Introduction to the Fit-ish Project
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Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, Latham Bass, where we make health and fitness simple for regular people like you and I. We got another episode coming at you this week. As always, before we get into this, if you can leave a review, continue to get this out to more people, I do really appreciate that.
00:00:21
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But... with this week's
Navigating Nutrition and Building Better Habits
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episode. I wanted to kind of build a little bit on last week and talk about something that really helped me a ton when it came to understanding nutrition and understanding dieting in a way that just really made sense and really clicked for me.
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Because before I really had a good grasp of all this stuff and had a really good understanding of how all this stuff worked, I was just trying a lot of different random things. I was following that general advice of just eat less, move more,
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hopping from diet to diet, trying a lot of things that wasted time and didn't really work, and maybe even set me up on some bad habits, which I later had to correct.
Dealing with Nutrition Misinformation
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And I think now more than ever, it can be really tough to know exactly what you should be focusing on what you should be doing when it comes to dieting, when it comes to nutrition, when it comes to hitting your goals, like losing fat and building muscle, because there is a major abundance of information out there that is not very good, that is confusing, but a lot of it is so well done and people talk with such conviction and they're so convincing that like it's really hard to know sometimes like what things you should be focusing on and what things you should be doing.
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Even me as somebody who has been just involved in this stuff for like a decade, like really learning this stuff, having my own experience and then also just learning a ton of different things from certifications and books and podcasts and things like that. And then also having like the practical side of it with now helping other people with that and teaching them about this
Practical Advice for Health Improvement
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There's times where I'll get on social media and I'll see a post where I'll see some sort of video or reel or something like that. And I'm like, If I didn't have a deep understanding of this stuff, I would probably be trying some of this really so stupid advice that I hear on social media because it is like it's just very, very captivating. And then you're like, oh, like this person sounds like they know what they're talking about and they provide all these examples. And a lot of times they're trying to sell you something or they're just not being honest. And that sucks because it just creates more confusion for people.
00:02:20
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And so I try to be on the opposite end of that. I try to make things as simple as possible and as practical as possible for just regular people who just want to look better, who want to feel better, who want to improve their health and be able to live their life the way they want to live their life and not have health and fitness hold them back.
00:02:36
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And so this concept that I'm going to explain to you was something that I got out of a book because I was just looking for ways to understand this a little
Key Resources and Dietary Priorities
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bit more. And I came across this book that was called the muscle and strength pyramid nutrition edition.
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And this was written by Eric Helms. And it was the first time that I had read something that I was like, Oh, this makes a lot of sense. Like this is really easy to understand. And the thing that I really like about this is that since it's put in a pyramid, it puts these things in order on letting you know which things you should prioritize most before focusing on other things because a lot of times people will be putting in a lot of effort but effort doesn't necessarily guarantee you results and it doesn't guarantee that you're going to make progress you need to be putting effort on the right things on those high leverage things and that is what is going to help you make the most progress and a big issue with this is that people just lack that clarity of knowing what exactly they should be doing
00:03:31
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And when you don't know exactly what you should be doing, it stops a lot of people from ever getting started. It also stops a lot of people from staying consistent because if you don't believe in the plan, if you don't actually know where that it's working, you're probably not going to be very likely to stick with that plan.
00:03:45
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And then ultimately it leads people to quitting because if, again, if you don't know what you're doing and like you just lack that clarity and you don't really know any rhyme or reason of why you're doing these certain things, then Ultimately, you're probably just going to give up. You're probably going to quit. And that's a lot of people. They just lack this clarity. They don't know exactly what they should be doing and they don't know why they should be doing it.
00:04:04
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So for me, as a coach, as an educator, as somebody who really likes to teach people about these things, that is exactly what I want to do within in this episode.
Learning from Experience and Avoiding Mistakes
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And I think this is really personal to me, as I said, just because before when I got into this, when I got into the whole weight loss thing, like I was that person, like I was the person who was like, let me buy some fat burners.
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Let me try these diets. Let me hop from this diet to this diet, trying to find the best one. Let me try this metabolism booster. Let me try this detox. Like I was focusing on all the wrong things. I was focusing on all these little details, all these things that didn't really matter.
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And I was wasting time. I was wasting time. I was wasting effort. I was just doing things that weren't worth focusing on, weren't worth putting my effort into. And now it helps me because I can help other people, people like you listening to this right now, avoid some of those same mistakes that I made.
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So that you're not wasting your time on things that don't actually matter. There's this quote that I hear Lane Norton talk about a lot, who's also just a really big guy in the
Focus on Impactful Dietary Actions
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nutrition space. He does a really good job of just calling out a lot of BS out there. So i like listening to what he has to say, because he is like the king of this. Like he is like the one who is super focused on just getting people the information that they need to know in order to get the results that they want to get.
00:05:19
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And one thing that he always says is that you don't want to be stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. In other words, you don't want to be focusing on all these little minute details that really don't matter, that really don't move the needle all that much.
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When you could be focusing on the big rocks, when you could be focusing on this handful of the big pillars that are actually going to get you to the place that you want to get to.
Organizing Dietary Priorities - The Pyramid Concept
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And so if you don't understand the basics, it makes it really hard to know where to put your focus because Fat loss and just most things in general come down to just doing a handful of things, doing them well and doing them consistently.
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But if you don't know what those things are, it can be very tough to know where to put your attention, know where to put your time. And like I said, there's just so many myths out there. There's a lot of misinformation. There's tons of different diets. There's tons of different training protocols.
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There's so many different things that you could be focusing on, but it makes the most sense to focus your leverage and focus your attention on the highest leverage things in order to get you to fat loss, in order to get you to the body that you want, in order to feel good, in order to improve your health.
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And so we're going to break down this pyramid. And so by the end of this, you have a really good understanding about what things you should be focusing on in order. And so when it comes to this pyramid, obviously, you know what a pyramid is. But when you think about a pyramid, it's big at the bottom. And those are the things that you want to focus on the most. And then as you get up to the top, those are some other things that you can focus on. But unless you have that good solid base foundation, you don't need to worry about moving up this pyramid. Focus on getting those things towards the bottom right.
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And then as you do those things, you can progress and you can add in more variety and you can focus on these different things and start to improve and start to add different methods and protocols and all that good
Sustainability in Dieting
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stuff. But at the very base of this pyramid is what we call adherence.
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And that's just a fancy way of saying, can you stick to it? Because at the root of all this, like if you can't stick to the things that you are doing long term, your results are only going to be temporary.
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And so if you're trying this certain diet, if you're trying this method, if you're trying this protocol, but like, it's something that you can only see yourself doing for a few weeks, maybe a few months, like it's probably not going to do you all that much good, especially if you don't have a good foundation.
00:07:31
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Once you do have a good understanding, once you do have a good foundation, you can start to use some of those tools and start to use some of those methods that I've talked about on other podcasts. And implement those things in a way that actually makes sense because you do have this other foundation that you can always go back to.
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But if you don't have that basic understanding, if you don't have the basics, if you don't understand nutrition, if you don't have good eating habits, if you don't have good ways to prepare food and good ways to stick to a meal plan and good ways to be consistent, you're you're just setting yourself up for failure.
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And so adherence is going to be that number one thing. And that is a big reason, again, why I do these podcasts, these longer things, because I want to actually teach people how to do these things. If I hand you a meal plan, it's going to help you in the short term, but it doesn't really explain to you how you should be eating. It tells you what to eat, but it doesn't really show you how to eat.
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And so once you know how to eat, like once you actually have a good understanding and you realize, OK, like I can do some of these things and these things work well for me, these things don't work as well for me. I know that I can still include some of these things in moderation, but I probably want to stick to more of these things. Once you start to get some of those ideas and start to really put these pieces together, it makes it so that you can start to create your own diet.
00:08:44
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And I think being able to create your own diet and create your own guidelines around what eating looks like for you and your lifestyle and your goals is ultimately the best place to be. Because trying to fit in so inside of some sort of like random diet, some sort of like strict diet, something that you don't really feel is sustainable for you is just tough. It's really tough long term and it's going to make getting those results that you want to get very, very difficult.
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And so at the very base of this pyramid, we have adherence because the number one predictor of whether people can stick to a diet and lose the weight and keep it off is adherence.
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Can you stick to this certain diet? If you can, that's awesome. That means it's sustainable. That means you're going to be able to get results and keep those results. If you can't, then likely those results are going to be temporary because when you can't stick to something, you're going to default back to your old habits. And if your old habits are aren't good. Like if you don't have this base knowledge, if you don't have these basic habits, you go back to the things that you were doing, which for a lot of people, especially here in America, those habits are not very good. And in this environment that we have where it's very easy to just overeat without even thinking about it, you are likely not going to be able to sustain your results. And so adherence has to be down there, making sure that the things that you are doing are things that you can actually see yourself sticking to things that actually fit within your lifestyle.
Understanding Calorie Balance
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After that, that next level up, we have what is called calorie balance. Sometimes you'll hear this called energy balance. And all this means is that you have a basic understanding of how many calories your body needs.
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So your body has a certain amount of calories that it needs to maintain its weight. It has a certain amount of calories that if you eat below that, you will lose weight, which is called the calorie deficit. And then if you eat above that certain amount of calories, that maintenance amount of calories, you're eating more than your body needs. That is when you start to gain weight, which is called the calorie surplus.
00:10:37
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Very basic. This is when people tell you you need to eat less, lose weight. That's calorie deficit. You're eating below your maintenance. You're eating less calories than your body needs to function. Pretty simple. When you understand this concept, it clears up a lot of different things because the issue is a lot of people try to guess their way to fat loss and don't really understand this whole concept.
00:10:58
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And one way that I can tell very easily if people don't understand this concept is when they start labeling foods as like healthy versus not healthy. And what I mean by this is like we all in general know what things we should be eating more of. Like we all know that we should probably be eating more fruits and more vegetables and more lean proteins and things that are whole and minimally processed.
00:11:18
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But that doesn't mean that you can't include some of these other things and still be able to lose weight. And this was a big like moment for me when I realized that I can include whatever foods that I want to in moderation.
00:11:32
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Do I want to be eating 100% highly processed food? Absolutely not. Do I want to be eating fast food all the time? Absolutely not. If I eat certain foods like all the time, I just know that it's going to make hitting my goals harder and I'm not i'm just not going to feel very great.
00:11:46
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So we obviously want to be focusing on more high quality foods, but when you have a better understanding of what calorie balance is and understand that you can fit all foods into your calorie maintenance, into your calorie budget,
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it starts to get rid of some of these big issues that people have around food and around nutrition, things like having food guilt. So you eat some certain food and you think that that food is going to automatically make you fat and you feel bad about it.
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That is a crappy place to be. But when you understand calorie balance, when you understand as long as I'm within my calorie range, I can fit that food within my calories and I can still lose weight. That's pretty cool. That's good information to know.
00:12:24
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It allows for more flexibility. So a lot of these diets just tell you to cut out all these things completely and you can do that and you can lose weight. But for a lot of people, that's not going to be sustainable long term.
00:12:35
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Again, obviously we want to be focusing on more whole foods most of the time. But when we have that option to add some things in moderation, it makes it more sustainable because most people are not going to stick to a carnivore diet or a keto diet or a completely zero carb diet their entire life. Like they are going to want to have some balance. They're going to want to go out to eat. They're going to want to have maybe a drink or two. eitherre They're going to go to some social events and eat some things that aren't necessarily seen as quote unquote healthy.
00:13:04
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and so it makes it more flexible it makes it more sustainable it starts to get rid of some of the food guilt and starts to just create a better relationship with food and i like to think about this a lot how i think about like finances so when you think about your money when you think about finances let's say you want to buy something let's say you want to go buy a couch you want to buy a new couch well there's some different options when you go to buy that couch right like you can buy a super high quality a super high priced couch Or you decide, i don't really want to spend that much money. I want to find something that's a little bit cheaper. I want to find a alternative that isn't going to cost me that much money.
00:13:38
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And that could be your second option. Or your third option is you just say, hey i don't really need that couch right now. i'm just going to skip on it. Maybe I'll get it later on down the road. I think about food the exact same way. So like food has a certain calorie price to it. Like certain foods are very, very high in their calories and they cost you a little bit more. So if your budget for your body is, let's say, 2,500 calories and you want a piece of cheesecake that's 1,500 calories, that price is pretty high.
00:14:08
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Does that mean you can't have that? It does not. But it means that you need to understand that some foods are very high in the their calorie price and other foods are a little bit lower. So maybe if you decide, I don't want to have that cheesecake today because that's 1500 calories that I don't really want to put into my body, then maybe I can go and find a different alternative and I find a lower calorie cheesecake that's only 500 calories and I go with that.
00:14:32
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Or maybe on that certain day, I'm just like, I'm actually just going skip on that cheesecake and not really feeling it right now. That doesn't mean
Logical Food Choices for Flexibility
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I can never have it. But I'm just saying that right now, to me, that decision isn't worth that cost.
00:14:43
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And I think when you can start to think about food logically like this, it takes a little bit of pressure off of it because now you're just understanding, okay, I have a certain amount of budget daily or weekly. And do I want to eat these certain foods in order to use up that budget?
00:14:58
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Sometimes that answer is going to be absolutely. And other times that might be, and i'm going to get a lower calorie alternative, or I'm just going to skip on it. There's not a right or wrong answer. But again, when you start to look at these things more objectively, when you start to look at these things more logically, it takes that motion out of it. It takes that guilt out of it.
00:15:13
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It allows you more flexibility. And ultimately, it puts the power back in your court. So you're not feeling like you're being controlled by food, which is a really good place to be. Because I know for me, and I know for a lot of clients that I work with, they just feel like food has this hold over them and that like they can't have certain things and they can't do certain things they don't have flexibility they're always just constantly just like stressing over food and that's not a good place to be so finding ways where you can just actually understand this stuff and make more logical decisions i think does a lot to help create a better relationship with food and so
00:15:46
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When you get logical about it, when you start to know your numbers, when you start to understand, OK, my body needs twenty eight hundred calories in order to neither gain weight nor lose weight or whatever that number is for you. And quick side note, you can easily figure that out by either tracking your calories and just taking an average of that, going online and finding finding a calorie calculator.
00:16:05
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Those are two really easy ways to do that. The second one, the calorie calculator is not going to be perfect, but it gives you some sort of a place to start. And then you can start to notice trends and see where you're actually at when it comes to that.
00:16:18
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And once you start to know the numbers, when you start to look at these things, it starts to make hitting certain goals like fat loss or even just like maintaining weight much easier when you just have a clear picture of the numbers.
00:16:29
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Can you lose weight without ever tracking or knowing the numbers? You absolutely can. But again, you could also get to a destination without ever using a map or a GPS, but it's probably going to take you a little bit longer. You might take some wrong turns. You might take some detours.
00:16:41
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Could you save money without ever looking at your budget? You probably could, but it'd be easier if you knew the numbers. And so I personally really like knowing the numbers because I think that it takes a lot of that guesswork out. It provides a little bit more clarity and certainty, which I talked about at the beginning of the podcast is really important for consistency, seeing things through and actually sticking to the plan.
00:17:02
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And ultimately, once you know these things, you can start to include whatever types of foods that you want within your diet. And as I've talked about multiple times on different podcasts and social media posts and things like that, I lost a hundred pounds eating pizza, eating ice cream, having alcohol.
00:17:19
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And I've been able to sustain that hundred pound of weight loss for a really long time because of this understanding of this concept. Like this really did change everything for me knowing that I could include those things.
00:17:30
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Because I knew for me, there was no way I was going to stick to some strict diet for a really long period of time where I couldn't like go out and have pizza or I couldn't have ice cream or I couldn't have some drinks with my friends. I just knew that was never going to be sustainable for me.
00:17:44
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But when I had this understanding of like, okay, I have this many calories to spend in a day or in a week, if I choose to spend some of that on going out to eat or having a drink or if having a nice meal or whatever the case may be, like, I'm okay
Success with Flexible Dieting
00:17:57
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Like I can make other decisions throughout the week that are going to set me up and help me still hit my goals. But knowing that I have this flexibility was just a game changer. And once I knew that, once I really understood this concept,
00:18:09
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and actually started putting it into play and like making sure that it works because I'm sure for some of you listening to this, if you've never tracked your calories and you're listening to me right now and you're like, how could you ever eat pizza and ice cream and include things in moderation and still lose weight?
00:18:24
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How does that even make sense? And I get it because like forever people have said, you need to avoid this food and this food and this food. And like they've demonized all these foods and said, like, if you ever eat these things, you can't lose fat. That's not the way it works. That's not the way the science works. And at the end of the day, like I have the evidence to back it up because I lost 100 pounds doing it this way. I was kind of skeptical when I first got into it. And then I started tracking my calories. I started doing all this stuff. I started eating pizza and ice cream and things like that.
00:18:51
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And the weight was coming off. And I was like, OK, this actually works. and so Once you have an understanding of the science and then you actually have the practical application and the experience to back it up, it's like you you you believe it now. It's like you have that underlying belief that, OK, this actually does work and I can't include those things. And then once you know those, it just provides you with so much more freedom and flexibility, which ultimately is a really, really nice place to be.
00:19:15
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and so that is the first level of that pyramid after adherence is calories and just really understanding that like if nothing else if you understand that it can help to clear up so much confusion and give you so much more clarity and so much more flexibility within your approach and so really trying to get a deep understanding of that and
Macronutrients and Personal Preferences
00:19:33
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just continue to ingrain that in your head because it really does make a really big difference the next thing on this pyramid so we have our third level would be what we call macros.
00:19:43
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And this is just your food groups, basically. So everybody's heard of proteins, carbs, fats, and then alcohol is technically a macronutrient as well. And you don't need to get like, you don't need to know a ton about these things. You've heard of protein. Protein is important for building muscle, reducing hunger, all those different things. Carbs are important because they give you energy. And then fats are important because we need them to live and they help with our hormone health.
00:20:06
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When it comes to these different things, I don't really get too picky about these things. I think protein is very important. And that's why you will hear so many people talk about high protein diets, because there's just so many benefits of protein. And so really focusing on trying to get a lot of protein within your diet, eating protein at each meal, adding in some protein snacks, because the benefits that you're going to get from eating a lot of protein is just, it's it's a lot. So we really want to make sure that we are focusing on getting lots of protein.
00:20:34
Speaker
And then when it comes to carbs and fats, You need fats to survive. Like they're essential. If you do not have fats in your diet, you will die. and So fats are important as well. But I don't talk about fats a ton because a lot of people get enough fat in their diet that they don't have to worry about. It's just something that like they naturally get enough of.
00:20:52
Speaker
And then when it comes to carbs, I think about it in two different ways. And so like if you're a very active person, having more carbs is probably going be beneficial to you because carbs give you energy. You're just going to feel better and you're going to be able to perform at a high level.
00:21:06
Speaker
And so increasing your carbs and in how many carbs that you're having within your diet can be helpful from sense. And then the other thing that I think about when it comes to carbs is just what are your preference? Because some people prefer diets that are higher in fats.
00:21:18
Speaker
Other people prefer diets that are higher in carbs. And if you are somebody who likes more carbs in your diet, like you like fruits, you like potatoes, you like oats, you like some breads, you like some pastas, like you really like eating those things, then include those things. You absolutely can. As long as your calories are in check,
00:21:35
Speaker
you can include carbs, or maybe you're somebody who wants to include more fats. And so that really just comes down to your preference. But you don't need to feel like you have to like pick one or the other or like, you need to keep your carbs super low, because that's something that you'll hear a lot of people talk about is making sure that you keep your carbs low. But again, back to that first principle, if you keep your calories in check, if you keep them managed, you can include carbs in your diet and still lose weight. There is ah eat a lot of studies like a lot of studies that have proven this like There is no one best low carb diet versus high carb diet. It doesn't matter as long as your calories and your protein are equated.
00:22:11
Speaker
And so again, understanding these things, you start to look at different diets and you're like, okay, I don't have to cut out all carbs. I can still eat some of the foods that I want to eat. i can have some carbs. Like I can have some of these other things that people have always told me is bad. And when you start to get this understanding, you realize that you really do have a lot more flexibility than you probably thought.
00:22:31
Speaker
And so really starting to understand these things can help in a massive way.
Balancing Diet with Micronutrients
00:22:36
Speaker
And so that is the macros on that next level. So we have our adherence at the bottom. We have calories. Then we have macros. So your proteins, your carbs, your fats.
00:22:45
Speaker
Next on this list is what we call micronutrients. And we've all heard of nutrients before. And this is important because it ties into the type of food quality that you're eating. And so up to this point, I've kind of just talked about like food quantity. And so when you think about calories, a lot of times people just think about the quantity of calories.
00:23:04
Speaker
And it is true that if you technically just manage the quantity, so the number of calories that you were eating and you were eating in a calorie deficit, you can lose weight on literally anything.
00:23:15
Speaker
There's been people who have done this. There was a professor that did this a while back. He literally just ate, I want to say his diet was just like Twinkies and Doritos. It was essentially just 100% ultraly processed foods.
00:23:27
Speaker
And he wanted to see, like he did this little case study with his class, to prove to them that you could lose weight as long as you were in a calorie deficit on any type of food and that food quality didn't matter. And he lost weight.
00:23:38
Speaker
There's been other people who have done experiments in little like case studies, like social media experiments where like they'll just strictly eat McDonald's. There was this guy who did a Big Mac challenge where he ate a Big Mac every single day and still lost weight.
00:23:50
Speaker
There's been other people who have done other challenges like that. And so when it comes to like just losing weight and just managing your calories, it is 100% true that you could eat anything. You could eat a completely trash diet and lose weight.
00:24:02
Speaker
But with that being said, like you can probably understand that you are not going to feel great if you strictly just eat fast food. If you strictly just eat Twinkies and Doritos, like you're probably not going to feel all that great. Like your digestion probably isn't going to be that good. Your energy levels might not be great.
00:24:18
Speaker
like just different things that you get from nutrients and whole minimally processed foods is not going to be the same as just eating a diet full of just things that aren't probably the best for you.
00:24:30
Speaker
And with that being said, one of the rules that I always talk to people about and one that I've been following for a long time that just cuts through a lot of this noise and really gets you to a good balance is just following the 80 20 rule.
00:24:41
Speaker
I've talked about this multiple times in If nothing else, like if you follow this rule, you would really start to see improvements within your diet and it starts to naturally fix a lot of problems. And so 80% of the time you're focusing on your high minimally processed foods, your lean proteins, your fruits, your vegetables, your healthy fats, your complex carbs. Just think of things that basically come from the earth or their animals, like things that come in their whole form. So when you're walking through the grocery store, a lot of times it's just things that are kept on the outer edges.
00:25:11
Speaker
Those are things that you want to be getting 80% of the time. And then 20% of the time, if you want to have some of that other stuff, you want to have a little bit of processed food, you want to go out to eat, you want to have some fast food every now and again, like you can include those things.
00:25:23
Speaker
And when you start to do those things, you check this box of the micronutrients where you're getting a lot of good quality foods and you're getting a lot of the nutrients that your body needs. And so I don't stress over this one too much because if you just follow that one little rule, you can check a lot of the boxes that you need to be checking when it comes to getting the nutrients that you need.
00:25:41
Speaker
Next on this pyramid, so moving up that pyramid. Remember, as we're moving up this pyramid, these things are getting less and less important.
Myths of Meal Timing
00:25:48
Speaker
And so on this next tier is meal timing. This used to be something that people used to talk a lot about. And maybe you've heard some of the myths around this where like if you eat after a certain time, like close to like bedtime that you were just going to gain more weight.
00:26:03
Speaker
And from a calorie sense, like again, back to that lower tier, it doesn't make any sense. And there's been plenty of studies, plenty of science to back this up. As long as your calories are equal. If you have them at night versus if you have them in the morning versus if you have them spread out throughout the day, it does not make a difference. And so back to that first rule, like if you're managing your calories, meal timing really doesn't matter all that much when it comes to like body composition goals and just making sure that you are eating the right amount of calories. so But there is some value to understanding meal timing and some instances where it may be beneficial to focus on meal timing.
00:26:36
Speaker
And so one of those examples would be like if you are somebody who is trying to really fuel your workouts or fuel your training, maybe you're training for like a race or you're just really wanting to maximize your workouts or you're just somebody who's super active, then there could be a time where maybe you want to focus a little bit more on your meal timing. So you're eating more carbs around your workouts.
00:26:55
Speaker
or throughout the day so that you have plenty of energy or you're making sure that you're getting protein right after your training sessions if maybe you have a second training in that day. So there's some some value to understanding meal timing from that sense. But for most people listening to this podcast and just most just general people, I don't focus on those things as much. I think much more of the value is going to come from just finding a routine that you like, a routine that fits your schedule, and then just sticking to that routine.
00:27:24
Speaker
Because it does a couple of things for you. Number one, it helps to get you in a routine. And when you have a routine, it's easier to create habits and it's easier to create consistency. And ultimately, it's easy to adhere to those things, which is important when it comes to finding habits and finding a lifestyle that you can stick to for the long term.
00:27:42
Speaker
And so finding a good routine that works for you and that you can be consistent with, I think, is the most important thing. And so this is one that I really don't stress too much or really give too much thought of. It's just find a good routine that works for you and then stick to that routine. And you don't have to find that and like stick to it 100% the time. Like obviously there's going to be some flexibility and maybe your weekends look slightly different than during the week just based on your schedule. Or maybe like you get a new job or life circumstances start to change and you switch this up a little bit. But I think in general, if you can find a good
00:28:14
Speaker
nice repeatable routine and stick to that routine, you are going to find that it's easier to be consistent with your diet and with your food choices.
Role and Limitations of Supplements
00:28:23
Speaker
And then rounding out this pyramid at the very top, we have supplements, which a lot of people will sometimes think that this is on the bottom for whatever reason, or it's like fun to focus on supplements or take things. I think this idea of like being able to just take something and it improves our health is really inviting. And it's something that like, if I can just take a pill, like why would I not take a pill? You know, like if I could just take this supplement, it's going to help me. Like, why would I not just take this? But
00:28:48
Speaker
What you have to understand is like, this is like 1% of your results. And if you don't have those other things in check, like if you don't have your calories in check, if your macros aren't solid, if you're not getting micronutrients, if you're not focusing on a good eating schedule, like the supplements really aren't going to matter. And so I never really focus on supplements too much. Some people will ask me for supplement recommendations.
00:29:10
Speaker
and there's a couple that i recommend to most people if they ask me about them like creatine is one that has tons of research tons of science to back it up with helping with building muscle and recovering and building endurance and building strength and so it's a really good one to take and there's even more research coming out about creatine about how it can maybe help with mental health and focus and even things like depression. And so creatine is something that I do recommend to pretty much everybody because there is just so much evidence about the benefits that creatine can have for you.
00:29:41
Speaker
It's fairly cheap and it's easy to take. And so creatine is one of those protein powder would be another one just because the ease of it and the convenience of it, like a lot of people really struggle to get a adequate amount of protein. And so adding in some sort of protein powder is just a really easy way to supplement getting in some extra protein.
00:30:00
Speaker
And so that is another one that I'll recommend to people. But outside of those two things, like I don't really recommend tons of supplements to people. That's not like really something that I think is all that important. I personally take a few other things. And so like I take vitamin D and I live in the Midwest. So like we go through winter months where the sun is not around for a lot and it gets kind of depressing and you need to get your vitamin D somewhere. And I also have darker skin. And so people with darker skin don't absorb as much vitamin D as people who have lighter skin. And so vitamin D is something that I take pretty regularly.
00:30:31
Speaker
There's a lot of studies out there about how many people are deficient in vitamin D because we spend a majority of our time indoors. And so if you're somebody who is not getting outdoors a lot, maybe you are deficient in vitamin D, that could be something to look into.
00:30:44
Speaker
I take fish oil. It's something that I've been taking for a long time for brain health for joint health just to get some extra healthy fats within my diet. And that's just something that I learned about a long time ago and something that I've been taking for a really long time. But again, it's not necessary. If you want to look into fish oil, it could be something where you could get some slight benefits from it. But again, if your diet is not solid, if those other things aren't solid, if you're not sleeping, if you're stressed out to the max, like these little things aren't really going to do a whole lot for you. So
00:31:15
Speaker
I take vitamin D, I take fish oil, I take magnesium, and then I take electrolytes just because I sweat a ton and I'm very active. And so those are just some basic things that I take, but those aren't things that I think are necessary or things that I would even focus on because the reality is most people have some issues or have some some things that they could address way before they ever get to supplements that would make a much bigger difference with just their diet, with exercising consistently, with eating getting outdoors and just getting into nature and getting sunlight with managing stress with getting quality sleep, like those things are going to make way more difference, like 100 times more difference than any kind of supplement that you were going to
Recap of Dietary Pyramid and Strategies
00:31:53
Speaker
take. And so focusing on those big rocks first, again, not stepping over to the dollars to pick up pennies is important when it comes to health and just putting your attention and your time and effort on the right things.
00:32:03
Speaker
But when you have all those things in order and you want to start adding in some of these things, then looking into some supplements isn't necessarily a bad thing. And so that is the entire pyramid. So again, at the bottom, you have adherence, you have your calories, then you have your macros, you have your micronutrients, you have your meal timing, and then you have your supplements.
00:32:20
Speaker
And so I think just an overall understanding of these things can be really helpful in knowing like, okay, these are the highest leverage things that I need to focus on and actually having that checklist of like, okay, du are my calories in check? are Am I actually managing how many calories I'm taking in? Okay, I have that checked off.
00:32:38
Speaker
then I can go to the macros. Am I getting enough protein? Cool, I'm getting enough protein. Where are my fats at? Am I getting enough fats? Okay, cool. How many carbs am I getting? And then you kind of just move your way down the list. And so you don't need to overwhelm yourself with this list because I think for a majority of people, like if you get that number one list right and then start to move into that that second tier, like if you get your calorie balance right, if you get your protein right and your fats and your carbs right and things like that and just start to eat more whole foods,
00:33:06
Speaker
you're going to be in pretty good shape. You're going to be ahead of a lot of people. And so with that being said, like a big practical takeaway, as I mentioned in the micronutrients level, like if you can start to focus on that 80-20 rule, you're naturally going to start to resolve a lot of these issues that people have because when people eat more whole foods,
00:33:25
Speaker
They start to naturally eat less calories overall. And there's been studies that have proven this. People who eat mostly ultra processed diet, which is most of America, 50 to like 70 ish percent of the food that most people in America eat.
00:33:41
Speaker
comes from ultra processed foods. And so if you can flip that, get that to 80%, you are naturally going to start to eat fewer calories. That's what the studies show us like just by eating these foods, you are going to eat fewer calories overall. And so now you're starting to address that first level, you're starting to manage your calories, you're starting to eat the right amounts, which is going to help a ton.
00:34:01
Speaker
as you're starting to eat more whole foods, you're eating more proteins, you're eating more healthy fats, you're eating more complex carbs. So now you're getting into that macro tier and you're starting to check that box off, like you're getting all those quality foods.
00:34:13
Speaker
Because you're eating more whole foods, now you're getting more nutrients. And so you're getting into that next tier. And so just by focusing on this one simple thing, like focusing on the 80-20 rule, you're starting to check off a lot of those boxes and really get a lot of those health benefits that you want to be getting in order to hit the goals that you want to be hitting. And so As a practical takeaway, if nothing else, like so just start to get a basic understanding of this pyramid and then start to implement that 80-20 rule and you can start to see some real tangible benefits.
00:34:41
Speaker
With that being said, i know this was a lot. This was a an information-packed podcast and hopefully you got a nugget or two, got a little bit of value out of this. As always, like I know this is a lot of information and my goal is to help to simplify this and make it practical and always give you some takeaways. But I know that some people want some extra help with this stuff.
00:34:59
Speaker
to really get it nailed down and maybe cut down on the amount of mistakes and the amount of time that it takes you to actually start implementing this thing. And maybe just work with somebody who has been in your shoes and has that practical experience about what things to focus on and what things that are actually going to work best for you and help you create that system.
Personalized Coaching for Dietary Success
00:35:17
Speaker
That's what I do with one-on-one coaching. So if you're interested in that, you can always check out that link. We'll have a conversation and see if it's a good fit. I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.