Ready to make more progress toward your training goals?
How ‘bout ya focus on more than just PHYSICAL training…
In this series of blog posts, I’ll help you dial in the areas of:
A) nutrition
B) hydration
C) sleep
D) mobility & movement prep
E) mindset & stress management
… to make sure you’re not sabotaging your workouts by not making the most of recovery time outside of the gym.
Up first: EAT!
As I mentioned in Part 1 of this blog series, I start clients off with a general protein goal.
If you didn’t read Part 1 yet, go back and check it out HERE now… we’ll wait.
For most of my clients, once I get them eating enough protein, they stay pretty full and don’t get too crazy overeating the other macronutrients: fat and carbohydrates.
In case you’re curious, YES as a former CrossFitter I once advocated for the paleo diet. Lots of people LUUUUURVE it because they don’t have to weigh or measure anything, and you get to live that UNLIMITED GUAC AND BACON LIFE.
But in many cases (including my own), you end up overeating fat and not eating enough protein and carbs.
YES, it’s a super popular diet.
NEWSFLASH: nutrition science has proven over and over again that there is no clear cut leader in the trendy diet wars… ketogenic, paleo, intermittent fasting, Atkins, low-carb, Weight Watchers, Trader Joe’s corn dogs diet*…
*That last one is just literally living off a diet of Trader Joe’s corn dogs. I have a client who tried it once. SHOCKINGLY, it was not sustainable.
What has been proven time and time again is this:
Calories in, calories out is what matters.
Calories in, calories out is what matters.
In other words, how many total calories you consume each day versus how many calories you burn, is what affects weight loss, gain or maintenance.
Since most of my clients are under-eating – either overall or protein only, when I start working with them, that’s why I start them off with a protein goal.
From there, I can also make recommendations on supplements and help make other nutrition adjustments.
But for my clients who want a detailed nutrition plan, I refer them to the people who are teaching nutrition better than anyone in the industry right now, Renaissance Periodization.
In the past I have had great success personally with the RP Cutting Templates. Check them out here and use discount code Lis10 if you shop on their site.
I’ve also learned a lot from their various e-books. Check out the templates or e-books at the links below… YES, by using these links I will make a small commission from your sale. But I don’t recommend any products I don’t use. RP is great, and I paid for their templates back when I used them.
YES – they also offer some training templates and other products.
NO – I’m not trying to put myself out of business.
YES – I think all of their products are good.
NO – I don’t think the templates work for everyone.
YES – if you want more personalized coaching and programming, contact me.
NOW – let’s address the giant yet perfect (NO BODY SHAME) elephant in the room.
Diet culture has completely f*cked up what many of us think is a “healthy” diet.
This is my career, and I still struggle with the motivation to regularly eat well, eat enough, and consistently make the healthiest choices for myself.
If you have a history of disordered eating and/or if you know you tend to get obsessive with nutrition and exercise, then I am going to recommend the opposite of what many of the Instagram fitness & nutrition superstars are preaching.
PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION.
In our quest to be “perfect” like your favorite powerlifter or nutrition diva on social media (many of whom have their own mental health issues), we are setting impossible standards for ourselves.
I don’t track my food intake consistently, because I have an unhealthy relationship with food and I will go from enjoying my meals to obsessing over tracking everything that goes into my mouth, looking forward to my next meal before I finish what I am currently eating, and calculating the macros of what a stranger is eating in public. YASSS, I’m weird.
If you find yourself adopting any of these behaviors, perhaps it’s time to take a step back from the smart phone and whatever tracking app you are using.
Maybe you need to take a little break from social media.
Perhaps you need to meet with a mental health professional to discuss these behaviors.
NO JUDGMENT, just some ideas.
And if nutrition is way too much of a trigger for you to focus on, or if training alone overwhelms you enough, then perhaps you chill with the nutrition focus for a bit while you just get training dialed in.
You can always come back to the food focus when you’re in a better place.
I do this : track my protein intake for a few weeks, to make sure I’m eating enough. I use a free app like MyFitnessPal or FitGenie. And then I take a month off from tracking, eyeballing my serving sizes and estimating my protein intake. Then a while later, I track things again just to “recalibrate” and make sure I’m eating enough.
GOOD LUCK with your nutrition and let me know if you have other questions about any of this stuff.
Check back on the blog soon for the next chapters of this post – with hydration, sleep, mobility & movement prep, mindset & stress management tips.
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Lis Smash
