07- Overcoming Dieting Fatigue and Sustainable Fitness Solutions

Overcoming Dieting Fatigue and Sustainable Fitness Solutions

Episode Summary: In today's episode, we tackle a listener's question about overcoming the frustration of dieting and finding a sustainable approach to fitness. This listener, over 35 with two kids, feels stuck and is seeking a way to enjoy life without the constant pressure of dieting. We dive into mindset shifts, practical tips for nutrition, strength training, and the importance of creating sustainable habits.

Key Takeaways:

1. Mindset Shifts for Sustainable Success:
   • Move away from the "good vs. bad" food mentality. Food is just food.
   • Recognize that losing weight isn't about rapid, unsustainable changes.
   • Understand that intense workouts and constant dieting aren’t necessary for long-term health.
2. Nutrition Strategies:
   • Focus on balanced, nutrient-dense foods rather than restrictive diets.
   • Prioritize protein and fiber to support muscle maintenance, fullness, and overall health.
   • Use tools like Cronometer to track your intake and make small, manageable changes.
3. Effective Strength Training:
   • Aim for progressive strength training 1-3 times per week.
   • Incorporate heavy lifting to build muscle and improve bone density.
   • Complement strength training with 1-2 HIIT sessions per week for cardiovascular health.
4. Creating a Balanced Routine:
   • Find a routine that fits your lifestyle and allows for flexibility.
   • Make small, consistent changes rather than overhauling your entire lifestyle.
   • Celebrate progress, no matter how small, and avoid setting unrealistic expectations.
5. Practical Tips for Measurement and Progress:
   • Take photos, measurements, or use clothing fit to track changes over time.
   • Understand that weight fluctuations are normal and focus on overall trends.
   • Use apps like Happy Scale to monitor progress without getting discouraged by daily variations.

Listener Q&A:

• How to enjoy holidays and vacations without feeling guilty about food choices.
• Strategies for incorporating enjoyable foods into a balanced diet.
• Tips for staying active and fitting in workouts with a busy schedule.

Resources Mentioned:

• Cronometer: A comprehensive app for tracking nutrition.
• Happy Scale: An app for tracking weight trends over time.

Final Thoughts: Achieving sustainable fitness and nutrition goals is about finding balance and making gradual, lasting changes. Embrace a mindset that allows for flexibility, enjoyment, and long-term success.

Call to Action: Have a question you'd like answered on the podcast? Submit it anonymously through the form in our show notes. We’re here to help you gain clarity on your fitness journey!

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Transcript

Kat: 0:03

Welcome to miles from her view, the podcast, where we dive deep into the unfiltered reality of fitness, strength, training, and nutrition within womanhood and motherhood. I am your host, Kat founder of Kat Fit Strength. I'm a career strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur, lifelong athlete, and a mom of two. In each episode, we explore the unique challenges and triumphs faced by women navigating the complexities of life from juggling family and career to prioritizing self care. We dissect the systems and the habits that shape our health and wellness. Join us for real stories, authentic advice, and genuine conversations as we empower each other to embrace our journeys and find strength and vulnerability. Welcome to today's episode. I am so excited you are here and I am grateful for you taking the time out of your day to tune in wherever you are. A little bit of a life note. My dogs are hanging out with me in my office and my littlest one, my, uh, About eight month old puppy snores like there's no tomorrow. So if you hear him snoring in the background, Just ignore it. It's him or if you start to hear them wrestle, which I hope they don't I have two German short hair pointers One is three years old. And the other one like I said is about seven almost eight months old They like to fight happily So I will try and get them to stop if they do but you will probably hear my younger ones snoring All right. So today's episode we are answering a listeners question and At the, in every show notes, there is an anonymous form where you can ask a question, gain clarity on something fitness, strength training, cardio, nutrition related. As this person did a brilliant anonymous feedback on, you know, I'm not going to say I'm not going to give you a plan, but it provides a wee bit of a case study. So I'm going to jump into this. This is star rates. I am so over dieting, but I'm at a loss of what to do. I'm over 35 years old. I've had two kids and I feel like the weight just won't go away. I have worked out. I cannot do intense workouts. I'm so over cardio and I just want to eat the foods that I want to eat and enjoy vacations and holidays without feeling like I have to diet. Please tell me there's another way and dieting isn't the only answer I have. Oh, there are so many different ways. And I love this one because I get a lot of this with clients who come to me. They're so over the things that you might've done in your twenties or early thirties, where it is yo yo dieting, diet hopping, um, and working out super intensely for, Um, a week, two weeks, three weeks or whatever, and then seeing that change and then jumping back up on a diet whenever you need to see a change again. I get it. You're craving the freedom. You just want to live life. You want to feel good in your body. You want to feel confident in your food choices. So how do we create the change that we want to see? First, we're going to go over some mindset shifts that need to happen. This is paramount to seeing the success and the long term sustainability that you want to see. All right. So as I kind of mentioned, a very broad base of what I think this person might've overcome, but a story that I hear a lot from individuals is the jumping from diet to diet, the intense workout, long cardio sessions, the avoidance of a lot of different things that you're just over. So we need to shift that mindset that number one is eliminating everything bad. bad food, quote unquote, bad food is not the answer. Okay. So there's no good or bad food. Food is just food. Now I'm going to push back on that bad aspect, the food that you need to enjoy or avoid foods that you are allergic to foods that are spoiled or moldy and foods that you might have a sensitivity to or foods that Religiously or culturally, you do not eat those are the only foods that you need to avoid. Food has no feeling, has no definition of good or bad, clean or dirty, you know, the food is just food. Losing 10 pounds in two weeks, the reality or the gold standard, the reality is a quarter of a pound of loss. So 0. 25 of a pound loss to a half pound loss in a week. And even up to two pounds is ideal. Most people tend to do a quarter of a pound to a half pound of weight loss per week. And that is So phenomenal and so great. And you, if you are achieving that, celebrate that. The notion that huge weight decreases is setting yourself up for frustration and failure. The other mindset shift that the only way to obtain results is through intense workouts and long cardio sessions. Now, That is not the only way to do that. There are so many other ways and we'll dive into them. And I will say the tools I'm going to give you, you're going to have to glean from them as to what will work for you and start with the one that is the easiest for you to do. The other thing is that you're supposed to like the mindset shift is living in a fat loss. 24 7 365 days a year. Like, no, we cannot live and nor should you live in a fat loss state year round upon years and years. What we want to do is We want to start to see the change in the body composition and the change with our nutrition, our movement, our strength training, our sleep, our social emotional wellbeing that we want to see and, you know, make it sustainable. And then we might be like, okay, I want to see a little bit more, but ultimately you're going to hit a point where what's called is maintenance mode where you're going to be living your strength training, your movement pattern, your sleep, your nutrition is all. I don't want to say stay the same, but it's going to be a harmonious process. That is what we're trying to achieve. And so that's where you will get off of that yo yo dieting or that hamster wheel of I live life. Oh my goodness, this is awful. And now I have to do something about it and drop all this weight and do all these crazy things. No, we want to get off of that. And so how we do that. is by shifting this process that you should always be in some sort of fat loss and losing weight when really we want to make sure that our food is setting us up for success. And by success means providing us energy throughout our day that we can enjoy the holidays and the vacations. Um, and even in those times where you're not going to be able to cook from home, that you may not see a vegetable. for a couple of days because life is crazy that you feel good and that you just go back to eating in a sustainable nutrient dense way that our workouts fit. There's always gonna be friction, but you, it's, it just works together. There isn't this, Oh, I need to reinvent the wheel. Oh, I need to do these big gestures to get everything back on track. We want to start to decode What makes us feel good in our bodies? What makes us, um, live our life not on the sidelines, but in everyday life, enjoying all the holidays, the vacations, running after our kids, maybe doing an ultimate goal, dream list thing, climbing a mountain, running a 5k, a marathon, doing a triathlon. Um, All of these different things. Okay. So those are some mindset shifts to recap that losing 10 pounds is not the gold standard in two weeks. Eliminating everything bad in the reference of food, intense workouts and long cardio sessions are the only way in that. You need to be in a fat loss state forever. These are all mindset shifts we want to change. So what we want to start is, and this is scary, is understanding where we're at. So the best way to create a change is the awareness of where you're at and how your current life is and what you want to be in your life. So the listener wrote in, they want to enjoy holidays. They want to enjoy meals out and vacations. Brilliant. We want that. Those are great things to have in life and you can still see results with enjoying those things. These are some metrics and tools to employ in this process to not only understand where you're starting from, it is a starting point, not an ending point, to help you decode. the life that you want. I am guilty of this too. There are times where I fall into habits or routines that don't serve me. And when I just do an awareness check, because our lives are so busy, we get lulled and we just need to reassess and create a little bit of change. And it doesn't mean overhauling our entire life. I have not worked with a client where I'm like, Oh my goodness, they're doing it all wrong. They're a lost cause. And there's no hope. Now, every client I've worked with, I'm like, They have a brilliant base and small tweaks make a huge impact on the change that they want to see. It's hard for us when we're bombarded, bombarded with societal standards and social media posts and reels and whatnot, that it looks like we need to do these big grandiose things that just seem unrealistic. However, that is a small percentage and there are so many things that you can do. You don't need to do all of them that are small tweaks that make a big impact. All right. So starting with where you're at. When you start a movement practice, strength training, or looking into your diet, diet in the sense of everything you put into your mouth to eat for nutrition in whatever cycle, seven day cycle, a day, a month, whatever. Okay. That's the term diet that I'm going to use. That's how it's defined is the food that provides nutrient to your body. I'm not talking about you. any other diets out there. So when you're creating these changes, we want to know where we started from. A couple ways that you can do this is by taking photos and these photos can be private. The reason why photos are good, it not only captures pastoral changes, but it also allows you to see the changes over time where we're, we live in our body. It's hard to see sometimes that you're changing. Other people might see, but you're like, no, I'm not changing. I don't notice it. So that is one metric that you can use when you go through this process that can help. you see the change. Measurements are also another great way. The reason why I love measurements is there's no way to spot reduce. You can't be like, Oh, I want to make my arms thinner. So what food can I eat or lift? Can I do that are just going to thin out my, my arms? No, There's no specific exercise, workout, food that is going to spot reduce, only reduce your tummy or your thighs or your, you know. So that's where taking chest, belly, thigh, and arm measurements are going to help see the change that is happening. Another one is if you're like, I don't want to do photos, I don't want to do measurements, totally fine is how do your clothes feel? Do they feel snug? Do they feel loose? Those are, that is a way just to kind of strip back from data points, um, to see that. Okay. The other one that is, that can be useful and it gets a bad rep, but I will say it's not my favorite, is weighing yourself. Now weighing yourself. That number on the scale is just the gravitational pull on your body. It includes everything your body's made up with, bones, bodily fluids, organs, hair, skin, all of that, you know, bodily waste, you know, like it's just all of that. So we tend to think, Oh my goodness, they put on two pounds. Well, you can take a poop and probably lose two pounds. So it's, Misleading in a lot of ways, but if that is something you're comfortable with I would recommend weighing yourself at the same time in the same Conditions meaning if you're wearing clothes Ideally wear the same clothes. I find it's easy when clients are like I enjoy weighing myself. I'm like, okay One time per week the same time same day each week Preferably naked because you just don't have that clothing aspect. So way at the same time, same day of the week. And then a app that is pretty good that helps kind of show the averages is Happy Scale. Enter it in there and it'll show, um, changes over or the trends of the changes that are happening over a month or two months. Last I checked, it's free. I'm not quite sure. I don't use that one, but that is free. Just a tool in your toolbox if you want to go in the weighing way. All right, nutrition. For me, the process I use for clients and what I find is very helpful. I have them log foods into Cronometer. I love Cronometer. I've mentioned it before. I'll put a link in there. I don't get anything kicked back. Maybe I should, but I get no kickback, but it's a great app. I use it for myself. The reason behind it is it has a really brilliant breakdown of the micro, um, nutrients, the macronutrients and all the different vitamins and minerals, but it's a, it's a really good comprehensive logging system that has a good library of foods that are already in there and it's very user friendly and the free version is awesome. So logging your food allows you to gain awareness as to what you're eating daily over seven days and allows you to make tweaks from that. We're looking for progress, not perfection here. Again, if you are someone who eats out, it allows you and maybe at the same place, it allows you to see what the different entrees Um, and their nutritional values are maybe I'm going to use this one because it's a very cream based and pasta, maybe fettuccine alfredo. If that's your favorite dish and you order that every week. Maybe we just reduce that to every other week or one time in a four week cycle. So that's why logging can help make the small tweaks, but not pull out things that are going to make your life your life and, you know, make your life miserable. You know, I have several clients who are like, I really enjoy a glass of wine on Friday night with dinner. Cool. That is part of your lifestyle. That is part of your whole meal plan. Let's look at everything to see how we can set you up for success. Other clients are like, I enjoy a nice sweet treat after dinner every night. That is just part of what helps me unwind. Brilliant. That is part of your meal plan. Let's look at it all and see how everything can coexist. Okay. So when you are logging for yourself, use a sense of curiosity and exploring. Not a sense of, oh my goodness, everything I eat is adding more and more pounds and fat to my body and I need to take away every sweet treat. you know, maybe an adult beverage eating out and I need to make my life miserable. Nope, you don't need to do that. I don't want to get too specific here, but the macronutrients, your protein, carbs and fat, Yes, they're great to pay attention to. Really look at that protein number. It is quintessential when you are creating that body composition change, um, to see that fat loss because protein allows for you to maintain the muscle that you have. and helps you build more muscle. Bodies cannot make protein nor can they store protein. Um, protein also helps you feel fuller longer and it also levels out your hunger or cravings. So it just kind of curtails those cravings that we might get and then protein takes longer to digest so it keeps us fuller longer. Other one that I love that is not mentioned, it is not a macronutrient. It doesn't get enough, um, It doesn't get enough notoriety in my humble opinion is fiber So fiber is great for everybody. It is very important for women as we get over 35 and we enter that perimenopause stage because it helps improve our digestive health. It helps regulate bowel movements, preventing constipation and promoting a healthy digestive system. So think of like that bloat that you might get maybe at the day or permanently helps clean. out the digestive tract. It helps with weight management because fiber rich foods are like are more filling. They have more heft and they also help control your appetite because they take longer to break down. And it also reduces that overall caloric intake. Heart health is massive. Okay. Heart disease affects a lot of women. So soluble fiber will help lower your cholesterol levels by binding. to the cholesterol in the digestive system and remove it from the body. So it helps reduce your risk of heart disease. Blood sugar control is essential. So soluble fiber will help the absorption of sugars. So it's just not lingering in the body causing your sugar to blood sugar to spike. So it reduces the risk of developing type two diabetes. Gut health is so important and fiber is a prebiotic. Okay. And it allows for, um, food provides for beneficial gut bacteria, so it allows for a healthy microbiome, which is really important for overall health, immune function, and mood regulation. Fiber is also a great hormone regulator by aiding in the excretion of excess estrogen, which helps reduce the risk of hormone related diseases. conditions such as breast cancer. All right. So you get fiber from fruits and vegetables, whole grains, whole grain bread, bread, pasta, rice, cereals, um, that are all rich in whole grains, legumes such as beans, lentils, and chickpeas, and certain nuts and seeds as well. If you're using chronometer, I would look at What is your protein start and what is your fiber as well? So protein and fiber are two key things. How much should you get in a daily and daily for fiber? The recommended daily intake is 25 grams. I tend to like to see clients over 30 grams. It's just is a little bit better. 25 grams, I believe, I just feel is a little low. Again, we work up to that. It's not, Oh, you're only taking in two grams. Uh, well, tomorrow it's 30 grams. We work up to that. So that's where logging allows for a benchmark to then start to see changes over time. Protein is the same way. The recommended is 0. 8 grams of protein per pound of body weight. It's a little bit more recommended for women to get one. gram to 1. 3 grams per pound of body weight. Again, if you're starting at 20 grams of protein per day and you're trying to get your ideal intake of protein is 140. I'm making up random numbers here. We're not going to see that overnight. I don't want you to go 20 to 140. You're going to drive yourself bonkers. So with that, we want to create a range for success with our food. Even if you iron out and you're like, okay, I know this many grams of protein and fiber carbs and fats. Really make me feel good. I feel satiated. I'm seeing the body composition change. I want, you're not going to be a robot and try and hit those numbers every day. Develop a range with a 10 to 20. I'm going to say point range that will help you. It's all, all for averages. We're not looking for, I need to hit those numbers perfectly every single day. We're not robots. Moving on to the side of working out. So strength training is huge. It is quintessential for creating the body composition change and the fat loss you want to see. Muscle is the fountain of youth. It helps you stay younger, longer, it helps you stay feeling good and in an able body longer and it's progressive strength training. What that means is slowly increasing weights over time, allowing for new muscle recruitment, um, so that you can be strong, powerful, explosive. everything you need in life. He might be sitting there being like, well, I'm not an athlete. I'm never going to go run. I'm never going to go climb a mountain and I have no plans of ever running. You're doing a triathlon. Okay. That's awesome. Bye. Chances are you might have a parent versus kid soccer game, or you might have to take off running after a toddler. That is explosive athletic movements. You may have to, these are all athletic explosive movements that you might see in everyday life. Carrying in groceries is an athletic movement. Groceries are heavy. And if you're like me, you don't like taking multiple trips. So you stack those arms full and you're carrying in a heavy weight. Getting that progressive strength training is going to help with bone density, help mitigate things like osteopenia, osteoporosis, as well as transition that body composition to help with fat loss and increase with muscle. Where does HIIT and all of those cardio things fall into play? Sure. Hit is great. As we get older. Hit does become more purposeful in a workout routine for women in that perimenopause, but I'm not going to get too nitty gritty. So I'm with that, because that is a whole, whole other thing. I will do a podcast on that, but we want to try and get one to three strength training sessions in where we are lifting heavy, heavy, meaning feeling the heft of the weight in your hand, that you're able to push and feel that resistance through the movement. And by the end of the set, you're feeling that struggle on the last one to two reps, a HIIT workout. one to two times per week. Now notice the range is a one to three strength training, one to two times of hit. That doesn't mean you sh if you can't work out five to six days a week, then you aren't going to see change. No, if you can get that one strength train and one hit brilliant. If you're like, I do not like hit workouts. That's fine. There's many different ways to see that interval change. The reason why HIT is great is it helps boost that cardiovascular health and that metabolic response to complement the strength training. Okay. It provides a more well rounded. routine than just one sided as much as I love strength training. We also need the cardio component in that cardio health to provide ourselves with a healthy body composition outside of your movement or your strength training and your cardio component, your hit, your walking, maybe interval or inclined walking on a treadmill or a We want to get that movement throughout the day. So if you are in a dust bound related job, really making sure we're getting that one to two minutes up to three minutes movement after sitting for 20 minutes, try not to sit to sit more than 40 minutes. I get it can be out of your control, but we want to get that movement in there. Fat loss is not linear. Okay. If you have taken photos from the start, and you take them again, and you see Changes? Maybe they aren't the ones that you want. No, it's not going to be a linear process. There's going to be a lot of work that goes into it before you start to see that change. If you use measurements and you measure, I would strongly recommend try to measure week or one to three weeks or once every four weeks. I think you might drive yourself a little mad if you're doing it one time per week. Um, but if you see changes and maybe things go up and certain things go down, These are all changes. It's not linear. Again, you're not going to see an overall, oh, I lost a quarter of an inch everywhere on my body. You might see an increase in your waist, but a loss in your thigh. You might see an increase in your arms and a loss in your waist, or you might see an increase in your waist and a loss in your thigh. Other reasons why those changes may be there is if you're using a tape and you're having a partner, a spouse, uh, a friend do the measurements, they may not be measuring in the right spot every single time. So, Rule of averages here really apply if you are choosing to weigh yourself, weigh yourself one time weekly and look at the average overall, your weight may go up on the scale because you ate a salty foods the day before, or you may need to poop, um, or you've might have increased or had more carb, foods the next day because when you eat a little bit more carbs, it requires more fluid and more gets pulled into your gut, which causes some bloat. Totally normal. These are all normal things. Not a reason to avoid carbs at all. This is normal. Just a physiological process of the processing of carby foods. that might cause some water retention because your body is still metabolizing those carbs. You might have lifted weights before you weighed yourself, which is going to cause the scale to go up. Or it might be time for your period to come and you are having a little bit more of just, you're just a little bit more bloated. So if you're using, um, the scale, there are going to be things that change. These things are also going to change with, um, using measurements on the body or pictures, check in pictures as you progress there. Logging food into chronometer is great. Look at it as a way to explore what you're doing. Is the food serving you? Do you notice energy drops throughout the day? Maybe you might Need more of a breakfast and eating a little later throughout the day. You know, explore what makes you feel good, what sets you up for success, um, looking at eating out and other areas. The one thing I want you to think about is just because you cut all these calories doesn't mean the foods that you're eating is going to serve you or see the change. We want to look at it as. All these things can fit in, but we're going to boost a little bit more protein, more fiber, more fluid intake, water primarily, um, to set ourselves up for success. All right. And then the way of working out strength training is huge. If you don't know how to strength train, no big deal. I work with many clients who are like, I really want to strength train. I know what's good for me. I don't know how to do this. Brilliant. Reach out to me. I have plans that help take individuals who have never strength trained before, break it down and make it approachable in their life. I get it. Life is busy without feeling exhausted. I don't want you to think strength training is only CrossFit and doing Metcons and doing all these intense workouts where you're not going to be able to wash your hair because your arms are so sore or be able to get off the couch because you're so sore. There are many different ways to boost your cardio health without going out and running for hours or being on the treadmill for hours or the elliptical, we can incorporate that in in one to two sessions per week. The last thing is get that movement throughout the day. That is huge. If you only have time to do one sort of. Movement. I would say strength train and build in that workout. Those cardio components throughout the day. Maybe it's you have stairs in your office and you take two minutes and you just walk up and down the steps. I'm not talking we need to run up and down. You just walk up the flight of stairs and down the flight of stairs a couple times that is going to help your overall cardiac or your cardio health. Okay, these are ways we can build in. I highly encourage you to reach out to me. If you have questions that you brought up due to this episode, drop them in the anonymous form in the show notes and we can go over them. But this is just a way to kind of help get you started to see the change without having to diet or restrict yourself. Thank you for joining me on another episode of miles from her view. Your support means the world to me, and I truly appreciate you being a part of our community. If you found today's episode helpful and want to stay informed about all things catfish strength, make sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You'll receive Exclusive insights, tips, and updates straight to your inbox to sign up. Simply visit the show notes for the subscription link to discover more about catfit strength programs and how you can ignite your fitness journey. Head over to our website at www. cat. fit. There, you'll find everything you need to invigorate your path. To strength and once again, thank you for tuning in and I can't wait to connect with you in our upcoming episodes. Take care and remember act to take the next step.