Each week, I’ll be covering aspects of fitness and health through three main categories: Mindset, Movement and/or Nutrition.
Your body is simply a living expression of your point of view about the world.
Carl Frederick
Mindset
Underlying exercise, nutrition and lifestyle is the key to it all: our mindset. Each module will start with this because it touches every aspect of our lives.
Think about this for a minute.
Everything in our lives (up to the point of reading this very sentence) is a direct result from our ways of thinking.
Relationships. Body Image. Friendships. Career. Money. Health. Experiences. And (maybe) lack thereof.
Our ways of thought usually dictate our feelings. Our feelings then dictate our actions. Understanding this is a big first step to starting any fitness program.
You can decide to be different today because you literally are different. Your cells are turning over into new cells. Even your genetics change daily by switching off and on certain expressions of your genes through epigenetic triggers. But to experience transformation and be the best version of yourself, you have to surrender your history and your personal story, and give yourself permission to start fresh. Today.
It’s that simple. And there’s a lot more that’ll I’ll cover each week.
No one steps in the same river twice, because it is not the same river, and you are not the same person.
Heraclitus, Greek Philoshoper
You’ve made the conscious decision to start doing things different (by signing up for coaching), and I want to help you discover and/or reprogram certain thoughts to bring more health, vitality and energy into your life.
Movement
Your staple workouts are your Semi-Private sessions each week. I love these workouts since it’s my opportunity to design a program that’s going to boost your metabolism, tone muscle and work your cardiovascular system. You’ll do all of this while simultaneously stretching and activating muscles that need it most. All the guesswork is taking out of the equation. All you need to do is show up.
If you’re looking for extra workouts to do on your own, you’ll find simple, bodyweight-only workouts HERE. Have fun with these workouts and get outside (maybe enjoy them on the beach for a bit of an extra challenge). The beauty with bodyweight workouts is that they are versatile and can be done anywhere.
Nutrition
Each week, I’ll be touching upon different aspects of healthy eating that will support your movement. I’ll be highlighting recipes to experiment with, nutrition principles for fat loss, different ways of eating (e.g., intermittent fasting), how to properly shop for food, etc.
Food tracking
This week we’re going to start with one experiment. Food tracking. This is going to be key for both of us to understand where you currently are with your eating:
- How much food are you consuming in each meal? How much are you snacking?
- What foods are you choosing to eat?
- Why are you eating the foods you are?
- When are you eating throughout the day?
- How are you eating? Are you at-home? Is it usually take-out?
Understanding all of this is key in the beginning. Rather than rehash some of the science here, CLICK HERE to read my latest blog post about it.
The goal is awareness.
This is all about objectively gathering data.
The more information, the better.
Be as specific and detailed as possible.
You can weigh and measure food if you like, as you get the hang of this. Or you can simply use the hand-based portion sizing chart (e.g. 1 fist of veggies, etc). You’ll find this chart attached at the bottom of this page.
Record other useful notes about each meal.
For example:
- How hungry were you when you started eating?
- How full were you when you finished?
- Anything else noteworthy about the situation (e.g. “Rushing to meeting”, “Eating right before bed”)?
Record what you eat immediately.
Memory is untrustworthy. Don’t attempt to reconstruct your food intake in the evening or the next day. You’ll probably forget a few things or misjudge the portion sizes.
(If you’re at work or out to lunch, just pull out a small pad of paper and quickly jot down your food. Or snap a photo. You can record the data later and refer to your notes/photos.)
Record everything.
Remember: A food journal is your personal “research” on what you’re eating and when you eat it. But do not omit any data.
In other words, everything you put in your mouth must go in the food journal.
Ice cream for breakfast? Just record it. It’ll be okay.
There is no judgement. Only data.
So make a promise to yourself (and me) to include everything you eat or drink for at least four full days this week. That’s it. There are no calories or macronutrient goals to shoot for, yet. This is simply to get a baseline.
MyFItnessPal
MyFitnessPal is what I recommend using for this program for all your food tracking. It makes the whole process easier to input and calculate your calorie totals for the day. It’s also free with a lot of functionality built in. Click on the logo to get set up with your account and/or download the mobile app.
Kitchen Essentials
Escali Primo is the food scale that I use and recommend, although any one should be sufficient.
A food scale has made me realize that I wasn’t very good at estimating portion sizes of certain foods. I also learned that many ‘nutrition labels’ are misleading about portion sizes too.
For example, I occasionally put oats in my post-workout shakes. A serving size is “½ cup. (40g).” For years I used a ½ cup measuring cup to portion out my oats. However, upon using a food scale, I realized that ½ cup weighed 60g, which meant I was actually eating 1.5 servings of oats That’s an extra 100 accidental calories every day.
Even if you think this is crazy behavior, once you start weighing all of your food just for a few days you’ll start to realize how many calories you’re actually eating.
It’ll be eye opening.
Expect Success,
Action Steps:
- Create a free account with MyFitnessPal and download app.
- Buy a food scale (optional but recommended); can get one on Amazon or in-store at Target.
- Record all food/drinks for at least 4 full days this week.
- Download and read the following: