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Squat Challenge! What Happens When You Do 100 Squats a Day for 30 Days?

Squat Challenge! What Happens When You Do 100 Squats a Day for 30 Days?

by | Jun 11, 2023 | Blog, Bodyweight, Core, Exercises

I get the draw of these challenges.

They are simple and hard and often not too time consuming.

And something is always better than nothing to get us moving and motivated.

BUT…

Honestly, these challenges are also what sabotage our long-term success and adherence to a workout routine.

They can even make us feel like we’re working super hard, staying super consistent, making ourselves super sore and not seeing results build as quickly as we would like.

They can lead to us feeling like we are finally getting back into a groove but them BAM! Always hit with an injury.

That’s why in this video I want to go over what results you can truly expect from these 30 day challenges – the good, the bad and the simply ugly…

So let’s break down these 30 day challenges and the results you’ll get over the weeks…

Starting with that first week…

In that first week, if you haven’t been doing anything in terms of training, and this is your motivation to get moving…

Be prepared to be VERY VERY SORE.

Did I say you’ll feel SORE?

Because you’re going to feel sore those first few days.

If you break up those first 100 reps over the day, you may deceive yourself into thinking it “wasn’t that bad,” but that volume will sneak up on you.

You’re going from 0 to 100 reps and doing a repetitive movement for a high volume of work. 

You’re also doing this movement daily so not giving yourself fully enough time to recover from the previous session.

So those first 4 days, you’re going to feel sore and even a bit beat down.

If you haven’t checked your squat form or are feeling a bit stiff and immobile from a lack of activity, you may also find your knees and hips and even lower back are extra achy. 

This may pass with movement or it may be the start of the end.

Too often we sabotage ourselves from getting in a routine by simply pushing too hard in that first week.

We need to rebuild slowly to make sure we’re doing moves correctly and using the correct muscles. 

Not to mention just because you can “do” a move and for that volume, like your muscles are strong enough, doesn’t mean your connective tissues, such as your ligaments, are truly ready for it.

It’s why doing too much too quickly leads to injury. 

Also if our form is off we overload joints and muscles also putting us at risk.

And squats, like a fundamental movement pattern are often blamed for knee pain because we don’t use them correctly! 

However, if we can stick it out for those first 4ish days, often we feel like we get stronger overnight.

While our muscles haven’t grown, our body starts to become familiar with the movement and we become more efficient at repeating it. 

It’s why toward the end of that first week we may feel like things got almost easier overnight.

While you are getting stronger by creating a challenge for your body, you haven’t really built muscle this quickly.

It is simply that mind-body connection first improving. 

We may also see some weight loss initially with the challenge.

You are moving more which can mean you’re now burning additional calories during the day.

But just like our body adapts to make the reps feel easier in that first week, our body adapts to be more efficient which means this deficit through added movement will be short lived.

If we don’t add on to our training, move more or change our nutrition, we won’t keep losing weight. 

In that second and third week, the weight loss benefits will stop as your body adapts.

And you’re going to start feeling more burned out from the daily repetitive movement and see yourself hit a point of diminishing returns.

You may feel more worn down. Weird places may hurt again. Despite you feeling just a little bit before like you are getting stronger, you may feel like you go backward.

You’re not giving yourself enough time to rest and recover from a high volume of the same move, over and over and over again. 

And as things hurt or feel sore, you’re going to start compensating.

Your form may break down more from fatigue and even from you starting to rush through just to get things done. 

Doing the same thing every day gets tedious and boring!

We start to just want to be done with it.

It isn’t the same fun mental challenge it once was.

So often this is where we stop. We go back to our previous workout practices and we end up feeling like nothing will ever be sustainable. 

Or we keep pushing through. Maybe finally at the end of week 3 our body starts to adapt and we do see those muscle gains if we’re fueling well.

But often we just start to see knee and hip aches and pains add up more and more. 

We also haven’t built up any other muscle groups. We haven’t worked our core or our upper body. 

And we have no plan in place to guide us.

We have no “exit strategy” from this challenge except to do another challenge. 

And at some point this pattern leads to burnout.

We never really create clear progression, a clear BUILD for ourselves with a road map to take us to the goals we want.

So what may have seemed like an “easy way” to get started ultimately is also what keeps us stuck!

Now maybe you’ve powered through to week 4. And honestly, that is freaking awesome. Most don’t make it past that 3 week hump. 

Injury. Boredom. Fatigue. Time. Some excuse gets most of us as we lose that initial motivation.

We’ve been doing the same thing day after day after day. 

And not only does that get tedious so we become less careful and conscious of our movements, not to mention we aren’t as intentional to maximize each rep, but often the challenge really isn’t there for our body any longer.

We won’t keep seeing muscle gains as we’ve adapted to the volume and load of squatting our own bodyweight.

So ultimately we NEED to do more or at least create progression through the same but different. 

And many of us reach the end of the 4 weeks with no plan. 

The same challenge of creating a program we faced at the start, we are now faced with.

The good part about having committed to the 30 days though is we’ve created a workout habit and gotten in a routine, prioritizing some time each day for us and taking care of our body with movement.

We’ve also hopefully built some muscle and even lost a bit of weight from the added activity. 

Because something is better than nothing when starting out.

But nothing keeps progressing if we don’t adapt as we grow stronger and fitter.

And if we are unlucky, this repetitive movement could have led to injury and overload. 

We went all in from the start over giving ourselves time to build that solid foundation and slowly build up.

We may see more aches and pains even adding up over the following weeks if we aren’t careful.

It also hasn’t prepped our body necessarily for other movements. 

We may still be starting out at ground zero when it comes to our upper body or even core training. 

We can’t skip building that foundation and these challenges don’t help us become well rounded.

They so often lead to us just doing too much too quickly over easing in.

Not to mention we may feel like the daily movement is unsustainable long-term but not be sure now how to design a schedule that actually fits our busy lifestyle.

And as simple as these challenges seem, they are deceptively inefficient at getting results. 

You could see better results from LESS volume and even less frequent sessions designed with the appropriate intensity and recovery.

You could have found something more sustainable!

And you could have even found something more FUN to do weekly that would have led to better results faster. 

Including a diversity of movements for your legs over the week would have targeted every aspect of your lower body and hit the muscles to different extents while moving you in every direction.

This could have created faster muscle gains, better recovery and all while avoiding injury and being fun.

By repeating that weekly routine for 3-4 weeks with a clear build to movements, you may have seen your results snowball faster while avoiding boredom that lead to you just rushing through the squats to get them done!

If you’re considering a challenge like the 100 squats a day for 30 days challenge, I urge you to seek out a clear plan that includes diversity and focuses on your entire body instead.

This will truly help you build that strong foundation. 

The more you rebuild safely, slowly and while addressing any mobility restrictions, the faster you will actually progress with less risk for injury.

So while something is better than nothing, and these simple challenges are tempting, find a plan laid out for you even if it is just 5 minute workouts to start back! 

Ready to have a plan in place to reach your goals? Check out my Dynamic Strength program!

How To Lose STUBBORN Fat (3 TIPS)

How To Lose STUBBORN Fat (3 TIPS)

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

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

The simple answer is YOU AREN’T!

But by no means is the fat loss process easy.

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

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

Why Are Certain Areas Just More Stubborn?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Those stubborn areas like our belly, hips and thighs!

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

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

Why Does Our Body Fight Back?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More muscle means more calories burned at rest.

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

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

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

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

3 Key Tips To Finally Lose That Stubborn Fat:

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

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

We want to do MORE.

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

But all of this so often is what truly backfires.

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

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

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

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

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

BUT I also don’t want to lie to you.

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

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

You also can’t be lax in your tracking.

Precision is truly key.

No bites, licks or nibbles can not be logged.

Everything must be tracked so you can truly move forward.

And focusing on that protein will be key.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Think about quality over quantity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tip #3: Embrace The Suck.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUMMARY:

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

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

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

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

–> Learn More

 

Lose Weight And Keep It Off FOREVER! Try These 3 Tips

Lose Weight And Keep It Off FOREVER! Try These 3 Tips

by | Mar 6, 2022 | Blog, Diet

The faster we want to see results, often the more we set ourselves up for long term failure.

Because we ultimately implement habits and routines that simply aren’t sustainable.

And by trying to rush our results we also often create metabolic adaptations and hormonal changes that work against us or make rebounding back to what we started at even easier.

And while our lifestyle can, and should, change as our goals evolve, we have to stop going to extremes and instead focus on creating the healthiest version of our PERSONAL lifestyle.

In the end, this leads to not only the best results because we allow those results to compound and snowball, but also the most sustainable results.

Because we don’t want to look and feel our best for just a day! We want to maintain those results long term.

That’s why I wanted to share 3 tips to help you lose fat and create those habits that will help you KEEP the weight off!

But before I dive into the tips to help you make sustainable habit changes I do just want to point out that making any change to start may not feel easy, comfortable or even sustainable.

Often changes feel exactly the opposite no matter how much they may evolve into our new routines and habits.

It’s because what feels easy, what feels sustainable and instinctual is what we’ve always done.

And what we’ve always done hasn’t moved us forward.

If we want a new and better result, we have to make a change and that means we have to embrace being a bit uncomfortable.

We have to give those changes time to become our new normal.

And then to KEEP that result, we have to keep replicating those habits. You can’t just simply achieve your goal then go back to what you were doing.

And that’s why these 3 tips are really so key.

They help you implement changes in a way that helps you build while also staying focused on what is realistic for you to do LONG-TERM so that the foundation of the new lifestyle you want to create is there.

Tip #1: STOP Saying Food Is Just Fuel.

So often when we’re striving for fat loss, we try to see food as just fuel. We eat for function. We willing cut out things and restrict.

We even except super bland meals and tell ourselves to “suck it up” and eat things we don’t really enjoy.

And while food for sure is fuel, that isn’t truly all it is for most of us.

It’s consumed because it often tastes good and is part of our social gatherings and events.

It’s part of the fun of traveling and experiencing a new place.

And honestly there shouldn’t be guilt for eating food for enjoyment purposes.

The more we try to deny that food is more than just fuel in our modern society, the more we hold ourselves back from creating a true lifestyle balance.

And that’s why ultimately often our fat loss results are short-lived.

We don’t know how to balance eating to just fuel, eating for function, with actually living the life we enjoy.

So at some point, when we either…

A. Can’t stand it any longer or

B. Have reached our goal and want to go back to normal…

We end up indulging in foods that don’t fall on an arbitrary clean “approved list” and then can’t reign things back in.

We almost REBEL against the restriction we’d self-inflicted.

Instead we need to recognize and understand what role food plays in our life.

Do we like having that happy hour out with friends on Friday?

Do we enjoy cooking for our extended family as we get together and celebrate around the table?

Do we enjoy a date night out with our special someone?

We need to strike that balance between aesthetic goals and the lifestyle we ultimately want to lead if we not only want to lose fat but KEEP IT OFF.

And while your exact balance will shift as your goals shift, the key is not forcing restrictions on yourself that only lead to rebellion later.

We need to LEARN how to work in the things we love.

Sure we may find there are foods we can’t have just one of so don’t include those as often, or we may find more macro-friendly variations at times to work into our macros, but we’ve got to embrace a balance.

Instead of restricting, work in things you love FIRST to your macros to balance everything else out around it.

This can help you not feel deprived of the things you love while embracing the ratios and habit changes along the way.

It can help you learn to include your bread or dessert to actually build a lifestyle change you know you can maintain!

Tip #2: Build Off Of Your Current Lifestyle.

Stop searching for a fad diet. A quick fix.

Stop just cutting out foods because someone said to.

If you have an allergy or intolerance, sure, you may not include certain foods in your diet.

But too often we cut out foods in a desire to “eat clean” to ultimately only end up eating more of those things over the year after feeling so deprived of them and restricted.

We feel guilty because we aren’t hitting someone else’s standards of what a healthy diet should look like.

But we’ve got to stop caring what other people think.

One size doesn’t fit all. And while I hear a ton of people preach that, I see those same people trying to make people feel guilty for eating foods they enjoy that aren’t as healthy.

And all this does is hold people back from ever making any sort of change.

We have to meet ourselves where we are at.

If we’re eating fast food for every meal and pizza, we’re only going to set ourselves up for failure by trying a diet that cuts all of that out immediately and forces us to eat chicken and broccoli.

Instead we need to take a look at our current lifestyle and make small swaps and changes to that.

To get the best results and then keep the weight off we have to stay focused on creating the healthiest version of OUR personal lifestyle.

This is why I encourage clients to stop just cutting out whole food groups but instead embrace the learning process and count macros.

By tracking what we are currently eating to start, without even making changes, we can see things we can tweak and adjust.

And then, from there, instead of cutting out the thing you love the most first, think about adding in something good. Or swapping out something easy.

The easier the changes are to start, the more we can get that momentum building through feeling successful in our implementation of the changes.

When we feel successful in making changes, we then want to do more.

Because it really is a case of the more you do, the more you do. And this can be both in a positive and a negative direction.

If we instead just made sweeping arbitrary changes completely unrealistic for our lifestyle, we may ultimately end up doing nothing or failing at the thing we try to ultimately do more of nothing.

As silly as it can feel, start with small changes based on what you’re currently doing so you can slowly build.

This allows us to create routines that are realistic for us and that we aren’t just constantly forcing ourselves to maintain through willpower.

So consider your current lifestyle as you being to make tweaks!

Tip #3: Set End Dates And Evolve.

I dislike saying that my diet or exercise routine is a lifestyle.

Because I feel like so often that is interpreted as I’m going to do this same thing forever.

We feel this pressure to embrace a way of eating as the thing we’ll do forever.

But nothing in our lifestyle is ever standing still.

Our routines and habits should change just like our needs and goals do!

We also aren’t really motivated to take action by the idea of doing something FOREVER.

So as you work toward your fat loss goals, set progressions and macro ratios you plan to cycle. Set “end dates” at which you’re going to assess and adjust and maybe even slightly tweak your goals.

This can help us stay focused and give us motivation to start today.

It can also help us be more patient in waiting for results to build because we know we can change at a specific point anyway.

It’s also why having a goal for your workouts and understanding macros is so key.

When you have a goal for your workouts you have that focus to drive you forward. Especially when there is an end date at which you want to have hit that performance goal.

And as much as we know “abs are revealed by what we do in the kitchen” being motivated to train and push hard will only help us get better results, especially when focused on building muscle.

It also generally keeps us motivated to do other healthy habits that lead to fat loss, like being conscious of how we fuel.

And by taking the time to learn about macros, we can learn what we need even as our needs and goals change over time.

So while losing fat, we may cycle specific ratios based on even how our training evolves.

But then when we work to maintain, we can adjust ratios and calories again.

Macros, and how we adjust them, are truly at the heart of every diet out there.

And when you understand macros, you can implement low carb, low fat, high protein in any way YOU need to not only create a sustainable lifestyle but see the fat loss results you want and then maintain those results long term.

Because not only can different ratios help you work toward different goals, but you may find that with different types of training, you need to fuel differently to maintain your results.

Or as we get older, we need to adjust again because we become less able to utilize protein as efficiently and struggle more to build and retain lean muscle.

Or if you’re going through menopause you may even find you need to tweak things again because of those hormonal changes.

The point is, if we take time to really learn the foundation of nutrition and understand macros, we then have the power to evolve.

And being conscious that nothing works forever, is what can help us adapt over time so we can KEEP the fat loss results we worked hard to achieve!

SUMMARY:

We have to remember that we can never stop doing what made us “better” and that even maintaining our results is a process with ebbs and flows.

So if you want to lose fat and keep it off, remember one size doesn’t fit all.

Take time to build habits off of your current lifestyle and don’t be afraid to set end dates at which you assess your results and adapt and evolve your routines!

Need help getting started?

Learn more about my online coaching programs.

–> Schedule A Call

Why You’re Not Losing Weight (3 Mistakes You Might Be Making)

Why You’re Not Losing Weight (3 Mistakes You Might Be Making)

by | Mar 4, 2021 | Blog, Diet

“I’m eating so clean and training hard every day. Why am I not losing weight?”

There is nothing more frustrating than feeling like you’re working super hard and doing all of the “right” things but not getting the results you deserve.

It can make you feel like something is wrong with you.

But often it is very SIMPLE habit changes, those boring basics, that make the difference.

Too often we overcomplicate things in our search for a quick fix, instead of dialing in the fundamentals first.

We get focused on doing more and working HARDER over simply working smarter.

That’s why I want to share the 3 most common reasons people don’t see the weight loss results they want and how to correct them.

But first, I also want to discuss why you don’t want to let the scale dictate how you view your results.

The scale doesn’t tell us the full story.

It tells us how much we weigh on any given day at any given time.

But our weight isn’t just muscle and fat.

It’s glycogen and water storage.

It’s impacted by inflammation and food still left to be processed and disposed of.

The scale will fluctuate daily, not to mention even hourly.

While I know we can often want to see a specific number on the scale, we have to remember that the scale doesn’t really show us the full picture.

And often striving for faster weight loss on the scale will backfire.

The scale is a very poor indicator of body recomposition.

Your weight could stay the same while amazing body recomposition results are happening.

If you lose a pound of fat, but even gain 2lbs of muscle?

Guess what?

You could end up looking leaner BUT actually even see your weight increase.

Because as much as we say “I want to lose weight” what we really want is to lose fat.

And the scale as a data source for fat loss is very limited

So even if you are trying to lose weight, consider another form of measurement to help you truly track your body recomposition – whether it is a form of body fat testing, progress picture or even body measurements.

Now…What Are The 3 Most Common Reasons We Aren’t Seeing Results?

Often we need to focus on those BASICS and dial in those fundamentals first.

While they aren’t sexy or fun, they are often the reasons we succeed or fail!

Supplements, fancy moves may be the things we want to focus on, but we have to remember that what we measure, can be MANAGED!

If you don’t have a clear picture of what you’re doing, a clear plan in place? You can’t make accurate changes to your routine.

Reason #1: You’re Not Tracking And Measuring

I know I know…tracking sucks.

It’s boring and tedious and no one likes doing it.

But it gives us an unbiased picture of what we are truly doing so that we can adjust.

It’s a great learning tool to truly understand how to best fuel your body so your calories and macros are dialed in specifically to YOUR needs.

Because….

1. We are often very bad at estimating our own portion sizes, no matter how good we think we are at it.

And 2. You can still overeat healthy foods. It’s why you may be eating clean and NOT seeing results.

It’s easy when you’re hungry or simply even WANT the food to end up letting that portion size get a bit bigger.

I don’t know about you, but a tbsp of peanut butter gets exponentially bigger depending on how much I want it that day or even what I’m putting it on.

And with calorically dense foods like that, it’s easy for those calories to add up each day, not to mention over the week and throw us out of the deficit we need to see for results.

Not to mention, those calories can distort the macros we are actually hitting that day, which can dramatically impact our results.

And if you’re a snacker?

It’s easy to end up letting a snack or two here or there become 3 or 4 and add up to more calories throughout the day than we realize.

It’s why tracking not only holds us accountable, but measuring gives us an accurate picture of what is going on so we know what to change.

You may not do it long term. But why not set yourself up to truly understand your diet by having a clear picture of what you’re consuming so you CAN get better results without having to do more?

Reason #2: You’re Focused On Doing More

When we do more, we feel more in control of our progress.

We feel like we can speed up our results.

But doing more can often backfire.

It can lead to burn out.

Extra frustration because we are pushing so hard yet NOT seeing the results we want.

The simple fact is we simply can’t out exercise or out diet time.

And the more we try to? The more we often create habits that aren’t sustainable that we can’t be consistent with.

Too often we overestimate how much we can accomplish short term while underestimating what we can accomplish long term.

Not to mention, those fast fad results we sometimes do see happening?

Well those seemingly amazing results are often why we get caught in the same annoying weight loss cycle…losing and regaining the same weight over and over again.

We slash our calories ridiculously low as we add in extra cardio and spend hours in the gym.

We may then see a huge initial drop of 5lbs in those first few days or even the first week.

But guess what? That isn’t all fat that we lost.

It’s water weight. Glycogen depletion. Maybe a pound of fat.

BUT also a pound of muscle.

So while it may feel satisfying, it won’t keep up. Or we have to keep doing more and more in an attempt to keep the results rolling in as quickly.

And in our attempt to see those faster drops on the scale, we end up sacrificing muscle not to mention create metabolic adaptations and hormonal imbalances that hold us back.

We create issues that end up backfiring and we’ve built habits that are unsustainable.

So what happens?

All that doing more leads to us regaining the weight we worked so hard to lose. And often, we end up worse off because, when we regain the weight?

We aren’t regaining muscle.

So the next time we attempt to lose weight? The process may feel even more hopeless.

This is why we need to stop doing more and instead create a plan that is truly realistic for our lifestyle.

There is no perfect workout schedule. No one perfect diet.

The key is making small changes and doing something that truly fits the time we have.

If you only have 3 days a week to workout? Start with that schedule and design workouts that fit that routine.

If you’ve never tracked your food before? Just start by logging without other changes.

These small swaps allow you to build momentum and truly make lasting changes.

Reason #3: You’re Not Focusing On Strength Training

Yes, for weight loss diet is key.

I don’t think there is anyone at this time who hasn’t heard the phrase “Abs are made in the kitchen.”

But so often we don’t dial in our workouts in a way that truly complements our nutritional plan and works toward lasting results.

Most of the time when someone says they want to lose weight, they also say they plan to add in more cardio.

And this association between cardio and weight loss arose because often cardio workouts do burn more calories per session than strength workouts.

But thinking of our workouts only as a chance to burn more calories is really not utilizing them to maximize our results.

We also have to remember our body adapts.

It’s why we get stronger. Why we can run faster and ride further.

But because of these adaptions, we don’t continue to burn as many calories from our steady state cardio training sessions as we did to start.

It’s why we can feel like we just need to keep doing more.

It can also lead to us trying to out exercise our diet to create a great calorie deficit.

Instead we need to see our workouts as not only a chance to burn more calories but as an opportunity to keep our overall body healthy and avoid metabolic adaptations.

If you want to look leaner? You want to build muscle.

That’s why strength workouts are so key.

If you want to avoid more metabolic adaptations and burn more calories at rest?

You want to include strength workouts to build muscle.

So while you can and should include cardio training if you enjoy it, and for your overall wellness, we need to stop turning to cardio for weight loss.

Focus on lifting heavy and challenging your body through heavier loads and more advanced movements! Make more out of less time so you can even create a routine that is sustainable long term!

SUMMARY:

If we want to see amazing weight loss results, you can’t ignore the basics.

Stop spinning your wheels just trying to do more.

Instead think of how you can do less and get better results.

Start tracking and logging as you focus on creating a sustainable routine that includes strength training.

The BEST results happen when our diet and our workouts WORK TOGETHER!

Learn to eat and train according to YOUR needs and goals:

–> Macro Hacks 

How To Make Dieting Suck Less – 5 Tips and Tricks

How To Make Dieting Suck Less – 5 Tips and Tricks

by | Jul 23, 2018 | Blog, Diet, featured

We hear all the time…

“It’s not a diet. It’s a lifestyle!”

But let’s face it…With anything where we can’t just do whatever we want, whenever we want, we are going to have some “slip ups.”

We are going to wake up late because we accidentally turned off our alarm.

We are going to skip our workout because we are stressed.

We’re going to buy that outfit we don’t need just because we really really want it!

There really are very few places in life where we can do exactly what we want all of the time.

YET somehow we expect that with our diet.

We think we can “go on a diet,” lose weight, then go back to eating what we were eating before and keep the weight off.

We have this delusion that we can eat whatever we want all of the time.

But it doesn’t work that way.

HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean that we need to continue this cycle of extreme calorie deprivation and cutting out all of the foods we love.

We need to instead realize that it is all about balance and finding something we can do consistently.

Dieting doesn’t have to suck; however, just like everything in life, there will be times we have to do things we don’t fully want to do!

AND I think it is important to recognize that there will be periods where we will be more diligent and times we will…well…”fall off.”

Everything goes in cycles. Here are 5 tips though to help you make dieting suck less!

5 Tips To Make Dieting Suck Less:

1. Find meals you love. Plan those in first.

Dieting has come to mean bland, boring foods. Chicken and broccoli. Bland white fish and asparagus.

But A. These things don’t have to be bland and boring. And B. There has to be a balance which includes foods you enjoy.

If you want to stick with a diet and make it something you actually ENJOY doing, you have to be able to make meals you love.

I always tell people starting my Macro Cycling programs that they should plan in meals with their family or meals they really love first. If you really crave salmon or steak, plan it in. And work your other meals around it.

Really crave chocolate or something sweet at the end of the night? Plan it in first. That way you can work everything else around it!

Remember it is 80/20 not perfection that gets results. Perfection might lead to faster results, but it generally also leads to incredibly short-term results!

2. Stop making it about perfection. Give yourself one focus.

We go in with this all or nothing attitude that often leads to us “falling off” before we really even start.

And if we do get in a routine, at the first sign of life getting in the way, aka work stresses, family pressures, the HOLIDAYS, our goals and diet go completely out the window.

We struggle to stay consistent because we’ve put so much pressure on ourselves to be “perfect.” To only eat whole natural foods. To be within a gram of our goal. To always be under our calories.

But it isn’t about perfection.

It’s about knowing our goals and being consistent.

Especially during those busy times, don’t worry about the details. Give yourself just ONE THING to focus on to keep you on track.

I always tell clients that if they can do just one thing, make protein your focus. If you make protein your focus, you’ll see results.

Or if they’ve even struggled with that, I’ll tell them to simply start by LOGGING. There is accountability in that AND it can help us then slowly make changes as we feel ready.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Those small tweaks, that consistency adds up!

3. Stop cutting out foods you love first.

Ok we all know certain foods are bad for us. But we love them anyway.

Those foods that we love are often also the first things we cut out. And then all we can think about is how much we want those foods.

So what happens?

We end up binging and then struggle to get back on track.

But what if we didn’t first cut out those foods we love the most?

What if instead we first focused on adding in other things? Or making tweaks to those foods we love so they fit our macros better?

What if we got rid of the other fluff so we could even still indulge in those foods we love?

A. Consistency is about balance. It isn’t all or nothing and even unhealthy foods can have a place in our lifestyle!

B. When we make those other changes FIRST, often making the bigger changes. aka sometimes reducing or even eliminating those unhealthy foods we feel we “need,” becomes EASIER because we aren’t then cutting out the things we love first. We don’t feel as DEPRIVED because we’ve made other changes that have created new habits.

So when you’re getting started, start with easy and small tweaks. And even consider how you can make meals more macro friendly!

4. Fuel your body instead. Less isn’t always more.

A big reason why we think diets suck is because we are ALWAYS hungry.

There is legitimately a term for this hunger, and the resulting ANGER from it…HANGER.

So of course feeling hungry and low energy all of the time isn’t going to make us want to stick with our eating plan.

Nope! But it may make you reach for the quickest and most unhealthy thing in sight!

And not only can this constant starvation cause us to fall off our diet, but it can also actually cause our results to stall or plateau. LESS ISN’T ALWAYS MORE!

Yes, a calorie deficit is key. But too little and you can’t workout hard and your body starts to try to conserve energy.

PLUS, it is NOT just about calories in vs. calories out. The quality of those calories matters! And that doesn’t just mean healthy vs. unhealthy foods but even the MACRO ratios that you consume.

Even though you may want to lose weight quickly, don’t starve yourself. Make sure to fuel your activity and it will not only make eating well more pleasant but help you stay consistent long term!

5. Plan for the worst.

It’s easy to eat well and stick to your goals when you aren’t stressed, have full control of your schedule and are 100% motivated and even getting results.

However, that all happens at the same time like maybe 5% of the time if we’re lucky.

Most of the time we are stressed, or tired, or have family obligations…Or heck…we just want to go out and have fun!

But most often we only PLAN for the times that it is easy. We don’t prepare for the times that we are going to have other things going on that may make it seem impossible to prep or stay on track.

That is why it is key that we consider and plan for the “worst.”

How can we provide ourselves with guidance to stay on track even when things aren’t easy? How can we create consistency and balance so we can keep ourselves moving forward or maintaining even when “dieting” isn’t our main focus?

Often I think this means giving ourselves one thing to focus on. One clear and easy goal that we know will keep us on track enough.

I also think it is about remembering it is about CONSISTENCY and not perfection that truly matters in the long run.

And I think it is important that we come up with ways that allow us to diet with balance. Find easy meals out. Plan around the things you love and enjoy.

Find quick snacks that, while maybe not perfect, are way better than the alternative and will keep you feeling fueled and on track.

Dieting may not always be fun but it shouldn’t detract from your life. There will be periods where you will want to be stricter and others you will do the bare minimum. The key is finding a way to make it “not suck” so you can remain consistent and find balance!

And it is also about remembering EVERYTHING goes in cycles. Don’t feel guilty or beat yourself up. Just make small little tweaks to always be getting better and preparing yourself to make the most out of what you can!

With these 5 tips you can get on track and make dieting…well…suck less!

Learn more about the 5 reasons why diets have failed you in the past!