Transcript
Speaker: Hello, my friends. We are back for another episode of The Basics of Balance. It is just me today. There is no guest. And let's see if I can remember how to do this episode or this podcast. Just having a conversation with you guys, just myself. But we are going to talk today about something that I am realizing we have never actually spent any um extended period of time having a conversation about the entire foundation of what I believe in as a coach um and the entire foundation of what I help every single client that comes to me looking for help, regardless of what their goals are. And they are very different goals that I work with them. many different kinds of people.
Speaker: And it's the entire reason as to why I named my business Habit Consulting. And so we are going to spend some time today to talk about what are some healthy habits that are um big ideas that actually affect a lot of little tiny individual things that we might not realize. okay And so the reason i I'm ah positioning it this way is, for example, I work with a lot of people who really struggle staying in control of how much they eat. right like We live in a culture and in a society where there's a lot of really delicious food out there. um And I'm a huge foodie, so I'm right there with you.
Speaker: And so a lot of the times I will work with some people who really struggle to control how much they eat because they want certain foods that they quote unquote know they shouldn't be having. And they always kind of just feel this like internal struggle, if you will, of like, I want this, but I can't have it. And like, that doesn't feel great, right? Well, that actually has less to do with your willpower and it has more to do with things like ah how you're sleeping. It has more to do with things like of the food that you're eating, are we eating the kinds of foods that help increase your willpower, right? So like, are you eating enough fiber That works to, ah you know, stabilize your blood sugar to prevent cravings. And are we eating big meals that, um you know, basically satisfy your body versus small meals? Because we heard somewhere sometime that eating six small meals a day. boost your metabolism. And really, you are having a lot of cravings because your body just does not have enough of what it needs. And it's its biological response to... Do you see what I'm saying? So all of that to say, ah these are what I call four foundational habits, okay? And I say that they are foundational Because it does not matter what kind of client I have the privilege of working with, you could be on polar ends of the spectrum, such as a client who is maybe ah you know really dialed in focused on, let's just say, sweating for the wedding. okay She has a goal. And, um you know, she wants to lose some fat. She wants to feel confident on her wedding day. We are really dialed in, zoned into what she's eating, how much she's eating, how she's moving, like looking at the scale, like trying to make sure we're on track, all of the things, right?
Speaker: Compared to somebody who is maybe just trying to make healthier choices, right? Who is maybe just trying to like have more energy or, ah you know, just trying to invest in their future by investing in their health, right? To learn how to make healthier choices, right? that doesn't necessarily care even what they look like, you know, like what they weigh, like that's the least of their concerns. And so those would be two very different clients that fall on polar opposite ends of the spectrum. However, the habits that we're going to talk about today are applicable to both of those groups and also everybody in between there. And so that is kind of the thing about learning to live a healthy lifestyle is How sustainable is that lifestyle, right? When we fall into like extreme approaches like fad diets and things like that, they might work for a temporary three period of time, but we usually end up reverting back to our old, you know, patterns, our old lifestyle, our old old routine, excuse me, because the extreme approach is not realistic to live every single day, right? It is one of those things where it's like, you almost have to be in the mindset of all or nothing. Like I'm super dialed in during the week, but then I'm going out of town and I, number one, feel like I need to take a break from that extreme lifestyle. Or number two, I don't know how to maintain that lifestyle when I'm out of town. And so, I'm just going to do nothing, right? And I'll pick it back up when I get home. I'll fall off track, but I'll get right back on track on Monday. Does any of this sound familiar? See what I'm saying? So all of that to say, these habits, I really like to position them with every client. Like, listen, these are in one big group, the habits that we are going to work on incorporating every single day as much as possible. And I say as much as possible because...
Speaker: A lot of times we don't give ourselves enough credit that sometimes we can't do it all. You might be, um you know, really motivated to work to work on your goals. You might be type A like I am. And listen, sometimes things are just out of your control. So if you can't do it all, if you can't do all four of these habits every single day,
Speaker: of those habits, what can you do? And so this is a structure, this is a framework that is really helpful to use to look at, okay, these four habits, let me see how much of these I can do, but also, listen, I can't get a workout in today. Okay, cool. You know't you can't get in a workout today. That's one of the habits. Of the rest, what else is possible, right? And so that can also just be something that's really helpful in terms of, Your perception of how much effort you are putting in towards your goals. Okay. If you feel like you are really trying, if you feel like you're really showing up, but you also feel like you constantly are missing the mark and you're getting something wrong. That is going to lead you to burnout. I don't know about you, but if I feel like I'm doing something and I'm never doing it right, I'm just going to stop doing it because who wants to feel that way? Versus if I feel like, okay, listen, I can't do it all, but hey, at least there was something I could do.
Speaker: That is eventually over time going to translate into, okay, I can't do it all, but this is realistic and something I can realistically do regardless of what my capacity looks like. Because truly, guys, at the end of the day, it's about your effort. It's not about the end result, okay?
Speaker: And so we're going to talk about these habits. um and And I also do want to preface this by saying we are going to kind of get into, um just because it's the nature of the conversation, they are so closely related, basically how this it mirrors how your metabolism works. okay And so these habits are basically also working with what makes up your metabolism. Okay. Um, and so you're going to see a lot of commonalities in, you know, those two ideas, if you will. Uh, and that's why it's worth everybody's effort to try to incorporate some of these. There are lots of habits out there, but I do find that these at least are the big ticket items that check a lot of boxes by checking a box of one habit, if that makes sense. Okay. So without further ado, uh, where the four habits that we're going to talk about are going to be sleep, hydration, movement, and nutrition.
Speaker: There's a ton of nuance in all of those things. Okay. And so we're obviously, um, I probably don't have your attention span to really get into the nitty gritty, but this is why I want to hear from you. So if there's something that I'm saying on this episode that you have a question about, um, or you want to hear more about, that is where I would love for you to reach out to me, fill out the form in the caption, So we can continue having these conversations so that this show is a helpful resource for you. Okay. ah So sleep. All right.
Speaker: Regardless of what your goal is, sleep is massively important. And one of the biggest reasons, most commonly the biggest reason sleep. Your sleep is number one as it relates to helping your body de-stress, helping your body recover from the previous day.
Speaker: And it's also really massively important if your goal is to build muscle because you can't build muscle if you're not getting enough sleep. And also, if your goal is to lose fat or to lose weight, you have to be in a caloric deficit in order to lose fat or to lose weight. However, if you're not sleeping good, your hunger hormones never have an opportunity to recover because remember I just said, If you're not sleeping, you're not recovering, right? So if you are not getting enough sleep, your hunger hormones never have a chance to recover. And so you're going to end up eating more calories as a result of not sleeping enough. Studies show that we typically eat three to 500 calories more after a night where we didn't get great quality sleep. And that quality sleep is going to be different for everybody. So rule of thumb is about seven hours of uninterrupted sleep. Okay, that's the goal.
Speaker: And there are obviously going to be some times where that is not possible, right? So like those who have children, you can't help it if your kid wakes up. You can't help it if if they're not feeling good and they wake you up. And you know what i mean? So like, again, we're talking about things within our control. We're talking about, are you making a concerted effort to stop scrolling on your phone or not say yes to another episode so that you can try to get seven hours of sleep, okay? Okay.
Speaker: um I will say too, sleep is one of those things where it's like, you know, a lot of the clients that I've worked with in the past, they don't have great sleep hygiene, but a lot of that stems from, oh I've never slept great. It's this idea that I've never slept great. So this bus must be normal for me. And so therefore it's fine.
Speaker: And the thing is, is that anytime that we're learning any new skill, a habit, a skill, anything like that, it's going to take you time and repetition. Okay. So your body is not just going to like get with the program. It's going to follow what you've allowed it to get used to. And if it's only gotten used to you know, getting four hours of sleep or broken up sleep throughout the night, well, that's what it's going to continue to do because that's what you've allowed it to get used to, right? And so it's going to take time and repetition and effort on your part to create some boundaries, to create a good sleep hygiene routine, right?
Speaker: in In order to kind of turn the tide in a positive direction, okay? And so, you know, some things that kind of can help you get a little bit more sleep, like I said, are You know, stop scrolling. Don't turn on the TV. Sometimes I even say, you know, with a client who their mind is racing at night, have a piece of paper and a pen by your bed, like on your nightstand. So that if you have a thought that's like just ruminating throughout the night, you write it down without reaching for your phone. Right. Getting that blue light, you know, activation happening and whatnot.
Speaker: keeping you up, you can offload it from your mind and again, try to go to bed. Something that also ah really affects our ability to get in great sleep is our caffeine intake. it is a um It is a revolving door of we typically don't sleep great. And so we are drinking caffeine throughout the day to help us you know have energy to get through the day.
Speaker: And then that caffeine is keeping us up at night and then we can't sleep great and around and around and around we go. And so you're probably going to have to go through some period of, i don't want to say detox, but adjustment, okay, for lack of a better word, where it's probably not going to be the most comfortable to either go through, you know, days where you're feeling a little bit more tired um and things like that before you actually turn the tide, okay?
Speaker: Another thing that is really helpful to help us, you know, crave sleep and sleep really deep is exercise, okay? So when your body has a you know ah good energy output, when it's exerted some energy, well, now you're giving it more of a reason that it needs sleep to recover from that energy output, right? And so if we're living a sedentary lifestyle and we're not sleeping great and we're drinking caffeine even at five, six o'clock at night, well, then sure, you're not going to sleep great. And so these are some things that, you know, we really want to pay attention to. What are we doing that's preventing us from sleeping great? And again, like I said, there's, you know, things that are out of our control sometimes, but with what's in our control What is your responsibility in that, right?
Speaker: um If your goal is to build muscle, like I ah briefly mentioned, you're not really going to be able to build muscle if you're not sleeping great um um efficiently, I will say, optimally, because number one, when you don't sleep great, you are further promoting muscle breakdown, okay? And if you're over 30 years old, that's already naturally happening. You don't need any help in that department. we we need to We need to go the opposite way, right? So you are further promoting muscle breakdown. So you know assuming that your primary method of working out is strength training, well, you're you're not getting the full benefit of that lift simply because you are not sleeping great. Okay, so that's not great.
Speaker: Number two, you are severely stunting the muscle protein synthesis that is basically your body repairing from the workout that you just did to build back stronger So like, when we are lifting weights, that workout is not making us stronger, that workout is actually making us weaker, okay? The only reason that you're going to get stronger from that workout is if you are giving your body the basic fundamental building blocks that it needs to repair and build back stronger.
Speaker: which are sleep and eating enough food and of that food, enough protein. Okay. Those amino acids are massively important. So regardless of what your goal is, if you're trying to control how much you eat, ah you know, if you're trying to, you know, build muscle and hormones are all the craze right now, cortisol, if we are trying to regulate our hormones, well, are we doing what we can do by helping our body recover from a baseline effort of getting enough sleep, okay? So sleep is going to be massively important regardless of what your goal is. And that's often why a lot of the times I will tell my clients,
Speaker: If you did not sleep great, I actually don't want you working out. If you didn't sleep great, that actually takes off one of the boxes of your foundational habits and removes it completely from your entire plan of the day. Do not get a workout in, but instead focus on other things you can control, like we're about to get into your hydration, maybe getting some steps in you know walking, and then of course making sure that we are nailing our nutrition, right shifting your focus to what you can do. Because if you're not sleeping great, well, then there's not a whole lot of value of further breaking down your muscle because you're not going to be able to repair that muscle. And you're going to be hungrier the next day, which a workout is already going to make you hungrier. So do you see what I'm saying? Like, it's not necessarily always that extreme, but it can be. And so sometimes simplifying the process to say, did I not sleep great? And if so, give yourself permission to take a rest day versus feeling like no pain, no gain. I have to get a workout in type of thing. It makes it a little bit more realistic.
Speaker: to you know make decisions based in logic like that, right? Your next foundational habit is gonna be staying hydrated, okay? Hydration is massively important, not only if your goal is to build muscle, because the more hydrated you are, the more we're hydrating our muscles and the more they can expand, they can contract, they can bring glycogen into ah the muscle fibers, which help us you know recover and grow and things like that.
Speaker: But when we are ah properly hydrated, we are allowing our body to transport nutrients to where it needs to go efficiently. Hydration is also really important if you struggle with any kind of like digestive issue, especially like low motility or irregularity. And so a lot of the clients that i work with, they will similarly to sleep, have a long history of digestive issues. They're, you know, either not going regularly or, ah you know, of what they're going, it's really like they're straining and it's painful, or they just deal with gas and bloating because they're not going regularly, right? And one of the low-hanging fruits that we want to look at is, well, how much are you drinking? Well, hold on. How much water are you drinking? Okay. And so all of that to say, um you know, when you are properly hydrated, you're giving your body the best fighting chance, among other things, of course, but the best fighting chance from a baseline level to keep things moving, if you will. You know what i mean? Like if you're not giving your body enough water, which we are 70% water, so that's going to you know be kind of important to make sure that we are um you know replenishing if you will, especially if you live in the South in the summertime and you're sweating your body weight. But we want to make sure that we are staying hydrated, okay? so
Speaker: Super massively important. Rule of thumb for hydration levels is half your body weight in ounces of water per day, okay? So if you weigh 100 pounds, just for round number's sake, that's 50 fluid ounces of water per day, okay? And that's from a baseline level. So if you work outside, if you sweat a lot, you know, just in your everyday life,
Speaker: yo Okay, we're going to probably want to increase that, right? um And so that's going to be massively important. And honestly, guys, hydration is one of those low hanging fruit habits where again, if you didn't sleep great, and you didn't get your workout in, and you can't move your body in any way, shape or form, and you blew your nutritional targets, hey, did you stay hydrated? And if the answer is yes, well, then you didn't blow the whole day. See what I'm saying? See how empowering this can be.
Speaker: um And so hydration is one of those things where it's massively important and when we are dehydrated, ah that is typically when we're going to feel maybe a little bit more hungry. That's typically when we are going to feel um kind of just like our energy is zapped a little bit, if you will.
Speaker: And also your your body is going to have a really hard time building muscle. So for lots of reasons, hydration is important, even if it doesn't seem like it's ah a massive step, right? Hey, maybe that's the point. We are going to move on to ah to activity, okay? Nutrition is going to be our last one, but I think that's going to take the most amount of time. So we're going to move on to activity. So your exercise is another foundational habit. But within that exercise habit, it kind of gets broken up into like many categories, if you will. OK. And so this is where it's going to be really helpful to kind of hear and understand how these foundational habits mirror yourself. your metabolism and how it works because all movement has value, but not all movement is created equal, right? I say that a lot.
Speaker: And it's true because there're there are many different ways to work out, but for this conversation, we are primarily going to focus on strength training, like resistance training, lifting weights, and then walking, okay? And so of your movement habit, as you can imagine, hey, if you can't get your lift in, maybe you get a walk in. See how flexible this is? You kind of like get to choose your own adventure based on your life. So anyways, all that to say, when it comes to your strength training, we kind of touched on this already with your first foundational habits, right?
Speaker: Strength training is 100% going to positively impact your metabolism, all right? Your walking, your steps, that is part of what's called NEAT activity, your non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Your NEAT activity makes up more of ah a calorie burn in a 24-hour period, more than the hardest workout you've ever done in your entire life where you were sweating and you couldn't breathe and you were blacking out half the time because you just did so many like high-intensity exercises back-to-back, period. And the reason why I say that is because we have it in our head that exercise moves the needle in terms of, number one, overall health, and also, number two, physical ah goals and results more than it actually does. Yes, you heard that right. I am a trainer. I am a nutritionist, but I also know that we put way too much stock in these workouts and they do not move the needle as much as we want to believe that they do. Okay. And so here is the thing, your structured activity, meaning your exercise, your lifting, your
Speaker: high intensity interval training, your insert exercise here is only going to make up 5% of your total daily caloric expenditure. That's not a lot. Okay. You want to know what makes up more than that. And we're talking metabolism here. What makes up more than that is going to be your ah thermal effect of food. Okay.
Speaker: That's 10%. Okay. So that means how many calories your body is burning as you eat food and digest it. That makes up more than your workouts, my friends. Okay.
Speaker: So when we are talking exercise, we have to realize it is massively important for a lot of different reasons. However, of those reasons, it is not the main driver of what you are going to look like. It can enhance what you're going to look like based on the nutritional choices that you are making, right? However, when we are looking at really what makes up our metabolism and what adds up to the total calories that we're burning in a day, exercise is going to make up 5% and something like neat activity, which is like your steps, your cleaning, your organizing, your fidgeting, I'm moving my hands, that includes it, your breathing, your literally just like non-activity, right? So like nothing that's structured, that's going to make up more. And so with that in mind, that also can, just like when you didn't sleep great, choose to take an unplanned rest day and not feel guilty about that. That can give you permission to take things down a notch, to exercise, yes, because of how it improves your overall health, how it helps you invest in your future, right? By helping you live a life of as few limitations as possible, as long as possible.
Speaker: However, at the end of the day, if you have to choose between one or the other and you didn't get great sleep is going to be going for a walk because that walk is going to lower your stress barometer. So it's going to keep your stress at bay a little bit more especially if you didn't sleep great, that's kind of important, right? We don't want to add more stress onto our body in the form of working out, which is stress on our body. It's a good kind of stress, but it's still stress, right? It's giving your body one more thing to have to recover from.
Speaker: And so these kinds of choices can really give you back ah being able to be in the driver's seat of your journey and choosing what you're able to do versus feeling like you have to um even if it's not something that's realistic for you in your day, right? So anyways, back to topic of conversation. So your your structured activity makes up 5% of your total daily caloric expenditure, okay? Your need activity makes up 15%, okay? So a lot more than that structured activity, which is where we are making decisions based in logic here, okay? Okay? But really, guys, what's going to matter the most as it relates to how many calories your body burns in a 24-hour period, 70% comes down to your basal metabolic rate.
Speaker: Basically, how many calories you burn 24-hour just by existing, okay? But if you were just laying in bed, all you were doing was just existing, 70% is coming from that. And so when we are looking at building our metabolism or boosting our metabolism, we want to focus on that, 70%. That is the big bucket that we want to learn what to and or what to do to invest in, right? To boost your metabolism. Well, here's the thing. Your muscle is basically your metabolism, okay?
Speaker: So this is where the habits in the and the metabolism conversation kind of start to cross a little bit. And so when we're talking about um you know understanding what is more worth our while as it relates to exercise, when we can only choose what we can choose and we don't have time for all of the things, strength training is the best approach in order to build and preserve muscle. Now, some Some ah cardio type workouts might include some dumbbells. And so a lot of times we think of that as strength training. And sure, we're lifting weights, but we are lifting weights in a high intensity level. that does not actually allow us to properly fatigue our muscles and getting tired because we are out of breath and we're sweating a lot is not the same as i physically cannot do one more contraction isolating this muscle. Okay. And so when we're talking about, you know, your foundational habits in terms of, uh, you know, activity, walking is not the same as strength training. Strength training is not the same as like high intensity interval training, All movement has value, but not all movement is created equal. And those are some of the reasons as to why. And so if you didn't sleep great and you had a walk and a so strength training session on your calendar for the day, I'm going to argue as your coach, remove that strength training session, continue your walk. Because like I said, that walk is going to, number one, keep you active, help you check that box of that daily habit. But also, number two, help lower your stress barometer as much as possible because you didn't sleep great, right?
Speaker: Choices in logic. And I do want to be very clear here, okay? You know, I think a lot of times ah things can get misunderstood. And so it's really important to understand there's going to be some times in our life where we're going to you know, need to reinforce our habits, even when we don't want to, even when we don't feel like it, even when things are not ideal. Okay. And so a lot of what we're talking about so far is, hey, give yourself permission, excuse me. Hey, give yourself permission. Hey, it's okay to take a rest day. Hey, hey, hey. But I do want to also kind of just like regroup and say, sometimes
Speaker: we are capable of doing more than we realize, okay? And so a lot of times I think we you know feel discomfort, we feel a challenge, and a lot of times we ah naturally as society kind of shy away from challenges, right? We shy away from discomfort. Discomfort is a bad thing. And so I don't want somebody hearing this to think, you know, oh, take the easy way out. No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: Each time we lean into a challenge, our perception of what's hard grows, okay? And that's really important as somebody who is trying to make changes in their lifestyle because if you're trying to make a change in your lifestyle, you have identified that there needs to be a change in the first place, okay? And so when we're making changes, that is going to be and inherently difficult because we are not following the status quo, okay? We are not following what we allowed ourselves to get used to. We are making a change. We're going in another direction. And the only way to make that change no longer uncomfortable is to continue to choose that same choice over and over and over again until that is possible. The normal, right? And the the old way that you were living is the exception to the normal. Okay, so I don't want you to, you know, mishear this and say and give yourself too much permission that can come into an excuse.
Speaker: My hope in kind of explaining a lot of this is so that you can learn how to make. educated decisions to give you permission to take rest days where it's more beneficial for you and your health and your fitness goals and things like that.
Speaker: But there does also need to be some um ah way of leaning into a challenge and doing something when you don't feel like it, right? So like lifting when you just don't feel like it.
Speaker: That is a great example, okay? Or meal prepping when you would rather just like, you know, Sunday fun day, that is a great example. Still choosing the the choices that are going to help build the life that you want, but giving yourself permission. to make exceptions to that rule at the same time. All right.
Speaker: um Okay. So nutrition, we are saving the best for last with our nutrition. So a lot of what I work on with my clients specifically is ah we, we take things one step at a time. Okay.
Speaker: And one of the reasons is if we do too much too soon, that is a recipe for burnout. Okay. It never gives your brain an opportunity to really grab onto the the habits that you're practicing and the changes that we're trying to make and things like that. And so taking things one step at a time is really helpful to allow a lot of those habits to stick and take footing and marinate and things like that. Okay.
Speaker: It makes it more realistic and more sustainable. And so in that same line of logic, when we take things one step at a time, ah that is how I look at your nutritional choices. Okay. So when we're talking nutrition, um those variables are, regardless of what your goal is, is going to come down to a macro level view of your calories because calories are king. When we are gaining weight, it's because we are either eating too many calories or not moving enough. So your calor your your energy input is
Speaker: um too much compared to your energy output or vice versa, all right? So calories are king. So if the very, very least that you can do, well let me back up.
Speaker: We can really look at our nutritional choices as taking one step at a time. And just like your foundational habits can be one big goal or mini goals within, right, based on what you're able to do, your nutritional choices are the exact same way, okay? I break down nutritional um choices into steps, all right? So step number one is going to be making intentional choices, having awareness as far as how your choices are adding up to trigger decisions based on that information, right? hey, I know that what I'm about to eat is going to be a lot of calories, so let me adjust the rest of the day to not eat as much, touch balance those two out, right? Awareness, intentional choices, okay? Versus just like eating whatever you want mindlessly. See what I'm saying? ah The second step is going to be, yes, having that awareness, but trying to stay within some kind of calorie target, okay?
Speaker: And so though the reason that that is a step in and of itself is because calories are king. And so, you know, a lot of the clients that I work with, they do have some type of physical goal. And so if we are trying to lose weight or lose fat or maintain your weight in any way, shape or form, well, then we're gonna wanna draw some kind of awareness as far as how many calories you're eating. Because if you're eating too many calories, you're not gonna be able to lose weight, you're not gonna be able to lose fat because a calorie deficit is required in order to achieve either of those things, right? Similarly speaking, if you're just trying to live a healthy lifestyle and maintain a healthy weight, Well, at least having some ah awareness as far as how many calories you're eating is still going to be helpful because if you're eating too many calories, you're going to gain weight, right? So from a very basic ah approach to nutrition, having some kind of awareness as far as how your calories are adding up. so that you can make a decision to you know mitigate that you however you need to throughout the day going to be helpful. okay It's also worth mentioning that when the goal is to build muscle, when the goal is to get stronger, we also need to make sure that we're eating enough food. okay Yes, protein is going to be massively important in that equation. because your muscle is not going to be able to break down and come back that much stronger. If you're not giving it the basic fundamental building blocks, quite literally amino acids, enough protein in order to foster that muscle growth, right? In order to get stronger. um And so that's a big reason why when we are dieting, we need to realize it's not necessarily that we can't build muscle when we're dieting, but for the vast majority of humans, Unless we want that like super dialed in approach, it is going to be next to impossible because when you're dieting, you need to be in a caloric deficit. You're in in your body cannot build muscle when you're in a deficit as efficiently as when you are in maintenance, right when you are eating a little bit more food.
Speaker: And so, yes, protein is massively important. However, calories are also going to be important if the goal is to build muscle and to get stronger. And so that's a big reason why a diet is a phase of your journey, but it's not supposed to be the journey, okay? And that is where we see when a diet becomes the journey, that's where we see a lot of those like negative biofeedback um you know things that we talked about a couple of weeks ago ah because it's not supposed to be a forever long thing, okay? So we get in,
Speaker: right We chase the goal, we get out, and we don't necessarily go from being dialed in to doing nothing at all. We use these habits to keep us structured, right to help us maintain what we worked for um while we were dieting, while we were in that phase of our journey. right But we do want to spend the majority of our time in a maintenance frame of mind. We do want to spend the majority of our time making sure that our body has enough of what it needs, not putting you know, unnecessary stress on our body past what we are already dealing with just by living in the culture that we live in, right? where There's a lot of things demanding of our time and whatnot. So making sure that we are giving our body, you know, the basic fundamentals of, you know, sustenance and nourishing our bodies is definitely going to be in our best interest, regardless of what goal we're chasing. If we're in a deficit, trying to eat as much as we can within that deficit, making good choices within those calories, And then get in, get out, give your body more food so that it can maintain homeostasis and keep going. And so calories is going to be that second step to focus on. Your third step is going to be calories and protein.
Speaker: And fiber, okay? And that's basically where we stop. And we'll get into that in just a second. But your calories, like I said, are king. That's going to protect your overall goal. And if that's all you can do, hey, you're still moving the needle forward, right? You're not just throwing in the towel. You're not just like choosing to fall off track. You have some kind of structure that's still keeping you tethered. And allowing you to make forward progress, right? Is it the most you can do focusing on calories, protein, fiber? No, but it's not nothing, right? It's not even a step below having awareness, right? It's something versus nothing. And so when we focus on, are you able to, you know, prioritize not only your your protein and your fiber in addition to staying within your caloric target?
Speaker: Your protein is going to work to not only help preserve your muscle, which is going to be pretty important regardless of what your goal is, which we've talked about many times on this show, but also your dietary fiber is going to directly work to ah help combat things like your cravings right it's going to help stabilize that those blood sugar spikes after you eat it's going to help slow down digestion to help keep you more satisfied and more full it's going to help remove you know bad things like excess cholesterol to keep you overall healthy so like again really trying to focus on the big levers to pull versus like those tiny little specifics that you see all over Instagram right now uh
Speaker: And that is going to be your third step. OK, so it's really focusing on really what drives progress um in order to really focus on what matters most. OK, and so with that in mind, you can choose whatever step in that big nutritional component based on what your day looks like. So if it's a regular day and you you know you got some meal prep or you're going out to lunch or whatever the case is, ah can we focus on calories, protein, and fiber? Maybe you are traveling and you're like, hey, I'm not logging today. I'm not doing any of that. Awesome.
Speaker: You're on step number one. You're at least making choices based on the awareness that logging has provided you in some way, shape, or form to see how your choices add up, to know what a good choice is, to know what to order, to know how to handle your day. Knowledge is power, okay? Okay. So in that big macro level view of nutrition, then you still get to choose to what degree of focus you're able to do based on what your day looks like. And so with all of this in mind, there's a ton of nuance that we are not covering right now, right? However,
Speaker: As you can imagine, this is what makes living a healthy lifestyle sustainable. Here is the structure, right? Here is the foundation. And within that structure, push yourself, right? Lean into that challenge. Try to grow every single day. Try to create those new neuropathways and make choices that's going to build the life that you want to live.
Speaker: But also give yourself grace because you are a human. You are not a robot. And you can't be on 24-7. And I very much am a believer that regardless of what your goal is, you if you were to focus on these habits, you would be moving the needle. okay You would feel a lot more grounded. You would feel like you were making progress and you would actually see progress in addition to feeling better throughout the day because you'd be sleeping better. So you'd have more energy. You'd be able to pour into others. You'd have better control over your appetite and your cravings. You would be investing in your health. You see what I'm saying? Like a lot of these things really have a ripple effect. And structure, a lot of times people hear the word structure and they're like, ooh, thats I don't want to be boxed in, right? I want the freedom to choose. and
Speaker: again, arguably speaking, regardless of what goal you're chasing, whether you're super dialed in and you are you know on another level, you know you never miss a workout, you're always meal prepping, you're weighing every single thing that you eat, you are really chasing after a physical goal, super dialed, disciplined goal.
Speaker: focused, right? Your blinders are on. Or again, you are just looking for something to like work towards and like just feel better throughout the day. Sleep, hydration, nutrition, and movement. Those are your four foundational habits. And within those four foundational habits, you have a ton of flexibility and freedom to decide how you show up in focusing on those four foundational habits. And And so that's why it does not matter if your goal is to build muscle or lose fat, polar opposite ends of the spectrum. Your sleep is going to impact your ability to reach those goals. Your hydration is going to reach your ability your ah ah affect your ability to reach those goals. Please believe the way that you move your body is going to affect your ability to reach those goals. And what you eat, how much of, you know, the breakdown of all of that, is going to affect how much you reach your goals. But again, a lot of these habits are going to work with your biology, right? It's going to help you control your cravings, control how much you're eating, right? It's also going to give you something that keeps you grounded. So it's going to be great for your headspace to basically be able to choose your own adventure every single day.
Speaker: And at the end of the day, all of these habits are working to help you invest in your health, right? It's helping you invest in your um ah future and your longevity and your quality of life, right? And so i can't believe that I've never actually devoted an entire episode to this, but um I also really hope that that gives you just some kind of framework as to what a realistic and sustainable lifestyle can look like. And that's kind of where I'm coming from on a lot of these episodes is always kind of like pointing back to, okay, well, you know, how how is the the cortisol conversation What are of those foundational habits could we be focusing on to basically in a foundational way improve your cortisol response versus specifically focusing on a cortisol cocktail mixer that you saw on Instagram? You see what I'm saying? Like, I can't believe I've never actually had this episode where it's like, no, this is where I'm coming from, guys. But it's a new day. OK, I'm better late than never. Right.
Speaker: And so I hope that this was helpful for you. um Lots of information, obviously. Again, would really love to hear if you have any questions. I could talk about this stuff all day long. Um, and I'm super passionate about it. And so if this is a helpful resource for you, let's have a conversation. Uh, but I think that's it for now. I'm sure i will think about other things that I should have said on this episode and we will save that conversation for another day. um but I hope hope that this is helpful for you. And until next time, guys, focus on your foundational habits within that. What can you do? Don't focus on what's out of your control. You're going to feel a lot more grounded. It's going to be a lot more sustainable. You're able to turn up the dial of discipline depending on how focused you want to be. But give yourself grace, right? Because you're a human. You're not a robot. You can't be on 24-7. And sometimes we just don't have great days. And when we don't have great days, there's still structure to keep you tethered. And it's still part of the plan because we're going to have good days. We're going to have not so good days. And it's not about, like I said, the end result. It's about your effort in between those two days. All right. So have a great rest of your day. And until next time, guys, we'll talk to you later.
