TAKE ACTION
a
M
TAKE ACTION
How To Maintain Weight Loss (10 Tips For Long Term Success)

How To Maintain Weight Loss (10 Tips For Long Term Success)

by | Jun 19, 2025 | podcast

Listen:

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Transcript:

Open Transcript:

Cori (00:00):
Welcome to the Redefining Strength Podcast. Everything you need to succeed on your health and fitness journey, even the stuff you don’t want to hear, you lost the weight, you feel amazing. The question is now what? Often we get really good at the weight loss phase of things and then all of a sudden we start to self-sabotage. Let those habits slide. Think about not tracking things that we’ve been tracking. We let a miss workout slip in. All of a sudden we find ourself back at square one, all our old habits back in place and having regain the weight and potentially even more. And then we again find another program. We go back on a diet, we get really good at that dieting down. The question is how do we maintain our results? And this is a difficult thing because what you do to lose the weight is not what you do to maintain it, but you can’t go back to old habits or you’ll get an old result, which is exactly what we want to avoid.

(00:58):
So I want to give you 10 tips to help you maintain those results, and it’s really key when we think about maintenance, to not think about we’re creating one lifestyle in one form forever. Because I do think when we think maintaining, it’s like, oh, so I just do the same thing forever. Well, no, nothing in your lifestyle is ever standing still. So going into the 10 tips, number one, expect fluctuations. Your scale is going to still fluctuate if you’re using your scale as a measurement tool, even your body measurements, if you’re doing that or progress pictures, they’re going to fluctuate. Your body is a living organism. You drink water, you’re going to gain weight. You might see a little bloat with certain foods. You might see more or less definition based on if you’re retaining water or you had a hard workout. Yes, if you had a hard workout and you really worked your triceps, they might not be as defined the next day because there might be muscle tissue damage, so expect fluctuations.

(01:49):
That’s why you have to watch trends over time and it’s why you almost have to set boundaries or bumpers on your bowling alley lane, right? You’re trying to always bowl a strike. Give yourself those bumpers to keep you in line. So give yourself the top end of a range and a bottom end of a range to allow yourself to watch those deviations but not panic at each and every one. And especially when coming out of that deficit, you want to do it slowly to transition into maintenance, and I say transition because you do have to retrain your body to eat more, but as you’re transitioning your calories up potentially from a fat loss phase, your muscles are going to store glycogen and water weight and especially the more muscle you have, the more storage capacity you have, but you’re going to see the weight creep up a little bit because you’re simply not depleted of everything.

(02:32):
So you’re going to have to expect that as you’re transitioning to maintenance, you’re going to see the scale go up a little bit and then you’ll find that balance, and that’s where taking measurements and progress pictures can also come in really handy and doing it very slowly and still tracking through this process, which I can’t highlight enough, is really key because you can see yourself doing the healthy habits that you know will lead to results and then you’ll adjust your macros and the longer you maintain your results, the easier it gets. The exact same thing that made it hard to lose. The fact that your body does not want to change from its setpoint is what makes it easier and easier over time to maintain your new result because your body adapts to fueling in that way to training in that way, and maintaining that weight has that balance and functioning at that balance.

(03:13):
So embrace the fluctuations as your first transitioning to maintenance and starting to maintain, and even over the course of the year, you’re going to be more or less focused on this, which I’ll touch on more a little bit in a bit. But next, don’t restrict the fun stuff as you go to maintaining your goal is to still keep potentially tracking, still keep in that workout routine, but start to add in more of those things that strike that lifestyle balance. Because if we don’t start to loosen the reign strategically, we’ll end up loosening them anyway and we won’t be in control of how we have, and then we’ll start to see that backslide where it’s like, oh, well this doesn’t matter or that doesn’t matter, and all of a sudden it really does matter because we’ve regained all the weight and we’ve lost all the healthy habits that we really worked hard to ingrain the environment that we worked worked hard to create and the mindsets that we worked hard to have.

(03:57):
So you want to loosen the rain strategically. If you’re still tracking, let’s just say you’re doing 40, 30, 30 as your macro ratio. Work in a few foods that you know aren’t as healthy or aren’t as clean. Try to work in a new restaurant or say, Hey, I am actually strategically going to go to a protein minimum and a calorie cap and now work in some of the foods and see that balance, but work in some fun things so that you can start to see how maintaining can be that lifestyle balance. The sooner you can do that, even as you’re maybe at the end of your weight loss phase, the better. Of course when you’re trying to push that new level of leanness, there is some precision involved and that might not be the time to play around with it, so it depends on your goal, but in transitioning, you can’t just stay depleted.

(04:36):
You can’t just stay restrictive. You’ve got to find that balance. And so finding ways to work things in is super key. Little by little overthinking, it has to be perfection or not because that’s where we get into dieting down, losing the result, dieting down, losing the result when we think restriction or perfection. So work in those fun things, work in a cocktail, work in dinners out, include those things, but you have to loosen the reins and that’s where you also have to embrace those little fluctuations from salt or water weight being gained when you go out. Then number three, use mini cycles. So this is what I was sort of touching on before. You’ve got to embrace over the course of the year that you’re going to be more or less dedicated to different things, and maintaining doesn’t mean maintaining one weight the entire time.

(05:16):
You have to even set different goals. I’ll set a muscle building phase where I know I might get a little fluffy, but I’m going to add muscle or I’ll set a fat loss phase where I want to look extra great for this vacation, so I’ll do a little mini cut, but set those little mini cycles because they also give you a focus to keep wanting to move forward, but while allowing you to shift those habits to meet where you’re at during the holidays, say, Hey, during the holidays I want a better lifestyle balance. This is not the time I’m going to drive for fat loss. I’m going to maybe even embrace just maintaining my result right now with including more fun foods. But think about mini cycles based on the time of year and the schedule that you have, the mindsets that you have, the things you want to do, and then set goals that compliment.

(05:54):
Don’t set your mini cut fat loss phase during Christmas. If you really like Christmas cookies say, Hey, I’m going to do this in January after maybe enjoying a few cookies extra, but I’ll set actually a muscle building phase to even set myself up better for that fat loss phase. Now, this is an excuse to just forget all the healthy habits that you have, but it’s managing your expectations to be in line with what you also need, which ultimately creates a better maintenance for me. For the longest time I wouldn’t track during the holidays and I realized that was actually sabotaging me, even though I could get away with it during the summer because I was using the excuse, oh, I don’t need to track. I did it for this period and didn’t track and was fine to really eat whatever I wanted and not do any of the things that I should.

(06:33):
So now during the holidays I do track with just minimums that I hit to keep me in line, and that ended up turning into more intensive tracking, which actually felt really good while still working in a balance. So things will shift, but recognize even the excuses you’re making and how you can create that balance to maintain within a range while allowing yourself some flexibility. Then number four, chase performance goals. You need to have a focus. If we don’t have direction, we’re driving around aimlessly and that’s often where we end up lost or potentially just going back to where we started, if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re going to go home. And so that’s where we see ourselves regaining the weight. So set performance goals. That might mean lifting more in the gym. It might mean testing out a new workout program. It might even mean saying, Hey, how can I get away with doing 15 minutes and see if I can maintain my results so it doesn’t just have to directly be lifting more or doing a race, even though those can be great options.

(07:23):
It can even be how can I meet myself where I’m at seeing performance improvements or maintaining my results with testing out this new thing where I have an end date and I think that’s the key point. I have a focus. I have an end date. I’m going to commit and test and be consistent and track my progress in this area towards that, where I’ll even go on a slight deviation from the performance goals and say, maybe it’s that you’re working in new recipes or new meals out, and that’s your focus of how you can create that balance, but you need that outside goal. And I do like performance goals because I think it puts the emphasis on doing the healthy habits that still fuel us and also even really in building muscle, which preserves our metabolic health as well, and it can be really fun to see what you can conquer and overcome.

(08:02):
Then number five, track strategically, especially when you’re first coming out of the fat loss phase, I would tell you please try to track just as intensively as you did, and I know we can be a little burned out if we’ve been dieting for longer on all the healthy habits that we’ve been doing because even things we know we should do or weren’t. That bad effort at some point becomes greater just because we mentally fatigue or our life has shifted, but track strategically and really be intensive about it being like, Hey, now I can work in more fun things, but I’m going to log everything. Or if you’re like, Hey, I really need this balance and the effort has become a little too much, how can I go to more minimalist ratios maybe or bump calories or do different things that allow you to still measure because what you measure you can manage, but it gives you that tracking and that data but in a way that allows you to keep going with it.

(08:47):
So assess your mindsets at the end when you are transitioning to maintenance, but give yourself that data. Something we so often don’t do, and that’s why we think eating more or changing our habits resulted in us regaining the weight when it’s really not that. It’s really that we weren’t tracking anything and we didn’t realize how much everything went off. So track strategically and then as you maintain for longer, you may take time where you don’t track, but then maybe you do log a few things to get some new meal prep in line and really reassess your portions if you feel like you’re gained a little bit weight that you don’t want to gain or you track really intensively for a mini cut or you track even intensively for a muscle building phase because you want to be very strategic. So it’s allowing that tracking to evolve and how you do it to meet yourself where you’re at, but knowing that that is a tool that you should always return to just to keep yourself in line with those little bumpers that you’ve set for yourself.

(09:32):
Number six, motivational fade. You’re not always going to be motivated. Own it when you feel the effort of the habits you’re doing becoming greater than they feel worth, really assess what’s shifted in your life and how you can meet yourself where you’re at because too often we don’t go to doing the minimum to keep moving forward and maintenance is still moving forward. We don’t do the minimum to keep something in there. Instead we just say, oh, well I deserve this, and that’s where the self-sabotage creeps in and we don’t track anything versus seeing even just tracking calories as still being something that keeps the boundaries on it. So make sure that you recognize motivation will fade and meet yourself where you’re at, especially during maintenance. We got to set even that clear direction because we don’t have direction. We get even more unmotivated often. Then number seven, embrace your minimums.

(10:13):
I’ve been talking about this one a lot, but it’s so key. Finding the least amount you can do in order to maintain your results at times is really important. I know there are certain times a year where I’m really busy. I’m like, okay, I’m going to do three days a week and I’m going to design for this and I’m going to just track my protein and make sure I’m not going over my calories. I’m not going to worry about food quality at all, which might sound horrible, but I know that’s the minimum I need to do to maintain, and ultimately often when I do that and give myself grace and permission before that time even comes to start doing that, I want to do more because I feel successful. I don’t feel restricted, I don’t feel pushed into something. I don’t feel like the effort isn’t worth it.

(10:50):
So often proactively even backing off or recognizing that you can back off allows us to do more because we don’t feel so pressured or pushed or overwhelmed by the idea of trying to maintain something. So recognize what can be minimums for you to keep you moving forward even during those toughest of tough times as a good thing and the more you embrace it as a good thing versus, oh, I’m not being perfect, the more you’re going to do them and the more you’re actually going to do more, which ultimately will lead to better results. Number eight, don’t diet on holidays or vacations. So you know what I will tell people sometimes when they’re on a fall loss phase, Hey, you got to find this balance if you want results at X speed, I’ll be very honest about that. If you want results yesterday and you’re going on vacation, that might look very different than what you do when you’re on vacation and maintenance because you get more flexibility the more you’re at that set point and they could choose a different balance if they want to go a little bit slower, but it’s owning our decisions and choices with that and then recognizing that especially in maintenance, that’s not necessarily the time to restrict.

(11:46):
I mean, if you want to set your fat loss goal over the holidays, great, that’s you, do you? But remember that you’re also sticking to all these healthy habits so that you can have more times where you go on vacation and you just enjoy. Maybe you have different boundaries that you set for yourself or you enjoy the holidays, and this isn’t an excuse to enjoy every day because we could make the excuse that every day is legendary, but then no day is legendary. So just recognize that you do do these other healthy habits to have times where you might not do what you should, and that’s a okay, that’s the whole point of consistency long-term. Then always have a day after plan, so the more you’re maintaining, the more you’re going to find that you do have that weekend day where you do something or that holiday or that vacation.

(12:27):
The key isn’t restricting on those days, and I would even argue during a fat loss phase, the key isn’t restricting on those days or not having the occasional day. You don’t do what you should. It’s always the day after because if you really think about it, even if you give yourself 65 days a year, there’s 300 some odd other days that often we aren’t optimizing to see results. We come back from vacation, we don’t have stuff in the refrigerator, we don’t have meal prep, and all of a sudden that day that we came back becomes the day after and becomes the next week we’re starting. So we really want to make sure that whatever happens if we have a day off plan, we have that day after plan because that gets us right back in line and often makes that other day not only really enjoyable, but keeps us moving forward towards our goals.

(13:09):
So have that day after plan and know that as you’re trying to learn what works for you, you might hit on some things that don’t feel guilty. Just assess, Hey, why didn’t this work for me to get me back on track? Or what do I need to get back on track? That might mean doing a mini cut around vacations. It might mean not doing it and doing the exact opposite and going to minimum so you don’t feel restricted, but it’s assessing what you need to get back to doing the habits that will ultimately move you forward. Because the more time we have off of them, the more we fall back into an old pattern that we probably don’t want. One day is just a deviation, but 2, 3, 4 becomes that pattern becomes a slipping back into old habits and routines. Last thing, tip number 10, keep it fresh.

(13:49):
You get bored with doing the same thing and I actually like doing the same meal prep for a very set amount of time, and all of a sudden it’ll be like one day I wake up and I’m like, all right, I’m sick of this. I don’t want to do this anymore even though I did it for the last few months. Right? So fresh can mean a lot of different things. It doesn’t mean you have to include diversity every single day, but don’t be afraid to evolve things even as you’re maintaining. Shift your macro ratios, even if you’re seeing results on one, just to give yourself different meal prep type stuff. Try different meal prep companies. Try different recipes. Try different ways of planning, try different workouts even if something’s working, it’s not bad over time to adjust to just test because we do kind of like shiny and new.

(14:27):
We’re always hoping for a magic pill or quicker fix, so don’t be afraid to keep things fresh as you’re maintaining. Again, the worst thing we can do for ourselves is think that with maintaining, we’re doing one thing for the rest of our life because we’re not. Your body, your lifestyle, your needs, your goals are going to shift even as you’re maintaining and you might want to gain a little muscle, you might want to lose a little fat, you might want to train for this race. You might have the schedule that makes it not as easy to train in the way that you were adjust and adapt, and the more you do that, the better you’re going to see your results really be maintained longterm. Remember, it’s not a set it and forget a thing. Life is constantly about improving and growing. Give yourself the opportunity to really maintain your results through constantly meeting yourself where you’re at.

 

*Note: This transcript is autogenerated there may be some unintended errors.

Why You Aren’t Losing Weight

Why You Aren’t Losing Weight

by | Apr 17, 2025 | podcast

Listen:

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Transcript:

Open Transcript:

Cori (00:00):
Welcome to the Redefining Strength Podcast. Everything you need to succeed on your health and fitness journey, even the stuff you don’t want to hear. What if not having changed anything is truly the problem? So I had someone comment, I haven’t changed anything, but all of a sudden I’m gaining weight and getting that comment, I slightly smiled because I think often we think, well, I’m not doing anything different, so why am I getting a different result? And my comment back to her, I could tell it slightly surprised her, but my comment back was, have you considered that not changing anything may actually be part of the problem? Because guess what? Your body, your lifestyle, your mindset, your goals are constantly evolving. And if you aren’t adjusting your workouts or diet to match that mismatch now with what used to work when your body and lifestyle and goals were all in a different place might be part of the problem.

(00:57):
What we do to reach one goal can often hold us back from reaching the next, even if our goal is still weight loss. And I bring this up because I think over the seasons, we need to assess what does and doesn’t work for our lifestyles. We need to assess where our mindset is right now. But in thinking about all this, when we think about sustainability, we also think about this as one thing. So think about what was sustainable for you in college? What was sustainable, maybe as a newlywed, what was sustainable when you had young kids? What’s sustainable when you’re an empty nester? All these things are going to be different. Sustainable is going to mean something different to you at each of these phases. And if you try and clinging to what felt comfortable and confused, comfort with sustainability, you’re going to ultimately hold yourself back because nothing works forever.

(01:40):
And everything is constantly changing. And I bring up the seasons too, because I think we think often, okay, yes, now I’m older, so I have to adjust, or my goals have changed, so I have to adjust. But even over just the course of a year, your habits are not going to look the same, driving towards the same goal. And the more we own that, the more we can come back to the fundamentals, but evolve the exact implementation of habits before we fall off. So if you think about a workout plan, you’ve done a workout plan, or maybe you’ve done a diet plan even, and all of a sudden you’re like, oh, this is just not sustainable any longer. Well, how has your lifestyle changed? What’s happened? Is it simply that you’re hitting that hard? Where at 21 days you always start to give up? Okay, well maybe that’s the case.

(02:23):
Maybe it’s just a timeframe thing. It’s not that anything else in your lifestyle has even changed. Well, then how can you get over this hurdle still doing more than you would’ve done in the past? What works in January when you’re super motivated, all of a sudden it’s summer, you’re traveling more. Those habits might not work. And if you keep trying to clinging to them, that’s where you can end up falling off and sabotaging yourself. Same thing with the holidays. So the more we’re constantly assessing, okay, A, am I getting the goal or reaching the goal I want, maybe then I do keep the habits. But if I’m not seeing the results that I want, or even going backwards and I haven’t started to fall off my plan to get less consistent, what is a mismatch that I need to address? And I think it’s really key that not only do we do a lot of reflecting along our journey and set those checkpoints, so not only a deadline for our ultimate goal, but even, and I won’t say deadlines because I think deadlines mean, oh, we’re supposed to be done here.

(03:12):
I do like to call ’em checkpoints, but just times to check in, be like, okay, every three weeks I’m going to do a check-in. I’m going to assess how things have gone, assess my true consistency, and then reflect on what it can change. Because it’s kind of like we’re a mechanic on our car. You don’t want to have your car and then not do the check-ins, the oil changes, all those different things. You want to be doing those things so that your car works really well. But so often we’re not doing those checkups, so to speak, on our diet and workout routines as we’re working towards our goal. All of a sudden we’re just like, oh, it’s not working. The car’s broken down. I’m just going to set it on fire and leave it there and go do something else. No, you wouldn’t do that.

(03:47):
You got to take care of that car. So it keeps moving. You don’t want to have to go buy a new one. You can’t buy a new body. So you got to do those checkups. But I want you to really reflect if you are struggling with seeing results, what other things have changed? Because sustainable doesn’t mean that it is comfortable. It doesn’t mean what we’ve always done. It is going to mean that there is some hard, it just has to be something built off. Those basics that we can consistently do that we know will drive us forward. And that’s even where we so often see that response of, oh gosh, why didn’t I do this sooner? Well, it didn’t feel sustainable to start, but now it does. But you embraced the why behind it. You reflected on what you needed to meet yourself where you’re at.

(04:25):
You went from those January habits where you could do six days a week, one hour in the gym to realizing all of a sudden that felt like the effort wasn’t getting the outcome that you wanted and it wasn’t feeling worth it. And so you’re going to give up. But instead you’re saying, no, no, no, I’m going to do three days a week because there is no ideal. It’s just about meeting myself where I’m at. And in that evolution, in that willingness to change, in that willingness to even say, Hey, it’s not a right or wrong thing. It’s just that nothing works forever. What I did in college doesn’t work for me now. Right? That reflection is what ultimately drives us forward to create sustainable patterns that will evolve. Because sustainable means being open to evolution so that we’re always meeting ourselves where we’re at. So if you have been frustrated by your lack of progress and say, but I haven’t changed my healthy habits, really dive in and reflect on what in those habits might need to evolve because something else in your lifestyle, even if it’s a mindset, even if it’s a routine because of work, a family life, that you’re not going to change, especially, how can you then evolve everything else to match what your body, your goals, your lifestyle needs right now?

 

*Note: This transcript is autogenerated there may be some unintended errors.

Tips For Healthy Eating (And How To Be More Mindful)

Tips For Healthy Eating (And How To Be More Mindful)

by | Apr 10, 2025 | podcast

Listen:

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Transcript:

Open Transcript:

Cori (00:00):
Welcome to the Redefining Strength Podcast, everything you need to succeed on your health and fitness journey, even the stuff you don’t want to hear. Let’s talk about being more mindful. When we munch, it can be very easy to eat for a whole host of reasons and not be conscious of the calories we’re consuming and the impact they’re having and what this is really doing to our body. So I’m super excited to be joined by amazing registered dietician, Julia, to talk about being more mindful when we munch. Julia, welcome. I’d love to hear your thoughts on mindful munching.

Julia (00:38):
Thank you. I’m happy to be here. As we know, eating mindfully really helps us bring that intention to the food that we’re choosing and eating, like you said. So the ultimate goal with mindful munching is really to cultivate a healthy relationship with food, to improve our digestion and really learn how to eat in a balanced way that allows us to hit our goals.

Cori (01:00):
So as you know, and I know you are too, we’re big advocates of macro tracking, and I don’t see being more mindful as the opposite of macro tracking. And I do want to get into intuitive eating and how that plays a role and what that really is, but how can being more mindful go with macro tracking to help you really reach your goals?

Julia (01:23):
Yeah, definitely. So the first thing is it really allows us to be intentional, like you were saying. So when we don’t take the time to think about why we’re eating, we can allow those temporary emotions to take over, whether this be stress, boredom, social pressures, or even just aimlessly eating whatever is in front of us because we’re hungry in the moment. So that tracking really helps us bring that intentionality back to the choices that we are making. And then the next issue that we kind of find is that a lot of times when we’re rushed, food can enter our stomach before it’s even ready. So with tracking and being intentional, we’re able to really also kind of dial in on that digestion process where we’re able to better break down our food, chew it properly, improve our digestion, and give our natural satiety signals a chance to really kick in, which also prevents overeating. So through that mindfulness, we’re able to stimulate the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, often referred to as that rest and digest. So not only is this going to help boost our gut health or digestion, but it’s also really key for those of us looking for weight loss and body recomposition through macro tracking as well.

Cori (02:32):
It’s such an interesting thing because we think what feels natural or our hunger cues are just, well, they’re there, right? It’s our body telling us something, but we don’t realize how much of what’s natural, what our body is. Singly is something that we’ve trained even through previous dieting practices, and so that can make it hard to eat intuitively when we have a specific goal. Can you go over what intuitive eating really is and how being mindful is slightly different from it and how all this works together?

Julia (03:04):
Yeah, so intuitive eating is a way that you’re eating to honor your cravings, your hunger and fullness cues. But the goal being to foster a healthier relationship with food in theory, it is a wonderful concept that we as humans should be able to have the ability to choose what our bodies are needing day-to-day. However, like you brought up, for those of us who have a history of undereating emotional eating or eating a poor quality diet, because our food system is saturated with highly palatable addictive foods, our intuition is probably not going to be the most accurate reflection of what our body actually needs because our current cravings are heavily influenced by how we currently eat, like you said. So you look at someone who has a history of extreme dieting, they probably don’t have the proper hunger cues telling them when they need to eat because their metabolism is downregulated and adapted to that low intake.

(04:00):
You look at someone who craves sugar constantly throughout the day, that could be the result of dysregulated blood sugar from undereating on certain foods like protein, fat, and fiber. And I also just really quickly want to highlight a study that was done, I believe in 2023. It was pretty recent, and it actually showed that as humans, if our protein needs are unmet, we’ll continue to overeat predominantly on carbohydrate and fat rich foods leading to weight gain in an efforts to meet that goal and get that satiety. So while intuitive eating is a great long-term goal for most of us, it’s often not the first step that we need to take to get there.

Cori (04:39):
It’s all about learning what portions we need. And I bring this up too because I think a lot of times we’ll start tracking macros and we’ll get frustrated that we’re not hitting the ratios, but it comes back to, well, if you were hitting the numbers you needed, you’d be at the goal you wanted to be at, but you’re not. So you have to relearn to look at those portions. And in this process of relearning those portions and even tracking things to start, you are learning to eat more mindfully. You’re learning to eat more intuitively because you are seeing what you’re actually consuming and then the impact that it’s truly having. And I think that’s something we don’t talk about enough, the benefit that tracking can truly have to make us more mindful.

Julia (05:23):
Yeah, I definitely agree. I mean, tracking serves as that data to show us what is and what isn’t working for our bodies. So it allows us to go in and separate our actual reality from our own perception of our reality, which is really key because sometimes we can feel like we’re doing great, we can feel like we’re eating the right portions, like you said, we can feel like we may be eating a lot of protein, but it may not always be the case. So tracking is kind of that gateway that allows us to better understand what our bodies need in order to thrive. And over time, as we’re able to shift our palate and really reap the long-term benefits of supporting our metabolism, we’ll find that we’ll be in a much better place to implement these intuitive eating practices. But we need to first put that work in, do that tracking, get that data in order to better educate ourselves and really rewire our metabolisms.

Cori (06:14):
You use the word feel a lot in that, and I think it’s very important that we come back to this word because feelings are not data yet with being more mindful. We have to try and trust in our feelings more, but we have to build more accurate feelings, we’ll say, or mindsets through tracking. But if we’re just allowing how we feel to dictate what we do, think about a fun event. When you’re celebrating excited and it’s fun and the food tastes good, you’re going to be willing to or want to eat more. When you’re stressed after a long day and you’re looking for that comfort and a food gives you comfort, you’re going to go to that food. I know simply when I want more of an ice cream or the peanut butter or whatever else it is, I feel like a portion should be bigger than it is and the portion becomes bigger than it is. Feelings aren’t data, but they can really impact how we ultimately fuel. How can we start to separate out what is a feeling and driving us towards not the correct portions and what’s truly data-driven decisions?

Julia (07:20):
The first step is really just understanding and bringing awareness to it, like you said, right? So a lot of people think that we do these compulsive behaviors like emotional eating because we just lack the willpower on food. Like, oh, I just don’t have the self-control. When in reality we often do it because it’s the only way that we know to either self-soothe or to give ourselves that boost of happiness or whatever. It’s that we’re really seeking from that food. So most of us have heard as dopamine as it’s an important part of our brain’s reward pathway and it causes us to feel good, right? It’s a very pleasurable thing to have. So we also know that foods can give us this dopamine boost really highly palatable foods. So sugary foods, high fat foods. So what makes sense from a scientific standpoint that we are going to reach for these foods, whether it be that ice cream or that glass of wine to make us feel better in these moments because scientifically it’s boosting that dopamine and making us feel better.

(08:19):
But the key takeaway here, and the big point of bringing that awareness to it is that we have to understand that it’s often not the food we’re seeking, it’s the feeling that the food gives us. So the issue is that we’re not really solving the problem at the root. We’re just coping in an unhealthy manner that can contribute to waking and health issues over time. And when this happens continuously, we’re wiring our brain to immediately turn to food when we feel stressed, scared, or even happy. So this is where I always call it the power of the pause that can come in and just allow ourselves to ask those appropriate questions. Am I actually hungry? Am I hoping to relieve feelings of stress, of sadness? Is this food going to satiate me? Am I just eating because I’m at a party and every single person around me is eating?

(09:04):
But ultimately bringing that awareness to it, taking that pause can help us recognize that it’s not really the food that we need, and over time we can begin to replace it with healthier habits. And this is why again, tracking things before eating them can be so helpful because it forces you to take that pause. Not only does it help you be more proactive with our goals as we know, but it really allows you to take a step back outside of the situation, detach from those emotions, and really just pause and think about how we are going to eat and how that lines up with our goals.

Cori (09:39):
It’s that reflection that’s so powerful to give us choice in what we do. And this isn’t to demonize any foods because you are going to want to just enjoy a food that you love, that you grew up with that has memories attached. You’re going to potentially want to sit down to a Thanksgiving meal or have those Christmas cookies, and there’s nothing wrong with these things. I know I am not giving up my summer margaritas and chips and guacamole, especially when the reed avocados are ripe, and it’s not a bad thing to have feelings associated with food, but it’s being mindful then of the choices you’re making when you do consume these things and the impact they’re having on your results. Because when we’re mindful in that way, we don’t create guilt too, which only creates more of a spiral with some of these things. However, pausing is easier said than done. And I love that you bring up tracking beforehand because that allows you to assess what you really need. But let’s just say something comes up and you do eat out of emotion. How can you then use the power of the pause to learn from that?

Julia (10:39):
Yeah, that’s a great question. And that’s where again, we always say tracking services that data to have. So even I have all my clients track your off days, track those moments that aren’t so perfect because that’s data that allows us to then peel back those layers, go back and see what could have led to this, what could have caused this. But again, kind of just that power of the pause in the moment, even if you’re out at a restaurant with people socially, it allows you to come back to things and check in with yourself and check in with what you actually need and want in that moment. And like you said, sometimes you are going to want to go for the cheesecake or the ice cream or whatever it is, and you are going to want to enjoy it. And I think that’s totally okay to even allow yourself to acknowledge like, yes, I want to go for this.

(11:21):
And even if you’re going to try to work it in with your goals, whatever that looks like. But again, just making sure that we’re taking that pause and if it’s going to be something that we’re going to go for, we’re going to enjoy it, savor it, enjoy the experience with the people that we’re around versus feeling that guilt around it. And if it is something that we’re like, I’m not really going to enjoy this. I’m extremely stressed right now, I’m uncomfortable. This is not what’s going to serve me in this moment, then that’s okay too. And that’s again where the power of the pause allows you to det from.

Cori (11:53):
It’s realizing that being more mindful of what you’re consuming is also understanding why you’re consuming it. And on the flip side, while I’m actually guilty of both, while overeating with stress, sometimes we can even undereat with stress and we’re not mindful that we’re eating too little and that’s impacting our results. How do you navigate if you are undereating due to stress? Because we talk a lot about overeating with it, but undereating can also be an issue.

Julia (12:20):
Yeah, definitely. And it’s kind of that idea of that fight or flight response which you can get, which causes us to overeat can also cause us to undereat like you’re saying. And sometimes people feel like they can’t really switch gears from experiencing that stress that they are experiencing firsthand. So even just again, practicing mindfulness by meeting ourselves where we’re at, remembering that food is still fuel, and this could mean even just adjusting your plan for the time being. Maybe you’re going to rely more on things like small calorie dense snacks, things like protein bars and shakes, things like yogurt bowls where you can add a lot of nuts and seeds and kind of bulk that up a little bit. Things like smoothies where you can add in yogurt, nut butters, or even using an eating schedule and setting reminders for yourself throughout the day, that can be huge. As silly as it sounds, just setting an alarm on your phone or scheduling it in your calendar when to eat, that can be huge just to remind you, Hey, I know I may not want to eat right now, but it’s important to fuel my body and still give myself as care in this moment. And just having that little reminder can go a really long way to helping you to still accomplish that goal and get in that fuel when you’re feeling a little bit stressed.

Cori (13:31):
It’s that accountability and outside perspective that we’re often missing because again, feelings aren’t data and what’s going on inside our head can often take us down a path that’s not correct if we let it. And so being more mindful is assessing where those feelings are coming from. With that being said, we can track ahead to help hold us accountable, whether we overeat or we even undereat, and especially if we’re undereating, we might think, well, this is even good for my weight loss goals, which is a whole other subject, but not necessarily the case, which is why meal planning can be so key so that you can track ahead, you can hold yourself accountable, you can give yourself that outside perspective. Can you go over some tips to help with that? I think that is often the biggest struggle that pre-planning, but if we don’t do it, we’re setting ourselves up for failure. And as odd as it sounds to have a plan in place that makes us more mindful.

Julia (14:25):
Yeah, definitely. I mean, even just pre-planning or pre logging, whatever that looks like for you can really help us bring that intentionality and just ensure that we are hitting our goals and we’re usually sitting down to plan in a time that we’re not hungry or tired, so we’re able to make more mindful choices. So we’re really just setting ourselves up for success. Like you said, sometimes you aren’t able to be mindful simply just because our environment doesn’t allow for us make long choices. If you’re someone who you work 10 to 12 hour shifts and you don’t have a plan for what you’re going to eat when you get off shift, then of course you’re not going to make the best choices. You can’t expect yourself to do that. But pre tracking really helps to come in and reduce any questions of what you should have, reduce any food noise throughout the day and just allow you to set up a plan.

(15:11):
And this can look different for every single person. For some people it can be meal prepping individual meals. For some people it could be bulk prepping, maybe a few protein items or veggies, if that’s what you struggle with, so that you have them easily available to throw into meals, even if it’s coming home and chopping up your produce, your fruits and veggies and just having them ready to grab in the fridge to pair with something for when you get off that shift, that can go a huge way or a long way just to help you have that readily available for you and give you that crutch to lean on when you are needing it.

Cori (15:45):
You’re using that power of the pause to plan ahead so that you can be more mindful because you’re not letting emotions or stress or fatigue or any of these other things come into play. You’re sitting down to really assess. And I think it’s key at these points that we reflect on even what our emotional triggers are and how we respond to them and why they come up, and even what our coming week or coming months, even the coming year looks like in terms of some of those stressors to really plan ahead for it. Because if we don’t own what’s going on, all those priorities that come up are what become our excuses. So off of that key takeaways, if someone wants to be more mindful so that their priorities aren’t sabotaging them, their emotions aren’t sabotaging them, they can be more mindful in their eating to see the best results.

Julia (16:33):
I mean, just going off of that, obviously dialing into what your personal causes are that lead you to eat more mindlessly. So could it be that lack of preparation? Could it be emotions? Could it be that you’re on the go and you’re very busy? It could it be lack of time? It could it be just distractions during mealtime that you’re experiencing, but whatever it is, really dialing in and figuring out what those biggest challenges are for yourself will allow you to then come up with a plan to implement the necessary changes. So for those who stress eat, for example, this could mean leaning into that power of the paws and working to find healthier stress releases unrelated to food or even facing the stress at the root for those who are busy and on the move. This could mean planning a few meals out, maybe going for overnight oats or a smoothie that you can take with you on the go in your car, or even keeping some macro friendly, convenient snacks on hand like beef jerky, roos, edamame, protein bars in your gym bag for whenever you’re in a pinch. But again, this is where tracking will service that data and allows us to see those areas throughout the day in the weeks where we are struggling and allow us to see those huge room and areas of growth.

Cori (17:45):
Being more mindful isn’t just being aware of how your body responds to the food that you eat or how full you feel. It really is about having that outside perspective of how everything works together and how your fueling is impacting you and how your emotions are impacting your fueling. So it’s so much more than just intuitive eating, truly at its heart. And again, we are human and that voice inside our head can really sometimes sabotage us. So having that outside perspective and using tracking to our advantage, whether it is in a food tracker and if someone’s maybe struggling with the food tracker, struggling with macros, struggling with even becoming a little feeling that they’re obsessive with the numbers, what would you recommend they do to track to help them have that outside perspective to be more mindful?

Julia (18:31):
Yeah, that’s a great question. I would say even just taking a more modified approach to tracking, whether it be just a protein goal or again, if you’re really struggling with a certain meal, even just focusing on that meal, maybe it’s just breakfast or it’s just your snacks and really just trying to start small, and then over time you can build up and gather more data. But even just that will allow you to then go in and see how you can make just those little 1% changes day to day.

Cori (18:58):
I love that. And I even think taking pictures of the meals you want to eat, you plan to eat that will fuel you well. And then even taking pictures of the things that you maybe consumed that weren’t on what you had planned to eat, to sort of be able to compare, to have that data, to understand even writing out some notes on why you then had those things. There’s so many different ways to hold yourself accountable and give that outside perspective to then assess your feelings, how they’re impacting your fueling, and be more mindful in how you choose to fuel. Julia, any other closing thoughts? This has been fabulous.

Julia (19:32):
Just again, kind of figuring out what those possible causes are for you, and this is where it looks different for every single person and not being afraid to even dive in if it is something more so like stress, if it is something, whatever it may be for you, just not being afraid to dive even into it, because often it’s things beyond food, right? It’s that planning, it’s that accountability. So just not being afraid to dive into it and make those small changes over time, that is what adds up to that lasting change.

Cori (20:01):
It’s all in the reflection guys. Hopefully this was really helpful for you to really step back, see how you can be more mindful in your fueling. Love to hear your biggest takeaways. Julia, thank you so much for joining me today. Have a great rest of your week.

 

*Note: This transcript is autogenerated there may be some unintended errors.

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