Typical Steph meal: chicken, asparagus, broccoli salad (broccoli, Greek yogurt, cheese, shallot, walnuts, cranberries). Protein + veggies + satisfaction factor. Satisfied, not stuffed.
All in coaching
HANGER: Why it happens and how to fix it.
“Hyper-palatable, highly-rewarding, heavily-processed” food… you know, the stuff you find yourself face-first in after a few drinks or that terrible argument with your partner… is a major disruptor. Have you ever noticed that after eating a whole can of Pringles/2lbs of Sour Patch Kids/half a pizza, that you don’t really feel full…or even satisfied? Foods like this light up the pleasure centers of our brain and override our natural “stop” signals. We keep eating, ignoring that we’re stuffed, waiting until we feel sick or blacked out or there’s none left. Typically, these foods also contain relatively few nutrients, so we haven’t nourished our bodies properly: we’ve consumed a ton of calories, very few of which are actually serving us. We’ve moved from mixed eating into pure hedonic eating, and this hormone loop disruption is why it’s so hard to control: our natural regulatory system gets interrupted, and we feel powerless to stop it, as our innate stop-gap measure is thrown out the window.
So... How Do I Program This?
I add conditioning days to the lighter or more moderate days, mostly from a length-of-time standpoint, both in the gym and in the time it takes to recover. Conditioning workouts, if done with high intensity, are super tough! Overloading my system on heavy days + conditioning is too much; I’d never recover properly to produce enough force for my lifts (with sound movement patterns, anyway) the next day, plus I’d just feel terrible, which is rarely (heh.) the goal.
Placing the conditioning workouts where we will be able to both drive the intensity highest (lighter lift days or days where the posterior chain is activated and primed for movement) and recover in time for heavy lifts is vital to being able to achieve both strength + body change goals. I find many programs run into trouble by trying to do too much all at once, leaving you exhausted after a week or two, and giving up after three, leaving you pretty much right back where you started (we’ve all been there, myself included.).
Finding a balance is huge. This is what works for me and many clients, but all programs are adaptable to your individual needs. Working in the realm of high intensity + building strength is where the magic happens. Figuring out strategies to do both in the context of real life was the game changer for my consistency in workouts, because I was actually having fun AND seeing results.
We are strong and worthy. Our goals should always be plans to improve and upgrade ourselves into elevation, not fix what’s “wrong” with what we see.
That framing makes all the difference in the world between yo-yo dieting and effortlessly eating to serve your goals, and between a 21-day “banish xyz flaw” plan and training to be more mobile, energetic, and powerful.
Strength in Showing Up.
There is strength in fully showing up.
What I mean by that is, enter your relationships being fully, honestly, unabashedly YOU- boundaries, goals, struggles, and all. It certainly can be scary, especially if you’ve never done it before or if your closest friends don’t have the same goals as you. But creating space to express that vulnerability is your job; how others react to it is theirs to decide.
Action begets more action. Doing something is better than doing nothing. Put one foot in front of the other in spite of the uncertainty. Turn the small victories into a juggernaut, and win your battles, mighty warrior.
Complete strength starts in the mind, and the mind is immensely powerful. This is becoming an increasingly large part of the conversation in fitness- an awesome development!- and yet, I find time and again that each of us, when presented with a crisis, forgets how powerful our thoughts are.
Consider it. You’ve heard the cliché phrases all your life: “mind over matter”, “where there’s a will there’s a way”, “where the mind goes, the man follows”, but have you ever stopped to think about how much more goes right when you are absolutely determined to succeed?