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#23 - Q&A: How Much Weight To Use To Build Muscle, How To Build More Self Confidence, How To Stop Falling Off Track & More
67 Plays2 years ago
Q & A episode answering questions from you guys! In this episode, we talked through the following:
- How To Pick Your Weights To Build More Muscle
- What Template I Use With My Fitness Training
- Where To Start With Nutrition Goals
- How To Be More Consistent With Training Goals
- What Are Some High Protein Breakfast Ideas
- How You Can Use Fitness To Build More Self-Confidence
If you want questions answered in the future, you can always message me on Instagram (linked below).
IG: Bassbuiltfitness
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Travel Plans
00:00:02
Speaker
All right, welcome back to the Fit-ish project with your host Latham Bass. Recording this one here a little bit early, recording it on a nice Sunday night. Typically don't record it until like Tuesday or Wednesday, and then edit it all up and then get it out to you guys. But doing it a little early because I'm
00:00:23
Speaker
Going on a trip here this week, taking off on Tuesday. So trying to get this one done, trying to get it in. And just in August in general, I got a bunch of trips lined up pretty much every weekend for like the next five to six weeks. I will be in different places and not in Iowa. So pretty pumped about that. Get to do some traveling, which was one of my main goals this summer. Get to see some friends, do some new stuff.
00:00:45
Speaker
make some good memories. So super pumped about that. But the goal is to continue to try to get the one podcast out every week. So I will do my best to continue on the same routine. But without further ado, we will get into this episode. So hadn't done one of these in a while. So thought it'd be nice to do one of
Q&A: Training, Nutrition, and Self-Confidence
00:01:04
Speaker
these. I've had some questions recently from just people on social media, having conversations with people, things like that. So I thought a Q&A would be a good thing to get into. So
00:01:14
Speaker
Within this one, I'm going to talk a little bit about some training stuff. So like, common question that I get is how much weight or how do you know how much weight to use in strength training. So we're going to talk about that couple simple methods that you can use to figure that out. Going to talk a little bit about what my own personal training looks like give you a little bit of a template of kind of what I do, where to start with nutrition, if you're just kind of confused or overwhelmed.
00:01:36
Speaker
Some high protein breakfast options for those of you who struggle to start your day off with some protein or just struggle to hit your protein goals in general. Talk about consistency a little bit and a few tips on how to become more consistent with your fitness routine. And lastly, we'll talk a little bit about self-confidence and how to go about building up your self-confidence. So six different questions and we will get right into it. So question number one.
Selecting Weights and Muscle Failure
00:02:05
Speaker
How do I know how much weight to use when strength training? Alright, so number one, before you can answer this question, you first have to understand what your actual goal is with the strength training. You know, there's several different goals that you could have when it comes to strength training. So like, if your goal is just general health, this could vary quite a bit. You know, maybe you're just somebody who is trying to maintain a little bit or you're somebody who's just trying to get in the weight room.
00:02:27
Speaker
Maybe you're just using some lighter weights. You're just trying to focus on getting some movement, not trying to really hit it too hard. Like you're not really focused on building a bunch of strength or building a bunch of muscle. Then you can just use, you know, light weights or whatever you want to do there. And it doesn't really matter all that much if your goal is just to simply get some movement in.
00:02:44
Speaker
But for most of you guys and most of the people that I've worked with in the past, they have goals around either building some muscle or some strength, typically both. So that is how we're going to answer this question. We're going to act like building muscle is the main priority. When it comes to building muscle and building strength, there are just some slight differences. If your main goal is to build just strictly the most strength, there's a lot of different methods and techniques and things that you can do with periodization.
00:03:10
Speaker
and things like that, but I won't worry about that too much because again, most of the people that I've worked with and most of you guys listening, your goal is probably to build muscle. So, and a side effect of building some of that muscle, you're also gonna build some strength. So they're not mutually exclusive. When you do one, you will get some of the other, but just wanted to point that out. There is some slight differences between the two, but we're just gonna focus mainly on the goal of building muscle. So when it comes to building muscle,
00:03:38
Speaker
and trying to figure out what weight you should be using for certain exercises.
00:03:43
Speaker
The basic thing that you need to understand is that when you're trying to build the most muscle possible, you need to be taking your sets close to muscular failure, or at least like one to two, sometimes three reps shy of muscular failure. And all that means is that muscular failure would be like, if I'm doing a bench press and basically I get, let's say I get like eight reps and I go for my ninth rep and I can't push it all the way up, that would technically be muscular failure. I can't physically get it up.
00:04:12
Speaker
Now you don't have to necessarily do that every single time. And we'll talk about when is a good time and when maybe not a good time to go to muscular failure. But the main goal is to get usually within about one to two reps shy of muscular failure. And that's going to make sure that you are giving the muscle enough reason to change. You're working it hard enough. You're hitting it with enough intensity so that you can actually continue to build muscle. Because if you don't give your muscle a reason to change, if you don't give it a strong enough signal to change, then it's not going to.
00:04:42
Speaker
So that's something that you really need to understand if the goal is building muscle, which most of you guys, that is a main goal. So again, that one to two rep shy of failure is something to remember. And then when it comes to training to complete failure, like I said, that can be useful and helpful, but you will just want to make sure that you're doing it at the right times and that you're not necessarily taking every single set to failure because that's probably going to wear you out quite a bit.
00:05:05
Speaker
And just some things to note when you are going to failure, you want to make sure obviously, you know, if it's an exercise that you need a spotter for like bench press, something like that, that you have a spotter. Sometimes using like certain machines are a little bit safer.
00:05:20
Speaker
a little bit easier to take certain exercises to failure because a lot of those have the safety mechanisms already built into them. So they can be a little easier if you're somebody who's maybe a little intimidated to go to failure with like free weights. And then also just making sure that you're picking exercises that have a lower risk of injury or maybe a little bit smarter to go to failure on. So for example,
00:05:39
Speaker
I probably would never ask a client to go to failure on a back squat because it's not very smart to have somebody have 300, 400 pounds on their back and try to go to failure. They can't get it back up. Now they're stuck. There's a higher chance for things to go wrong, injuries to happen, things like that.
00:05:57
Speaker
I could have somebody go to failure let's say like on a dumbbell split squat because if they're doing the dumbbell split squat all they'd have to do when they're going to failure say they can't get back up they simply just drop the dumbbells and then they're good to go there's not a high risk of injury so just being smart if you are going to take your exercises to complete failure just make sure you're making good options and being safe about all that but like I said you don't need to take
00:06:22
Speaker
all your sets to failure, but it is helpful to take some exercises to muscular failure every once in a while so that you actually have a good gauge of what it means to get close.
Understanding and Applying RPE Scale
00:06:33
Speaker
Because as I said, one to two reps shy of failure is typically the goal for most of your training. That's where you're gonna live. But if you don't know what actual failure is, if you don't know how many reps that is, how much weight you're typically using, well, then it's hard to figure out what one to two reps shy of that would be.
00:06:48
Speaker
And perfect example is that was there was like this study that they had people do. I think it was on the bench press. They had them pick a weight that they thought they could do for exactly 10 reps, no more, no less. So they're 10 rep maximum. And when they did this study, they found that very few people were actually able to pick a weight that they could do for 10.
00:07:08
Speaker
A lot of people did way more than 10, so they underestimated themselves. Then there was a few who kind of overestimated themselves who could only get like seven or eight repetitions. So it just goes to show you that as humans, we're just typically not all that great at estimating those things.
00:07:23
Speaker
going to muscular failure every once in a while so you can really get a gauge of where you're at is a smart thing to do. So just something to keep in mind. So when it comes to, you know, thinking about, okay, how do I pick my way? I know that I need to go one to two reps shy of muscular failure or hit muscular failure.
00:07:40
Speaker
every once in a while. But still, how do I go about picking a weight? So there's a couple different ways that I look at it. If you're a numbers person, and like, you know, your one rep maxes, you know, like how much you can lift on certain lifts, let's say, for example, like a bench press or squat, you know how much you can do for one rep, well, then basically, you can think about
00:07:59
Speaker
most of your working sets are going to be done within about 65 to 80% of your one rep max. So super easy example, let's say that if you can bench press 100 pounds, most of your sets are going to be done with 65 to 80 pounds somewhere in that range. And that's just because that's a good range where you can get enough reps, so you get enough good stimulus, but it's also not going to burn you out. And you know, you're not really like taxing yourself too much. So that 65 to like 80% range
00:08:28
Speaker
is a good range to think of. If you don't want to get that detailed with it, if you're not a huge numbers person, which most people aren't, most people, you know, they typically just will pick a weight and kind of go with it. This is the other way that I go about helping people pick out a weight. So if you think about a scale and this, all this is called is an RPE scale. It stands for rate of perceived exertion. So if we take a scale, it starts at one, one being the absolute easiest, extremely easy. You could do tons of reps, wasn't hard at all.
00:08:57
Speaker
and it goes to 10. 10 would be, if I hit 10, that means I did, you know, I went to muscular failure, I could not get another rep. It was the most hard, most intense, you know, most difficult set that I can do.
00:09:12
Speaker
When you're thinking about your exercises and thinking about your sets, when you're strange training, most of your sets will be somewhere in the seven, eight or nine range on that scale. If you're really trying to optimize building muscle. So let's say you pick a weight and you're supposed to be getting 10 repetitions. You get all 10. If you're really trying to optimize building muscle should be either like a seven, eight or nine on the intensity or the effort scale. So that's just a really easy way to.
00:09:40
Speaker
Figure out if you are in that range that you were supposed to be and then just a couple of bonus tips to kind of know like
00:09:49
Speaker
whether or not you're in the right range, if you're kind of in the ballpark of using weights that are heavy enough or figuring out if they're too light or not, is when you're doing your sets, your first rep versus your very last rep should look quite a bit different. And not from like a form or technical standpoint, but the speed at which the reps move should be quite a bit different. So like when you take, let's say you're doing a set of 10 reps, your very first rep is probably gonna be pretty fast, pretty quick,
00:10:17
Speaker
By the time you get to like rep six, seven, eight, nine, like they should start slowing down a little bit, right? They shouldn't be as quick as the first reps. And that's a good sign that you are getting closer to that muscular failure. And then when you get to your last, you know, one or two reps, that rep should be pretty slow. You should have to grind through a little bit. That's one easy way to kind of know, you know, if you're using enough weight, if all your reps look the exact same, then you're probably not using heavy enough weight.
00:10:43
Speaker
And then the second way to kind of gauge if you're using a heavy enough weight is let's say again, you have a set of 10 reps. I do all my 10 reps and about 30 seconds later, I feel like I'm ready to go. My muscles feel recovered. You know, I'm all set and I can hop in and do my next set. That probably means that I did not use a high enough weight or, you know, an intense enough weight, because if you're really pushing it,
00:11:09
Speaker
You know, if you're really, really challenging your muscles, you should need at a minimum two minutes of rest. If you're really trying to build some, some good muscle and build some strength. If you can get right into your next set before taking that rest, that probably means again, that you're not using a heavy enough weight. So two super easy tips to know there without having to use any math, without having to use any numbers or anything like that. Now you have a super simple way to pick your weight and know if you're using a good enough way to really
00:11:39
Speaker
build some muscle and build some strength. Hopefully that makes sense. Um, I know there was, you know, a little bit more technical language in there than usually in these answers, but hopefully that all made sense.
Weekly Fitness Routine
00:11:51
Speaker
Um, question number two, what does your training look like on a regular basis? So, um, for me personally, I always try to get in four days of strength training, uh, most weeks. Sometimes, you know, I'm traveling or I have other things come up or,
00:12:06
Speaker
You know, there's just certain things going on and I'll only get in like two or three days, but I really try to get in four days. And I typically do get in four days of strength training most weeks. As far as time goes, I try to keep those strength sessions under an hour. And when I'm in the gym for more than an hour.
00:12:24
Speaker
more than like I would say I guess probably 75 minutes or like an hour 15. I just kind of, you know, start to lose some steam, not as motivated workout start to kind of go downhill if I'm in the weight room any longer than that. So I try to make sure that I keep them under an hour so that they're really productive getting it out.
00:12:39
Speaker
and make sure that I'm getting some good work in. But I try to do two upper body days and then two lower body days. So for example, let's say like what I'm doing right now, on Monday I'll do lower body, Tuesday I'll switch and do upper body, Wednesday will be kind of like a recovery day or I'll take it off from the weights, and then Thursday I'll be back to the lower body, Friday back to the upper body, and then I have my four sessions in.
00:13:03
Speaker
I don't typically lift on the weekends. I just like to keep those free. And, you know, I just enjoy doing other stuff on the weekends and being active in other ways. So I try to make sure I knock out all my strength sessions during the week, if possible. Within my sessions, I try to do like anywhere between like four to seven exercises. I'll do like one main strength movement, and then I'll do like some accessories and things like that. But again, I'm trying to make sure that I'm getting
00:13:29
Speaker
in and out of there within an hour, just to make sure that, you know, I'm getting the most out of each session. When it comes to cardio, I've recently added that in this year and have been a lot more, you know, diligent about my cardio and I've seen a lot of good benefits from that. So in keeping that in, but I try to get in, you know, at least three sessions, sometimes four a week. And most of it has been running. Sometimes I'll bike, sometimes I'll play basketball, throw that in there, but try to run.
00:13:56
Speaker
you know, anywhere from like 30 to 45 minutes, at least three, sometimes four times a week, and get my cardio in just for those benefits. And then the last thing that I would include within my own personal training is I try to walk. I've said it multiple times and I'll continue to say it, but walking is super underrated just when it comes to activity, you know, making sure that your body is feeling well.
00:14:19
Speaker
moving well, all those types of things. Just super simple thing that you can do, but just focusing on getting a decent amount of steps in your day can have tons of health benefits. So I try personally to get at least 10,000 steps per day. And that's kind of, you know, my goal as far as walking goes, but that's what my training consists of. It really doesn't take all that much time, especially, you know, like I said with the lifting stuff, like that's about four hours a week with the cardio. It's probably about another three hours a week.
00:14:47
Speaker
and then I don't really count the walking because that's done like you know in between things and stuff like that but basically you know in a 168 hour week I'm putting seven hours of that towards exercise so you know when you look at the percentages it's really not a ton it may sound like a lot on paper but
00:15:04
Speaker
It's not a ton of time. It just takes a little bit of prioritizing and building up those habits. But the amount of benefit that I get from putting those seven hours in every week is pretty substantial. So my advice to you, obviously this is my template and this is what works for me, but my advice to you is just find a routine that really works for you, that works for your schedule, that works for your lifestyle and your goals and just run with it.
00:15:33
Speaker
It took me a while to figure out this template for myself, so don't be afraid to try certain things. If certain things don't work, then scratch it
Nutrition Changes and Consistency
00:15:40
Speaker
and try something new. It may take a little while to find a routine that works for you and also understand that at different times, life is going to change a little bit. You're going to have different priorities, maybe a little bit more time versus a little bit less time.
00:15:53
Speaker
Don't be afraid to change things up if you need to. But again, that trial and error and really finding out what works for you and finding out what that balance looks like for you is what is most important. Question number three, I'm out of shape, but I'm ready to make some changes. But I have zero idea about where to start with nutrition. What would you recommend? So before getting into what I would actually recommend, my first piece of advice would be to start small. And that is what I tell most people.
00:16:23
Speaker
Now there are certain, you know, instances or certain people who can just kind of jump into it and just like completely flip a switch and go zero to 100.
00:16:32
Speaker
But I would say the majority of people, that is not you. And I mean, if you look at the statistics around like weight loss, for example, or if you just think about how many people have health resolutions at the beginning of the year versus how many people actually complete those resolutions, it is a very, very slim number. So jumping in with that all or nothing approach typically doesn't work for most people. So again, I would recommend to start small.
00:16:58
Speaker
Most people revert back to their old habits because they typically try to take on too much or they try to change everything all at once and that leads to them failing. Because most people you have to understand like you didn't just get this way overnight, right? You didn't like get out of shape or overweight or like in a place where you're not really happy with. It didn't happen over one night or one week or one month. Typically it's been several years of these not so great habits that have gotten you to this place. So the idea that you can change it.
00:17:27
Speaker
in one week or one month is just not very realistic. So I encourage you to take on that 1% better mindset that I'm always talking about because that is what I see people have the most success with. That's what I did personally with losing 100 pounds and all the goals that I attack. So that's always what I typically recommend for people. The second thing I would say is think about an area that you can make a change right away with and be successful with. So like for example, when I'm coaching people,
00:17:56
Speaker
Like I'll have a conversation with them. I'll ask them a bunch of questions, see like where they're feeling confident or where they think they should be making a change, but also where they feel like it's an area that they can be really successful with and make a change and stick with it. So for example, that might look, that might be something like adding more protein into each day. That could be eating two more servings of vegetables each day. That could be eating fruit every day.
00:18:22
Speaker
That could even be just drinking more water each day. It doesn't have to be super complicated. And to be honest, most of these things aren't all that complicated or advanced. It's just a matter of actually putting them into practice and doing them consistently. So think about an area that you could change right away that you know is going to start pushing you in the right direction. And then I would pick that. Once you have that thing picked, then it's all about just tracking your progress and focusing on that thing so that you can do it consistently and hopefully
00:18:52
Speaker
turn that into a habit. So what I tell people is track that thing really focus on that one singular thing for at least at a bare minimum two weeks. And if you feel like you have that nailed down, let's say for example, you're going to start adding in more protein to you know, each day. So
00:19:09
Speaker
You start adding more protein every single day and you do that for two weeks and you get to the end of two weeks and you're like, all right, I feel pretty good about this. I feel like I can easily continue this habit. And you can go back, find another area where you can add, you know, add something in or make a positive change and then you start focusing on that thing. And you continue to build on those little things and then, you know, over the course of several months, you kind of look back and you have all these little things stacked on top of each other and you start to make really, really good progress.
00:19:37
Speaker
Again, it's not all about changing everything overnight. It's about slowly building in little things and they add up over time and you look back and you know, you're in a lot better place than when you started. Next question. I enjoy fitness but I feel like I go through phases where I'm killing it and then other phases where my consistency is just not as good. Do you have any tips on consistency?
00:20:00
Speaker
All right, so number one, I would just make the point of just understanding that it is somewhat natural to go through kind of ups and downs or ebbs and flows. That's just life. Sometimes there's going to be periods in your life where you're a lot more busy. Maybe you don't have as much time to train and things fall off a little bit. That doesn't necessarily mean that they have to fall off forever, but you can just understand that that is a natural part of life.
00:20:27
Speaker
I wouldn't overly stress about those things, but obviously you probably want to make some progress and the only way to make good progress is to be consistent. So you have to find that balance and when you do have that time, when you do have those periods within your life where you can attribute more time to fitness, working out, really being healthy, that you're actually doing that and sticking to it.
00:20:51
Speaker
So the next thing that you kind of have to think about here is your actual goal. So you need to take a step back, think about what your actual goal is and why that goal is important to you.
00:21:03
Speaker
A lot of times like when I work with people or when I like, you know, have a conversation with people, that's where I always try to start is figure out what their actual goal is. Like, you know, what, what are they trying to do? Because a lot of times when I do have this conversation, a lot of people, they either don't have a goal, which is a problem or their goal is super vague or like just very unspecific and it's hard to
00:21:27
Speaker
You know, get motivated to get a good plan going, all those things, if you don't really have a specific goal. So first figure out what your goal is and understand why it is important to you. Once you have those two things down, that makes it a little bit easier because you're going to make time for things that are important to you. If it's not really important to you, if it's not specific, if it doesn't really mean a whole lot to you, well, then you're probably not going to be very consistent with it. So make sure you understand that first and foremost.
00:21:52
Speaker
Once you have a good goal, once you understand why it's important, next thing I would say to focus on is to have a good plan. If you do not have a good plan, the likelihood of you actually sticking to it and making progress is like zero. But again, once you understand it's important, you have your goal, now it's time to plan. So when it comes to making a plan, here's some tips for you. You want to make sure, as I mentioned before, that you are specific about it.
00:22:20
Speaker
Again, don't have vague, like very general goals because it's hard to create a good solid plan if you just have a very general goal. Like if you have a random plan, you're going to get random results, right? You're not going to get great results if you don't have a great plan. So make sure you have, you know, a very defined goal and that you're being specific about your plan.
00:22:40
Speaker
When it comes to creating a plan, some just basic general questions that you always wanna ask yourself is, okay, let's say we're talking about a workout plan in this case, you wanted to give some tips on being consistent, so you know that you need a goal, you know that it needs to be specific, it needs to be something that's important to you, and now you know that you need to have a plan. So here's some questions to ask yourself when you're trying to come up with a training plan. So number one, how many days per week can I commit to working out?
00:23:08
Speaker
Make sure when you ask yourself this question that you are starting on the low end and not being all ambitious because this happens all the time too. Like I'll have a conversation with somebody and they're very motivated when we're having a conversation to come up with a plan. So it'll be like, I want to work out five days per week. Well, you haven't been working out for months or like you've been working out two days per week.
00:23:28
Speaker
Why do you think working out five times per week is a good plan? Like, does that sound very realistic and very sustainable? Probably not. So what you should do is pick a, you know, a modest amount of days that you plan to work out throughout the week, start on the low end, and then you can always add more days in, but it's better to start off on the low end, add more days, then pick a plan.
00:23:51
Speaker
and let's say you pick four days a week but you really only can get two days in a week or you're really struggling to get that four and now you're kind of falling off. You don't feel like you're being successful. You kind of feel like a failure like you're not really you know making the progress you should doing the things you should. Well now you're kind of in that negative loop versus if you start with just two days a week, pressure with the two days. Once you get in that good habit of getting two days per week, maybe that you know you do that for a month you're feeling good. You're like okay I can add a third day so then you add a third day and then so on and so on.
00:24:19
Speaker
Again, start small, build up over time. Don't be too over-committed on that front. You wanna start, set yourself up to succeed, right? Set yourself up to win. So how many days per week can you commit to working out? Number two, how much time can you commit to each workout? So once you know, okay, I'm gonna put, let's say three days per week in the gym. How much time can I put into each workout? Make sure you think about the other things that go along with this. You know, if you have to drive to a gym, how much time does that take? You know, going back and forth.
00:24:49
Speaker
changing at the gym, shower and all that kind of stuff. Because that makes a difference too, especially if you're somebody who has a busy lifestyle, you need to take into account all those things so that you can manage your time the best and make the best decisions. But on average, most people are going to put in like 30 to 60 minutes for a workout. That's a good range to kind of shoot for. But again, it will be personalized to your individual goals and what actually makes sense to you. So that's number two, figure out how much time you can actually contribute to a workout.
00:25:17
Speaker
Next, you're going to think about what kind of program am I going to follow? And since you already have your goal picked out, you already have how many days per week you can commit to, how much time that's going to narrow down or help you narrow down what kind of program that you should be using. So that makes it a little easier. Then you also need to think about what type of equipment you have access to, those sorts of things. But if you have your goal, how many days per week, how much time you have,
00:25:44
Speaker
what equipment you're going to be using, that's going to help you tremendously pick out a program that's actually makes sense for you to use. And then lastly, think about when am I actually going to work out? Once you figure that out, you need to make sure that you actually schedule those things on your calendar. And I say this, and it seems like such a simple thing, like not to do, but I would really urge you, especially if consistency has been a struggle for you, to put them on your calendar, because if you don't put your workouts on your calendar,
00:26:14
Speaker
typically the first things to go, you know, you forget about them, you get busy, they get pushed aside and you know, they're just not made a priority. But if this is something that's important to you, this is something that you really want to work on, then you need to make sure that you prioritize them, put them on your calendar, just like you put any other event on your calendar, that's important. So that you actually schedule out time to do these things.
00:26:36
Speaker
You're going to work out three days per week. Each workout is going to be about 45 minutes long. When throughout the week, am I going to do that? Let's say, okay, I'm going to work out Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. I'm going to work out not right after work. I'm going to take a little break. I'm going to decompress a little bit. And then let's say 45 minutes after I get done with work, I'm going to head to the gym and I'm going to get my workout in then.
00:26:58
Speaker
plug that into my calendar and then I'm good to go. Again, super easy thing not to do, but I promise you it will make a difference if you actually schedule it on your calendar and you know, hold yourself accountable, which takes me into my last point about this, you know, being more consistent, find some sort of accountability and there's tons of different ways that you can do this. Obviously, you know, a coach is a good one, whether it's like a personal trainer, an online coach, anybody who can help you out a little bit who can hold you accountable,
00:27:27
Speaker
A workout partner is another good one. Find somebody who maybe has some similar goals to you and somebody that you enjoy working out with. You can work out with them that can help. A workout group can be also helpful that helps with that accountability when you have other people that are expecting you to show up. You meet some people you like the people that you're working out with. They expect to see your face that will help to hold you more accountable. You could post on social media.
00:27:53
Speaker
You know maybe shout your goals out on social media or just post when you work out just to kind of hold yourself accountable Or tell somebody else who's following you You know about your your goals and they expect to see you posted on social media that can help you You know stay a little bit more accountable
00:28:08
Speaker
Again, use a calendar, like I said, either digitally or I also like using a physical calendar because I think that can help a little bit too. So you have a calendar that you can buy physically and put it somewhere where you can see it. Like every day that you work out, you put a little mark on there, mark that you worked out. I don't know why it works, but it does. Like just having that little physical calendar there and just being able to like, you know, check that off, check that workout off.
00:28:34
Speaker
It seems to help quite a bit. So again, if you struggle, that could be a very cheap and easy way to help hold yourself accountable. But yeah, those are all some really good ways that you can find a little bit of accountability to help you, especially if you're somebody who's been struggling, all these tactics work pretty well. But again, it's just a matter of figuring out what's actually gonna work for you.
High-Protein Breakfast Ideas
00:28:54
Speaker
Next question, I'm trying to get more protein in my day, but I struggle to get enough protein at breakfast. Any suggestions? Yes. So first off, I'll say that starting your day off with a good high protein breakfast is super underrated for several different reasons. But number one, you're going to feel better, feel a little bit more stable, like versus starting your day off with, you know, a ton of sugar or a bunch of carbs without any protein, like you're probably not going to feel quite as good.
00:29:22
Speaker
You're going to have more energy and fewer crashes later on in the day, which is very nice. You're going to be more likely to actually hit your protein goal if you eat a high protein breakfast. If you do not hit a high or if you do not eat a high protein breakfast, it is going to be much more difficult to hit your protein goal because you're taking off, you know, a third of your meals basically. And so now you have to make up for those meals on the back end with lunch, dinner, some snacks.
00:29:48
Speaker
It's a lot harder to hit your protein goals if you're skipping meals and not having protein. And then the last thing is like psychologically, you just feel better because you're starting your day off with a win. Like you know that eating protein is good for your health. It's good for building muscle. It's good for your hunger. You feel better, all that good stuff. And when you start your day off with a nice high protein breakfast, you start yourself off with a nice win.
00:30:09
Speaker
starting yourself off, you know, on a good note, you can build a little bit of momentum for the day and you just feel good about it. So those are some reasons that you know, starting your day off with protein is a good thing. And then getting into some actual tangible meals that you can use. So I just put together five super easy, super quick, high protein breakfasts that I use. And high protein, I'm just considering these anywhere between like 30 to 50 grams of protein. So one that I did forever, like
00:30:36
Speaker
I use this one all the time when I was really short on time was just protein shake. And I would just take a couple of scoops of whey protein, some ice, either some water, some milk, put some fruit in there, a little spinach.
00:30:46
Speaker
Um, and then sometimes some other stuff like little PB powder or something like that, just to spice it up a little bit, but super easy, 50 grams of protein. And then I'll just have like a piece of toast or a piece of fruit with that takes like three minutes to make. And again, that's a nice, easy, high protein breakfast. And if you don't want to make protein shakes, they also have tons of pre-made shakes. You know, there's anywhere between 20 to 40 grams of protein you can find in pre-made shakes that you can buy at the store.
00:31:14
Speaker
So those are really nice if you're in a hurry or if you're on the go. So those are those are an option. Protein oats is another one of my favorites. Take some plain old fashioned oats or some steel cut oats, throw some protein powder in there, either one or two scoops and add some water milk and put in the microwave again, another 50 gram.
00:31:34
Speaker
high protein breakfast in about three minutes. Greek yogurt bowl is another one. So take some of your favorite kind of Greek yogurt. It could be any flavor you want. I typically go with the vanilla, add a scoop of protein powder, and then you can add in either some fruit or some granola or both. And you got yourself again, another 50 gram high protein breakfast. Protein pancakes are another go-to of mine if you got a little bit more time. And if you're somebody just who enjoys pancakes, you can buy like the pre-made protein pancake mix. That's typically what I do.
00:32:05
Speaker
brands that you can buy, but I just buy one of those. And then if you want to add even a little bit more protein, you can add some egg whites into there. You can mix it with milk, or you can add even a little bit of protein powder if you want to make them a little bit higher protein as well. So again, another super easy option. And then the last one,
00:32:23
Speaker
Eggs or egg whites is always a good choice. You can make, you know, omelets. You can make eggs with veggies. You can make egg burritos. There's all different types of stuff that you can make there. But one of my favorite go-tos is I'll just make like a four egg omelet. I'll add some veggies in there, some cheese, and that's an easy 30 plus grams of protein right there. And you're good to go. So those are five super quick, easy options that you can go to, or you can try if you're somebody who has been struggling to get enough protein within your day.
00:32:54
Speaker
And then our last question here, question number six, I've heard you talk about how fitness has improved your self confidence.
Impact of Fitness on Self-Confidence
00:33:02
Speaker
Can you explain that a little more? And do you have any good tips for building self confidence? So yes, I have mentioned before that
00:33:10
Speaker
And my own personal transformation of losing a hundred pounds, building muscle, building strength, just becoming more competent, you know, in the weight room and things like that. Um, it increased my self-confidence quite a bit. And I think for me, there's like two main parts to this. So you have your physical change, which, you know, it was pretty obvious and it's based on your own personal perspective of like what you want to look like.
00:33:33
Speaker
But when you have this image in your mind of what you really want to look like, you can go into the weight room and you can kind of pursue that. So for me, for example, I knew that I wanted to lose some weight. I knew that I wanted to build some muscle, build some strength, those sort of things. And I was able to go in the weight room and I was able to dial in my diet and I was able to do those things.
00:33:54
Speaker
So when you really start to feel good about the way you're looking, you know, you look in the mirror and you're really liking what you see, you're liking the changes that you've made, those sorts of things, it starts to change the way that you feel about yourself. And that shows in the way that you carry yourself. Because if you think about, you know, a person who has self-confidence versus a person who really doesn't have self-confidence, there's a pretty easy physical difference you can see just by looking at those two types of people. So like somebody with self-confidence, you know, they'll walk a little bit different.
00:34:21
Speaker
they'll walk a little bit taller, they'll look people in the eye, they'll smile more, you know, those sorts of things versus a person who's not really confident within themselves, you know, maybe they'll be less likely to look in the eye, they're not really, you know, connecting with people, they're kind of slouched over, not great posture. And so it's very easy to see like how what type of confidence that people have, you know, just by looking at them.
00:34:45
Speaker
And then the second part of the physical thing is just, you know, a matter of like physically building muscle and building strength, I think is a very cool thing and it's very empowering thing. You know, when you feel strong, when you feel good, when you have muscle, you just physically just feel better about yourself and you have a little bit more confidence. You know, you believe in yourself and you have the confidence that you can take care of yourself. You can do the things that you need to do, those sorts of things. So.
00:35:10
Speaker
know, the physical act of just being strong and building some muscle I think can go a long way into helping with that self confidence as well. And that's definitely something that I saw, you know, as a trainer, especially working with like females, like when they would challenge themselves and they would end up lifting something or like having a PR or like
00:35:28
Speaker
lifting more than they ever thought they could. And then you would, you could just see it on their face, like how excited they were and like how empowered they felt that they were able to do that. And that goes both ways for sure, like both males and females. But I think the act of just building strength and proving to yourself that you can build muscle and that you're strong can go a long way into
00:35:47
Speaker
know, helping with that confidence. And then the second part of this is like the mental side of things. So first exercise is obviously a mood booster puts us in a better state, you know, we feel better about ourselves, we feel better just in general, and we're just more pleasant to be around, you know, when we exercise just does certain things to our brain body and puts us in that, that better mental state. And then the second thing is like just the realization of
00:36:12
Speaker
you know, understanding that you can do hard things builds a ton of confidence. So obviously if you've ever worked out pretty hard, if you've ever had a goal around strength training or just fitness in general, you probably know that it's not always easy. And in fact, there's going to be quite a few difficult things that you're doing, like picking up super heavy weights is not the easiest thing to do. But when you do it after a while, you start to build some confidence in yourself that you can do those hard things, you know, throughout fitness and dedicating yourself to like a goal,
00:36:40
Speaker
that's not an easy thing to do. But when you go through and you accomplish that goal, again, you kind of reinforce that thing that you can do hard things, being disciplined and, you know, waking up at 5am or 6am to work out or going to work out after work when you're tired, like, those things aren't easy to do. So when you repeatedly do those things, again, you're building up that, you know, that confidence muscle and continuing to fill that bucket and convince yourself that, you know, you can do those hard things. And that goes a hard that goes a long way, like,
00:37:09
Speaker
being able to do hard workouts and run further distances and things like that. All those things add up and really make a big difference and will continue to produce that confidence within yourself. So fitness, I feel like is a very easy, very tangible way that you can continue to build that self-confidence and it's something that I think is kind of underutilized. And if more people would use it, they wouldn't have as many struggles when it comes to that whole self-confidence thing.
00:37:38
Speaker
The last part of the question, if I had any tips for building self confidence, so obviously the fitness thing that I just talked about is number one, but even a little bit more broader than that, I would say just comes down to the one thing of just doing the things that you say you were going to do. And that comes down to doing the things that you tell others you're going to do.
00:37:57
Speaker
And then especially doing the things that you tell yourself you're going to do. And it may not seem like a big deal, but doing those things, especially the little things like keeping those promises to yourself really does make a big difference. So like, be careful about the things that you say. Like if you're not planning on doing those things or if you're not really serious about those things, then don't say those things because again, that kind of affects your, your image of yourself and.
00:38:22
Speaker
it will play a part on your confidence. If you're always saying that you should do these things or saying you're going to do this, saying you're going to do that, but then you never do them. Well, then why would you have self confidence because you're lying to yourself, right? You need to be honest with yourself. You need to do the things that you're going to do. And when you do those things, you'll start to notice that you will build that self confidence. So for example, like if you're somebody who's out of shape and you haven't worked out for months, probably telling yourself that you're going to work out five times a week
00:38:49
Speaker
for two hours is probably not a very smart idea, right? You're just setting yourself up for failure. It would make a lot more sense to start by telling yourself, okay, I'm gonna go for a walk 20 minutes every day, or I'm gonna lift weights two to three times per week, or I'm gonna eat one more serving of vegetables every single day, or I'm gonna eat two pieces of fruit per day. I'm gonna drink half my body weight and ounces per day. Those are all more realistic things that you can tell yourself and that you can accomplish every single day. And again, as you accomplish those little things,
00:39:18
Speaker
as you build up that momentum, as you start to keep those promises to yourself, you'll start to build confidence within yourself, you know, because you're doing the things that you say you're going to do. And then as you continue to build on that, you continue to make progress, well, then you start, you know, going for bigger goals, and you start keeping those promises to yourself. And then kind of becomes this snowball effect where you
00:39:38
Speaker
You know, you started with these little small things, but now you're a person who does all the things that you say. So when you making these claims, so now you're saying, you know, now I am going to work out four times per week or five times per week, and you actually believe it and you actually do it. So again, it's that little snowball effect. So if I can again, boil it down to anything when it comes to self-confidence, just do the things that you say you're going to do. And that is my best tip for building that self-confidence. And with that, that is a wrap that, uh,
00:40:06
Speaker
Whole podcast ended up being a little bit longer than I thought it would be, but hopefully there was some good nuggets in there and some good takeaways wrapping this thing up. As always, I appreciate you guys for just listening, appreciate the feedback, appreciate the rating, the reviewing, sharing with people that you think would get some value out of this. And then also appreciate those people who came to me with some questions. Again, that's how I come up with these Q and A's is either just through
00:40:32
Speaker
in-person conversations or people sending me questions over text or through social media. So if you're somebody who has a certain question and you want me to answer it on a podcast, you can always shoot that over to me and I'd be happy to talk about these things. But anyways, that's all I have for you guys. Continue getting 1% better, as I always say, and we will see you next week.