Cori (00:15):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

Cori (00:28):
Alright, we’re talking muscle gains, overrated versus underrated. Of course, when I made the note about gains, I had to have the Zs on there to make it extra gnarly, but I’m so excited for Michelle and I to really discuss what we feel are the best practices and the worst practices, things that we often turn to that maybe aren’t as valuable as we think. So Michelle, jumping right in. Let’s talk about creating that calorie surplus to build lean muscle overrated or underrated.

Michelle (01:00):
So I’m a ruffle some feathers, but I think it’s one of the biggest things that’s majorly underrated When your goal is to actually gain muscle, you have to have the energy or the calories to be able to do so. It requires material to be able to build.

Cori (01:18):
So my feathers are ruffled by that. Just kidding. But I totally see your perspective in that. Often it is hard to increase calories if you’ve been in a calorie deficit prior to lose fat. It’s very hard to increase, but you need to gain muscle. However, I am actually going to argue the opposite and say that it is overrated, and this is coming from background. Seeing a lot of people do the dirty bulks and go into these extreme calorie surpluses saying, Hey, I need extra calories to building muscle. You don’t need as many extra as you think and your glycogen stores can only store so much glycogen. So I will argue overrated because there is nuance to it. Yes, you need extra energy as you build muscle. What used to be a surplus will probably shrink and become a deficit even potentially, or at least maintenance. And so you’ll need to increase further to add more lean muscle, but you don’t need to go crazy with it. So breaking things down, you mentioned underrated, I mentioned overrated. We both agree that you need to be strategic in it. How would you recommend that someone strategically creates that calorie surplus so that they aren’t making it overrated or not eating enough to actually fuel that growth?

Michelle (02:27):
Well, and you bring up an excellent point because the bottom line is you still have to have the building material right to actually be able to repair the muscles because as we build the process of building muscles means we’re going to actually tear the muscles and then have the repair come in, and that’s how we actually grow the muscle. So the biggest issue is a lot of people I think confuse body recomposition with muscle gains. And you can do both. You can have both, but if your sole focus is truly that pure muscle gains and you’ve lost the fat and you’re ready to build it is going to require that surplus. And as you mentioned, what is that surplus? How much does it actually need to be? And this is where people kind of mess up because they start looking online at what someone else is doing.

(03:14):
And a lot of times they’re looking at people that already have a high amount of muscle on them. So they’re trying to compare their eating habits to someone that they want to look like. And the problem with that is is they already have the muscle that’s requiring more metabolic demand. So they’re burning more with that. So their calorie surplus, even though they probably are eating way more than what you are right now, is probably not as big of a surplus as you actually think given the amount of muscle they have on. So you have to be a little bit strategic here. And it truly, like you said, it really doesn’t take that much again to be anywhere from 200 to 300 calories extra, which let’s be honest, that’s really just an added snack to your day. But we do also of course want to make sure that we’re adding the right calories from the right sources. So this is really where we’re looking at making sure we’re getting those necessary amino acids from protein sources, we’re getting the correct amount of carbohydrates so that we can protect that muscle mass when we are working it even further.

Cori (04:20):
And going back to your underrated, because as much as I said overrated, I totally get that underrated perspective, especially if someone has been in a deficit, it’s scary to first come out of it because you feel like you do see that scale jump, which you will because you now are no longer depleted. So when you’re coming out of the deficit, especially if you’re fearing gaining fat, you’re fearing increasing those calories, but you want those muscle gains, you got to do it slowly because you do have to retrain your body to eat more. As you mentioned, someone who already has more muscle on who’s eating higher calories might have been at maintenance and is now going into that calorie surplus from their maintenance to add more muscle on top of that. But they have transitioned first to maintenance. So simply coming out of that deficit, moving towards maintenance slowly might be your first step. And in that process you might even see muscle being built because you somewhat trained your body to function off of less. So with the increased calories, your body has the extra fuel to be able to add that lean muscle. And then with adding lean muscle, your body will need more. So just know that it is a slow transition out of that deficit if you’ve been in a fat loss phase. But you can’t fear seeing that scale go up a little bit because you’re no longer depleted.

Michelle (05:30):
Yes, and I think that’s honestly one of the biggest things is when you are truly solely focusing on the gains and not necessarily body recomp, the scale is not going to be your friend. Measurements are, but the scale won’t be.

Cori (05:46):
And macro is still matter a lot. There is no debating that. I’m not even going to give Michelle an opportunity to say overrated or underrated. Macros still matter a lot. We’re actually going to touch on once macro specifically in a second, but before that I want to jump to a workout overrated or underrated heavy weights for building muscle. Michelle, your opinion

Michelle (06:06):
Underrated.

Cori (06:09):
Alright, and so I’m going to argue with you here just a little bit and for a good reason because I do agree weights are very important and I’m doing this more to present the nuance in things and the opportunity in things, but I’m going to say overrated. And the reason why is weights are the easiest way to create progression, especially when you’re starting back, especially as an advanced lifter. Yes, you need to challenge yourself with loads, but the more advanced we are, the more we’re going to be hitting that upper limit potentially in what we can lift with different moves. So we’ve got to see opportunity in other progressions to keep driving that same stimulus for muscle growth. We’ve got to use different training techniques, different tempos, different tools. We can’t just get caught up in lifting heavier because there might be a point where we can’t truly add that much weight or add that many more reps with the same weight. So we can’t lift that many more loads without unique training techniques or equipment. But I do want you to break down why you very aptly said underrated because heavyweights are very important when we want to create that easy progression.

Michelle (07:08):
And I think I took it kind of from the perspective of someone that’s new to trying to gain muscle. So when you are new to the game, of course everything you’ve said was absolutely a hundred percent correct and there’s a lot of different ways that you can grow muscle. It doesn’t have to just be heavy lifting, but I think a lot of women specifically shy away from heavy lifting. And the problem with that is you do have to be a little bit more smart about how you go about trying to gain muscle if you are not trying to lift heavy. So it’s maybe a little bit, I don’t want to say the lazy route, but it makes it a little bit easier if you’re new to the game and you are just starting to try to lift heavier and progress with your weights that way.

(07:50):
And this is really just because it is going to create that muscle tension or even that time under tension that your body requires to actually be able to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. So by just creating that heavier lift or doing a heavier lift, you are going to be able to get there quicker. And it’s the same with also just having that progressive overload, being able to lift heavy and as you mentioned, progress and, sorry, excuse me. Get to that next point where you’re even lifting heavier that is going to be able to actually have a bigger effect on your body to be able to signal for muscle growth. And of course you’re going to have more muscle tears, which is going to require more rebuild or more repair. So there’s a lot of benefits to lifting heavy, but as you mentioned, we can’t get completely stuck into it’s the only way. But if you’ve been shying away from it for fear of that you’re going to get too bulky or for fear or just women in general who sometimes we don’t always lift heavy things, I would definitely encourage you to start lifting heavy and challenge yourself at actually trying to progress to heavier weights.

Cori (09:05):
I love that you mentioned that specifically because not even talking just about purely muscle gains. Heavy weights are so important for us being functionally fit to our final day on this planet. And I think as women fearing getting bulky or even the fearing of getting older and lifting heavy, that is definitely a fear I’ve seen popping up, oh, I’m too old, I shouldn’t lift as heavy. No, you need to challenge yourself even more because if you’re not creating that stimulus for growth, that stressor in your training, you are not going to cause your body to build and repair because as we get older, it does get harder to build and retaining muscle. So we need that same stimulus. We cannot fear lifting heavy, it’s use it or lose it. And so the heavier we lift, the more we can handle loads in everyday life. So not even just talking about muscle gains from an aesthetic standpoint, but that functional strength we need. Lifting heavy is so important even as we become more advanced and might have to use those other drivers of muscle growth, the other forms of progression to really see those muscle gains Going into the next topic, meal timing, overrated or underrated?

Michelle (10:06):
I’m going to go overrated on this one.

Cori (10:09):
I really wavered on this one as to whether or not I was going to say overrated or underrated because I think meal timing in general is very overrated and paid far too much attention to other than finding the meal schedule that’s right for you. But I also think that in this day and age where people are really pushing intermittent fasting and different things like that, it can be something that we ignore as holding us back from seeing the muscle gains we want because we did a specific meal timing potentially to lose the fat and that same meal timing doesn’t work now for muscle gains. So I’d love to sort of hear why you said overrated

Michelle (10:45):
And you brought up good points. Honestly, truthfully, I wasn’t even thinking that intermittent fasting route where so many people are doing that. So I’m really interested to hear that perspective. Now you’ve got my brain thinking on that one as well, but I went with overrated only because again, when people first start trying to gain muscle or even any health journey, they start looking at areas that aren’t the most important pieces. So when it comes to eating overall, yes, timing can affect things, but the biggest thing is at the end of the day, are you actually getting your needed macros? Are you actually hitting your needed caloric goal? And everyone’s a little bit different. What’s going to work for someone isn’t going to work for someone else? And a lot of times it’s really this niche area that I see a lot of people trying to follow because that’s what an athlete does and it’s because they’re trying to perform at their peak performance during their workouts or during a game or a race or whatever they’re doing athletically.

(11:50):
And the biggest problem I see is we get so up in the surrounding of like, oh, I need to eat this right two hours before or I need to recover within 30 minutes with this. And we get so stressed out about that that we’re forgetting about the rest of the day. Those things are great and I definitely want to encourage people to do those things, but at the end of the day, if all you did was take care of what surrounded your workout, but you didn’t adequately fuel the rest of the time, you’re not going to do yourselves any favors. And it’s almost like, okay, yeah, you had a couple good meals around your workouts, but we still aren’t hitting what we need to hit and we’re not providing the proper fuel by the end of the day for your body as a whole.

Cori (12:32):
I love that you mentioned we stress ourselves out with details that aren’t as important because that is really why I sort of wavered in my opinion on this because I think we turn to meal timing or we freak out about, oh my gosh, my muscles are going to melt off if I don’t eat within a certain time. And that’s really not the case. Meal timing is about optimizing, about allowing us to hit our macros more easily, feel fueled for our workouts, which I think is where I also wavered on saying it was a little underrated because often if someone has done intermittent fasting potentially for their training, they can yes, still time enough carbs, enough calories that at night to be fueled for that workout, but are they fueled optimally? Especially if they find that they’re a hard gainer if they’re first coming out of that deficit and especially based on the training that they’re doing, sometimes we’re not as energized as we could be.

(13:21):
And to really build a muscle, especially the more advanced you are, you have to have that fuel to push and be very uncomfortable in your training. So it might be a time where we have to adjust the meal timing or let go of a previous meal timing we’ve done to now have that pre-workout meal or adjust our meal timing to now break our fast a little bit closer or even extend our eating window out because we’re having to eat more calories and it’s harder in that fasting window. So I think that’s where my brain went of there’s so much nuance to what mealtime is really best, that it’s both overrated and that it’s the first thing we turn to over just hitting our macros. But it’s also underrated in that we don’t think to adjust it with a new goal where it can really pay off.

Michelle (14:05):
And I completely agree with that too. There’s definitely a lot more nuance to it.

Cori (14:11):
So next topic, jumping back to the training, training frequency, like training more than once a week, only once a week, is training frequency overrated or underrated?

Michelle (14:22):
I went underrated on this one.

Cori (14:25):
I have to 100% agree, especially because I’ve seen so many of the bodybuilding type workouts where people are training a body part once a week popping up and studies have truly proven that two to three times a week is optimal to stimulate muscle growth is especially for stubborn areas. And I think so often we think do more in one day over spreading that volume out over more days so that we can really be fresher and do more quality over the course of the week hitting those stubborn areas a little bit more frequently to drive that stimulus from muscle growth in different ways. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts too as to why you mentioned underrated. I was not surprised that we agreed on this because of the progressions we create, but

Michelle (15:07):
Yeah, so definitely you have to be able to progress. The point is, again, we have to be able to tear the muscle down to be able to build it up and one time once a week isn’t going to be enough. But what I also wanted to add for this too is the importance of actually being able to not just hit the body parts but also make sure that you’re giving the correct amount of recovery. So you mentioned three to five times a week of lifting and actually working the muscle groups, but the flip side of that is making sure that you’re having the correct recovery in between so you’re not just constantly tearing your body down without giving it the opportunity to repair. So often when I hear people are ready to hit and gain muscle, they try to put themselves through these really vigorous workouts every single day.

(15:59):
And while I’m not here to rain on anyone’s prey, that working out is fantastic. But if you’re jumping into that, there’s a couple of issues. One, the sustainability of it because you are going to beat yourself down if you’re not allowing yourself that proper recovery. But on the flip side of that, you are also probably not doing it with a game plan. And I think this is the most important part is actually having that game plan of what muscle groups you’re going to work and laying it out so you’re not just hitting not only just one area over and over again so that we’re able to stay balanced, but you’re able to give that area recovery time as you work a different area

Cori (16:44):
That is truly so key. If you’re training five days a week, how you’re going to break things up is going to be very different than if you’re training three days a week. And in that training frequency, you have to consider training intensity, training volume because doing a ton of volume, just thinking well more is better is not really the case because again, you’re going to hit a point of diminishing returns, you’re not going to be able to recover from it. But you want to think about how can I vary the intensity and the way I’m working areas. So this isn’t like I’m going to train my glutes, my hamstrings and I’m going to do deadlifts the same deadlifts three times a week. You want to think, okay, I want to train my glutes and my hamstrings. What are the joint functions? What are the muscle actions?

(17:21):
Okay, I might do a heavy barbell lift to start the week knowing that’s going to make me more sore, but do that when I’m freshest. And then later on in the week I might do a unilateral variation. Maybe I’m going to do more of a metabolic stress movement that uses a band to work my glutes or a move that is a shorter range of motion for my hamstrings or instead of the hip dominant movement to work the hamstrings, more of a knee movement. So if you think about the hamstrings, because they are worked by both hip extension and also knee flexion, you think about how could I include maybe something that’s in an extended hip position with knee flexion or in a flex hip position with knee flexion. So there’s a lot of different ways to work a muscle and we want to include that diversity over the week. So now jumping into the next topic, bringing it back to nutrition and bring it back to macros, carbs, overrated or underrated.

Michelle (18:11):
I went underrated on this one.

Cori (18:15):
Same question. I 100% agree not to interrupt you, but I 100% agree because I think especially in this day and age of low carb diets being all the fad for weight loss, we got to let go of what worked for one goal to move to another. So please share underrated why.

Michelle (18:31):
Yeah, I was ready to fight you on this one if you went overrated. Mainly as you mentioned, a lot of people just fear carbs when we’re trying to be in a deficit, when we’re trying to lose weight, that’s usually the first area that people start to restrict and I totally get why because we do live in a world where carbs are very easy to over consume. And the problem with that is once we have that fear and you have that transformation, you’ve achieved weight loss and all of a sudden we are really trying to focus on that muscle gain, we tend to leave out the carbs still. And the problem is, is it is our primary source of energy. I mean your muscle is full of glycogen, which is carbs. Your body is going to break it down into, and so it’s that energy for your muscles to actually be able to use for you to go into a workout and push yourself, you are going to be using up that glycogen.

(19:27):
Now the biggest problem with this is as we use up that glycogen, once it’s depleted, your body’s actually going to turn to a protein source. And one of the biggest things in your body is your muscle. So if we’re not giving our body that adequate amount of carbs to protect our lean muscle tissue, then your body’s going to start actually utilizing it for energy. And this is two things, right? This is why we focus so much on a higher protein diet because of course we want those amino acids to be able to rebuild the muscle, but it’s also to kind of help protect ourselves from when we do push things too hard and all of a sudden our body has depleted that muscle glycogen. We want to have that extra cushion with the needed amino acids. But again, this is why it’s so important to focus on that carbs because it is a protein sparing energy source as well.

Cori (20:22):
I think carbs often get demonized, especially for someone looking to lose weight. But I’ve had comments say, well, there are no essential carbs, there’s essential fats, there’s essential amino acids, but they’re not essential carbs. And I thought that was an interesting thing because it is an energy source and it is protein sparing and you do need it to really be able to push in your training. But we also see as people push in their training, this fear of cortisol levels rising. And we also see women especially having different hormonal issues because of trying to push really hard in their training and not only under fueling but potentially restricting carbs too much and in different stages ages, we might find that different carb intakes work for us and that timing our carbs becomes something we strategically need to do if we do function better on lower carb ratios.

(21:10):
But I can tell you I see so many women saying I’m suffering from thyroid issues like adrenal fatigue because they’re pushing hard on their training but not truly giving their body the fuel that they need. And a lot of these issues can be solved by yes, valuing that calorie surplus, but also by valuing carbs to truly fuel the training that you’re doing. And it’s not just that we’re doing this for weightlifting, but a lot of times we’re doing the weightlifting to try and gain muscle. But if you are an endurance athlete, if you are doing a little bit more cardio and you want to keep those things in, we hear you can’t gain muscle and do your cardio, but it’s also about the way you fuel to find the balance in doing things you enjoy while trying to reach your aesthetic goals.

Michelle (21:50):
Yeah, I love that you brought up the fatigue issue. That’s probably one of the most common complaints I hear is that people are feeling tired and they’re worried about like, well, is it my macros? What is it? And it’s usually that they’re restricting their carbs. And I did find it interesting that you mentioned that there’s no essential carbs and the reason why is because carbs all break down to something pretty similar in the body that your body’s going to use. So it doesn’t necessarily, there are good, better, best carb sources and we want to have quality carb sources, but it is true, there is no essential carb, all carbs are going to be utilized in pretty much a very similar fashion. The reason why I love that is because I’m going to probably again cause some issues here, but a lot of times people get so stressed on the type of carbs that they’re consuming that they forget that the type of carb needs change depending on how close you are to your workout or if you are in a workout.

(22:56):
So for example, you mentioned the cardio person. If you are someone that is doing a lot of cardio because you’re training for something and you are avoiding carbs, not only is this going to be detrimental, but if you’re not consuming quick carb sources during your training, you are going to have more detrimental effect on your muscle itself. So that’s really where what others would consider a bad carb choice, like a quick Jolly rancher or something or hard candy or even candied, something that’s going to break down fast into glucose is going to be a bigger beneficial for you or the biggest benefit for you. So the biggest thing I just wanted to add to that is the source of your carbs is going to be dependent on what your goal is and when you’re working out and the type of working out you’re doing that we do want to make sure that we are having adequate carbs

Cori (23:55):
And micros are very important, but you bring up a super important point that there’s got to be a balance and that so often we just demonize something without seeing the value in it and the opportunity in it. And it actually made me think about how a lot of times bodybuilders different athletes would eat jelly beans because they were a quick carb source and I was like, oh, jelly bellies are delicious. Anyway, complete side note, but moving on to number six, I want to talk about progression. How key is it? Is it overrated or underrated? And we’re talking about workout progression and designing that weekly schedule.

Michelle (24:29):
So I went underrated on this one

Cori (24:33):
And I one a hundred percent agree and I am very biased in saying this, or maybe not biased, but very adamant in saying underrated because I see so many people saying I’m working hard, I’m doing really hard workouts, I’m doing workouts of the day and there’s no clear progression. And then they’re wondering why their pull-ups aren’t improving or they see improvement one week but not the next week or they don’t fully see muscle gains. And it’s because when you don’t have something you can track, when you don’t have something you’re doing consistently that you can build off of, you can’t really know if you’re increasing weight because if you do a deadlift on one day and deadlift on a completely different day after other moves and other workouts, what you can lift might be very different, but it’s impacted by what you’ve done. But you can’t create that clear progression to know if you’re truly challenging yourself in the way that you need. So throwing it back to you, you mentioned that it’s also underrated you thoughts.

Michelle (25:20):
So my biggest thing with this, and I was the type of person that was like, I get bored with doing the same workout for multiple weeks in a row. I wanted that changeup, but then I really did discover that that consistency and the stimulus to that specific muscle doing that specific move is really going to be what’s going to cause your muscle to adapt and to actually grow. So by repeating the workouts, you provide that consistent stimulus to encourage that muscle adaptation and changing workouts just too frequently. It can actually prevent you from seeing some of that, those big gains. So again, this is coming down to, well, how quickly are we wanting to get you to that end goal? And I truly believe if you’re not approaching it with a progressive plan, you’re going to find that it’s going to take you a lot slower because as you mentioned, you’re not going to be able to really know how to even or what you’ve done so that you can push yourself and lift a little bit heavier. So it’s really about also being able to track that progress so that you know how to push yourself to get that gain

Cori (26:28):
And then pair your nutrition with it. Not to mention going back to your whole, I get bored with things thing. I think that is a common feeling. You can create a weekly schedule that is very interesting over the week and has a lot of diversity over the week. You just want to repeat that and it doesn’t have to be repeated for months on end, even just three weeks can build and then a strategic change and maybe some of the variations you’re implementing or slight training techniques. So it can be that slow progression where it doesn’t have to be super rigid, but it has to be something week over week where you do repeat it for a few weeks to see that progress but also not make yourself as sore or broken down because the first week of doing something new, you are going to be sore from all that new.

(27:06):
And if you aren’t conscious of that, you’re not going to repair from it or recover from it. And that’s going to make you see a point of diminishing returns. Constantly being sore is not an indicator that you worked hard enough, it’s an indicator that you’re potentially have under recovered or that you’re just doing a ton of new things and in that soreness you change the way the muscles are activating, you change the way that you’re able to push in subsequent workouts. So while something might feel tough to truly create muscle, you have to create progression. And that means working in what’s truly your a hundred percent intensity, not 90% because you feel burned out. So when you’re doing different things feeling sore and you’re feeling burned out, yeah, you’re pushing hard, but is it as hard as you really could push to truly create that growth? So it’s something we want to consider that that progression allows us to recover. It allows us to not feel as sore. It allows us to see those incremental adjustments and know that we’re truly doing what we need to challenge ourselves to create that change. So moving on to the final topic we have for today, supplements for muscle building, and I did bring up creatine with this, but I want to touch on some other ones if you have any thoughts on them. Are they overrated or underrated for gaining muscle?

Michelle (28:16):
So this is the one that I was really flip-flopping on because truthfully I think they are overrated, but I also think they’re underrated. So just to kind of explain really quickly, you can get the results you want without any supplementation, however supplements are there to supplement a diet so it can be easier on you if you are supplementing and specifically protein and creatine itself. Those are two very well tested, very well researched supplements that do help with muscle gains. So it’s one of those things like do you have to have it? No. Does it make it easier? Yeah, it can make it easier specifically if you are someone that is struggling a little bit with your nutrition intake.

Cori (29:03):
I wavered on this one too because it goes back to the, it’s overrated in that it’s things that people worry about first when they don’t have their macros dial in when they don’t have a clear workout progression and supplements will not change a broken system. That’s like putting a piece of gum in a dam that’s busting open with this hole, right? It’s not going to stop the water from coming out. You need to truly patch it. Don’t go do that anybody, but you do want to consider it because if you are a more advanced exerciser, if you are getting older going through hormonal changes where there is more chronic inflammation or you are not utilizing protein as efficiently because you’re getting older and you’re struggling to gain that lean muscle supplements can be that boost and that fixing of those nutritional gaps that despite our best efforts, we can’t always address because we simply need more even while eating in that calorie surplus, even while tracking our macros. So I think it’s a lot of opportunity to make improvements and things that we should look at. But you cannot out supplement a bad diet. You can’t out supplement a broken workout plan.

Michelle (30:09):
Yeah, exactly. And I think that’s so key to keep that in mind is, and I know it’s cliche, but I’m going to say it again. Supplements are there to supplement. They are not there to fix, like you mentioned a broken system. And I am going to kind of touch a little bit more on creatine specifically because that is something that I do think a lot of people don’t actually utilize when it can be very helpful for muscle protein synthesis. And again, there’s a lot of research out there that’s going to back this up, but having creatine does actually help stimulate the muscle protein synthesis itself because it does draw in water. Now having said that, that means if it’s drawing water into the muscle, your muscle actually will look a little bit larger because you are drawing in that muscle. But again, and I said this earlier, this is not a time where the scale is necessarily your friend because if you are also drawing in that extra water, you are going to probably see some bump in the scale if all of a sudden you start supplementing with creatine. So that’s something to be aware of that it’s water, but it’s also doing a lot of good things for you. It does improve recovery. There is some research that actually does show that it helps with the insulin-like growth factor. So the hormone that actually is relevant to muscle growth is going to improve as well

Cori (31:34):
Improve. So I have to throw in an extra one because it’s come up a couple times and I think it’s really important that we slightly harp on this. The scale for muscle gains overrated or underrated.

Michelle (31:48):
I’m going overrated on that one.

Cori (31:50):
I am going to 100% agree and I honestly brought it up because I knew you were going to say that, and I think that that’s a really important point. Going back to even the creatine in that we have to embrace the scale going up because if you add muscle, even if you don’t add fat and you just maintain your level of leanness, you’re going to see the scale increase. If you gain two pounds of muscle, even as you lose one pound of fat, you’re going to see the scale increase as you come out of that deficit and you’re no longer depleted. You’re going to see the scale increase with creatine and water retention, which you need, especially as you store glycogen to then fuel your workouts, help muscles repair and rebuild, you are going to see the scale increase. So if you get caught up in that number, you’re going to hold yourself back from seeing those muscle gains. So I would recommend you step off the scale, you don’t worry about it until you’re at the weight you want to be or the look you want to be at, and then you can step on it and see what that is to now represent the body comp you want. But you track with measurements, you track with the clothing items and see how they fit your thoughts

Michelle (32:47):
And track with the picture. The picture is going to be the biggest thing. I am going to say this, and it’s actually, you mentioned this before to me, we get, even with clothes, you have to recognize that your clothes are probably going to fit differently. So I know you had mentioned a story about, I think it was a client or maybe you, I don’t remember where they were saying that their pants didn’t fit and eventually you came to the realization that it was because they had been working on their glutes, so their butt was bigger, but if they actually looked at their waistband, the waist itself was smaller. So you have to recognize there’s going to be changes even in your measurements, but the goal is to gain. So you’re looking at hopefully gaining a larger bicep at some point, probably a bigger glute. So clothes are going to fit differently on you and that’s not always a bad thing. So as you mentioned, looking at yourself physically via picture or just being able to look at yourself in the mirror and realizing and putting a more emphasis on this is how you want to look versus this is what you want the number on the scale to say.

Cori (33:58):
I think it’s so key to bringing back to the point you mentioned about the close fitting differently because often people will be like, well, I gain weight. How do I know if it’s fat or muscle? And the measurement changes in the right areas, the muscular areas that you’re working on increases there show that you’re gaining muscle increases, say in your waist circumference where you’re not trying to necessarily build that out. That’s where you might want to say, okay, am I putting on a little bit of fluff? Do I need to assess my progression? Do I need to assess my macros? Do I need to assess my calorie surplus or deficit? Well in this case surplus, but potentially even take it back a little bit, maybe even do a mini cut for a deficit, which is a conversation for a whole nother day, but assessing where you’re seeing those measurement changes can really impact how you might interpret the results. Michelle, any closing thoughts in terms of tips if someone’s really seeking those muscle gains?

Michelle (34:52):
Just really quick because I feel like we covered a lot and definitely a lot of good information for everyone, but if you are someone that is sitting there and you’re being like, okay, they talked about progressions, they talked about the training frequency and you were struggling with even kind of understanding when we were talking about how you would actually plan that out, that is not something, it’s not the easiest thing to learn on your own. You can, but it’s going to take a lot of time and trial and error. That is really where I think the best education you can have is actually going and getting that coaching so that you have someone in your corner who’s also able to provide that guidance for you. And even with nutrition too, because you mentioned it’s so hard, the hardest thing I have with clients that have lost and they’ve gotten to the point that they want as far as being able to lose the fat and now they’re looking for that muscle gain is it really is a complete mind shift. And you’re going to have days where you are really struggling on the mental side knowing that you are doing things correctly. And so just having that person that’s in your corner or that community that’s in your corner that’s going through the same process is really going to benefit you and getting you to your success a lot sooner.

Cori (36:14):
I think that’s such a key point, the mindset behind it. Because a lot of times in our society there is an emphasis on fat loss, weight loss, and I’m all for looking exactly the way you want, whatever that means in terms of your body recomp. But I think there is a emphasis on looking smaller. And so with that being said, it can be hard and challenging to embrace seeing the scale go up when you’ve always been taught to look for it to go down. It can be hard feeling bigger or seeing changes in your body that you’re not used to. So the more you do have that security to trust in the process and not throw out something that’s working because you see something you’ve kind of always fought against in a weird way, like the scale increasing, that can be very helpful. And I want to bring it back to the progression for just a second because when I was talking about training techniques in the group the other day, someone mentioned, oh, I see these in the workout progressions sometimes the best way to learn the training techniques that work for you as you research them is to have a plan laid out.

(37:08):
The best way to learn what macro breakdowns is to have macro ratios laid out because then you’re testing with a strategic way of implementing. So don’t be afraid to follow a program, see what works for you, and then take from that as you’re learning about different things on your own because it can help you sort of narrow your focus so you’re not distracted by every option out there because there are a lot of different things that can work in a good way, but you don’t need all of them, and especially you don’t need all of them all the time. So make sure to stay really focused, track what you’re doing, but set that clear plan in place before you get started.

Cori (37:40):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone.

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

Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Corifrom 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):
Hey guys, it’s Cori from Redefining Strength, and I’m so excited to be joined by Julia today. If I could talk, that would be a good thing, but we’re going to talk about the cost of health. If you’ve ever felt like eating well, hitting your macros is just too costly. If you’re trying to work within your budget, Julia has some fabulous tips to help. So Julia, welcome. Welcome. Talk to me a little bit about the cost of health.

Julia (00:54):
Sure. So in our April challenge, obviously this month we’re working on conquering our excuses and one of them being like you said, that the cost of eating is too high, such a common one. So today we’re going to dive into why that may be, along with some tips and ideas to help you really cut those costs and overcome this excuse.

Cori (01:14):
So before we dive into that, I do just want to touch on something that probably a lot of us have heard, but what’s really the cost of not eating foods that improve the quality of our health? Because I know it’s very easy to get caught up in the short term. We do have budgets we have to work within. We do want to feed our family efficiently, but I think it’s also important that we consider some of the consequences of actions that might not impact us right now, but could add up later. Can you talk a little bit about why it is so important? Sometimes we do invest a little bit more in our nutrition now.

Julia (01:49):
Yeah, of course. So this goes back to one of my favorite quotes. If you think wellness is expensive, try illness, right? So it’s one of those things where if we’re not paying attention to it now we’re going to be forced to down the line whether we want to or not. So coming back to when we’re discussing the cost of healthy eating, it’s important to consider that the cost of not doing so can really hurt us in the long run, meaning that unhealthy dietary patterns when we’re eating high amounts of things like saturated fats, sugar, sodium, calories, they’re all linked to higher rates of chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease, blood pressure, type two diabetes, just to name a few among many others. And there have been studies in the past, there was one in 2015, which showed us that a person with three to four chronic diseases will spend annually about 25,000 on healthcare expenses alone. While those without chronic diseases will spend about 6,000 annually. So there is a huge difference from there. And from this we can see that the cost of regularly incorporating healthy nutrient dense foods into our diet, it’s much less expensive in the long run.

Cori (02:55):
And we may be thinking, okay, I understand I get this, but eating well is just so expensive. Why do you think that we often default into this? Because as we know, there are lots of ways to hit our macros, eat healthy quality foods that can fit our budget. But why do you think this is often the first thought for people?

Julia (03:17):
I feel like because we think it’s a lot more expensive and harder to do, so we kind of just write it off where instead of we’re looking at it from a food per or that’s if we’re looking at it from a food per calorie perspective. But if we’re looking at it from a nutrient dense perspective, we find that we can find healthier choices that are within our budgets if we’re really just planning and making an effort to do so. An example would be if we’re just going to the supermarket and buying something like a can of spaghetti or Chef Boyer D to feed our family where that can be cheaper. But if we’re eating out, I mean the average meal costs around 14, 15, $16, and that’s at an inexpensive restaurant. So if we are eating at home and planning ahead of making an effort to cut those costs, sticking to really whole nutrient dense foods, we’ll find that from the kind of cost per nutrient perspective with real foods like potatoes, dark green, leafy vegetables, pumpkin, even things like canned beans, we can get packed a lot more nutrition in them for the cost versus eating out would be,

Cori (04:21):
It’s actually interesting you brought up eating out because I instantly went to this one situation that Ryan had when he was in Boston and working, and a lot of his coworkers would go out to lunch and we would go to sometimes Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s or different things like that. And there would be sometimes where some of the foods were a little bit more expensive, they’d be like, oh, it’s so expensive to shop there. And he was like, but look at how much you’re spending on this one meal. What you don’t realize is that, yes, my grocery bill might be more expensive, but the way that these things are divided up over the week, my meal is actually cheaper despite even going to sometimes expensive stores per meal. Like you’re spending 11, 12, $13 on your meal and I’m spending eight when I meal prep in this way. How do you think we can shift that mindset that maybe cooking at home and maybe buying specific ways, even if you do go to more expensive restaurants to try and get more quality, or not restaurants, but grocery stores to get more quality food. It can actually be meal preps in a way that is very budget friendly,

Julia (05:20):
Of course. So this is just really where planning comes in. So so many ways that we can cut the cost while grocery shopping, as long as we’re planning ahead and being intentional about it, like you said. So that first step is really planning ahead, which means brainstorming your meals and snacks for the weeks, making a grocery list of the items that you need and that will allow you to not only cut down on food costs because you’re reducing that food waste, but also to limit the chance of eating out, like you said, because you know what you’re eating, it’s already prepped for you. And then I think the next step is really just being a smart shopper. So this means if you’re feeding a family, buying items in bulk that you can as well as just shopping store brands and being smart about it. So for a lot of items like meat, poultry, yogurt, things like nut butters, they have store brands available, which are the same ingredients as those name brands that you may see.

(06:11):
So you’re getting the same nutritional value for a lot cheaper. And also just being aware of sales, taking advantage of things like the frozen section. So that’s a huge one. A lot of us think that frozen produce is less nutritious and it gets a really bad wrap, but it’s actually usually harvested when it’s ripe, meaning that it often contains more nutrients than fresh for a fraction of the price. So it can be easy to fall into the marketing of expensive, healthy products, whether that be salad dressings, condiments, or even packaged foods. There’s so many different things today like almond flour, crackers, all these different things that we hear screaming that they’re so good for us, but honestly we have to remind ourselves that we don’t need all these things. For example, a can of beans for a dollar would pack more nutritional value than those crackers would for a fraction of the cost. So this is why we are here to also shop the perimeter, which is packed with whole nutrient dense foods that will offer more micro and macronutrients for a fraction of the price of most of those packaged foods in the middle. Well,

Cori (07:16):
I think it’s interesting you bring up packaged foods because I want to go off on a little clean eating thing and a lot of times labels that have to tout the food as healthy, if you think about it, fruits aren’t putting on their healthy fiber packed. We don’t see that on vegetables because we know these things are good. So a lot of these prepackaged foods that are trying to say they’re keto to fit your diet or they’re low carb or they have this health benefit, a lot of times they’re forcing things to be that way. And not that some of ’em don’t have health benefits, but a lot of times you are paying an extra price for these healthy labels for something that honestly isn’t that much better for you and you might be better served by gasp, getting the not clean variation, not to mention this sort of clean eating delineation with food makes us avoid foods that we shouldn’t.

(08:05):
As you brought up frozen foods, a lot of the fresh vegetables aren’t necessarily more nutrient dense or better than frozen vegetables or frozen fruits. A lot of times the frozen things are better, but even canned stuff, we’ll shy away from canned tuna from canned chicken, and a lot of those are just the meat. It’s not a ton of ingredients that are added, but we shy away from those things because we think canned stuff, chef Boyer D, right? So it’s really understanding and looking at labels even to know what we’re getting to not fall for the marketing terms that might just lead to a markup on some of the ingredients we’re buying.

Julia (08:40):
Yeah, a hundred percent. Like you said, reading the labels is huge and really just taking the time to educate yourself a little bit and get to know the grocery store. So like we said, flipping around, checking out that nutrition label and seeing, comparing the store brand to the leading brand, looking at the store brand of peanut butter versus the gif peanut butter, seeing what those ingredients look like and seeing where you can really cut the cost there. Those little things can go a huge way because we know that, I mean, the marketing today is just insane on what they have for the food. And going back to even what you said before, one of my favorite authors, Michael Pollan says, you go through the aisles and you see all these things screaming at you, telling you that it’s keto or low carb or whatever it may be, but you go to the produce section or the meat section or the seafood section, whatever it may be, and it says nothing, right?

(09:27):
It speaks for itself. It’s a great choice. It doesn’t need to advocate for itself. So I totally agree. I think we get caught up in thinking we need all these things and that’s why we write off healthy eating as expensive and kind of think that we can’t do it when we really just need to bring it back to the basics and remind ourselves that we don’t need all of these things. That’s just kind of another excuse that we tell ourselves. And we can do this if we’re smart about it and we plan for it and we’re intentional about it.

Cori (09:54):
And it also goes back to the food waste that you mentioned, but not only the food waste in a pinch, things that we buy, and I am very guilty of this, I think I’m going to be busy, so I buy a protein bar, and that protein bar is expensive, especially if you buy it from the store versus buying it in bulk potentially on Amazon, which could be a better option if you are going to go that route. But we buy these things that are efficient for our schedule and not realizing the markup even on those things versus if we got a big tub of protein powder and threw it in water, coffee, those different things. Or even then made our own protein bars at home. And that even goes back to your having a grocery list when you go in. So often if I’ve gone to the store and I’m just like, I don’t know, I’m going to make this week, I’ll buy a whole bunch of things that don’t get used.

(10:36):
Now. I’m really good about trying to freeze those things before they spoil or prep them and then freeze the prep so that I have it for later. But if we don’t go in with a plan, we can buy a lot of things that ultimately go to waste, which can make it feel like our budget is skyrocketing. So making sure that if you do get something even that you’re like, I don’t know what I’m actually going to do with this week, and you have it in your fridge, find a way to preserve it. So cook it and freeze it. Bulk prep, maybe a protein, a vegetable and a carb, more starchy carb that you put in the freezer for later. But think of ways you can make it loss. And then even don’t be afraid to get those canned items. They’re already frozen items, the items that will be there whenever you need in a pinch, because that can really make it easier to prep and stay consistent and then not add to your bill because we also do that, right? We don’t know what we’re going to cook, so we don’t end up prepping anything. And so the food goes to waste, but we end up going out to eat or grabbing something that’s an expensive quick option. And that adds to our food costs.

Julia (11:29):
And I love what you said there. I think so often we’ll just go to the grocery store kind of on a whim. We know we need to stack up on groceries, we want to eat healthy, we have really good intentions behind it. So we’re choosing all these vegetables and maybe we’re even picking up some packaged foods and we know that we’re trying to do good and trying to eat healthier and stack up on all these great foods, but if we don’t have a plan for it or any recipes or an idea of what we’re going to do with it, it really just ends up sitting in our fridge and it does go to waste. So like you said, if we can even just if we got vegetables like chopping it up, either freezing the spinach for smoothies or chopping it up, cooking it, doing it in a recipe, and then again, this is where that planning comes back in, and I’m going to say it again and again because if we plan for it, that also helps us reduce those costs.

(12:11):
And food waste, you’re not picking up food that you don’t need. Say if you want to incorporate those vegetables, maybe you’re going to find a recipe for a stir fry and then pick up those exact vegetables in the exact amount that you need for it. But like you said, Corey, just going back and if you do have food on hand that you feel like is going to waste, freeze it. Find a way to preserve it, find a way to use it because there are so many other options that we can do to help reduce costs there as well.

Cori (12:34):
And then explore different places to buy things because I know if I find a nut butter or something that I like, if I go on Amazon, if I go to a bigger bulk store, a lot of times I can find something cheaper, especially when you are buying in bulk, that won’t go bad. So that’s the opportunity to cut costs on certain things so that you can even spend more on other things that might be more important, like getting the grass fed beef or an organic vegetable, whatever you need. But even going to farmer’s markets, which you don’t think about often as being a cost efficient option can because you’re buying straight from the farmer, and those can be very fresh ingredients as well. So don’t be afraid to explore different stores. You might be surprised by how the costs really vary, especially based on the quantity you’re able to buy. And that’s even the great thing about prepping some of the stuff for your family, like sneaking in vegetables to different dishes, is you can buy in greater bulk, which ultimately lowers the cost and it improves your family’s health while you’re trying to hit your goals as well. Off of that, any real final summarizing tips so that people can really make sure that they’re being cost efficient when they’re trying to eat well?

Julia (13:39):
Yeah, so just honestly being honest with yourself about your efforts to cut the costs and where you can improve on things, right? Are you taking the time to research recipes and plan out budget friendly meals? Are you getting caught up in thinking that you need those expensive health foods like we talked about? Are you seeing where you can buy those items in bulk? And as we discussed, just being a smart shopper, so planning ahead to reduce those grocery costs, prepping meals with similar ingredients and then freezing them for later use. Obviously buying in bulk, like we said, taking advantage of those frozen sections, shopping the sales and building meals around those sale ingredients, checking the ingredients of items, and then seeing if you can find alternatives that are cheaper or store brands or even different stores that carry it. And then finally, just prioritizing that perimeter as well. Making sure that the majority of our diet is based off of those whole fresh nutrient dense foods can help us really, really cut the costs. But just to finally say, it does take a conscious effort to plan out those budget friendly meals, but in the long run, it will save you time throughout the week, and it’s pretty clear that those health benefits do outweigh the costs upfront.

Cori (14:48):
I did just want to touch on one of the things that you pointed out, Julia, about using the same foods in multiple different recipes. Because if you don’t have a family and you are prepping for one person, Ryan and I actually make our own meals, it can feel like you can’t buy in the same bulk, which makes it more expensive because you don’t want things to go waste. Again, that’s where buying the frozen stuff can come into play. It’s why buying canned stuff can come into play and be very helpful, but it’s also where if you plan ahead and you know can use that vegetable in multiple different dishes in different ways, you can buy in greater bulk, which can lower the cost and keep even still a diversity of foods in your diet and make prep potentially even easier, which if you’re lazy like me, it’s a win-win.

Cori (15:29):
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

(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

(00:15):
Review or leave a five

(00:17):
Star rating, or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

(00:28):
Ever feel really overwhelmed by all of the different diet and workout options out there? Feel like there’s just information overload going on? Well, I wanted to reframe that feeling because I don’t think all the information out there is going away. I think if anything, there’s just going to be more opinions that we’re seeing, more comments on what’s right and wrong occurring, because social media isn’t going away and most of us use it daily. So I wanted to help really shift the mindset in how we approach all the options out there, and instead of seeing them as obstacles or overwhelm, see them as opportunities. So I wanted to throw out this analogy for all of you because I found it actually really helpful in reframing my perspective of all the different opinions out there. And I began to think of it more as a spice cabinet.

(01:16):
So you have potentially, or at least I know, I do a ton of different spices in the spice cabinet. Some really never get used, and I’m not even sure what I bought them for, and others get used on a daily basis, and I’m constantly replacing them. The heart of every recipe I make, I would say that salt and pepper are basically used daily, if not in every single thing I make. And so I would count these things as the fundamentals. So to me, this is macros and it’s workout progression. How you design your workout progression is going to change, but it’s always based on progression, what macro ratios you’re going to use, whether you’re dialing them in by actually tracking or whether you’re dialing them in by restricting specific food groups, whether you’re falling, paleo, whatever else. These two things are at the heart of everything we do, and they’re in every recipe we make.

(02:06):
They’re the fundamental things that are the basic seasoning. So on top of that, you have garlic, salt, and paprika and all these other things in there. And I’m not the best chef, so I’m sure there’s a lot of different spices out there that I don’t even know about. But there’s all these other things. And sometimes you buy ’em for one specific recipe, right? You want one specific goal, you’re going to follow one specific program, and maybe that program doesn’t even turn out, so you sort of throw it away. It doesn’t mean the spices were bad. It doesn’t mean the recipe was bad, it didn’t work for you. And so you might have those spices in your cabinet that didn’t work for you, but things that you’re never going to use again. And maybe eventually, hopefully you clean out your cabinet, get rid of ’em. But there were just options that were there.

(02:48):
And then there’s going to be recipes you make with spices that you really like, that you use a lot. So there’s going to be programs that you do, there’s going to be information or opinions out there that you follow that help you see the results that you want. And you might use ’em even a lot for a while to reach a specific goal. And then maybe those sort of go to the back of the spice cabinet. You don’t need them right now for the next goal, and you’re following a different recipe, or you’re going with different things that you want to try out different flavors, but they’re all options and none of them are bad. And some you might pull out, again, I might even forgot that you had there because now they really fit what you need right now. So what I’m getting at with all of this is that the more we see it as opportunity, as different ways to meet what we need, right then, the better off we’re going to be.

(03:33):
Knowing that some things are going to be used more frequently, some things are going to become staples because they really do resonate with what we need and our lifestyle. And some are just going to be tools that we throw in once in a while based on changes to different things, whether or not we’re doing a little bit more of a cut, trying to lose a little bit more fat, trying to gain a little bit more muscle. And it’s not even that we don’t like those spices, that we don’t like those systems, it’s just that they’re not necessarily right now. So I’d love to hear if this analogy in terms of shaping all the opinions out there into a less overwhelming thing really helped you guys, or even how you approach that overwhelm, knowing that there are a ton of different opinions out there, a ton of different options out there.

(04:12):
And really, it’s not just a thing of right or wrong, there’s not a clear boundary with that because there are just so many different things that can work for different people. Yes, there is some information that is potentially less credible or less, but at the same time, that system might’ve worked for somebody. And so they’re sharing their opinion and maybe trying to push it a little too much on you. But I think we need to shape or reframe how we think about all the different options out there because those opinions are not going away. And the more overwhelmed we feel, the more loss we feel with things, the more we hold ourselves back from taking even action. So I’d really be curious. Did think about this as all these different spices that you can use to really flavor season, create the plan right for you if it really helped.

(04:58):
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 you know

*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 it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

(00:28):
I don’t have enough time to work out. Most of us have made this excuse and to some extent it is valid. We are busy. There is not enough time in the day to do everything that we need to do. However, there is always a way to design for the time we have and even when something pops up and we can’t get to our usual routine, we can have that plan be in place. Not to mention, I think a lot of times that feeling of I don’t have enough time stems from us trying to force an ideal workout schedule over designing for the time we truly have and recognizing that what is realistic for us in our schedule may shift over time. So often our excuses pop up because of our priorities and not owning our priorities in life and our priorities are going to shift.

(01:13):
There’s going to be times a year where you’re going to have to prioritize family. Maybe over the meal prep you usually like or you’re going to have to prioritize work over getting in the workout of the usual time you like to get it in. And so I think owning the shift in priorities over the year, be it travel for holidays, travel over the summer, different things like that. The more we own those things, the more we can plan in a realistic schedule. Because discipline is built through what we can consistently do and to help ourself become more disciplined. We can’t always be relying on willpower to replicate the habits. This means that we have to be able to shift our habits so that we can stay consistent enough with the routines that when things are a little bit quieter, when other priorities aren’t getting in the way as much, maybe we can move forward a little bit faster, but we’re still maintaining those results during other times.

(02:01):
That’s why I wanted to go over some tips so that you could design fast and efficient workouts that will really work no matter your schedule, because if you have six days a week, you’re going to design differently and you’re going to potentially be able to use that full hour. Now note too, just because you have six days a week to train and an hour to train, that doesn’t mean that you should be making a HIIT workout, which should probably be about 20 minutes. Stretch that full hour a workout should only stretch the full hour because you’re using more mobility work, you’re lifting heavier, so you need those longer rest periods. You’re working. Different energy systems are on speed and power where that recovery period has to be longer and therefore the extent of your workout might have to stretch out a little bit more. But we are not just designing for the time we have because we have that time.

(02:39):
We want everything to be included with a purpose. So if you have three days a week and 30 minutes, if you have four days a week and 15 minutes, you can always design for the time you have and something is better than nothing. If you have five minutes, use that five minutes because as much as it might not feel like, oh yeah, I didn’t burn them many calories, how much muscle can I really build in this time? You’re not only keeping yourself in the routine and habit of it, so you’re keeping that time still set for yourself, you’re still making yourself a priority with those things, but you’re creating that success mindset. So often when we miss one workout, if we’ve designed for six days a week and we still do five, we feel less successful. And that can lead to us feeling like, well, I’m not going to care about my macros as much, and now who cares if I miss another workout and there’s this slippery slope of sliding off all the habits we really want versus doing three days, 30 minutes.

(03:24):
When we feel successful with that, there’s a tendency to want to do more. So it’s remembering that a lot of this is the mindset, the habit, the routine that it ingrains because also skipping your workout and being okay with skipping your workout is repeating a pattern as well. So if you’re short on time, one of the best things I like to recommend clients do is timed workouts. So this can be done in a couple of different ways, but if you have 15 minutes and you think about designing a workout, you’re like, well, I don’t know exactly how long this is going to take, or you’re watching your watch or you’re not being intentional because you only have 15 minutes. But if you time out everything, if you time out, how long you’re going to be foam rolling for, how long you’re going to stretch for, how long you’re going to do activation for, how long your circuits are, even the intervals of work, you know that you can for sure get in everything as is for that 15 minutes and you can be more intentional with your training.

(04:10):
So implement timed workouts, put either intervals per side of foam rolling or a set amount of time you’re going to foam roll and run through different things. Set the two minutes that you’re going to go through some dynamic stretches or even set intervals work per stretch for activations. Set the 30 seconds for the GL bridges or say, Hey, I’m going to run through GL bridges, scapular pushups, all those things for two minutes, but set a time so you know exactly what you’re doing. So you can be very intentional during that. And then I like to either use time sets, so more like density sets or density intervals or interval training In general. I know we think about interval training only for cardio, but it’s a great technique for building strength because of the training density that it creates. So when you have less time, you’ve got to use that time strategically.

(04:51):
And when you use time circuits that can help you keep moving and create that training volume but in a shorter amount of time so that training density can increase, which can drive progression, whether it’s doing a minute of work where you use weights that really you want to stop at 40 seconds, but you push through even if you have to pause for a second and you do those extra reps that you might not have done. And I think that’s really key to note is that a lot of time with interval work, we would’ve stopped at the eight to 12 reps and it might’ve felt hard at 12, but maybe we could have done 14, 15 and we didn’t do it because 12 is the top. Yeah, sure, we went up and wait the next round. But when we do that interval work, we’re pushing past failure a lot of times pass the point we would want to quit, and that can build strength endurance, it can help with our recovery and work capacity.

(05:30):
So it can be a great valuable asset to us as we’re looking to build muscle, even if we do have more time. But even with density sets, you can do a time circuit and cycle through things. Now with these intervals of work, you’re pushing past failure. You have to be strategic in how you’re using rest because when we have less time, we don’t have as much time to waste. And I put waste in air quotes, waste resting. Now that being said, rest is incredibly important. If you do not rest, if you do not recover, you are not going to be able to go at a true a hundred percent intensity. And that’s why we see people doing these long hour long hit workouts, but their intensity is going. Or if you’re actually trying to train speed to be able to run further faster and you’re not recovering enough, you are starting to train slowness.

(06:13):
So recovery is incredibly important if we want to be able to truly push hard and create that progression, because so often depleted states where we’re pushing hard for that depleted state, we’re not actually challenging our body in a way that it needs to really adapt and grow stronger. We’re just depleted in terms of our energy stores, so we don’t have the effort to give. So it’s incredibly important that when you’re even designing those intervals of work that you’re cycling through areas so that you can keep moving, but areas are resting while other areas are working. So you have to, this is tip number two, rest without resting. So the first tip is timed workouts. Whether you’re using time for all the parts for intervals of work, for density sets or time circuits, you also want to rest without resting. And what that means is changing the intensity of the moves that you use, it also means cycling the areas that are worked and the types of moves you include.

(06:58):
So I love to create more training volume for an area by sometimes even including a compound move and then an isolation move. But you have to know that you’re fatiguing area, so you have to at some point cycle to allow that area to rest, which is why a lot of times if you are shorter on time, more full body workouts because then you can work your legs, then you can work your upper body, then you can work your core. And even in that, a lot of times you think, okay, the leg and the upper body compound movements are going to be a lot more intensive. But that core exercise, a lot of times we can even reduce that intensity, which then makes it more of a recovery exercise while we’re still working and getting a lot of value. So you want to cycle the areas worked, but also cycle the intensity.

(07:37):
That might also mean that you do a big heavy compound lift for your lower body and then maybe an isolation move for your upper body. And while I do, yes, like to focus on more compound moves because they’re working more muscles that once you’re going to burn more calories from those workouts when you’re short on time and not that workouts should only be about calories burn, but it is an added benefit. While you generally want to focus on more compound moves, there’s always nuance to it. And that cycling of intensity might be really key, especially if you plan to work the compound upper body movement in another one of the circuits that you’re doing or on a different day based on your schedule. So cycling intensity of movements, areas being worked so you can rest without resting because that will help you get more out of the time.

(08:14):
But also be able to go at a true a hundred percent intensity, keep those 35, 40, 50 pound dumbbells for those lunges over having to go down and weight to keep the same intensity. And even going back to the time circuits, this is where you want to think, how can I make a move harder without adding more volume in terms of more reps at once? So when you’re doing those things, yes, if you have a minute of work, you might want to push more reps in that time, but you don’t want to turn it into cardio. Think how can I do a harder variation where I have to use heavier loads and I max that at five reps and then keep going even for the 30 seconds or we’re in that density circuit where you’re potentially going through multiple moves, the time circuit, we’re going through multiple moves, how can I do it so that I do five reps with a heavier load and ultimately end up moving more weight?

(08:55):
The volume adds up over the rounds, but I’m not resting because I’m not getting maxed out trying to do 10 wraps. So that’s again, even going back to the resting without resting. So time workouts, rest without resting. The next one is knowing when to go full body versus isolation. So the more days a week you have a train, and the longer the sessions can be, the more you can work in isolation moves because they aren’t going to give you as much bang for your buck. They aren’t going to strengthen as many muscles at once. But isolation moves are incredibly important. If you really are trying to drive muscle hypertrophy or muscle growth for stubborn areas, it’s Q, we include both. Now that being said, so often we only say then, okay, fine, I’m short of time. I can only do full body movements or compound exercises.

(09:37):
I have to keep all my workouts full body and I have to alternate areas work, and we don’t think about including as many isolation moves, but that can also hold us back because there’s a time and a place and a way we can design based on our needs and goals and even evolve those over time. So yes, if you have fewer days to train and you’re shorter on time, I will definitely tell you, especially as you get to five minutes, do as many full body or compound booths as you can. Those are going to give you the best bang for your buck. However, there is a way to also include a combination of both when you have stubborn areas, even when you’re short on time, and this is where compound burner type things, density intervals can come into play, but you’re working the same muscle group in back-to-back movements.

(10:14):
However, one is a compound and one is an isolation. And by doing it back to back, you’re using that isolation to push past failure to recruit more muscle fibers and drive better muscle growth through fatiguing a muscle. That might’ve been a big prime mover in that first one. And yes, got tired, but wasn’t pushed fully to fatigue because weaker smaller muscle groups fatigue faster. We were also pushing it just past that failure point by being able to lower the intensity, isolate it, and then use a lighter load, still a challenging load, but a lighter load than you had to use for the compound move to keep going with that exercise. And then after that, the two moves for that one area. Maybe then you cycle to another area. So you’re still potentially doing that full body workout, but you’re implementing isolation moves in a way that is valuable over just saying, Hey, I’m doing bicep curls for the five minutes that I have, which is not going to burn a ton of calories.

(10:59):
It’s not going to provide a lot of back for your buck If you did a back row, you’d work your back work on scapular movement and get your biceps all in one. So you can use a combination of both based on your needs and goals. It’s just recognizing that there’s more nuance than lots of time. Use isolation, not a lot of time. Don’t use isolation. Just think about how can you rest without resting? How can you vary intensity? How can you fatigue muscles faster in the time and fatiguing muscles faster doesn’t mean just feeling more destroyed from your workout. Okay? It doesn’t mean feeling slaughtered in a sweaty heap on the ground breathing like you just ran a marathon as much as that hard feeling can feel good. Really getting enough load for your muscles is about did they fully fatigue? Could you have done an extra rep the next week?

(11:39):
Did you progress in terms of reps, variation, tempos, any of those different things. But sometimes doing that isolation moves so that you have to do 15 reps and you have to pause at 10 to get out the last five. That’s also fatiguing a muscle group. Even if after the workout you’re not laying on the ground dead, okay, that can be good. So do combine things. Don’t just think it has to be either or. But do think that if you are doing fewer times a week to train to create that training frequency over the week that each workout does hit multiple muscle groups so you can hit ’em two to three times that training frequency has been shown to really be beneficial. Even when we’re training for six days a week, you want to hit an area more than once a week for the optimal benefit, then maximize.

(12:18):
And this is the final tip I wanted to go over. Tip number four, maximize how you train through fatigue. So this partly goes back to the isolation moves, but it also goes back to how you use the intervals of work when you’re pushing through fatigue. Sometimes we have to use rest, pause, and I say this because sometimes just stopping at a rep range because we’re tired and then never picking those back up, we won’t have time to come back to it. Sometimes if you can do eight reps with something, but you really wanted to shoot for 10, do the eight pause for just a split second or two even though you’re short on time, and then do those 10 because that will be more valuable than just having stopped at the eight and potentially getting in another round at a different point. So sometimes you want to push past failure, whether it’s using that isolation move after the compound move, whether it’s using that rest pause technique, whether again, it’s going back to those intervals of work where you pause during them very briefly, but you keep going past the point you would’ve wanted to stop had you just hadn’t done traditional reps and sets.

(13:11):
This also goes back to those timed circuits. So often with the timed circuits, we do just push sort of to make them cardio and try and move faster, but think about lowering your reps. So if you do a weight that really challenges you for five reps and you end up getting out more rounds in that time, you could end up creating a greater amount of loads lifted in that time because you kept moving. Instead of just pushing to 10 reps with something, even if, let’s just say you end up usually doing four sets of 10 with a weight, if you can break it down and do that same volume in a shorter amount of time and do it by doing five reps when you’re at home in that short amount of time because you don’t have the ability to rest as long as you did when you did those four sets of 10, you’re going to see great benefits because that training density moving more loads in a shorter amount of time creates progression and it can create growth.

(14:00):
So maximize how you’re training through fatigue and again, cycle those areas work. So you can go at that true a hundred percent intensity short on time doesn’t mean a workout can’t be quality. It doesn’t mean it can’t be designed with purpose. It doesn’t mean it can’t be focused on your needs and goals. And even when we’re doing five minutes and we’re designing maybe a workout that wasn’t exactly the type of training we wanted to do because sure, maybe you’re not being able to go to the gym, set up your heavy bar for a deadlift and all those different things, you can still do things that move you forward. And this is the final point I really want to touch on before I check for any questions, comments, or concerns. But with this last thing, sometimes it’s remembering that if you can’t do the optimal, you got to do something and you can do something that moves you forward, even if it’s not directly what you usually would’ve planned.

(14:43):
So if you have five minutes to train, and usually you’re doing these heavy lifts right now, maybe this week you just look at it and you’re like, okay, this isn’t going to be the day that I have five minutes to train. How can I maybe switch my focus and do a little deload work on some of the weak links I even noticed popping up last week when I was doing my heavy lifts so that next week when I get back to it, I’ve worked on something that will ultimately move me forward. So yes, sometimes we do have to shift our perspective with training for a short amount of time or less frequently to a different goal than we had normally had. But the more we can plan ahead and own our reality, own our schedule right now, own even our mental state right now, because when we get busy and all the priorities come into play, we can get stressed and we can not feel like doing our workouts, which makes us skip them more.

(15:24):
Shift your focus so that you’re giving yourself a purpose for the workouts that you are designing that are based on your schedule that ultimately does move you forward even if it’s not the same, because I think sometimes we just do it as a comparison of, oh, well, this five minutes isn’t as good as my gym workout. Okay, but how can you make this five minutes ultimately pay off for your future gym sessions and keep you in that routine and keep you in that positive momentum because something is better than nothing. And even if we have a week where we maintain our previous results, that is success. We’ve maintained a previous result, we’ve created a new setpoint now this is a new launching pad for the next phase of our journey.

(15:58):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work out of 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 you know.

00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness X 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

(00:16):
Review or leave a five

(00:17):
Star rating or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

(00:28):
This is not the last donut I will ever see. You might be like, what the heck are you talking about, Cori? But I want to go into 20 different sayings, quotes, mantras that I found really helpful in guiding me on my journey, things that my coaches have found helpful for them, and even things that you guys commented on my story and shared, which was one of them being this is not the last Don I’ll ever see. And I wanted to start with this one because it really ties into probably the most motivational, meaningful saying for me. But these things are really helpful to have these phrases in our mind to help us stay on track, to help us navigate the hard to help pick us back up. And the more we can have those little concise sayings, the more it’ll remind us of all the other snowball things we need to do.

(01:11):
So number one, and this is where this ties in. It’s your choice. I think for me, this was the overall statement that changed everything the most and really impacts every other thing that I’m going to talk about today because ultimately we are choosing everything we’re doing. For the longest time when I was making dietary changes, trying to work towards specific goals, I was like, well, I can’t cut that out. I can’t restrict this. Oh my goodness, I feel so deprived, right? All the changes feel so hard and we almost act as if someone else is forcing us to do them, but it’s our choice. If I choose not to go out and have a cocktail tonight, or if I choose not to have the food at the party, if I choose not to eat the way I’ve always eaten on weekends, it’s my choice. Yet we act like it’s being forced on us.

(01:56):
It’s restriction, it’s bad, but there are sacrifices that come with reaching any goal and we have to recognize, Hey, this is my choice and I can make a different choice tomorrow. I could have made a different choice today. So I really love that someone wrote in, this is not the last donut I’ll ever see because I think that’s such an important point. Hey, skipping dessert tonight. Hey, not doing this thing today. Hey, going to my workout instead of going to this other thing. This is my choice, and this is not the last time I’ll be presented with this choice and I can make a different decision later, but this right now is in line with my goals and it doesn’t mean it’ll feel easy, but recognizing that it is our choice and we can make a different choice at a different point is so key.

(02:32):
That’s number one. Number two is take ownership. So maybe it’s the control freak in me, but taking ownership was very relieving for me. It helped me reduce a lot of the stress associated with making changes and lasting changes because it also gave me back agency. I think a lot of times just the choice thing. We give away our power, we say that it’s something else being inflicted on us. We blame our failures and other things and it’s hard to accept fault, but the more we can take ownership, the more we realize that there’s a lot within our power to control. You can’t change your genetics. You can’t always shift your priorities, but you can work within these things and take ownership to control what you can control to move forward. So I think that reminding yourself that you can take ownership of your journey and that ultimately you need to put in the work to achieve results, that there’s nobody else that can do it for you, is really empowering.

(03:18):
It’s also intimidating, but really empowering so that we can truly move forward at any stage or phase of life. Sure, the goal that we reach the exact outcome might not look exactly how we expected it, but we can always move forward by taking ownership. Number three, your expectations make or break you. So a lot of times we come into a new plan program, we start a new journey having an outcome that we really want. I want to lose weight, I want to gain muscle, I want to achieve X. Well, just because you work hard, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get to that exact vision, especially in the way you envisioned it, but the more we come into something just saying, Hey, my expectation is to learn what I can to empower myself to be better so that I can keep moving forward towards this outcome so I can keep improving.

(03:59):
Because I can tell you I’ve done different coaching programs, different plans where I didn’t achieve the exact outcome, but I learned a whole heck of a lot even from things I didn’t like that ultimately did move forward towards my goals. So we can’t see it as this linear progress or process. So the more we say, Hey, how can I manage my expectations to always seek to learn, to implement new habits, to become more self-aware, the more we’re going to get out of everything we do to ultimately move forward towards our goal a lot faster and see a lot better results than we even expected. I can tell you sometimes I’ve surpassed what I really thought was the outcome I could achieve because I’ve now managed my expectations to learn from everything instead of just saying, Hey, it’s only a success if I hit X goal, otherwise it’s a failure because it’s not.

(04:38):
If you learn. Number four is oversell the negative. I’m not saying that you want to just doom yourself a doubt, say everything’s not going to work out. Be really pessimistic with this. But I think a lot of times we go into a new plan, like our friend tells us that keto really worked for them and it was so easy and such a lifestyle and so sustainable and so wonderful. And then we go in thinking it’s going to be this easy thing and change never is. And then when it’s not this easy thing, we think there’s something wrong with us. So I think the more we can say, Hey, this is a new plan, what are going to be the pitfalls? What have I struggled with in the past? What are my priorities and how are they going to hold me back from achieving this goal or implementing these things?

(05:16):
The more we can oversell the potential negative things that might happen, the setbacks that might occur, even just being aware that setbacks will occur, the more we can plan for those things and often the less they do pop up, not to mention the more where we’re readily able to navigate them because we’re in the mindset of this won’t be easy, so I’m going to have things pop up. So when you do encounter the hard, you’re like, ah, this wasn’t that bad. So the more you can oversell that negative, be prepared for things to come up for failures to happen, the better off you’re going to be. Number five, regress progress. So along our journey when things pop up, there are going to be things that set us back. We’re going to have to take sometimes two steps back to take one step forward. And this is not only with our workouts, regressing moves to progress and honestly, often modifying moves makes them harder because we’re meeting ourselves where we’re at to move forward.

(06:02):
But in so many areas we might say, Hey, I’ve tracked macros in the past. I’m really good at it. But maybe right now you can’t do that full ratio because of the way life is going, the priorities you have, the schedule you have, so you go back to doing the minimum. We have to regress or take that step back sometimes in a lot of different areas. And the more we embrace this and don’t see it as we’re failing, we’re moving backwards but more say, Hey, how can I use this to now build up stronger? Right? You get an injury, go back to the drawing more, take it back to basics. You come back even stronger. When I got injured, deadlifting more weight than I’d ever deadlift, I thought that was my max that I could achieve. I was all of a sudden realized all the different recruitment pattern issues I had.

(06:38):
I went back to the drawing board, took things back to basics, really dropped my weights and I ended up becoming even stronger than I thought possible originally just because of doing that. So sometimes we need to regress and progress and move forward faster and we got to take our ego out of it. So regressive progress is one of those phrases I love to always return to those boring basics, take the ego out of it. Number six is effort doesn’t guarantee outcome. A lot of times we will feel like we are working really hard and we deserve a result because of it, but effort does not equal outcome. Just because we are putting in the daily work does not mean the scale is going to show the weight we want at the end of the week. It doesn’t mean we’re not doing all the right things and then we won’t see weight loss occurring over time, but it just doesn’t guarantee an outcome.

(07:21):
And the more this goes back to managing expectations that we just see it as I am implementing these habits that is success in and of itself and I’m learning what I need to move forward, the better off we’re going to be. Because also being caught in defining success in only one way is the scale changing. It can make us miss out on the fact that our performance is getting better, we’re getting stronger, we’re actually seeing that body recomp and we can sabotage our own consistency because we don’t see that desired outcome. It also, the reason I wanted to bring someone up effort doesn’t equal or doesn’t guarantee outcome is because I think a lot of times we get caught up in the feeling of working hard and the feeling of working hard just comes from making a hard change, doing something we’re uncomfortable with. So simply tracking what you’re currently doing right now and tracking alone could be really hard.

(08:02):
And so you might feel like you deserve results and you deserve weight loss just because you’re tracking what you’re doing. But technically, yes, you’ve made a habit change, you’re tracking, but if you haven’t changed the food portions you’re eating, you haven’t made a change that might be moving you forward towards your goal. You set that first stage, but that might feel really hard. And so then you’re going to feel like you deserve an outcome when you haven’t actually made a change. So we have to diagnose where is this feeling of I deserve results, this effort coming from, and then even realize that sometimes maybe we are doing a lot of changes that are moving us forward and the effort doesn’t feel worth it to get the outcome we’ve so far gotten. So that means that we have to sort of change the pain of change because the pain of staying stuck, the pain of where we’re at right now has to outweigh the pain of change in order to get us to move forward and want to do all the uncomfortable things we really have to do.

(08:46):
And if that pain isn’t outweighing the pain of change, sometimes you have to change the pain of change. So we have to make the habits a little bit less so that we don’t feel like we’re giving so much effort so we’re more willing to stick with them to let that snowball occur. And this is sort of where number seven comes in, weigh the pain. So as I just mentioned, you have to consider the pain of staying stuck. So what is the discomfort in your situation? Why do you want this change? What is motivating you to move forward? What are the changes you have to make and does what you’re dealing with feel worth making those changes feel worth the sacrifices you have to make? There really is that fast to sustainable continuum. When we talk about making habit changes and sometimes we’re willing to make more sacrifices to get results faster, sometimes we’re not.

(09:27):
So this is where if you’re motivated to move forward but those changes don’t feel worth it and you don’t feel like you can be consistent with them, how can you break those changes down so that they do feel worth it so that the effort feels worth the outcome you’re achieving and you can celebrate those habits as win. We have to weigh the pain to see what’s really worth it for ourselves to implement new habit changes in a way that feels sustainable to get us to move forward. Because what might feel small could be what we need to inch forward right now to get that momentum going. And often the more we do, the more we do. Number eight, you can’t outwork time. I know we all want results yesterday, but we cannot outwork time. And I like this reminder because anytime I’m feeling like results aren’t happening fast enough, I have a tendency to want to do more.

(10:09):
And I see this in the way people comment when I’ll share photos of results or different things like that, they’ll say That’s a lot of hard work right there. That’s a lot of grind, that’s a lot of mental intensity off the willpower, and I think we’ve so valued hard work, so valued willpower, so valued doing more that we put such an emphasis on what we can accomplish short-term that we don’t really see how that’s holding us back from the longterm snowball. So I want you to think, am I trying to outwork time? Am I trying to do more now to see faster results? And will this ultimately sabotage me because I’ll get burned out because I am trying to will out my way through and that these things aren’t sustainable and I’m not truly learning what I need? How can I value the slow build a little bit more?

(10:47):
And I’m not saying you won’t be willing to make more sacrifices, but even in making more sacrifices, knowing you’re making those sacrifices for a short-term outcome, how can you have an exit strategy? How can you have that plan be in place so that you can transition into more sustainable habits? But I think that reminder, we can’t outwork time can get us sometimes to slow down. Also to recognize how long it actually took results to build to get into your situation. It usually wasn’t a couple weeks. Usually it was years of us not doing the things we should or improper dining practices or snowballs of different things, overload occurring and injury occurring that we didn’t even recognize until it was too late. But just think about that time and then give yourself time to correct those patterns to make those changes, and I think that will also allow us to give us more grace when we do make mistakes.

(11:31):
Number six is stop lone wolfing it. So I found myself especially guilty of this having a lot of ego saying, I can do it on my own, feeling like I was somehow inadequate or not motivated enough or not knowledgeable enough if I couldn’t do it on my own. And I realized that this was kind of a bonehead move because I was holding myself back from learning from other people’s mistakes standing on their shoulders to leap forward faster and you can’t know what you don’t know. That’s a simple fact. No matter how much we try and step outside our perspective and lens, we’re still looking for a critical opinion, a different opinion through our own lens, and the more we try and loan will foot and value doing it on our own or see coaching only as cheerleading, not as that outside perspective. The more we hold ourselves back sort of repeating the same loop and I see it with the change loop especially, which is where we get really excited about a new program.

(12:22):
Do all these new habits ultimately fall off these habits and then look for a new program because we never really assessed why something worked or what we need to double down on to move forward. So if you’re lone wolfing it and you’re feeling like you’re staying stuck working really hard, consider that you’re holding yourself back by not embracing another perspective and by thinking that coaching or another plan is just you admitting somehow you’re not motivated or knowledgeable enough. You can know a lot and not know what you need because you can’t give yourself that perspective. Number 10, love your failures. Failing is just learning with frustration. The more you can love your failures, the more you can learn from every failure, the more you can pause. When you fail to assess what happened, the more you’re going to grow. The more we try and brush past things, try and ignore that they happened, not log that unplanned eating, that emotional eating.

(13:07):
Pretend like the missed workout didn’t happen. The more we don’t own what happened, the more we keep ourselves feeling bad about those deviations when we shouldn’t, but the more we also don’t learn to avoid or plan for them in the future. So love your failures. They are chances to learn and often move us forward faster because we don’t want to repeat them. Number 11, something is better than nothing. It’s not fun to not feel like you can’t do the perfect thing, but you have to remember that a 1% improvement over what you would’ve done in the situation is better than nothing and going to move you forward. I think so often we compare what we can do during ideal times. What we’re motivated to do during January to what we really feel motivated to do during the holidays or the summer or a time that’s not as perfect usually for reaching the goals we want.

(13:51):
But if instead of comparing to a perfect time, we compare this time to the same time even last year, it’s thinking about how can I make these habits 1% better? Hey, during the holidays I want to have more holiday cookies and more holiday events. I’m not going to skip things or be as consistent and meal prep the same way as I was during January, but how can I make the holiday season a better holiday season? How can I be a little bit more consistent the more we compare and make those 1% improvements and think, how can I do something? Hey, usually on a day like today, I would skip my workout, so I’m going to do one minute of mobility work. That is something and that’s going to make you feel successful and that success mindset is going to make you want to do more.

(14:26):
This goes with number 12, which is do the minimum. So I see do something as different than doing the minimum because when we do the minimum, we’re planning for the minimum. We’re embracing that times of year other priorities are going to take precedent and that we’re going to have to shift how we’re addressing our workouts and our nutrition. Going to three workouts a week because work is busier or family life is busier, doing a minimum with just tracking our food, but not necessarily setting a strict macro breakdown and focusing just on protein or even trying to get more meals at home. But sometimes we have to plan to do the minimum over just even having that plan be for when our day gets sabotaged and we do something over nothing. Number 13, sustainable doesn’t mean easy or comfortable when you are making habit changes, you do want to be creating a sustainable lifestyle, but what feels sustainable is what you’ve always done.

(15:12):
Change is never going to feel easy. Think about how many times you’ve even made a change and look back and be like, why didn’t I do this sooner? And it’s because it felt hard to start because it felt different than what you’ve always done because you’re unlearning old habits as you’re trying to learn new ones. So when we’re thinking about creating something sustainable, it’s just more about acknowledging that we’re trying to learn the basics. We’re trying to learn about macros to understand how our portions impact us. We’re trying to learn about workouts and how our body feels. We’re trying to build a self-awareness of what we prioritize in life, how we respond to different situations. By all this learning, we can really find our lifestyle balance and constantly tweak it, but that’s where the sustainable comes in. You’re going to do things that are making sacrifices that you do not want to make longterm.

(15:50):
What you do to reach a goal is not what you do to maintain it, but this is why we’re thinking about how can I learn more about myself to understand what feels sustainable for me at the most fundamental level and then implement different habits? Even embracing that sustainability is going to be different at each time of year. During January, you’re not traveling. You’re really motivated to get extra lean for that beach vacation coming up in the spring or whatever else, so you do more, but hey, during the holidays you don’t have that same motivation. Sustainable is something different. So embracing that sustainable doesn’t always mean easier or comfortable too, and that there are still going to be sacrifices even as you make a lifestyle. I don’t want to wake up with an alarm every day. There’s days that I want to track my food, but I also know the value of it.

(16:27):
The more we can embrace some of those habits too and just say, Hey, this is a downside to the upside. Number 14, when you want to quit, keep going. When you want to quit, keep going. I’m going to repeat that one more time. When you want to quit, keep going. I can tell you that often it isn’t someone doesn’t have a good plan that they’re not doing the right things with their macros, that they’re not working hard enough that anything is even off. They just want to quit. Think about how many times we’ve done those 30 day challenges and we feel like, Ugh, I haven’t gotten the results I want. This goes back to weighing the pain because the pain of staying stuck may not outweigh the pain of change. We have to shift our habits at that time, but we have to remember that a lot of times we just haven’t seen the results.

(17:04):
We want snowball because we’ve quit. We have not embraced that. We just need more time doing those things and we’re going to hit dead zones, we’re going to hit plateaus, we’re going to hit times. We’re not motivated, but we’ve got to find ways to then do the minimum change. Our strategies change what’s sustainable to keep moving forward, but too often we just quit. We go back to old habits, which are definitely not going to move us forward. Number 15, suck it up buttercup. I probably say this to myself once a day. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I do. This one for me is just a reminder of almost all the things I’ve already talked about and all the things I’m going to go over. Suck it up. Buttercup just means there’s going to be hard. Life isn’t going to be easy.

(17:39):
Changes aren’t always going to be easy. I’m not always going to do what I want. Even saying, suck it up buttercup, you want to embrace not doing what you should and there’s going to be consequences because of that and you’ll deal with them tomorrow. But I think the key that we remind ourselves that life is not always easy, especially in this day and age of all the social media where people are posting all these things of how easy things are for them or how good life is, and we’re seeing this highlight reel all the time, it’s really key that we remind ourselves that there are times we are going to have to say, I don’t want to do this, but it is my choice. Suck it up buttercup. Keep on going. Number 16, always question. The more we can ask ourselves why, the more we can assess why things worked or didn’t work, the more we can constantly step back to reflect and even set periods to reflect.

(18:19):
The more we’re going to learn from everything, and I can tell you that building self-awareness and constantly trying to build more self-awareness is what always drives me forward and helps me constantly grow and feel like I’m improving. This doesn’t mean that if progress is linear and that every week is better, there are weeks, there are setbacks, but then I learned from those, which ultimately I do feel like helps me lead forward after, but the more we question things, the more we question, why didn’t this work and dive deep into the things or why did I have this reaction? Or Hey, I’ve been really trying to work around this, but yet still flare it up. What’s going on? The more we ask ourselves questions and separate the emotion when we can, even if we have to throw a temper tantrum first, get upset, cry, whatever else, the better off we’re going to be.

(18:56):
So always question even if someone presents an opposing opinion that you’re like, no, that’s wrong, okay, even when you have that response say, wait, hang on. How could this be right? Or how could this work for them? Be curious with it. Number 17, don’t doom yourself with doubt. So I’m not telling you to go into a program saying, oh, this is going to be perfect. Everything’s going to work and not have some questions about it. I want you to question things. I want you to ask, why this macro ratio? Why would this work? Why this workout program? Questioning is good, but too often we go into something saying, this won’t work, and the second you said it won’t work, you are not going to embrace the systems or patterns or mindsets in order to make it work. It’s basically faking it till you make it and you’re not going to make it because you’re faking it.

(19:36):
We’ve got to act as if. So with this, you got to not doom yourself a doubt. You got to say, okay, I am doing this. Why could it work? And if it’s not working, why might it not work? Okay, but now let’s implement all the habits and try and maximize all the habits. Go all in and then take a time to assess you have that end date, set that end date, then assess at that point. But don’t doom yourself a doubt because otherwise you’re not really going to embrace the mindsets, the true actions. You’re going to do the workouts, but you’re not going to be intentional with all the training. You’re not going to try push loads, you’re going to do the macro breakdown, but potentially not address as mealtime and making you feel good, or are you sleeping well because of this? What other tweaks can you make to the food quality to even dial it in?

(20:12):
We’re not going to maximize the plan as is, and we’re going to do ourselves, so it’s almost like, why are we doing this? Don’t do yourself without. Number 18, pause and breathe. I can tell you when something is not working, when I’m getting frustrated, I instantly either want to go into extra research mode, do more mode, hard work mode, but sometimes we just have to pause and breathe. We’ve got to take that step back. That’s it, that pause, breathe. If you feel yourself pushing back against a change, even like someone’s telling you to do this, you’re in coaching, even embracing it, and you feel this instant rebellion against it, someone tells you to increase your protein. You’re like, no, I don’t want to increase my protein, and you try and find all the reasons not to do it. Be like, Hey, pause. Why am I trying to find all the reasons not to do something?

(20:55):
Is it maybe that it’s really uncomfortable? And yes, it’s really easy to reach for those reasons, but could this be the one thing I’ve never tried that might actually make the difference in reaching our outcome? If we have a goal, we are not going to like all the systems, processes, things we have to do to get there, and so often we say, if it doesn’t have this feature, it’s not worth it. We look for a plan that has x, y, and Z thing that has follow alongs, that has specific macro breakdowns. Then we don’t have to track in, but we want an outcome. What’s more important, having to track and that little pain or the outcome. Every upside has a downside, so sometimes we have to pause to breathe to assess. Number 19, you’re never above the boring basics period. No matter how advanced you are, you’re going to go back to them and the more advanced you are, probably the more you’ve done those basics over and over again.

(21:40):
I can’t tell you how much I’ve read on macros at this point. I’ve written a ton of macros. I look at studies all the time, but when I start a new nutrition course, even though every nutrition course starts with proteins are this, carbs are this, fats are this. I read through that stuff and I never skip it. I used to skip it and I realized that I was holding myself back from hearing something said in a new way that potentially even would make something in the program connect in a different way. For me, sometimes we need to hear something said in a different way at a different time to get a new interpretation. So don’t skip stuff that seems like, Ugh, I know this already. That’s the most important stuff to do because a lot of times it’s reminders that we need that we’ve forgotten as we’ve tried to learn more advanced stuff as we’ve progressed in our journey.

(22:19):
So you’re never above the boring basics, and the more you return to them, probably the more solid and faster you’re going to move forward overall and be able to implement more advanced stuff correctly and efficiently. Number 20, success is struggle. That’s it. Success is struggle. Failures are a part of success. They’re not the opposite of it. If we want success, we have to plan to see setbacks, mistakes, mishaps, plateaus, all those things, but a lot of times what we see as not moving forward ultimately does launch us forward faster. All of this to sum up, and probably the one saying I’m not including fully on here, but adding in as the bonus is act as if all of this relates back to creating the mindsets, the attitudes, the actions of someone who has the goals that you want. So to sum up all 20 sayings, it’s act as if you are becoming the person that you want to be because you’re acting as if until you’re acting as you are.

(23:09):
Our personality, our lifestyles, everything in our life are constantly changing. Our body’s constantly changing, and the more we can say, Hey, where do I want to go? How can I act in a way that is in line with where I want to be? The more we’re acting as if we’re implementing these different things, we’re believing these different things, the more we’re going to see those results snowball. We can’t fake things. We can’t just say, oh, I want to do these things. You got to actually work the plan if you want the plan to work. So acting as if it’s super key and creating those mindset sayings for yourself to remind yourself of the things that you need to do at the times you least want to do them is going to help you keep moving forward, shifting that identity and growing into the person you want to be because that’s a great part about life. We can constantly evolve and we should be constantly evolving. We’re actually changing whether or not we want to be. We just want to control the direction of the change and how it’s happening. I’d love to hear sayings that really motivate you, all that help remind you guys of the different things that you’re doing and which of these 20 sayings was most helpful for you, so please share in the comments. Hopefully this was really helpful, guys, so that you can keep rocking those results.

(24:12):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work out of nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone 

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

Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in. Today I’m joined by my fabulous dietician, Julia, to talk about emotional eating. Julia, thank you for joining me today. I will let you take this away with what is emotional eating and how can we identify different triggers with it?

Julia (00:43):
Hi, Cori. I’m so excited to be here and be able to talk about this. This is something that I think is a really important topic and it’s pretty common and definitely this time of year where we’re not spending as much time outside, A lot of people may feel a little bit more boredom or sadness, which can lead to emotional eating. So definitely excited to be here and shed some light on it as far as what it really is. So it’s eating in a way that to suppress or soothe negative emotions that we’re experiencing. So this can be anything from stress, sadness, anger, fear, or this can even be good things like excitement or happy stress that we can be experiencing.

Cori (01:22):
I love that you mentioned it’s both negative and positive emotions because I think so often we do only think about it as, oh, I’m stressed. I went to the cabin and I grabbed out far too many chips or cookies or whatnot, and now I feel guilty about it. But we don’t consider the fact that we also do it in celebration. Food has become so much more than just fuel, and I even see it with patterns. The weather starts to warm up and all of a sudden I’m like, Ooh, margaritas and chips and guacamole, and I want these changes. Not that I don’t try and make an excuse for that at any time of year, but there are certain patterns and hidden things that we’ve conditioned ourselves to want. Can you talk a little bit about identifying those different things so that we can navigate the emotional eating to find our balance?

Julia (02:05):
Yeah, definitely. So like you said, it is really just kind of that brain pathway that we’re so used to taking and it’s comfortable for us and we’ve kind of wired our brains to go that way. So a lot of people think that we’ll do things like emotional eating maybe because, or just any compulsive behavior for that matter, because we lack willpower, right? I’ll always hear people say, I wasn’t mentally strong enough. I knew I shouldn’t have had it, when in reality we do it because it’s usually the only way that we know how to self soothe. So it’s just a comfort thing. Like you said, we use food in our culture to celebrate things. We use it as a comfort thing. So for example, most of us have heard of dopamine. It’s an important part of our brain’s reward pathway, which causes the body and our mind to feel good when we’re doing something pleasurable to us.

(02:52):
So highly palatable foods, things that are high in fat, salt, sugar give us an abrupt boost of dopamine as well. So it makes sense that when we are comfort eating scientifically, these foods do make us feel better. But the key takeaway here is that it’s usually not the food that we’re seeking, it’s the feeling that that food gives to us. And the issue with this is that it’s not really one solving the problem. So it’s really not fixing why we’re having those emotions. It’s more of just a bandaid in a sense. And then we’re also coping in an unhealthy manner. So this can contribute to things like weight gain and just health issues that we really don’t want to run into over time. So when this happens continuously, we’re just wiring our brain to immediately turn to food whenever we do feel stressed or scared or even happy. And it does take time to really rewire those pathways so that you’re coping with healthier alternative behaviors. For sure.

Cori (03:47):
I love that you mention wiring our brain to sort of repeat certain patterns and routines because it does become so unconscious at times. You don’t even think about it and you don’t realize why it’s a struggle. I even see with weekend versus weekday eating, we’ll say, oh, the weekends are when I fall off. Well, it’s because we’ve conditioned a certain lifestyle. There are different habits and routines and we’ve conditioned certain things to go along with them versus the weekday. So the more we can start to assess those patterns, see why we’re handling things in different ways, the more we can break those things down to create new patterns and routines and make unconscious habits conscious as we implement new things. And that’s also what makes it so difficult. We’re unlearning something as we’re trying to learn something, so there’s kind of an extra stress or strain, which does require a little bit of willpower, but if you’re constantly feeling like you’re just relying on willpower, there might be something else off as well when we’re going about this process. Any tips for trying to make some of those unconscious patterns more conscious?

Julia (04:47):
Yeah, that’s a great question. So that kind of ties into our big theme for this week is mindful eating and bringing that conscious awareness to our eating decisions. So the first step, like you said, is just acknowledging and bringing that awareness to it, right? This is the first step with any issue is just realizing, Hey, this is something that I’m struggling with, so I want to really be mindful around my eating. And then secondly, just working to acknowledge and reduce those triggers as well. So this could be something that maybe you’re not able to control as well. Maybe you have a really stressful work environment and that’s not a job you can leave at this time, so that’s just going to be a constant trigger for you, but maybe working to reduce your stress in other ways. Maybe that means indulging in something like doing meditation or journaling in the morning before work, and this is going to look different for every single person.

(05:34):
I had a past client of mine who when dealing with emotional eating, she would just lay on the floor, but she was like, that’s what works for me. It helps me detach from the emotions, recover a little bit. So this is going to look different for every single person. It could be going for a walk, calling a friend, reading a book, whatever is kind of that self soother for you that just allows you to take a step aside from it and just ask those appropriate questions as well. Is this really the food that I want? Could I substitute something else like reading or going for a walk? Am I just trying to relieve feelings of sadness or boredom or am I at a party and I’m socially eating because everyone around me is eating? So really that first step is just bringing awareness to it and asking ourself those questions, checking in with ourself and taking a step back. I think it’s so easy for us. We get home from a long day of work, we’re stressed, we grab a bag of chips and we’re just snacking right out of it, right? We’ve always all been there. So just really bringing that awareness to it and asking ourselves those questions that may feel a little bit uncomfortable and hard to do in the moment, but will really help us bring awareness to our decisions overall and help us reach our goals in the longterm as well.

Cori (06:45):
Being more mindful is so important, and I think when people come into coaching, when people start a new program, we’re looking for, and I know I’ve been guilty of this, I’m looking for the magic macro ratio, the magic thing to do to stop emotional eating, the magic workout plan that’s going to get me X amount of muscle in X amount of days. We’re looking for a thing, a tactic, but in reality, what helps us truly achieve our goals and create lasting results and lasting lifestyle changes is simply reflecting inward. It’s asking ourselves those hard questions. It’s drawing awareness to habits we repeat and asking ourselves why we’re repeating them. Because I think so often we haven’t questioned our own self-imposed limitations. We haven’t questioned, questioned our own belief about ourselves. We haven’t questioned why we do different things, and if we don’t question it, we can’t make a change.

(07:34):
So with emotional eating, asking yourself, why am I repeating this pattern over saying, oh, I don’t have the willpower. Oh, I just, I’m a bad person. I feel guilty. Anything negatively associated with it, which only perpetuates the pattern in an odd way, we need to take that time to say, Hey, I’m human. I have issues. What can I do to address this? How can I move forward? How can I make this something I actually want assessing? What do I want? Is this important to me? Why am I doing this? I love that you bring up that question. I just think it’s something that we so under utilize, but it can be so important to help us make changes that meet us where we’re at. So in talking about all this too, you had mentioned eating disinhibition. Can you go into that a little bit because I think this is a very interesting subject that ties into all of this and something we need to be aware of when we’re talking about building.

Julia (08:23):
Yeah, sure. So eating disinhibition is really the tendency to overeat in response to different stimuli. So this can occur in a variety of settings. Say that you’re at a party and there’s a table full of really good looking food, or just say that it’s in response to emotions since we’re talking in the context of emotional eating right now. But it really just means that those normal inhibitions that prevent overeating are removed, making people more likely to overeat, which can lead to weight gain. There was a study done back in 2010 which identified a specific gene to be associated with it. So I love that we’re able to really test for that in our DNA testing and give people an idea if they are more inclined to this because it’s something to be aware of and then know that, hey, maybe I am someone who I need to bring more mindfulness around my eating choices because that’s really going to be key for me in order to reach my goals. Versus that other mindset of just being like, I just lack the willpower. It’s just how I am.

Cori (09:21):
I think it’s so important, that point and that differentiation between, well, this is just how I am. Yes, you may have the gene for it, but this is just giving you the power to control what you can’t control because you can’t control that tendency necessarily. But you can become more aware of it and come up with strategies for it, whether or not it’s giving yourself that visual reminder of, Hey, if I’m reaching for this, I’m probably doing this because I’m stressed. Is this a food I want? And even in that assessment, there are going to be times we make mistakes where we do exactly the opposite of what we’ve been trying to work to do. And the last thing we want to do is make ourselves feel guilty. We just always want to learn from those experiences. Say, Hey, how can I address this in the future?

(09:56):
Or if you do turn to something and be like, okay, do I want this? If you really want it after going to do something else, then have it too. There’s not one way of handling things and recognizing that tendency towards certain things can help us then find different approaches to navigate it in different situations, whether it’s emotional eating or even that tendency just because you have that food all in front of you to keep going back for more, which I dunno about you, but I’ve done definitely now off of this, there are reasons why we even don’t eat due to emotion, and I want to talk about that as well because I think there’s different responses we have to different emotions in our life, and the more we own our natural responses or our personal responses, the more we can plan for them and address them. So if you are somebody who instead of eating out of emotion, doesn’t eat when you’re stressed or tired or angry or whatnot, can you talk a little bit about how to handle that and what to do in those situations as well?

Julia (10:52):
Yeah, sure. So losing our appetite due to emotions can also be attributed to that same what we call that fight or flight response, which is also why we can overeat as well. So some will overeat as a way to sell soThe while others can’t shift focus on anything but the stress and find themselves constantly undereating. And again, this is something where it’s just bringing awareness to it and learning to meet yourself where you’re at, not force feeding yourself. Maybe you’re just going to have small protein rich snacks. Maybe you’re going to do things like meal replacement shakes during this time just to get that in. Or even creating an eating schedule to help you kind of find that balance during that time in your life where you know that you do have that stress, but you still want to nourish yourself and kind of meet yourself where you’re at and do your best there as well.

Cori (11:37):
And I’m bring up something that’s potentially going to ruffle a few feather, but intuitive eating, and I mentioned this because I think it’s so key with the whole theme being mindfulness in our eating and even eating out of emotion. If you think about intuitive eating and eating in response to what you’re feeling, emotion’s going to potentially impact that. And so you’re not going to just be eating for reasons of hunger. So the more we can learn, if we are striving to eat more intuitively, which should always be our goal, the more we can learn those cues and even track our nutrition in the process to see, hey, have I feel correctly, is this out of emotion? Or hey, am I not eating out of emotion as well? Because that undereating, if we train our body to constantly undereat, is going to be something that we’re going to have to address at a later date. Just because we don’t feel hungry doesn’t mean our body doesn’t need the fuel. So with all of this, I wanted to ask you a little bit about your opinion with the push towards intuitive eating, how that plays into being more mindful and even how to truly build a more intuitive eating style pattern, so to speak. Because sometimes it is something that we have to learn and many of us don’t naturally want to do it and we eat for other reasons than just fueling.

Julia (12:43):
Yeah, I love that question. And I do want to note here that there is a huge difference between emotional eating and kind of binge eating like you brought up. Whereas binge eating, we typically see that where we’re over restricting and we’re not giving ourselves enough. So the end of the day comes and we are like, I need to eat everything in sight. And it’s kind of that binge and restrict cycle that we really fall into. So I do want to point out that that is different than emotional eating, even though it may feel the same, whereas emotional eating is strictly more just related to the emotions and the binge eating is most likely because you’re really under fueling, like you said, and you’re not eating enough. And that’s where tracking really does come in and really does help us realize those patterns and see what leads to it.

(13:24):
Because there are times where it’s like, Hey, I did emotionally eat, but maybe that’s because I also did not eat very well during the day. I didn’t have balanced meals, I skipped my lunch, my blood sugar is all out of whack and now my cravings are all out of whack as a result of that. So there are scenarios where our eating choices can reflect on maybe choices that we made earlier throughout the day as well. And as far as just kind of learning to control that a little bit, I think your question was, and just how we can overcome that and tie in intuitive eating, it’s really just going to be, again, always checking in with yourself and also after meals like, Hey, how am I feeling after this meal? And do I feel satiated? Do I feel like I need to eat something else?

(14:05):
Sometimes I think we feel like if you have a sweet tooth after meals, or if we feel like we still need to eat after meals, we need to ask ourself, did I have enough in that meal? Did I have enough protein, enough healthy fats, enough fiber? Was it a really well-rounded meal, or am I just eating strictly out of emotion? So again, just checking in with yourself, there is this big kind of push for intuitive eating today, which can definitely tie into this and teach us how to still check in with those emotions, check in with our hunger signals as well, allow us to stop eating when we feel full from a meal and allow us to know when we need to have a snack as well.

Cori (14:44):
But it’s definitely something often that’s learned. So if you’re like, I don’t know what to eat, I’m not seeing results, just you’re eating quality fuel. Just because you’re trying to respond to your hunger cues doesn’t mean that you haven’t trained your body to respond in different ways. We train patterns, we train responses. So often, sometimes taking that reflection, that step back to track, to dial in our macros, to really assess our portion sizes, to even assess why we’re doing specific things, be it out of emotion or be it out of a pattern we’re conditioned to repeat is incredibly important. So sometimes you have to go through that data gathering phase in order to really learn what you need. Now, going off of this, let’s just say, and I know you gave us a lot of strategies to handle those emotional eating times and even try and prevent them, but let’s just say you find yourself in a situation where you have already eaten out of emotion next steps. And I know one of them is not to make yourself feel guilty. How can you respond and move forward after something like that? Because I think that initial response, because we’re human and we’re going to have those situations where we don’t do what we should or what we wanted, that initial response can really make or break how we approach things in the future. What would be your recommendation if someone found themselves in that situation where they had that emotional eating episode and they’re like, oh, no, what now?

Julia (15:57):
Yeah, I love this question. My best advice. Just own it, right? So many, I’ve had so many clients in the past where they’re like, Hey, this happened. I’m just not going to track it for the day. I just want to put it behind me. I know it wasn’t a good thing. Just put it in the past, close my eyes, not look at it, and I’m like, Hey, track it. This is awesome that this happened. We can learn from it, right? We don’t track always to be perfect. We track for that data, like you said, and that way we can look at it, we can see what else you ate during the day. We can reflect on what led up to it and we can know how to better approach it in the future. So something that I’ll go through is like, okay, what led to this?

(16:32):
What were your emotions? What happened during the day? What was the main trigger for it? And how can we better prepare for it going forward? And sometimes it is as simple as it was just a really busy day and I needed more things prepped, and sometimes it is a lot deeper, and we do need to tackle those stress and those emotions and all as well. But really just owning it and then that way you’re accepting it and that’s that first stage and that way you can work on it if you always just continue to ignore it and just be like, I know it was a bad thing. It’s in the past. I’m moving on. I’m like, no, let’s bring it back. Focus on it right now and see what we can do to better approach it and help you moving forward. Because if not, it’s going to be a cycle that you’re continuously going to go through. And like we said, that those brain wiring pathways, you’re constantly just going to lean on that food if you never really force yourself to learn why you’re doing it and find those other coping mechanisms.

Cori (17:20):
Owning it is so important. I just want to repeat, own it. Own it like a bazillion times. Because I think so often we do try and sort of rush past failure, so to speak, bad experiences, and then we never learn from them. And that keeps us stuck in a cycle of repeating them, not to mention associates, even more guilt with the situation instead of just saying, Hey, I’m human. This is something I can learn from. And in that we almost drop some of the emotion with it. We give ourselves power to control it. It’s not just saying we don’t have the willpower, we don’t have the ability to change it. And in giving ourself back that agency, we often can move forward a lot faster, and it starts to bring that pattern to the front of our mind a little bit more because we don’t feel so guilty from it, so we’re not running from it. So this has been all incredibly helpful, Julia, and I’m going to check for some comments, but any closing thoughts that you wanted to share?

Julia (18:13):
I just want to say it is really common, and I think people think that it’s something that they just struggle with themselves, and they do think it’s that lack of willpower and mental strength and all that. So just know that you’re not alone, and it will take time to change those habits. Maybe it’s not going to be something that happens on the first try, the first week, first month, first year, whatever it may be. But slowly over time, those little efforts are really going to add up to the big change, and it will get you there to make more progress. So don’t feel defeated. If it’s something that you’re working on and you’re not where you want to be yet, just celebrate those little victories, own the failures, and keep moving forward

Cori (18:47):
On the failures. Celebrate the victories and recognize it’s always going to be a process. Those are such key points because we do feel alone sometimes in our struggles, or we feel like we’re the only one struggling and no one else understands and we’re not alone. And a lot of times food is more than just fuel. And the more we own that fact, even the better off we’re going to be. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks podcast. Again. This is the place where I share all my free work, workout in nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with 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