efforts. Even consider how you’re including your mobility work and your activation. That activation really uses that metabolic stress to even drive muscle growth.

(19:23):
So there’s even a point to that and those pumper based movements that might not make you a sore the next day, but that will drive muscle growth in a very valuable way because you can recover more quickly from it. Then number 14, you’re not training a true a hundred percent intensity. I’ve mentioned not going to failure and not having the energy to train as hard, but you have to truly push that a hundred percent. So you’ve got to say, Hey, am I recovering to a point where I feel like I’m actually moving forward in my workout sessions? Am I able to lift more? Am I able to progress? Am I able to have that my body connection or am I coming from a depleted state? Assess those things because you might realize you need more calories, you need more carbs, you need to focus on protein, you need to focus on sleep a little bit more.

(20:03):
Maybe you need to take that deload week because you are even mentally not able to push as hard because I think that’s something we don’t focus on enough too. We think about how our body feels, but not how our mind feels. And mentally, if we are stressed at work, if we have all these different things going on, we might be depleted mentally and then go into our sessions and not have the wherewithal to push yourself to be uncomfortable in that way on that day. So assess where you are at mentally because sometimes you need to back off and let some of the other stressors be taken care of first and even use that deload week to maybe address some of the weaknesses that you have. So when you come back, you come back stronger, but then you’re able to make yourself more uncomfortable in the gym setting to push those forms of progression to see the results you want.

(20:43):
Now, last but not least, you expect results too fast. Not recognizing that experience actually slows progress. Muscle gains are slow. When we talk about, or people will mention faster muscle gains, a lot of times it is because now they have glycogen storage in the muscle mass that they built. But the more advanced you are, the slower those gains will be over the course of the year, and even one to two pounds over the course of a year might be all you can expect. Now, saying this, a lot of times we might see on some of those body scans, the body fat testers quicker changes, and it’s because those things are impacted by hydration. But also because in some of our dieting practices, even when we’re doing things strategically, we are going to lose a little bit more muscle. So all of a sudden and trying to retrain our body to eat more, even eating at maintenance, you might see a little bit of the muscle mass you lost come back on, and again, as that muscle is regained and you’re not in a deficit, you’re going to not be in a depleted state.

(21:31):
So you’re going to see that glycogen storage, that water weight. So that’s where the fluctuations on the scale might change while you still look even leaner. But just remember, results are slow, but only through constantly pushing that progression are we not only building muscle, but we’re retaining what we had previously as we get older, which it does become harder to build a retaining muscle because we’re not utilizing proteins efficiently and our hormonal environment is simply not optimal. So you need to keep pushing that form of progression, even if you’re just trying to maintain what you had. So hopefully these 15 tips are really helpful so that you can see those better muscle gains. But just remember guys, what used to work or what worked for one goal might not necessarily be what you need to drive forward towards the next one. So letting go of some of those tactics, realizing they’re not part of our identity is really key, as hard as it can be, especially when they did work to help us see the results we wanted prior. But I want you all to see those muscle gains and I hope these tips helped.

(22:28):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating review or share it with 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.

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

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

Cori (00:28):
I hate the demonization of any macronutrient, and on a few posts recently, I’ve gotten things like there are no essential carbs, demonizing carbs. And while I think that low carb ratios can be fabulous and work really well for people, I think keto can be very beneficial for people. I think the second we start just demonizing a macronutrient, writing it off, saying that it’s bad, that there’s no purpose to it, we’re holding ourselves back from seeing results. And that’s why I’m super excited to have Julia on today to dispel some of those myths and really share some true facts about carbs and how they can benefit us, especially as women. And as she’ll mention to you, may is all about women’s hormones and there are some great benefits of carbs to that. So welcome. Julia, can you give a little background on why when I even presented this topic to you because of those comments, you were so excited to talk more about carbs?

Julia (01:23):
Sure, yes. I am so excited to be here When it comes to women’s health and just hormone health in general, I think low carb diets are often recognized. It’s a tool to really balance our blood sugar or to kickstart weight loss, but they’re not really the best solution to long-term health. And kind of going off of what Corey said, I don’t love the demonization of any specific food group. I think that those diets can kind of be very catchy and promise a lot of results, but at the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves what’s most sustainable for us and what’s going to provide us with those long lasting changes? So super excited to be here. I know with hormones, fats get all the glory, so I really just wanted to dive into carbohydrates, how they affect our hormones, weight loss, and overall health as well today.

Cori (02:14):
So let’s jump right into myth number one. What is it in terms of carbohydrates?

Julia (02:23):
So there’s a few different factors here. The first would be kind of that adrenal dysregulation as we call it. Some of you may have heard of it in the term of adrenal fatigue. So when we are cutting our carbohydrates really low, essentially our body perceives that as under nutrition in a sense, if we’re under consuming carbohydrates. And it also perceives that in general as a stressor. So in someone who’s highly active, if you’re exerting a lot or for just a regular person, we need a certain amount of carbohydrates every day. And if we’re not meeting those needs, it really perceives that as to us because we’re not fueling properly for what we are doing. So when we experience this stress, our hypothalmic pituitary axis, otherwise known as our HVA access response by releasing cortisol, which we’ve probably all heard of, that’s our stress hormone. So this is a really normal short-term response to stress.

(03:19):
However, the issue arises when this becomes chronic and it happens day after day. So if we’re on a low carb diet for months, years at a time, continuously not getting what we need, our body perceives that as a stressor and it will continuously release that cortisol. And when this becomes chronic, that’s where we’re feeling burn out and just exhausted all the time. That’s where that kind of adrenal dysregulation fatigue term really comes in. And there are other issues that we run into it being fertility, thyroid that we can kind of dive into more as well.

Cori (03:53):
And I just want to go off of this a little bit because all of this really relates back to in summary, is myth number one is that low carb diets are good for your hormones. And I want to touch on this adrenal dysregulation specifically because we are seeing a lot more issues with adrenal fatigue, with thyroid health issues. And I’ve seen a lot of people recently blaming elevated cortisol levels on working out, and that is a stressor, which it is a good stressor. But what we’re so often ignoring with these things is we are blaming the wrong things in my opinion. And with that, we’re not paying attention to the impact that our fueling can have. And with the rise in popularity of low carb diets that impact that it can have when we’re already trying to train hard when people are already doing a lot of cardio. And off of that, even the nuance in what is low carb? Just because a ratio is high carb for somebody else, it might be low carb for you with your activity level. So even noting that low carb isn’t just one macro ratio, it’s a variety and it can really be impacted by your activity level as well. So going off of that, diving more into fertility and thyroid impact in terms of going low carb.

Julia (05:04):
Yeah, so we know that low carb can also affect our fertility essentially. If again, if we’re not eating enough for our needs, that’s really considered under nutrition and our body will respond to that by sometimes turning off ovulation, causing missed periods. And when it comes to the thyroid, we run into issues here because insulin is really necessary for our thyroid hormone conversion. So to get it from our inactive thyroid hormone known as T four to that active form known as T three, we need insulin to do that. And on low carbohydrate diets, it remains pretty low. So we’re not always able to effectively do that in turn affecting our thyroid.

Cori (05:45):
So it’s very key that we do pay attention to the carbohydrate intake that we have, especially based on our activity level. And then even our age might impact how many carbs are really necessary for us. So remember that there’s a lot of nuance to these things. Now you might be saying, okay, this is all well and good, but I want to lose weight, carbs make me gain weight. And I’ve gone on low carb diets and dropped weight very quickly, which I know is leading into myth number two that you brought up, which is carbs cause weight gain. Can you touch on that a little bit? I have a feeling there’s some people out there being like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I do eat carbs and I do gain weight.

Julia (06:24):
Yes, of course, of course. I love this one. So there’s been a lot of debate on whether low carb, low fat diets have produced better weight loss. And ultimately the research just shows that both our modest approaches at best. We do know that the weight loss on low carbohydrate diets can be attributed to really two main factors, and the first is just low caloric intake. So when we’re cutting out carbohydrate rich foods, it’s almost guaranteed that our caloric intake is going to be reduced as a result as well, kind of putting us in that deficit, which allows us to see weight loss. If you’re someone who is eating things like bagels, pancakes, even rice, things like that on a daily basis, even things like fruits, potatoes, whatever it may be, and you completely slash that out of your diet, that’s guaranteed to really drop calories significantly.

(07:16):
So that’s really the big first reason that we see that weight loss and sometimes blame it on carbs when it’s truthfully just caloric restriction overall. And the next would be a loss of fat-free mass. So when we’re cutting out carbohydrates, our glycogen stores, which are inner muscles become depleted. And as a result, we also lose that water weight that comes with it. For every gram of glucose taken out of glycogen, it brings with it about two to three grams of water weight with it. When we completely just deplete these stores, we’re losing that glycogen, we’re losing that water weight. And this kind of allows us to see that really quick, if you will, weight loss on low carb diets. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is actual fat loss.

Cori (08:03):
And that’s such a key point because carbs can cause weight gain in that you can see the scale increase because you’re storing that glycogen in your muscles. And the more muscle mass you have, the more stores you have. So the more, if you have a really carb heavy meal, more carbs in a day, the more you’re going to be able to store that, which is a good thing if you want to build muscle especially. But so it can cause weight gain. It’s just not causing fat gain. That’s a very key point too. So if you’re trying to drop pounds quickly on the scale and you deplete those glycogen stores, yeah, you’re going to lose weight on the scale, but you’re not actually losing fat any faster. And you might subsequently impact your fat loss results negatively, especially if you’re not getting enough fuel to maintain that lean muscle mass to see that body recomp happen.

(08:46):
So it’s very key. You also understand, yes, the scale might increase, but it’s not fat being gained. So it’s also separating out those two things and recognizing that as much as that number, it might hold some importance to you on the scale. What you ultimately want is to look leaner. And I always ask this question, would you really care what the scale said? If you felt like you looked fabulous in your bathing suit, your clothing, you liked how you looked in pictures, my guess is probably not. And you probably say, okay, well what do I weigh looking my most fabulous? And that’s the weight now I’m happy with, but that’s a whole other subject and I won’t fully tangent off onto that. Now going into the next myth, Julia, carbs aren’t good for your health. Can you touch on this? Because I think this goes back to even demonization of specific foods, and then we just write off whole food groups.

Julia (09:35):
Yes, a hundred percent. And we hear this all the time that carbs aren’t good for us, but it also goes back to the way that we identify carbs. So when we think of carbs, so many of us think of things like breads and pasta and cookies and donuts, not realizing that carbohydrates have so many different forms. Fruits are carbohydrates, vegetables are carbohydrates. So the point here being that all carbs aren’t created equal when we’re focusing on things like complex, complex fiber, rich carbohydrates, things like whole grains, vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes, they really help with our weight loss efforts. So first off, they help us manage our blood sugar, they help us manage our cholesterol levels and really aid in a healthy digestion because they’re fiber rich, which really feeds that good gut bacteria versus if we’re constantly relying on more simple carbs, things like candy, cookies, honey, those really quick digestion carbs, this can often spike blood sugar. This can cause weight gain over time. And of course for athletes and certain individuals, these can be really, really helpful tools. But if you’re someone looking to lose weight and we’re consuming these on a daily basis as our main source of carbohydrates, that’s where we really see those issues of carbs aren’t good for our health. And that’s kind of where that comes in.

Cori (10:57):
And I like that you added that nuance that I’m going to point out. Just to clarify too for people, the main source, so this is where I think it’s also really important that we understand the importance of tracking macros overall. Because if you’re staying within that carbohydrate intake limit that you’ve set for yourself and you’ve matched that to your activity level, you have a lot of freedom to include foods you love too. And this is not to say that whole natural foods with a lot of micronutrient diversity and density aren’t more important for our health. They are. But I always like to add this in because I think a lot of times too, we struggle to make changes because we feel like we’re restricted in what we can and cannot have. And while there are foods we know are not as good for our health, they can be balanced in, especially when we enjoy them and have a purpose and be part of that balance as long as you’re tracking that overall intake.

(11:44):
So I just wanted to add that in too, because too often we just do demonize things and we make ourselves feel guilty for having those things instead of realizing that along with the other balance they can be worked in and we can see very sustainable body composition happen, very sustainable health results without not or with still enjoying life. We’ll say. Now off of that, because I did mention body comp earlier in the scale myth number, I don’t even know what number it is at this point, but cutting carbs means you’ll burn more fat. Can you touch on that because that is something that we hear said a lot. I’m cutting carbs because I want to burn more fat and this will help me burn more fat.

Julia (12:22):
Yes, of course. So there is this idea that cutting carbs helps us burn more fat because we think that we’ll become more fat adapted in a sense. So while our body can run on this higher fat, lower carb diet, it doesn’t automatically mean that we will burn more body fat in a sense. And actually studies have shown that the amount of carbs you consume has very little to do with how much fat you burn regardless of the amount of insulin that is in your body. So what we do know is that carbohydrates have been shown to have protein sparing effects in which the body will utilize them for energy when needed versus breaking down muscle. And this is really important. If you’re someone who you’re looking to complete a body recomp, you want to really make sure that you’re maintaining that lean muscle mass and targeting that fat mass when it comes to weight loss.

(13:13):
So if we’re not consuming enough carbohydrates, our body will turn to muscle and begin at breaking that down. And that’s where we come up with that term, that catabolic environment versus that anabolic environment that we want to be in where our body is utilizing those carbs for fuel and replenishing our muscles and helping us still maintain that lean muscle mass that we have. And in turn, when we do maintain that lean muscle mass, we’re also supporting our metabolism because we know that the more lean muscle we have on us, the more that we will burn at rest. So it all kind of plays together and supports one or another as well.

Cori (13:48):
And before we dive into some facts off of this, I also want to touch on the fact that protein is so key, and we’re talking about still retaining that lean muscle mass while in that calorie deficit burning fat versus losing muscle. And going back to even what you mentioned earlier of whether or not a higher carb diet or a higher fat diet is better, they’ve sort of been proven equal. The one caveat to that being is the diet always higher in protein, seem to always win out and study. So protein is especially important, but since we’re talking about carbs today, going into some fats to help you even better utilize that protein and create that anabolic environment, build that lean muscle, which is honestly not only metabolism magic, but I would say the key to living our best lives until our final day on this planet, facts about carbs, carbs create an anabolic environment. Can you go into what that means and why they’re so important for building that muscle?

Julia (14:43):
Sure. So I know we just touched on this a little bit, but for athletes or just people engaging in regular exercise, we need carbohydrate to help power those workouts. So essentially what happens is the body converts when we’re eating food, that’s glucose, it goes into our muscle stores as glycogen, and it converts this glycogen into a TP molecules to use them as energy during our training. So if you’re a little bit carb depleted on a lower carb diet, this could lead to a lack of energy during your workouts and really hinder your ability to be able to build muscle because you’re not able to push to your fullest potential. So to sum it up, if you don’t have enough fuel in your tank, your body’s going to turn to muscle and begin breaking that down for energy. So these carbs really work to create what we call an anabolic environment where your body builds and repairs that lean muscle tissue that, as Corey just said, is magic for our metabolism. Long-term,

Cori (15:40):
Having enough carbs is super key when you want to build muscle, and I want to go off of this with the benefits both in a actual muscle building phase and in a deficit or fat loss phase. Because if you think about it, if you’re in a deficit, you’re not really getting enough of anything. And so the more you can promote that optimal environment to help yourself build lean muscle with keeping protein higher, the better off you’re going to be. So you want that immediate fuel. It’s why often you’ll even see figure fitness bikini competitors with higher carb ratios to be more protein sparing, to make sure that they’re retaining that lean muscle mass as they’re leaning down because they don’t want to look softer, they want to look toned. So they’re trying to make sure they’re doing everything in their power to maintain that lean muscle.

(16:20):
And if you’re going into a muscle building phase, you want those carbohydrates readily available so that you can actually build up. And where I’m going into all of this is not only is it important potentially in a deficit and in building muscle, but so often when we are trying to lose fat while retaining lean muscle, we do even cut our carbs, right? To see those faster drops on the scale and that sabotages our results. And then we even say, okay, well now I lost weight. So that practice maybe did work to hit the number on the scale, but then we say, well, now I want to build muscle and we don’t let go of that practice that maybe worked to lose those few pounds to then build a muscle. And so we don’t come out of that carb deficit, so to speak. And so then we wonder why we’re not building the muscle while working so hard.

(17:01):
And so that’s another thing that I just want to make us aware of is that even what may have worked despite potentially something else working better, as I pointed out with more carbs to maintain that lean muscle mass when you’re losing what might’ve worked to see the pounds dropped on the scale might now be sabotaging your muscle building efforts despite you feeling like you’re doing a lot of the things right, I’m increasing protein, I’m lifting heavy. So you have to look at what practices got you to one goal and how they might be negatively holding you back from hitting another. Now off of that, I know we’re talking about the importance of carbs, but one fact you did want to mention, and I saw that you pointed this out, and I think is a very key thing to bring up because it goes to the nuance of everything with fitness and nutrition. Some women might benefit from reducing their carb intake. Can you talk about why that’s so important to note while we’re talking about the benefits of carbs?

Julia (17:52):
Yeah, of course. And I know like you said, there’s probably some people watching this who are like, I just don’t function very well on a higher carb diet. Some carbs don’t work for me. So I did want to touch on this a little bit because there are those groups that we know who they do benefit from reducing carb intake, but keep in mind that they still, it doesn’t mean that they need a lower carb diet or to cut out carbs completely, but this would really be those people who are more insulin resistant. So whether this be PCOS, if they’re dealing with an insulin, insulin resistance rooted PCOS or a type two diabetic, or maybe someone who is going through menopause, when we know that that insulin resistance is a little bit more common to see at that time period due to those change in hormones, again, I did just want to touch on while reducing carb intake can be beneficial particularly for these groups, it also comes down to, again, our carb quality, those sources that we’re focusing on, and making sure that we’re still balancing out those meals overall. Essentially with reducing the carb intake, we typically see a better control of our blood sugar, but we can also do this by making sure that we’re balancing out our meals, incorporating things like protein, healthy fats, enough fiber at meals that also really helps to stabilize those blood sugar levels. So there is that balance that you can find where you’re still incorporating nutrient dense carbohydrates in your diet without cutting ’em out completely and still managing that blood sugar if you are someone who falls into one of those categories.

Cori (19:23):
And reducing carbs doesn’t mean no carb, as you pointed out. It means a lot of different things for a lot of different people based on their activity level. But this also just highlights the importance of always assessing what we need and how our body needs and goals and even lifestyle are evolving because what ratio might’ve worked for you at one stage may not work for you and another. And even if you do find, hey, I run often better off of lower carb, you might find by doing a higher carb cycle in between your low carb cycles that you get the benefits of keeping hormonal balance of even seeing that whoosh effect. Because on lower carb, sometimes you can feel like you look a little softer and squishier even though you’ve lost because your fat cells are storing the water. And by increasing your carbs, you actually get what’s called the whoosh effect, and you can have your fat cells release that water. So even if you have found that you work better on lower carb or work better on higher carb, it’s never bad to test out slightly different variations because you may be surprised by how all those things build and even meet you where you’re at at a different stage of life. So off of all of this, Julia, give us those few key takeaways just to really highlight what we should be focusing on moving forward.

Julia (20:29):
Sure. So I mean, going off of what you just said with anything, pay close attention to how you react to things. How is your sleep? How are your workouts? How are your energy levels? How are your menstrual cycles? Take notes on how your body responds to different cycles and make an effort to try different things and cycle through different ratios where you’re able to actually explore what works best for you and gather that appropriate data. And then coming off of that, I know I touched on this a little bit earlier, but just focusing on the quality versus just the quantity aspect of things. When we hear about these low carb diets or whatever it may be, these kind of flashy diet options, I think they promise a lot of results. And for those of us who are sitting in a position where we want to see change and we’re not where we want to be, it can be easy to be like, yes, this is going to be the answer for me, this is it.

(21:21):
But just take a moment to reflect and keep in mind and answer yourself, is this something that is sustainable for my lifestyle? Because at the end of the day, what’s most sustainable for us, what’s most enjoyable for us is what we’re going to be able to actually sustain and do long-term. Like how Corey said, if you’re able to incorporate that dessert or whatever it may be that you like from time to time, that’s what’s going to make this worthwhile for you. So again, I did just want to point out focusing on what you can add to your diet versus what you need to restrict. So how can I add more fiber to my diet? How can I add more nutrient dense carbohydrates, vegetables, beans, berries, those kinds of foods versus just thinking that you need to default to cutting out carbs altogether.

Cori (22:04):
I love that focus on quality, and I love that focus on balance. I mean, both are really truly key if we want to see lasting results off of that too. I did want to highlight one other thing. We talk a lot about the health value of those quality carbs, of the quality macronutrients in general of the quality foods, but it’s not even just that, which sounds really weird because our health is everything, but let’s face it, some of us have aesthetic goals that even leads to us making changes that really impact our health positively. So even off of that, if you’re like, well, I just can’t get myself to care about my health, which sounds weird, but we’ve done some form of that at some point. I mean, I’m guilty of doing that at some point where we need some more immediate can see results in it satisfying way, but even off of improving the quality which will pay off massively for your health. There’s a higher thermic effect to those quality nutrient dense foods, which means that’s going to help in your weight loss, fat loss efforts too. And even in making your body, which is a machine function so much better to build the muscles. So also understand that there is a benefit even just directly for your weight loss goals in improving the quality of those carbs you might be consuming over just completely restricting them.

Cori (23:13):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life with someone.

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

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

Cori (00:28):
Strong to the bone. We’re talking about bone health today and dialing in those micronutrients, and I am joined by the fabulous Brook to really dive into all the different benefits you can see from adjusting your nutrition in terms of your bone health because it becomes increasingly important, especially as we get older. So Brooke, thank you for joining me today. I’m going to let you take it away with why it is so important, first off that we even pay attention to our bone health.

Brooke (00:55):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Excited to dive into this. Strong to the bone is a topic that I’m super passionate about because I feel like it’s one of the things that we so often forget and when we’re focusing on building muscle and fat loss and weight loss, we’re so set on building that muscle and strength training and eating right to build that muscle, which is awesome. Don’t hear me say that’s not awesome because, but so often we forget that the bone health there is super key as well. If you checked out the handout that I posted on Monday, I often compare our bone health to a house because I think it’s such a good representation of how we should view our bone health. We have 206 bones in our body. We should be focused on keeping them healthy. And it’s just like a house, right?

(01:45):
When you go buy a house or you are building a house, you’re focused on that foundation up front. You’re not going to get a house that has a cracked foundation or a weak foundation, the whole point of the house, right? Everything is built around the foundation of a house. Our bones are the same way. Our bones are optic compared to the foundation of our body, and I feel like we forget that a lot and just don’t focus on key nutrients that we need for bone health and get so caught up on all these other things. So in conjunction with building muscle, it’s super important to also focus on that bone health and being proactive in this is going to be key, especially for women, especially as we do age over time.

Cori (02:29):
And I love that you bring up that this often isn’t the focus because I don’t think that’s a negative thing, but I think it’s something we have to note because when we do a lot of times look to make dietary changes or workout changes, it is for aesthetic purposes. We want to lose weight, we want to gain muscle. As much as people might blame us for being vain for that, it is the reality. And you know what, I like being a little bit of vain sometimes too, and taking an appreciation for how I look because I think it’s taking care of our body. But in seeking those aesthetic changes, you’re not always going to see the progress you want every single time and you’re going to have to keep doing the habits and finding ways to implement the habits. So celebrating the other good things those habits are doing for you is super important. So diving into the micronutrients that we need to improve our bone health, what’s the first one that we often hear about? It’s calcium. Can you talk a little bit about why calcium is so important and then even the other micros that we need?

Brooke (03:21):
Yeah, absolutely. So we like to look at bone health as kind of a trio in terms of looking at nutrients. So the big three in terms of the trio are going to be calcium, vitamin D, and then vitamin K, which we often don’t think about, but you’ve probably heard of calcium. It’s a very big one. It’s often something that we tell our kids, right? You constantly are telling your kids to drink their milk to help them build strong bones, but then as we get older and as we age, we forget that the recommendations are still the same for calcium and over the age of 50, they’re actually more that you need to get in that calcium. So I feel like that is something that we focus on potentially earlier on in life with kids and then we forget that it’s super important as we age.

(04:04):
So again, especially as women, when we get close to that perimenopausal, menopausal, even postmenopausal season of life or needs for calcium drastically increase. So if you are currently in menopause, your estrogen is slowly declining and if you’re postmenopausal, you’re kind of at bay, right? You don’t have much estrogen in your body, but we don’t often realize is that estrogen is a good protectant for our bones. So it really is helpful and it works in conjunction with calcium to protect our bones. So if your estrogen is drastically declining, your levels for bone loss are going to accelerate, which is what we don’t want, but aging is inevitable. So like I said, it’s going to be key if we’re proactive here at increasing those calcium needs due to that estrogen declining our bone health, our bone mineral density is going to decline as well, which can lead to osteoporosis at some point in life.

(05:04):
And we’re at risk for osteoporosis when we do go through menopause and hit that postmenopausal season of life. So calcium is really going to be key to get in and focus on a couple key food sources to help with that. If you do track your food, MyFitnessPal is a great pool because it actually shows your daily calcium that you’re getting in when you’re tracking your food. So things like milk and yogurt and almond milk. If you don’t do dairy, you can do soy milk, cheese, edamame, almonds. All of those sources are going to be really rich in calcium and super important that we get in.

Cori (05:46):
I think it’s important to note that you mentioned your need increases because a lot of times we write ourselves off as not being able to accomplish something because of aging, but in reality it’s often just that we need to assess what aging means to our nutrient usage and whether it’s a macronutrient like protein or it’s a micronutrient like calcium, a lot of times we can see the same stimulus for growth, for repair, for health if we just increase the dosage of what we’re taking. So it’s just making note that as your body changes with age, you can still achieve so much and see the same results. It just takes potentially doing more in specific areas or adding in more or addressing the change in your nutrient usage. So off of calcium, vitamin D and vitamin care are something you brought up and they’re very important to even better usage of calcium. Can you talk a little bit about those?

Brooke (06:39):
Yeah, no, I love what you said there because don’t think that you just have to start drinking all of these classes of milk or eating all these extra almonds per day, right? You probably are already getting in calcium. So assessing exactly what you’re eating and increasing that slightly if you’re not meeting those calcium needs could drastically help you increase to get and hit those calcium needs. Like I said with the trio, if we’re looking at calcium, the other two are going to be vitamin D, vitamin K. So vitamin D is really, really important because it really helps calcium be absorbed more efficiently in our body. So you don’t want to be eating all this calcium and not necessarily focused on vitamin D. So we definitely want to consume, like I said, these trio of calcium, vitamin D and vitamin K altogether, not necessarily focusing on one more than the other.

(07:29):
So vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin a very common one that we talk about, but not so much for bone health. So it’s really vital, like I said, to consume in amounts and get out in the sunshine so that calcium can be better absorbed without that sufficient vitamin D in our body, our bones can start to become thin and brittle and weak over time, which we obviously don’t want. And just like calcium, your vitamin D needs do increase over the age of 50 as well. So continuing to focus on that, really seeing what you’re doing now and then how you can increase that. It’s going to be helpful because as we do age and as we get over that age 50, our skin is not able to absorb that vitamin D as well as it used to. So really getting out in the sun, like I said, but also more so focusing on these food sources.

(08:25):
It’s going to be key since our skin isn’t converting as much of that sunlight to vitamin D as it might have prior. So food sources that we’re looking at for vitamin D are things like salmon and milk and tuna, egg yolks, mushrooms, cod, liver oil, even some random food sources. And you’ve probably started to pick up on the food sources are similar across the board, so egg yolks are also a little bit higher in vitamin K. So that kind knocks out the two birds with one stone there. Continuing to look at, yes, getting out in the sun, but also realizing that again over time your body does not absorb as much vitamin D that even more so focusing on these food sources because we really key for focusing on that bone health.

Cori (09:13):
It’s getting in that diversity of foods as well. You don’t have to feel like you’re just cramming down a ton of yogurt to get calcium. You don’t have to feel like you’re just stuffing yourself with salmon to get that vitamin D. You can use that diversity to really make sure that you’re getting even in other micronutrients that might be available in other foods to really keep yourself healthy. And then even assessing, am I getting enough calcium? Could it be the vitamin D, or am I getting enough vitamin D and could it be the calcium? You want to think about how you can efficiently get enough of everything over just focusing only on one micro because they really do work together. Now off of that, I think vitamin K is not talked about quite as often. Can you highlight why that’s so important in balance with calcium and vitamin D for a bone health?

Brooke (09:53):
Yeah, I love vitamin K. I find it super fasting like you said, because we don’t talk about it. It’s not a popular vitamin that people like to focus on, but vitamin K is really key for that bone matrix formation. So when we look at the kind of the composition of or 206 bones in our body, you often think of compact bone. There’s also spongy bone in there, but that bone matrix, which is what the vitamin K is going to help support are those protein fibers and things like collagen in there that’s really going to help support that overall structure of the bone. So when we start to consume more sources of vitamin K really is going to help, like I said, more of those fibers and collagen. You’ve probably heard of the collagen, that’s a big one, but it’s going to help go in and really support that. So vitamin K also helps just like vitamin D absorbs that calcium better in all of our bones. So again, we don’t just want to focus on calcium kind of focusing on all of these three in conjunction with each other. So when we’re looking at vitamin K, oh, go ahead.

Cori (10:59):
Oh, no, I was just going to ask you about food sources of that specifically because I think it’s something we haven’t focused on as much.

Brooke (11:06):
Yes, totally. So vitamin K, like I said with vitamin D, the egg yolks is a big one, but also when you think vitamin K think a lot of your green vegetables, so spinach and broccoli and cabbage and kale, all of those are really high in vitamin K as well.

Cori (11:23):
So you get your leafy greens, you have them with your salmon, you add in even maybe some mushrooms, and then you put some cheese on the top and you got this great salad with salmon dish and you hit all the things you need for your bone health. Right? There is the meal that you’re going to all be making. I’d actually love to hear what meals you do make out of these things. But with all this, it’s about getting that balance and it’s about even as you brought up at the beginning, tracking what you’re doing because I think so often we don’t know where we have those deficiencies or where we’re not getting enough and off of this as much as I believe supplements are supplemental. I do want to touch on this because I think so often it is a struggle to get in enough from our foods. If someone were looking to supplement, what would you sort of recommend they do?

Brooke (12:06):
Yeah, I love that. So I do think supplements are a touchy subject, but I often think that those supplements can come into play greatly here, especially I know we’ve said it a lot, but really getting through that menopausal season of life, ending up on that post-menopausal season of life, this bone health just becomes so much more, or it should become so much more of a talked about topic and really focus on for that preventative health, but also that longer life expectancy, you really do want those strong bones in every season of life. So when we’re looking at supplements, like I said with vitamin D, as you get over the age of 50, your skin doesn’t absorb and convert that vitamin D as much to what your body needs. So looking at potentially when you’re assessing your MyFitness pal, even looking at how much calcium you’re getting in, seeing if you’re even in the sun then, right?

(13:00):
A lot of us work indoors. A lot of us don’t even get out in the sun as much as we think that we do. So looking at supplements like a calcium supplement, a vitamin D, and then a vitamin K supplement as well can be super helpful if you feel like you don’t get those food sources in often and often meaning probably two to three times a week, or you find that you’re really not in the sun or you’re in a part of the country that isn’t super sunny all the time. So kind of assessing you personally where you live, your food sources that you’re getting in, and then looking at supplementing. I do professional opinion, but I always recommend during those winter months a vitamin D supplement. I think it’s helpful, and I think again, as we’re focusing on bone health in particular, combining all three of these together in terms of supplementation based off where you assess yourself can be super helpful.

Cori (13:56):
And even noting the goals you’re working towards when you’re tracking. Because if you are working towards weight loss, making sure you’re not in that extreme calorie deficit so that you can build a retainly muscle, which will only promote better bone health as well. But if you are in that slight calorie deficit, even if it’s not an extreme, you are in a deficit. So it’s very hard to get enough of anything, which is why you might want to be even more conscious of taking a look at supplementation during that. And when we’re talking about bone health too, we can’t ignore of course the importance of our nutrition, which we went over, but the importance of strength training and building that lean muscle and noting again that you need to make sure that you’re fueling to grow that lean muscle. You’re focusing your training on building that lean muscle because that helps promote optimal bone health and doing so proactively. I brought this up at the beginning. We go to making changes in our nutrition and our workouts because we want to see an aesthetic result, but to help ourselves stay more consistent with those things so we can see not only those results snowball, but also our improvements in our health. We need to celebrate all the ways that all these different healthy habits are paying off. Anything else, Brooke, in terms of focusing on our bone health, how that can even optimize our body recomposition? Any other tips, tricks, thoughts?

Brooke (15:07):
Yeah, I love what you brought up there actually about goals, because no matter what your goals are, if it is fat loss or weight loss or potentially just an aesthetic goal, all of those are fantastic goals, but bone health should be included in there. You don’t want to look a certain way, but then have weak and brittle bones. And as you age, those start to cause issues like as women age and as we get older, more prone to falling, more prone to fractures. If our bones are weak, I don’t know about anyone listening, but I want to be strength training at age 80 or 90. I want to be running around with grandkids. I want to go hiking with my husband at any season of life. So again, no matter what your goals are, I think looking at the overarching picture of I need strong bones to be able to do all of these things in life is really key here. And I think it even helps us focus on these food sources, supplementation, strength training a little bit more, that no matter what our short-term goal is, our long-term goal, that is also going to play a role in this as well, and that longer life expectancy, women actually live longer than men. So this is even more important for us to focus on as we go through all of these different seasons of life

Cori (16:27):
And we’re giving ourself more ways to measure success when we are thinking in terms of the other health benefits of things. Because now what you could do is say, Hey, my focus while I’m in this calorie deficit to even get more diversity food and hit my macros, is to focus on some of these bone health things. And if I can check these off every single day, I know I’m doing something towards my bone health, and I’m also going to probably be doing something because all these foods are super nutrient dense and have micronutrients that will only help our body function better to be able to lift more, gain more muscle, lose fat faster, help our metabolism be healthy, help our body function better so we can train intensely, right? We don’t have to be out with injury or aches and pains. So it’s thinking about how can you use things like this that focus on long-term health to keep you more consistent towards those aesthetic goals or performance goals or whatever else you set, and how you can give yourself more ways to measure success.

Cori (17:15):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone.

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

00:00

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

(00:28):
I’m going to give it to you straight, and I want to go over 10 sucky truths you need to own. If you really want to see results, and I say own because we need to really assess what we’re being faced with. If we want the smoothest journey forward, there are still going to be mishaps, blips, mistakes, setbacks. But the more we oversell that negative to ourselves, the more we prepare ourself for the hard, it’s like marching into battle. You want the armor on, you want to have the weapons at hand. You don’t want to just go into battle, not prepare at all, because then you’re probably going to get s soldered. Things aren’t going to go the way you really want. So we want to be as armed and ready as we possibly can when making a change, when seeking a new result, because that’s going to make the process that much smoother.

(01:09):
The more we oversell the negative, the more we prepare for it. The more we recognize the struggles we’ve had in the past, that might face us again. The more we recognize our mindsets, the more we can really make sure that we’re making changes based on knowing these things will pop up. Knowing the downsides, knowing what might hold us back to overcome it better. Because when we don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s a lot harder to plan forward. It’s a lot harder to manage it, especially with a lot going on. So 10 sucky truths. Number one, the habit changes we need the most are often the ones we fight against the hardest. And the reason we fight against these things is because they’re generally the most uncomfortable. It’s why we haven’t made them. It’s why they’re going to make such a difference if we truly embrace them.

(01:50):
Think about a lot of times what hard you’ve hit that you’ve turned back from. What habit or lifestyle changes have you avoided making? Have you avoided tracking macros because it seemed too difficult? Have you avoided doing a set workout progression on your own because it seemed too challenging? What are hard changes that you have avoided? Then think, why have I avoided these? A lot of times we come up with reasons. We’ve even researched to find reasons. Oh, well, you don’t utilize more than X amount of protein in a meal, therefore, what’s the point of increasing protein? Or I’ve heard it’s bad for your kidneys, or we search out any reason why not to do something. Instead of saying, Hey, maybe the reason I haven’t seen the results I want is because I’m not embracing this hard change. Why might someone constantly be telling me to do this?

(02:32):
Why might I have encountered a lot of programs that are telling me to do this? Where could this benefit me? And the more we can find the benefits to then embrace that experiment and set a time that we’re going to truly try to do something new, the more we can help ourselves move forward. But I can tell you that the more you find yourself resisting a change, the more you probably need it. And you want to even assess what current trajectory am I on? What trajectory have my habits that I’m doing right now put me on? Am I doing habits that will move me forward towards my goals? Or am I repeating the same old habits that are leading me far, far away from my goals and never going to hit that outcome no matter how hard I work? A lot of times, again, going back to that hard habit that we don’t want to embrace, that usually is the habit that is going to set us on the course to get the results that we want.

(03:15):
So assess why rebelling against it, why you’re doing all this research to prove that it is not something you need to do. And then recognize if you’re doing all that to resist it, it’s probably the habit change you need the most. Next, change is hard, plain and simple. As much as some of us might say, oh, I like change. We don’t like change. We like doing what’s comfortable and what we’re comfortable doing is what we’ve always done and the changes we do like are changes that we are willing to make that we see the benefit of. So if we’re going to make a hard change, a lot of times the more we can explain to ourselves why this will be beneficial, the more we’re going to embrace it, but also the more we recognize that change is simply hard because we’re unlearning old habits as we’re learning new ones, the more we’re going to embrace small steps forward, the more we’re going to lower those mental barriers.

(03:58):
Because a lot of times it isn’t even the physical routine that’s hard. It’s the mental resistance to it. So if you’ve tried to make some changes and you’re finding yourself sort of pulling back against them, realize that you are defaulting back into the safe. You know what the outcome of that is, even if the outcome isn’t something that’s moving you forward, so you’re going to pull back every time you hit that same hard, and we might try and look for a different way around it. Maybe you try keto one time and then you go paleo, and then you go vegan. You’re trying the same restriction just labeled in different ways, and by doing that, you’re always turning back at the same hard instead of recognizing that change is hard. And at some point you have to push past that point. You don’t want to push past.

(04:35):
Number three, we stand in our own way. All too often we quit before results have added up. It’s not that we need a perfect macro ratio. It’s not that we need a perfect workout. We simply need to realize that we are holding ourselves back from embracing the new lifestyle. We aren’t embracing the new identity. We’re even telling ourselves that things aren’t possible. How do you know it’s not possible? Have you tried it before? Okay, maybe you did try it a long time ago, but what in your lifestyle was different? Well, your mindset was different. What might have been different that didn’t allow that to happen then? Or was it simply that you got six weeks in and you gave up? A lot of times we can’t know what is possible until we try and prove it possible, and we really give ourselves a chance, an opportunity to stick with the habits long enough so we hold ourselves back, we hit the hard, we turn around.

(05:20):
It is very, very hard to push our comfort zone. It is one of the most challenging things we can do. And again, we try all these different things. We hit that same hard. Yes, it might be this part of the comfort zone circle versus this other part, but we’re always turning back to the same hard. And you might even recognize it’s always at 30 days. It’s always at six weeks. It’s always at nine weeks. It’s always at a specific time of year. But you’re going to recognize that you are hitting that same hard point and always turning around instead of saying, Hey, why have I hit this hard? What can I double down on that’s working and keep pushing through? Because a lot of times it’s just not quitting that ultimately bust us out of the change loop and it helps us see results. Number four, success is failure.

(05:58):
Have you ever noticed when you’re watching a movie, a TV show, a podcast, whatever else, that when you’re listening to someone who has really succeeded at a goal, they talk about all of their failures, they should tell us something. Success is failure. The more successful a person is, the more I hear them talking about their failures and not only what they learned from them, but just the fact that they had more of them. And success isn’t the absence of those things. Really seeing the result we want isn’t not having a hard making a mistake isn’t not failing to some extent. I mean, the only failure is giving up, but it’s always having those learning experiences. The key is just picking yourself up and moving forward after them. But the more failures you have had, the more successes you’re going to have had because you’re going to learn from them as long as you keep moving forward.

(06:45):
So I would really have you question yourself if you’ve been like, oh, I’ve failed every other time. You just haven’t kept moving forward. That might be the issue over the mistakes themselves, because everything we encounter, every deviation, every hiccup, every even good experience is a learning experience if we choose to see it that way. The key is stepping back at points in our journey to assess what is and isn’t working to double down on things that are working to assess why something might not be working and if we’re even optimizing it. And then if it isn’t working, get rid of it to do more of what is working or to experiment with something else that might be more in line with what is working. But just recognize success is failure. The more successful you want to be, the more you’re going to have to embrace failures along the way.

(07:24):
Then nothing works forever. Over the course of your year, your lifestyle changes more than you even recognize. A lot of times January to May, we can have certain habits. We’re really motivated from the new year that maybe we’re motivated for the upcoming summer and then all of a sudden the summer hits and we’re traveling more kids are off of school, our lifestyle changes and what habits might’ve been perfect for January to may not be so perfect for May to even September, and then the holidays hit and new habits are even needed. The more we try and force a mold from one time a year onto another time a year, the more we ultimately sabotage our own success. You might notice you get really great results until about May, and then over the summer things start to sort of slide, but you ignore those 1% deviations.

(08:06):
It’s okay enough and all of a sudden the holiday season comes, you gain weight and you feel like you’re starting over in January instead of repeating the same cycle, forcing the same habits that worked in January on your summer, on your holiday season, why not assess what other habits you might need, what focuses you might need? Yes, sure, maybe you want to lose more weight, but maybe the summer isn’t the time to focus on that. Maybe you just want to maintain your previous results. Maybe during the holiday season you’re even struggling to maintain, so you’re like, okay, I just want to gain less than I usually have. So I go into this January better off. Too often we get focused on one week, one day, one month even. Instead of saying, Hey, what about the years? How can I go into next January better off to then go into the next January better off and make 1% improvements over the season?

(08:45):
So not only does our year look different from month to month, but as we get older, our body needs and goals change. We’ve been training for longer, we’ve been dieting for longer, we’ve done more good things and more bad things, and we have to account for all these things to constantly evolve. Even our mindset, our work schedule, all these different things will impact what we need. And one macro ratio that worked for you at one point may not work with the lifestyle changes you have now. One way of prepping may not work for you in the lifestyle changes you have now. So constantly assessing what you need, and if you haven’t been doing a lot of the things you feel like you need to be doing, instead of trying to force a mold, say, Hey, what does my current lifestyle look like? Just track that for a week.

(09:24):
Don’t make any changes because even in seeing that, you’ll see room for opportunity and growth that meets you where you’re at and the best changes meet us where we’re at to move us forward. And it’s those 1% improvements that we almost can sneak in without even noticing that we’re making those changes that build that momentum, that build that motivation, that build that success mindset that moves us forward. So just recognize that nothing works forever and we constantly have to be reassessing where we are right now to meet ourselves there, whether it’s setting new goals, new focuses, new habits, just so that we can keep moving forward and see those results snowball, recognizing that sometimes even maintaining previous progress leads to better results faster than we even recognize. Number six, effort doesn’t equal outcome. I’ve been guilty of it. I know most of us have been the being like, I’m working so hard.

(10:09):
I feel like the results aren’t what I deserve. I deserve better. Effort is not actually action. It relates to a feeling. And I bring this up, especially after following up with the nothing works forever because what might not feel like a lot of effort, a habit that you’re doing six days a week of training or a specific macro breakdown might not feel like a lot of effort when you’re really motivated during a specific time of year and then all of a sudden you’re traveling, the holidays are calm, whatever else is going on, stresses at work and what didn’t feel like a lot of effort to do something then may all of a sudden the same habit feel like a lot more effort. The habit didn’t change, just the feeling of effort because the habit was mismatched to the time of year to the stressors. Everything else going on now made it feel like a lot of effort.

(10:53):
We’re not going to get better results from doing the same thing just because it feels harder, but we feel like we deserve more. So we have to recognize that effort is a feeling. Working hard is a feeling, and you can even be working really hard in the wrong direction, not doing habits that are going to pay off. So you need to assess why do I feel like I’m working really hard? Why do I feel like I’m giving all this effort and the results aren’t paying off? Am I actually being as diligent in the habits as I think I am? Sometimes stepping back, we realize there’s a lot of room for opportunity and growth in those habits still. Or sometimes we recognize, hey, these habits clearly aren’t matching what I need. Or we’re saying, Hey, I’m doing good habits, but they are too much for the other stress that I have going on.

(11:29):
Because all stress goes in one bucket, and if we’re putting too much stress in that bucket, it’s going to overflow. So we have to find ways to reduce the amount of stress that goes into that bucket at times, which might mean that a habit that worked really well at one time a year does not work so well. Maybe you go from a full macro breakdown to a protein minimum. Maybe you go from six days a week of training to three days a week. But sometimes you have to adjust those habits so they don’t feel like so much effort so you can get consistent in still doing something. Because so much of this relates back to our mindset. Are we putting ourselves in a success mindset or a failure mindset? Are we giving ourself motivation to move forward or are we leading to that negative spiral where we do more of nothing?

(12:05):
So we have to assess that because sometimes doing less ultimately makes us feel more successful, makes us get re-motivated quicker to do more, versus if we fail at doing what we think we should do perfectly, that is just too much and giving too much effort, we’re going to ultimately do a whole lot of nothing and then we’re definitely not going to see our results snowball. So really honestly, assess or where that feeling of effort is coming from and recognizing that effort doesn’t guarantee an outcome because it is a feeling. It is not that we’re making more changes necessarily. And also I want to throw out if something’s felt hard in the past, if you’ve been avoiding the hard, maybe this is why you haven’t created true change. So if you feel like something is a lot of effort and you’ve avoided doing it or sticking with it long term, it goes back to what I mentioned at the very beginning.

(12:49):
Often the habit changes we need the most are the ones that are the hardest and the ones we try and avoid as hard as possible. So really assess, hey, if I haven’t been uncomfortable in things, am I really doing things that are outside my comfort zone that will build the new me, that will embrace the new habits, that will see the new results that I want? Number seven, someone always has it easier and it doesn’t matter. And I bring this up because I don’t think that we won’t compare. I think we are creatures of comparison and we need to own this instead of saying, well, don’t compare to others because I think it’s natural too. But that comparison can be positive or can be negative. It can be us saying, Hey, what are they doing? What do they have? How can I use this to my advantage?

(13:27):
Or it can be, oh, well they had it easier. They didn’t have the struggle. It can be a negative thing where we end up putting ourselves down or writing ourselves off, but ultimately what someone else succeeds with or what they achieve has no impact on you except as potentially a learning experience to use their struggles. They’re overcoming of those different things to your advantage to learn from, but you got to focus on your growth and your improvement. And that’s why I also think it’s so cute. We go back to finding what our current status is will work for you in the past. Who cares? Even focus right now on where you’re at and what you need to move forward based on little habit changes from there. Because I do think even not even comparing to somebody else, we compare to our past selves. I used to be so in shape.

(14:08):
I used to be able to run marathons. I used to be able to list X weight. I used to be able to do this type of meal prep. I used to have abs, I used to have. It doesn’t matter what you used to have, what matters is where you’re right now to move forward. Because the more we compare, the more we hold ourselves back, the more we try and do what matched us then versus really meeting ourselves where we’re at to move forward. Number eight, there’s no one best thing. Nothing works forever and we have to let go of a habit even sometimes that really worked for us in the past, loved intermittent fasting, great, but maybe it doesn’t match your needs and goals right now. Did one thing to lose weight, great. That’s not what we’re going to do to maintain those results. It’s not what we’re going to do to build muscle.

(14:44):
A lot of times when we clinging to previous dieting workout practices, we hold ourselves back from seeing the opportunity and learning something new. And I can tell you I’m constantly trying to tweak and evolve in. I firmly believe there’s something better out there. There’s something more I can optimize and that allows me to constantly move forward and ultimately make improvements. And I still go back to stuff that I used in the past because it did really work. But I don’t feel like there’s one best thing because I know that so much is changing constantly in my lifestyle. And the more I can really match whatever I need right now and let go of any tactics or tools and not see them as the be all and end all and not tie my identity to them, the better off I’m going to be. Because what you even use, if you keto worked really well for you at one point, hey, maybe that doesn’t work for you.

(15:24):
Now with the lifestyle you have, maybe it did work to lose the weight, but now you want to add back in carbs. So you need to let go of that identity to evolve. The more we tie our identity in those tools and tactics, the more we hold ourselves back. But there is no one best thing. It’s all about the systems working together. You’re not going to find a magic move, a magic macro ratio. It’s about how do these macros match my lifestyle right now, match my activity level, match how my hormones have changed, match everything else going on, even my mindset. What does my mindset say in terms of the foods I want to include in the lifestyle balance I want? Then you have to think outside the gym and outside your plate. So I think a lot of times, and I focus a lot on what we do in our training and what we do in our nutrition, because those are often the easiest things to control, but we have to think outside of both the workouts and the nutrition component if we really want to see results.

(16:11):
Because you can only train as hard as you can recover from. And a lot of times seeing a lot of soreness not recovering in the way that you want, not seeing the results that you want from your nutrition is because something is out of line. We are not recovering well enough, which might mean we’re not giving ourselves enough mobility work. We’re not sleeping well enough. We’re trying to do too much in our training. We’re trying to under fuel. So it does relate to our plate and what we’re doing in the gym, but we have to really see all the lifestyle balance too, to see how everything’s going to work together. Because if we don’t assess our lifestyle and even our mindset and the balance that’s right for us, we’re not going to create our training in a way that really meets us where we’re at.

(16:44):
We’re not going to create our nutrition in something that’s sustainable based on what we need right now. And saying that not everything feels sustainable and easy to start, but we have to assess, okay, if I’m doing something for this end goal, how realistic is this for me longterm? Okay, maybe it’s not realistic, but I know it will help me see better results faster. How can I create this off of a foundation which allows me to then steer into more of a sustainable lifestyle balance? It’s why no matter if someone’s doing keto, vegetarian, vegan, whatever else it is, I like them to focus on macros because if they do decide to cut out specific foods for a period, at least they know the macro breakdown that that restriction is creating. So if you’re doing keto and you realize you’re cutting out specific food groups, well, hey, if you’re cutting out those carbs, what carb ratio are you actually including?

(17:29):
Because just even by learning that, you can then work back in those foods. But think about not only the foods, not only the gym workouts, but how your sleeping, what your lifestyle balances, even your mindsets. I can tell you that mindset matters most when it comes to achieving results. Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you are right. And you might be thinking, well, I’m still doing the habits even though I don’t believe in them. You are doing yourself a doubt. You are not optimizing the things that you are doing. You’re not embracing them as potentially a new identity, stepping into this new habit, this new routine, and therefore you’re not going to replicate it longterm. You’re also going to find ways to do the minimum of some of these things instead of optimizing these things. And again, it goes back to trying to force ourselves into a mold where ultimately we end up feeling not successful with that, and we start to have that failure mindset and then we start to do less and fall off of all those things versus saying, Hey, what are small changes I can make to my sleep, to my lifestyle, to meeting myself where I’m at, to changing my mindset and how I even view these things to feel more successful and want to add on more changes.

(18:26):
But mindset truly matters most, and it even goes back to seeing yourself and the possibilities there because we hold ourselves back. We quit when we hit the hard seeing where we’re encountering the hard and wanting to turn back all that, assessing our mindset, assessing our self-awareness. And I can tell you one of the things I love the most about coaching isn’t giving macro ratios. It isn’t giving workouts. It’s about helping someone build better self-awareness. The more we are constantly assessing where we are at and our responses to things, the habits that are so unconscious, we repeat them and we have to really unlearn them first before we can even implement new habits. The more we learn about ourselves and those patterns we’re repeating, the mindsets we have, the more we can move forward and constantly be evolving as we need. And finally, the hardest one, but the cold hard truth that we need to own the most is that sometimes we need to do it anyway.

(19:17):
You don’t want to make that change. You don’t want to adjust your weekend eating. You still want to go out with friends. Well, you know what? Sometimes to reach a goal, you have to shift from what eventually you want to do that feels sustainable, and what ultimately feels sustainable may not feel sustainable right now. So sometimes you have to say, suck it on buttercup. Do it anyway. Do the workout anyway. Even though you don’t feel like it, Hey, maybe I can’t fit in that hour. Do five minutes anyway. Even if it feels like, oh, what is this really worth it? Something is better than nothing because you got to do it anyway. Because sometimes pushing yourself to go through that hard and do something anyway, when you would usually turn back to not have something on Friday night when you usually given over the weekends to say, Hey, I want to have this other balance on vacation or whatever else.

(19:56):
Sometimes you have to do a little bit more in order to create a new balance that is better for you, that really is allowing you to pursue what matters most to you. Because a lot of the things that we don’t want to do, we’re holding onto because they’re part of our old identity or they’re part of how we even think other peoples view us versus really being related to what we want for ourselves. So sometimes you have to say, Hey, this is hard, but I’m going to do it anyway, and at another point, I can make a different choice. Maybe I don’t have to do it then, but right now I’m choosing to do this and doing it anyway because it’s going to move me forward towards my goals a little bit faster. So sometimes you got to tell yourself, do it anyway. I hope these sometimes sucky, but truths really help you own what you need to do to see results and help you really assess your mindset when making changes. Because as I said, so much relates back to how we’re perceiving things, how we’re questioning ourselves, how much self-awareness we really have in order to create the habit changes unlearn old habits as we learn new ones that really meet us where we’re at to move forward.

(20:59):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes, and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life of someone.

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

00:00

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

(00:28):
The number one reason we don’t see results, it’s not that we don’t have a perfect macro ratio. It’s not that our workout routine isn’t hard enough or good enough. It’s not that our plan isn’t good, it’s simply often that we quit before results have a chance to snowball. That’s it. And I say this because we always keep ourselves stuck in this change loop, and it’s because we hit the same hard. So if you think about the pattern, you repeat for some of it’s 30 days, we’ve been able to do a 21 day program, but we hit that 30 day barrier and all of a sudden it’s like, Ugh, results aren’t happening fast enough. Is this really worth it? I feel like I’m working so hard not to see results snowball. I deserve more. For some of us, it’s maybe six weeks or nine weeks, or maybe it’s all of those different things that we hit that stick point.

(01:17):
And sometimes we can push through based on the time of year and sometimes we can’t. And I see it often with clients and I’ve seen it with myself. We hit that slight dead zone where we have been working hard enough for long enough and it feels like it’s just not adding up the way we feel we deserve. And so we hit that hard, we hit that comfort zone boundary. We get zapped by that electrical fence, so to speak, and we turn back to the comfort. We don’t keep pushing through the hard, but nothing changes if nothing changes. And so I wanted to bring this up because I do think we so often keep ourselves stuck because we hit that same hard point. Even if it’s sort of packaged in a different packaging, we hit that same hard point. We quit and that’s why we never see results snowball.

(01:55):
We get to day 30, but then we go back to day one. We never go to day 31 or day 32 or day 33. So I wanted to discuss what I think can help us get over this boundary. What can help us get out of what I see as the change loop? We start a new program, get really excited by the promise. We go all in, do all these different habits. We hit habit overload, which leads to emotional sabotage, which leads to I quit instead of us doubling down on what’s working. And I think it’s because, and this sounds very negative, but we’re not finding the restriction that we can tolerate. Again, sounds very negative, but what I mean by this is everything that we do is not going to be fun to reach a goal. There are downsides to every upside. And the more we own this, the more we own there are struggles, there are habits that we won’t like especially to start because they’re not within our comfort zone.

(02:43):
There’s going to be hard that we push through. The more we’re going to see the results that we deserve, and also realize that some of the downsides aren’t really as hard as we once thought they were or that they were a means to an end. Like tracking. I never like someone to say, tracking is not a lifestyle that I can do forever. And I say that because I think the mindset of, oh, it’s not sustainable, automatically holds us back from truly embracing it and seeing the opportunity in it. So we have to believe that some of the habits we’re going to be implementing are something we’re going to do for the rest of our life, even though they’re not. We don’t do one thing in one form forever and our body needs and goals, our lifestyle is constantly evolving and we’re going to change because of that.

(03:21):
But going into tracking, you need to think, okay, I’m going to do this for the rest of my life. You’re not going to do it in the same form. There’s going to be times you’re more intensive with your tracking. There’s times where you’re going to learn your portions and just keep going with it. There’s times you’re going to do minimums, there’s times you’re not going to track at all. But now a tool in your arsenal to keep you going. And I bring up tracking specifically because I think this is a key component of finding the restriction that you can tolerate. So you might say, well, I can really tolerate tracking Corey. Okay, but hear me out on why this tool, this downside is so valuable. So in terms of restriction, you might have a friend that was like, keto is it? It was perfect. I saw results.

(03:56):
I love it. It’s a lifestyle. And you’re like, Nope, nope, not for me. Nope. Can’t do it. And the thing is, that’s a restriction they can tolerate. They don’t mind cutting out those foods. Those foods might never have been important to them. But the one dilemma with this is that some point there’s going to be some hiccup in that they can’t just restrict those foods or they’re faced with something or maybe they don’t even have that same macro breakdown because of something else they want to include, but they don’t fully know why those restrictions worked for them. They think it’s just the food type, but it’s really underlying things, fundamentals that made it work. Food type and how a diet helps us dial in our macros varies from saying you can’t have these foods to include these foods to focus on these foods to get these different meal timings or only eat at certain times.

(04:41):
These things are always dialing in the fundamentals of calories and macros. So the more we track to see how those restrictions or how those limitations are really impacting our underlying macros, the more we give ourselves the power to adjust and embrace different restrictions at different times. Because I can also tell you what you do in January where you’re super motivated to reach a goal is not what you’re potentially going to do at a different time of year, even if you’re still working towards the same goal. And then as you shift from reaching a goal, you don’t go back to what you were doing, but you don’t keep doing the same habits in the exact same form that got you there. When you reach your weight loss goal, you don’t stay in a calorie deficit, but you can’t just go back. You have to retrain your body to eat more.

(05:18):
You have to embrace new macros. You have to keep some of the lifestyle factors, but they’re going to evolve. If you go into a muscle gaining phase, same thing, you’re going to evolve. Hormone levels change. We get older. Our lifestyle changes, we’re going to evolve. So tracking allows us to really identify why and what is working. So as you’re thinking about what restrictions you might be able to embrace, if you start ke and you’re like, okay, this feels really good, I can do this. Start to track what ratios are you hitting? What foods are you eliminating to do this? And what foods might you not be able to embrace the restriction of for long-term? If you do want to result faster, you might say, I’m not drinking at all, or I’m not doing any cheat days, or I’m cutting out X. And it might feel very sustainable.

(05:55):
You might embrace that restriction, but for how long? And if it’s something you can’t feel that you’ll embrace forever, identify what that’s truly doing to your lifestyle to help you move forward. And I say this because there are times a year where I don’t have cocktails as much as I love them, I will cut them out for a period or I won’t include a cheat day, and maybe I’ll do a little bit more on other days still hitting macros. But then on other days, I will have, or other times of year, I will have a complete cheat day where I won’t log and I won’t care. And I know I’m completely killing my macros and calories and whatever else, but I don’t care because I adjust the rest of the week for that. But I do different things at different times of year because there’s different restrictions I’m willing to embrace based on different goals, based on different lifestyle factors.

(06:33):
And so understanding what we’re truly willing to embrace and how it impacts us is the key component because otherwise we quit. We get to that same hard point. We think we are not getting results the way we want or we want to add something in and we don’t really have a strategy. We don’t have that exit plan. Also even say, and we don’t know what to double down on because we don’t know what’s working. And guys, we all hit that boundary. There’s always a time in our life we’re going to be pushing that comfort zone and you’re going to get zapped by it and your immediate response is going to be, I want to go back. But if you never push that hard, you’re never going to push that comfort zone and you’re never going to see changes really snowball. So often when we think, oh, I need something new.

(07:11):
This isn’t working. It’s really that we’re only measuring success in one way and viewing it as only one outcome when there’s all these other ways that results are snowballing and building. And we might be in a dead zone right now where things don’t feel like they’re adding up. But if we just keep going past the point, we usually want to quit. We’re going to see that success. So I would really encourage you to start tracking to understand what restrictions you are willing to embrace right now and what restrictions you might not embrace long-term and how they impact you. But then also realize when you hit that restriction hard, when you hit that point where you’re pushing it up against that comfort zone, it feels really uncomfortable. Take that step back and assess, why do I want to quit right now? What is truly going on?

(07:49):
And then double down on the things that are working. Again, this is where tracking your food can be so key because you might say, Hey, I’ve been too low a calorie for too long. I need to bump my calories up. I need to take that diet break. Or, Hey, this low carb worked for me, but I’m really missing X food. Let’s see how I can work it in. But by tracking, you have the power to make accurate adjustments versus you go from keto where you’re restricting to then paleo where you’re restricting to then vegetarian, where you’re restricting to then some other carnivore where you’re restricting and you’re doing this restriction, but you don’t know why you’re able to tolerate that restriction for so long or for so short or what actually works. But to some extent, it is just finding the downsides that we are willing to embrace for the upsides and realizing that we’re going to be willing to embrace more at times and make more sacrifices and then not embrace as much at other times.

(08:36):
And that’s okay. But truly knowing what we’re doing is key because that allows us to evolve. It allows us to say, Hey, these other priorities in life are taking precedent. And so this intensive macro tracking that I’ve been doing that’s been really successful for me, Hey, I can’t do it. Okay, instead of doing nothing and instead of feeling like, well, tracking just doesn’t work for me. Say, what minimums can I do? How can I modify this so that the downsides are worth it to keep doing? Because if one downside right now isn’t worth it, it doesn’t mean that this whole plan is not working for you. It just means that other things are taking priority. All stress goes in one bucket. So we might have to alleviate what we’re adding to that bucket so it doesn’t overflow. So instead of tracking as intensively, you set that calorie cap or you set that protein minimum or you say, Hey, I’m going to make a meal plan for myself that I’m going to follow, even though I usually like more diversity in food.

(09:21):
But it’s truly learning how we can embrace that restriction, find the restrictions that work for us that aren’t as painful for us, so we can bust out that change loop double down on things versus hitting that emotional sabotage where we say, I feel like I deserve more results for the effort that I’m putting in, and we end up quitting, right? Where we would truly see results snowball if we just kept pushing that comfort zone, pushing through because I quit truly is what often holds us back. It’s the mindset, not the habits I’ve seen people with, and I will say imperfect plans, all things working against them, doing the minimum see better results than somebody who had all the tools all the time at their disposal. Just because one kept going through it, all started at the wrong time, kept going and doing the minimum at the wrong time, did something over nothing, versus the person that went all in for a period but couldn’t maintain the restrictions because they never learned what really worked for them.

(10:12):
So off of that, guys, I do want to open it up to any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. I know that was a lot all at once, but I wanted to touch on this key mindset component just because I think so often we do just go and search for another macro ratio. We do just go and search for a new better move or a new workout plan instead of realizing that it comes back to that self-assessment and that self-awareness and constantly being willing to evolve knowing that one thing doesn’t work forever. We don’t do one workout program forever yet. So for some reason we started diet and we’re like, this is one thing forever. And again, I think we have to have the attitude of I can do these habits forever going in to help ourselves embrace them and make that change and even potentially go the other direction to correct some of the habits we have currently. But at the same time, we have to realize that the exact mold that we’re in right now is not the mold that we’ll use, the plan that we’ll use forever. So embracing that it is forever, but not forever. We’re not going back, put it that way.

(11:05):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack 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 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 of someone.

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