Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30 Podcast
It’s not too late to boost your metabolism and build a body you love. You probably feel like you’ve already tried everything. Moment of truth: all those quick-fix solutions are exactly why your scale seems stuck. In fact, chronic dieting is the single biggest cause of weight plateaus and boomerang weight gain. But seemingly small changes to your everyday life can help you add metabolism-revving muscle. That muscle will make you look amazing in your clothes and feel great about your body. Even better? Instead of weight loss that lasts for a couple months, investing in your metabolism helps you stay lean for life. This podcast gives you sane, non-gimmicky, science-based tips so you can have a rockin' metabolism and physique at any age.
Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30 Podcast
Episode 64 - How Fad Dieting Interferes with Healthy Habit Formation -- Interview with Stacia Root
We talk a lot about how chronic dieting wrecks your metabolism but did you know it also makes forming healthy habits difficult (if not impossible)? In today's episode, Coach Jo talks with Stacia Root (@Stacia.Root), owner of Rooted In Results, about how fad diets interfere with healthy habit formation . Stacia is a registered nurse who became a fitness coach after developing a passion for preventative care. Quickly into her nursing career, Stacia realized that healthy exercise and nutrition habits practiced over a lifetime can prevent many chronic diseases and increase quality of life.
Listen up to learn:
- why most diets do not promote sustainable nutrition or exercise habits;
- why diets promote all or nothing thinking that leads to majoring in the minors (not focusing on habits and behaviors that matter the most for health or lasting results);
- how restrictive diets erode self-confidence;
- why Stacia has her clients focus on awareness and focusing on small behavioral changes for long-term success, and
- MUCH more!
Follow Stacia at @stacia.root.
Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoyed it.
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Hi everyone. You've got Coach Joe here today on today's podcast and I have a very special guest, stacia Root, who she's going to tell us all about our background. Stacia is a coach in this space, does similar work as we do at Couture Coaching, and I always love having fellow coaches on here to talk about not just the science of how to create a great physique and manage your weight in a healthy way, but also practically how to implement all of that scientific advice and how to form the habits that are necessary to reach your goals. But first let me tell you a few things that are going on at Couture Coaching. We have just enrolled for our October Metabolic Makeover Program, so that's in full swing.
Speaker 1:If you're interested in working with us for one-on-one coaching, I would say first maybe schedule a call with us. We will be enrolling again in January of next year, but always you can always talk to us about kind of our thoughts about where you might be or what you might need to do to get on your way to achieving your goals. Second, we do have our Master your Metabolism do-it-yourself course at $79. And you can find information about both things on our website. And I think that's it. So let's get on with today's show. Stacia, do you want to introduce yourself?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on. So I'm very excited to be here and just chat with you about overall experience. I used to be a registered nurse. I still hold my license, I just don't practice anymore. I worked as an RN for about three and a half years before I switched into the personal training space, so I have a bit of a different perspective on health and wellness than most people do, just because I actually worked in that health and wellness space. And when I transferred into personal training I wanted to take everything that I knew about just the body, human body overall and put it together with working at clients, get the best results for them and basically they're functional health and wellness. So really excited to just chat with you and I can share a little bit more about that background if you would like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm actually fascinated. What did you see as a nurse that inspired you to get out of nursing and help people I guess sort of it sounds like proactively with their health?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I worked a couple of different bedside nursing. So I worked in the hospital like a kidney transplant unit, emergency department and then ultimately, when I was phasing out, worked a telehealth triage which was just talking to patients over the phone about potential issues, concerns, complaints, things like that. But along that, the one piece that lacked when we provided patients with anything was the education on how to take care of themselves from a health and wellness perspective, like working out and eating. Well, we'd give them a sheet of paper that said here you need to be more active, walk three times a day or not three times a day, I'm sorry three times a week. You know you need to pop back on your salt, but then we would just pump them with blood pressure meds, cholesterol meds, things like that, and not actually dive in depth into.
Speaker 2:Hey, if you actually focus on eating the correct foods and strength training, you can actually build up muscle and you can help potentially get off of these meds, even as far as reversing, like some diabetic processes, so getting your A1C back to normal, things like that. So I just found that for me, I felt that I could work one on one with people and make more of an impact and more of that preventative care space by working with people in the gym and actually teaching them how to properly set up a workout, safely work out and combine that with healthy eating and then, hopefully for some of my clients, get them off of meds. And I actually helped a woman reverse her diabetes, so she was on just oral meds and her A1C is back to normal and now she's not taking anything at all.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. So did you have a background personally? Were you into training and nutrition, sort of as a personal interest?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was always, I would say, active as a kid. I ran track in high school and college. I loved getting into the weight room and just loved how my body felt overall, not only like from the physical perspective but also the mental health perspective that came with working out. So I was always very interested in that. Lost sight of that a little bit in nursing school was working full time school, full time, put on some weight really wasn't like the worst shape of my life mentally and physically. And when I started getting back into the gym and establishing those routines for myself, I noticed a difference again and I was like well, I want to share this with everyone, like I want everyone to be able to feel how great it feels to be more in control of your body and your physical health, and hopefully that goes hand in hand with mental health then as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think probably. Yeah, you hit on something that how I would describe sort of my desire to coach or to get in this as well as like when I finally put it all together and realized that food and exercise were allies, not enemies, like food was the ally, not the enemy. Exercise was something I got to do that made me feel really great, not a punishment and not just a way to keep the weight at bay. It was life changing and I wanted everyone to experience that. It was so freeing from sort of how I had approached things previously that I wanted to share it with everyone and I think I mean, yes, I know that people have weight loss goals and they have health issues, but the way I've always thought of it or tried to explain it to people is that you know food and exercise like this is like an energy management issue, or a way to manage your energy, and energy is, if you that's like your base currency right, I mean, you have time and energy and if you're, if you don't feel good or you don't have great energy, that really impacts your quality of life and really at the base of how you feel and how your energy levels are, or how you are eating and how you're moving your body. So this is very basic quality of life inputs that can totally change your life. Okay, well, let's talk about your experience coaching.
Speaker 1:We have talked a lot on this podcast and, if you follow us or read any of our blog posts or any of the content we have out there, we talk a lot about how chronic dieting can keep a lot of women or people generally stuck and from reaching their weight loss and fitness goals, and we talk a lot about it from a physical perspective, like all the things are all the ways that dieting can affect your metabolism and how it can make weight loss very hard from a just a pure physical, scientific standpoint. But I think you have a perspective on this, like from a habit formation standpoint. So do you want to speak a little bit about how cycling on and off fad diets can keep people from actually forming the habits that they need to form to get and maintain a healthy weight?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I've worked with a lot of people and a wide variety of people have tried a lot of different things and they always say I know, I've tried this and it was great. I lost, let's say, 50 pounds, but then I gained 60 back and it's just as up and down. So it's these wild swings where it's, you know I all of a sudden I feel really good, I lost 50 pounds, I'm feeling great, but then it's like now what I got there and now what? Because whatever you were doing to get there typically is something that you can't sustain long term, like, for example, I had a person and her physician had recommended that she eats 500 calories and it all be protein and that was it, and so for her she's like I loved it. I lost so much weight, I felt great, but then I ended up in the hospital because my body was basically shutting down because I wasn't eating enough. And she's like so in the moment I felt really great and I was like riding that high. So one of the biggest things I work with with clients is talking about what is sustainable for their life, because fitness is not a one size fits all industry. Every single person's journey is going to look a little bit different, just like every single person's food is going to look a little bit different. You and I probably don't eat the same things or eat exactly the same way, and that's okay.
Speaker 2:So one of the first things I have people do is, typically just for about a week, I just let them write down and kind of keep track of what they're eating, just to see. And usually people are shocked at the amount that they're eating. Usually it's like anywhere from 1000 to 1200 calories and they're like, oh my gosh, I didn't even realize I was eating this little. And that's step one. Step one is having adequate amount of food for your body to even survive. So if you're not getting adequate food, you know your body is going to start storing everything and you're not everything that you're eating. You're not making any progress, you can't build muscle, your body's in a stressed out state. So step one is just sustainable food and we start by tracking what you're eating and then I'll like review it, sit down with my clients and say, okay, this is what I'm seeing.
Speaker 2:Let's say, for example, just for kind of a quick example, someone is only tracking one meal a day. They have one meal a day and then they're eating a snack and I'll ask okay, in this timeframe that you're eating a snack, do you have time to eat a full meal, or is this like, let's just say, a nurse that's on the go, or do you just have time to eat a snack? So figuring out ways that, if they're like no, I have time that I can eat more of a meal. We'll talk about different meals that can then be implemented into that space that they enjoy, that are maybe, if they are a nurse, they can grab it quick and easy on the go. But it's more enough, more food. So it's adequate enough for them to start adding small changes into their weekly basis. So they're starting to get that adequate amount.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So yeah, this sounds, number one, very familiar, that you're getting people who have been prescribed or done something very unsustainable, whether that be fasting a lot, yeah, eating nothing but protein, maybe like shakes or something, and then sort of it becomes unsustainable. And then where do you go from there? So it sounds like you have a really great approach for helping people just change, see how their life is structured now and how they can make small changes that are going to be sustainable for them. And then the other thing that we see a lot to I'm glad you mentioned it is once people, especially women, and this is for what I've seen typically women who have been on a diet or they get themselves in this low calorie space and I think they don't even realize how, or that just becomes what they perceive to be a normal, healthy amount of calories, and oftentimes it's just it's so low, it's so nutritionally deficient.
Speaker 1:What we see is just like not nearly enough protein and, yeah, it's no wonder sort of their body won't cooperate with them. So, yeah, I think anyone that has a pattern of dieting their calories are, it's just gonna probably, they'll probably show up to you with not the greatest nutrition. I know that that's what we see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. And I think I mean it starts with awareness is just being, which is why I always start that first week of like, hey, just write down or just keep track of what you're eating. So now that awareness is there and as women, I feel like we also with social media and everything like there's a lot of perception that we have to eat a specific thing. Or you see these women who look a certain way and you're like, oh, maybe if I do like them, I'll look like this. So then it's also breaking that mindset from I have to look just like this or perform just like this person. And that comes back to my fitness is not one size fits all. It has to be sustainable for your life and your goals. So just bring awareness to this is where you're at right now, and then this is how we can get you where you need to be. But it's gonna take time. It's not this quick sprint, it's a little bit more of a marathon, which is okay, because that means you can sustain it for life.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, exactly. So I was wondering. Also, something that we see is just like this very all or nothing thinking with women, I'm gonna say women. We work primarily with women who have done a lot of dieting. So just this, lots of fixating on kind of what I call like majoring in the minors, and if I can't do all these little things perfectly, then I just won't do any of it.
Speaker 1:And again, I think that's that old dieting mindset coming in, like you get this diet, it's usually unrealistic and they're used to going all in on it and then some life happens and then the diet doesn't work anymore and so they failed and then it just is this horrible cycle that repeats itself. But then they try to apply that same sort of mindset to just trying to form healthy nutrition and exercise habits. And it's really something to observe because, just like obsessing if the one little thing goes wrong or they get off track for a little bit, like no, you're gonna be doing this like pretty much forever, so let's not worry about one little mishap today. Do you see that with your clients that have done a lot of dieting?
Speaker 2:I do and I will say the one thing that I start people out with to create healthier habits in that aspect, to get a kind of a way I don't wanna see them all are nothing mindset, but we start small. Because if you start small and you start stacking wins let's say from a diet perspective, because that's what we're talking about here let's say that you typically, when you crave a salty or a crunchy snack, you're always going for a bag of chips. Let's just say that's your go-to. So because that crunch is so satisfying, that's what you're really craving. The small step is maybe having a bag of carrots in the fridge. That's gonna provide that same crunch, that's gonna give you that satisfying feeling.
Speaker 2:But it's making those small changes. It's not like, hey, this is the first day we're working together, by the way, you have to eat chicken, broccoli and rice and that's all you're eating, because that sets you up for failure. All of a sudden, your mind can stick with that for three or four days, but when you're mind, when you tell yourself you're gonna do something and you don't do it, you're letting yourself down, and so it allows that negative kind of thought process about yourself and it becomes very easy to fall into that cycle of the highs and lows again, like those highs were chasing after the weight loss and we finally get it, but then we hit the low because it's not something we can sustain, and we're chasing that pattern. So, starting with habits that are smaller, I guess even from a fitness perspective. Let's say they have three days a week and they're like I just need to be a little bit more active on those three days.
Speaker 2:You know your screen time on your phone is five hours. Well, go to the gym and walk on a treadmill for 20 minutes. That's all I ask. 20 minutes, three days a week. You have the time to do it.
Speaker 2:Take your phone with you and go through emails while you're walking on the treadmill, because the more you start to stack those small wins in your head, your mind starts to trust that you're gonna do what you say you're gonna do, and then you start to feel more confident and I think that transpires into all aspects and all of a sudden, those goals and those habits can start to get bigger and bigger and bigger throughout time. But I really do think it comes down to you have to believe in yourself and you have to set yourself up for success. And that all or nothing thinking I think comes from biting off more than you can chew for lack of better phrase there where it's like, oh, I can definitely do this, and then for a short period of time you can, but after that you can't, because either your time gets in the way, you don't even enjoy it, so now you really don't wanna do it. Things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this really reminds me. I don't know if you've read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Yeah, so we talk a lot about that book in our coaching program and I think it's the one when we do a particular class on it, just explaining, like you know, like he talks about the guy that his first habit that he formed was just driving to the gym and walking in for five minutes and over a two year period. Of course you know the five minutes turned into more and more time, but he had to get in the habit of just driving himself to the gym and getting out of the car and walking into the gym. And that's how small sometimes the habits at the beginning of this need to be.
Speaker 1:You cannot go from zero to a hundred in a day and it's really I just, I mean, I think we again I blame this on the dieting industry, but it's like we think that we're going to, in a week or even a month or three months time, undo habits that we've been doing for a lifetime and the effect of those habits on our body over a lifetime, and that's just not really the way it works.
Speaker 1:So you, usually the habits need to be smaller than you ever thought possible or ever thought would even matter in the beginning. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and give yourself credit for that, I mean because you will ultimately change. But it has to start pretty small and something that's totally doable for you, like you said, to build that integrity with yourself. Okay, I think this all leads to another thing I see in people who have dieted a lot in a way that I think it warps your brain, is impatience and lack of realistic expectations about how long it's going to take to change your body composition or achieve particular health, fitness and weight loss goals. Do you see that?
Speaker 2:I do and I see it from some different perspectives. So I've worked with some people that have tried everything and they are just like I am exhausted of trying everything. I always chat with my clients when we start about what their life looks like, what they want it to look like, what their goals are, what they've tried, because for me, it gives me good information on what they have tried, even like workouts that they love, workouts that they hate, things like that. So I have a combination right now of people where I have some people that they're like I've tried everything and I've been working with them for six months now, and this one client in particular. She's like I always stick with something for six months and then I am like, okay, I'm done, because it's too hard. So her and I have now talked about and discussed and established habits for her that she's like every month I just want to feel a little bit better in my body. So she's like I feel stronger, I feel like I'm able to move better, I feel like I'm seeing those physical changes when I look at myself instead of like jumping on a scale every day and weighing in because she physically like jumping on the scale for her gives her a lot of anxiety and she's like I just want to see and feel the changes in my body, because I know that if I hyper focus on the number, I'm just going to push myself way too hard, go way too hard. It's not going to be something I can sustain and then I'm going to get discouraged and just stop doing it. But then I also have the people who, like you said, are just like I'm expecting to lose, let's say, 10 pounds in a month.
Speaker 2:So, working towards just the understanding of how the body works, when you're working out how the how your body processes food and the changes that you feel, I always try to talk about how it's functional in your life, like how are you feeling stronger in your day to day life, whether it's playing with your grandchildren and now you can pick them up without pain?
Speaker 2:Worked with a client who was like in a shooting we got one point in time and for him he was like I can get up off my knee quicker. So functional living, more so than focusing on that number, on the scale, is what I try to focus on with clients and it's amazing how quickly people actually start to notice changes in their day to day. From just adding in some strength training, I would say two weeks, people will start to notice whether it's their sleeping better, their skin is looking better, they don't look quite as tired they're, they're able to do more things around the house without getting winded up and downstairs. Things like that is what I try to focus on, because it helps get that mindset of no, there are changes being made, even if maybe they're not as rapid as you can, they're not as rapid as you are used to or you've seen in the past.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I love that you focus on things other than sort of the what the scale is doing, or just the you know purely. I mean, what you're focusing on is physical, it's how they're feeling in their body, but just like you know the numbers and the sort of objective data, that's great. I think it's also hard you talked about, you know, when you start looking at nutrition with some of your clients and they're only eating 1000 or 1200 calories a day, it's hard to also, I think again, I think what dieting, diet, the dieting industry, it's like if you just pay attention to, it's like just when you get the thought ever pops into your brain I'm ready to lose some weight, like your body is ready to go along with it, you know, just because your brain has decided it's time. But if your nutrition is that low to begin with, that it might be really really hard to get your body to want to lose weight if you've been doing that for a long time and there might be a period of time that just has to be spent kind of getting things back to normal. Yeah, so that I that to me is probably the hardest thing to explain is again, I see mostly women that are have gotten themselves into this position, that no, I mean truly there is no magical combo of lemon juice and shooting vinegar before each meal and drinking oatmeal that that's going to change this. Like, you've got to eat, you got to give your body more nutrition, and it's not in a place that is probably going to want to lose weight right now based on what you've been doing to it.
Speaker 1:So I think that is also very, very hard and just you know the impatience and desperation to get the weight off can be pretty intense and and really stymie forward progress and just establishing I mean, what I usually try to do is do kind of a habit audit. So when we first start working with clients, like, okay, these are the habits that are needed to get you where you want to go, how would you grade yourself on these habits right now? And you usually know that's not like an F across the board, but usually it's like, okay, you know you're not going to the gym and lifting weights or lifting weights or doing any sort of resistance training on a regular level and we got to get that grade up to like a B or an A before you're going to start seeing change. So I think, again, focusing on the habits is probably what most people need to do. Okay, and then I one last thing I noticed with clients who have done a lot of dieting and how I think it interferes with habit formation is kind of that binge restrict cycle.
Speaker 1:I call it restrict binge cycle because I always think it starts with the restriction, yeah, and where you know, you go on some super aggressive diet, you restrict for a period of time that might just be one day, and then the hunger or the fatigue or whatever, or just the unsustainability of the sets in and then you kind of go, go off the rails and go crazy, then feel guilty and shame and then restrict and then this cycle just continues. And what I see is like that women who've done this a lot, they'll come to me and they're just like I just can't control myself around food I have. It's so terrible. You won't believe how much I wreck it, you know. Or I go, I'm great during the week, and then I go crazy on the weekends, and then we'll kind of dig under and like, well you're, you're barely eating during the week and of course you're going to go crazy on the weekends because you're probably hungry, where you're probably completely depleted. You've depleted all of your willpower, all of your resources by the time you hit the weekend. What we need to do is work on your nutrition during the week so you aren't rolling into the weekends feeling totally exhausted, depleted, hungry.
Speaker 1:But I think what? Yeah, it just. It creates this like learned helplessness. Like you know, I am just not someone who can control myself around food, and it's really a really distorted relationship with food, and so we have to. You know, then, when we can kind of get them on the right track, they're like I can't believe it. I I feel great in the evenings. I don't even want to eat everything inside or everything that's not nailed down. Like, yeah, you're not hungry, hungry, your body's getting what it needs, but I think it just sets up a really terrible relationship with food. Do you see that?
Speaker 2:I do and it comes down, I think, to that restrict binge is our bodies. They send us cues when we're hungry and the more you ignore those cues, all of a sudden your brain will be like fine, I'm just going to go into basically I heard a dietician say it once the best like caveman mode, basically back to ancestral times where we were literally out foraging for food because we needed it to survive. So the rest of your brain shuts down and you're like I need food and that's why that control part is completely gone. And you're like I just don't know why I can't control it. It's because you literally have not eaten enough that your brain is like I've tried to tell you a thousand times, you're not listening. So here comes in caveman brain and you're going to eat with others in front of you.
Speaker 2:So it's like our bodies are so fascinating because they do give us a lot of cues and tips and like craving a certain thing, let's say. Let's say you're craving salt. For some reason, workouts been higher, things like that. You know your body does notice when it's not balanced and it will give you a lot of signs to try to take in the right food. But if you don't listen, eventually that caveman brain will kick in and you'll start eating anything in front of you, like you said. I mean, and it's very frustrating for clients because they don't understand, but sometimes I'll explain it like that, like with the caveman brain, and everyone always chockles a little bit, but ultimately it makes them understand because they're like oh wow, I didn't even realize that. Our brains, like gave us all these cues and telling us are hungry and you ignore it, and you ignore it, and you ignore it. And then finally it's like well, we need to survive, so we have to do something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw a meme recently that that was funny. It said I make great decisions around food when I'm starving. It said no, never.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean it's like going to the grocery store when you're hungry.
Speaker 1:It's like yeah, and I mean hunger is always going to win. You're not going to outdo it, I mean without pain, in some other way. I mean you will stress your body out in some other way, and so it's always going to win. So yeah, but I think a lot of women take it very personally. They take hunger very personally like a personal failing, and I always also try I mean I guess it's kind of the same thing Like a lot of people who have dieted have a really terrible relationship with hunger. I'm like it's just biofeedback, I mean it's your body giving you signals of what it needs, like hunger is not a bad thing. Yeah, so yeah, but I don't know how you're supposed to do some of these diets and not be hungry. Some of them are pretty nuts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, and it's, it is cool. But you're right, it is that frustrating because you're like, why is my body hungry? Why am I, why am I craving this? But it's like you got to give your body a little bit of grace because it's it's what's keeping you here. I mean, that's what's keeping you here and upright and walking and everything else. So it's learning how to listen to those cues and then also like not feeling guilty about doing certain things.
Speaker 2:Right, like me personally, I will enjoy maybe pizza or something like that once a week and I really truly enjoy that time with it and like, if there's another day during the week that I want to have it, I'm going to let myself have it.
Speaker 2:Now I'm not going to have seven days a week of complete blowout for myself, because for my goals, usually my body actually craves like steak or salad or like another source of protein, because my body I eat intuitively to what my body feels like it needs. It's worked for me. I tracked my food for a while and now I just eat, basically based on intuition, and it's really a beautiful space when you get there. It takes a lot of time to build up to that, to trust your body, to trust your mind. But once you get there I mean for everyone listening once you get there, it's so beautiful because you're like oh, I trust that my body is hungry, I'm going to feed it this. Let's say, I'm craving greens or a salad or something like that. That's what I'm going to feed it. So it is pretty cool Once you get there. But it does take some time and patience to build up those habits and that kind of relationship with yourself, with food.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It has to be a positive relationship. It can't be that negative foods to enemies sort of relationship. So that sounds wonderful. Okay, I know you have some thoughts about fitness challenges as a way to kick off sort of a health journey or a health and fitness journey, so do you want to speak to that? Do you think you know the fitness challenges, like the get your bikini body in a week or two weeks challenges that we see on social media are effective?
Speaker 2:So here's what I'm going to say about that. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. There's a lot out there that you'll see, I'll see. It's like 21 day jumpstart, which is fine. I think that if you see a 21 day jumpstart and it's going to jumpstart you into getting.
Speaker 2:But what people fail to think about I've found with challenges and fitness challenges out there is what happens after the challenge. So after the 21 days, after the 12 weeks, what? Now what? Because you just spent 12 super restricted weeks or 21 really restricted days. So now what does life look like? Because you can't sustain that forever.
Speaker 2:And fitness challenges sell because they look flashy. They promise you quick results and typically you will get quick results because what they're going to recommend is eating 500 calories and working out for three hours a day. I mean that's excessive, I've not seen that, but, for example, that's what you see. So of course you're going to see results because your body is basically starving at that point in time. So that goes back to my fitness is not one size fits all. I think it's great to do things in combination, but really having an awareness of after these 21 days, after these 12 weeks, after these two weeks. What does life look like? How do I keep up this progress? What is this even progress that I can keep up? Because if it's something that after two weeks you can't keep doing, it's probably not setting you up for success long term. So, actually diving into, what does my schedule look like? Because there are some great 12 week programs out there. There's some great eight week programs out there that will then lead you into a next eight weeks, lead you into a next one, into an next one, into an next one. That's great, as long as you can keep doing that and you can sustain it for your personal health and wellness without burning out, because that's what, ultimately, a lot of challenges I have found lead to is that burnout, that fatigue, that frustration with fitness or exercise afterwards.
Speaker 2:I personally did 75 heart. I really enjoyed it. It's a mental toughness challenge. It's not a fitness challenge, although there are fitness benefits that come with it, obviously, with no alcohol, gallon of water to work out today, and I loved the habits that I formed doing that challenge and the mental toughness. I approved to myself that I could do it and I did it. But that's not. I can't live my life like that every single day and I had that awareness afterwards like, hey, I can't live my life like this every day, but it was really great for me to form habits and like pick things out of that challenge that I still incorporate into my day today now. So there is some good to fitness challenge. But, yeah, if you see something and you're like this just seems too good to be true, probably is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So what have you kept from? Well, yeah, some of these things are not designed to be done the rest of your life. So I think if you can recognize that and, on the same note, recognize that when you stop doing all the things you may or you may not get to keep all the results that you created from doing these extreme things Like, if you have reasonable expectations and, yeah, some of these can be fun to just kind of push yourself to the limits. I always think it's fun, especially when there's a community involved, just to be like, okay, can I do this for this number of weeks or this amount of time. As long as it's, I will say that no fitness challenge is worth doing if it's like let's cut out all food but protein.
Speaker 1:or you know, I did a smoothie challenge once that caused my mouth to break out and horrible sores and because I was consuming so much citric acid that it was like a pineapple, celery, green apple, lemon smoothie was one of my smoothies and it was that's what you were supposed to drink for like three days. Oh my gosh, those are not good. I don't think those are worth it, like they have like terrible nutritional value. But yeah, some of these are fun to just kind of push yourself to the limits and see what you can do and see what you like about trying different habits and keeping them going. So what did you have? You kept from 75 Heart.
Speaker 2:So the reading. So they have like 10 pages of reading, which typically it's like a some kind of book. That's more of like a self-help book or business sense, something too broad in your mind. I still read every day, but sometimes I read for enjoyment. Now, when I was in college, I stopped reading and I used to love reading like crime novels, things like that, and now I kept that because I really enjoy just kind of shutting my brain off and going into that space. So that was a great thing.
Speaker 2:I do some form of daily outside activity, whether it's I like to challenge myself. So a quarter of mile of walking lunges, it'll take me about 10 minutes. I'll do that outside or I'll do a 20 minute walk, just something to get outside, get fresh air, and one of the things from 75 Heart is a 45 minute outside workout, whatever that looks like. So for me now it's just some sort of daily outside activity just so I can get sunshine, fresh air, things like that. And then also the water component. I don't think we actually know how little water we take in until we start tracking it. So now I mean it's a gallon of water. Now I'm really aware of how much water I'm taking in and I get a half gallon in every day. Nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so you're in Wisconsin, in Green Bay, wisconsin. Do you keep the outdoor activity up in the winter or will you?
Speaker 2:I do. Yes, I've been doing it every day since January. I want to see January 1st, maybe right before, maybe Christmas time, so even like in the middle of a blizzard. There was actually one time I posted something on my story and I was walking and the snow was like almost as tall as my boots and I was like I just do it every day, it's just part of my routine now, so I don't really think about it too much. Some days it's harder to balance, like when I'm going to do it when I'm not. I actually just taught a like group fitness outdoor boot camp at the gym that I work out of, because I just think that being outside there's so many benefits to it and that was like my favorite thing from 75 Heart that I have taken and now I live out my life day to day.
Speaker 1:Nice, okay. Well, here's my two cents on challenges. So we were running challenges for a while and I was like so I was kind of taking your approach of like, okay, let's run our challenge. So one was like we would. We had a challenge each month around, either a nutrition or resistance training or walking. So it was like a step challenge or nutrition challenge.
Speaker 1:Like one month we would run a nutrition challenge and so the only aspect of the challenge is we would send a recipe out at the beginning of the week of each week, so four recipes for a month, and that was higher in protein than probably a normal Like I think each recipe probably had around 30 grams of protein and the challenge was just to try a new high protein recipe once a week and so it would dwindle by the end of the month. Like very few people could even complete that challenge. So I think you know the steps challenge was like I think like 7,500 steps a day and we, you know, had a little chart that you could cleaning the house, yoga I mean anything, any sort of movement really counted towards your steps. But I was just shocked at how few people could do those and these were just like very I would call them approachable minor lifestyle changes, like trying a new recipe a week. But so I think our ability to so, when you compare that against doing something like 75 part, like some of these challenges are just so extreme and you have to be realistic about again what we talked about earlier, how hard it is to introduce change into your life.
Speaker 1:So the only you know again, putting aside the challenges that are just really unhealthy and have terrible nutrition but I think the other downside of challenges is again we underestimate, like what we should be doing or what we practically can do, and so you know we'll get into these challenges, maybe a few days in or a weekend, and then life happens we abandon the challenge and again it just reinforces kind of that learned helplessness, kind of like that binge, restrict cycle, like yeah, but I just can't stick to anything I'm no good at, you know I'll never be able to change my life, to change, you know, my health, because I just can't. And really it's so extreme what we've bitten off at the beginning that it's not realistic to think we're going to keep up with the challenge. But so I think that's where they can go, arayas as well. But I totally agree with you. If it sounds too good to be true, it is yeah, and either it's gonna dump you in a bad spot or it's not gonna be sustainable. So okay.
Speaker 1:Instead of kicking. You know we have a person say that wants to get healthier. You know, improve their nutrition, get into working out how, eat more protein. What would you recommend a person do to get started other than, you know, doing a challenge?
Speaker 2:So to get started, I mean, if you are someone that really struggles with accountability and I say if you can find someone, find a gym that you go to and find a trainer that you actually trust, that you get along with, that sets you up with goals you can have a conversation with. I think training with someone is great, whether that's virtually or in person. That accountability piece is huge, especially for people starting out. That's kind of what I found is a lot of people will start something and then they're like I can't hold myself accountable. So just having that extra person that they're like, oh, I know this person's waiting for me at the gym, or I know my online coach is waiting for me to log on, so I'm gonna complete my workout with them I think that is a huge piece for people to kind of get into those habits and they'll also help set those habits. Now I wanna reiterate that you should find a trainer that you trust and someone that goals align with what you're seeing. So if you're asking questions and they can't answer your questions, you probably should be looking for another trainer, because unfortunately, there are some trainers in this space that aren't overly qualified and that is really frustrating as a trainer to see other trainers, because I feel like it doesn't necessarily set clients up for success.
Speaker 2:So it's almost like shop around a little bit. Shop around for a trainer. If that's something you're considering, do some research on gyms in the area reviews, maybe, talk to some people at the gym. Find that trainer online. Usually trainers will have whether it's on their social media or whatever they'll have a look into what their life looks like or what they offer client stuff like that. But another way is just if you are looking at, let's say, every day, you're like I just wanna spend 20 minutes being active, spend 20 minutes outside on a walk, decompress those 20 minutes, put your phone away and just spend 20 minutes with yourself on that walk and start there. Start with that small 20 minute commitment to yourself and moving your body and then add in from there and seek help when you need it, whether that be not knowing how to do an exercise or like you need that accountability piece. I think the accountability is huge. But also actually taking that mindful time for yourself and your body is also important. Those go hand in hand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's really great advice. I think the accountability piece is very key and really in this day and age, whether you need someone in person or there are lots of online options in terms of coaches or people that you can interact with online. I remember I was very leery of that pre-COVID Like I was like I need someone that I can show up to face to face. And then I did have, during or near the tail end of COVID, I hired an online fitness and nutrition coach and it was great. I mean it was fine and I actually I was able to. I built up a lot of trust with myself because I was like well, no, I can get myself to the gym and do these workouts. I don't need someone to meet me at the gym and make sure I'm doing the workouts. I can do this.
Speaker 1:So I had great results and developed a really close relationship with my coach, and we have clients all around the country that we do virtual coaching with. So there are a lot of options in this day and age, so you can definitely find a coach or a trainer that's a good fit for you and I agree at the beginning, most people do need some direction, and accountability are really helpful in the beginning, okay, so really really great advice for the beginner. Okay, so one thing we hear a lot of coaches in this space say is that mindset matters more than anything. Do you agree with that sentiment and how do you find defined mindset?
Speaker 2:I do. I think mindset is extremely important. I would define mindset as kind of how you talk to yourself. So I work with clients on developing more positive self-talk, whether that be about I can't do this or it's too heavy or all of these excuses or just basically bringing yourself down Like no, we need to talk ourself up. We need to look at life and working out and food in a more positive sense. So just changing some of those words from I can't to I can or I will. Those are extremely important.
Speaker 2:But I mentioned it at the beginning, I think physical health and mental health go hand in hand and I think that mindset also ties into that. So once you start to trust yourself, maybe you're starting to commit to those things that you say you're gonna do I'm gonna walk every day, you're doing it. Your mindset wow, I'm doing this it starts to elevate your mental health as well as your physical health. And I think that ties right into switching to that positive mindset, because all of a sudden you're like, oh my gosh, I can do this and you're proving it to yourself. So just working on ways that we can change that mindset to a I can do this versus and I can't, and not playing a victim role in your own life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I agree with all that. I kind of define it as like self-limiting beliefs and usually what's the phrase like? If you believe you can do something, you probably can. And so for all the reasons we've talked about, especially people who have a dieting history there's a lot of I can't, I don't, this won't work for me, and I can just tell you that that and fueled also are coupled with a lot of desperation and impatience and that is like the worst combo ever. I mean it will, it will.
Speaker 1:My personal belief is like it creates so much stress, like like hormone production, like stress hormone production, whether that be cortisol or that, to the extent you are going to get results, you almost sabotage yourself with all of the stress you're creating by the negative thoughts in your brain and just the flogging and what a pile of crap you are and not doing anything right. It's really something and not helpful. I've never seen that approach work in a client. They eventually will give up and quit and really this is a game of time, more than anything Is. Can you stick with the habits? Can you form the habits? Can you stick with them long enough, consistently enough, to see the success that you want to see. So, yeah, I agree with you totally that how we talk to ourselves is very important in this journey. Okay, well, anything else that you want to share in terms of what you've learned from coaching, or or helpful things that you've learned from coaching that you think others would want to hear about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, the one thing that I'll say and it goes back to this mindset piece is the more that you start to trust yourself, the easier it becomes, and I think that once you start trusting yourself, seeing the results, it becomes easier, and it becomes easier and easier and easier as time goes on. So if you're struggling right now to stick with it, I'm telling you it is so worth it. If you stick with it, maybe cut back a day, give yourself a grace day. If you're feeling like, wow, I just need a rest for a couple of days, give yourself a rest day. But get back into it because I'm telling you, as you evolve, as you keep doing it, it gets way easier and ultimately, like I said, it's a beautiful thing when your mind and body and physical activity, you don't really feel like you have a ton of limitations on your life anymore because you're able to do everything that you want to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would dare say yeah, if you can just battle through that, you know, I know I'm going to do what I say I'm going to do. I'm not going to, you know, abandon these healthy habits. I daresay you might like start to enjoy them and then they do become non-negotiables in your life. And that's when you're not fighting with yourself to get to the gym, you just go because you actually want to go and that's like that's that is. I think the secret is like you've got to learn to love these things. You got to learn to love how good nutrition feels in your body and you've got to learn to love to exercise. I mean, I'm not saying or at least love the feeling that you get afterwards or recognizing what it's doing for you. And I totally agree.
Speaker 1:Like I started out this journey from a very vain space. Exercise was very much something I did as a means of I didn't they don't think I thought this at the time, but it was a punishment, it was just a way to keep the weight at bay and it was like very pressure filled and so. But now I've realized like who, regardless of what, how, it's going to make my body look, I absolutely it's the best anti-depressant out there. It is absolutely how I maintain my mental health and I wouldn't not. It's, it's essential. I mean it's. I have to do it, not because I have bad mental health, but I just know the impact it does have on mental health, so I do it for that more than anything.
Speaker 1:I think it changes the why. It has changed the wiring in my brain. I know if I start the day with a workout, the day is going to go very differently than if I don't just it. My brain organizes itself better, it's just, and everyone around me is happier too. Yeah, so, okay, well, I think that's all really great advice. Okay, so we usually wrap our podcast by talking about favorite food that we're fitting into our nutrition. I know that you have. You have something in mind? Do you want to go first?
Speaker 2:Sure I will. I actually, as we've been talking, I kind of changed my what we had initially talked about, but I will take. I have an air fryer, so I'll take chicken breast and I'll cut them up into like nugget sized pieces and coat them with like pork panko so pork rind crumbs, throw them in the air fryer for about 20 minutes, I think is how long I put them in for and then take those out and at the same time I'll cut up like sweet potato and throw those in the oven to make sweet potato fries with homemade chicken nuggets and it's like my favorite thing and the macros are actually incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of protein. Okay, so do you have to? Do you like, put the chicken in like egg whites or anything, to get the crumb statistic? How do you do coding?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what I do is I'll just basically cut it up and then I'll dry it off. So like I'll pat dry the chicken and then I will do egg whites, beat the egg whites, put the chicken in there and then coat it and put it right on the pan and the trick is drying the chicken off. If I don't dry the chicken off, for some reason the egg whites won't stick and then the crumbs won't stick and they're not as crispy. So I dry the chicken off and then egg whites, pork, panko crumbs and right in the air fryer.
Speaker 1:That sounds really good. I might have to make that for my kids. I think they would eat that definitely. Okay, so mine is kind of a weird thing that I have rediscovered. I will say so.
Speaker 1:My husband and son came home from the grocery store the other day. They're big cereal eaters so they usually always bring home, my son especially so he's 14, he plays football. He ends the day every day with like a mixing bowl size of cereal and milk like a half gallon of milk, I swear. So they're always bringing home cereal. And they brought home crackling opron the other day which I don't think I had had since college. I remember them having it in like the. You know the thing. You turn the dial and the cereal would come out in the dorm and oh yeah, I loved crackling opron and I have to be careful with it because I could literally eat it by the handful.
Speaker 1:It's so good, it's sweet, it's crunchy. So what I have to manage the consumption of the crackling opron? It doesn't. It's, it's pretty calorically dense. I mean it does have some fire, but it's it's not the greatest macros. I mean, I'm sure it's better than like frosted flakes or fruit loops or something, but you can't eat it, you know, just as much as you want without consequence. So I've been putting it in. I usually have like Greek yogurt and fruit for a snack in the afternoon, so I've been putting it on top of that and it's really good. So that's my favorite rediscovery of past. And then I've been also working it into, like that's why if I have dessert or something, I'll have like a bowl of a little bowl of that after dinner. That's actually more satisfying to me than ice cream or other things. So my my be partly nostalgic because it takes me back to my college days, but that's my most recent indulgence.
Speaker 1:So okay, I love that, yeah, Okay. So Stacia, tell everyone where they can find you kind of how your coaching works, and we'll leave you know your contact information in the show notes as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm really active on my social medias. That's how I reach out to people. Instagram is just my first name, stacia period route, and then Facebook is just Stacia root. I use those very active on there. Send me message. I'd love to work with you. I offer some different online coaching options. I also train locally part time here in person. So if you're local degree and then you're looking for an in person trainer, I train at Western racket and fitness, so would love to work with you there. Otherwise, everything online. You can find me on my social media. Best way to get a hold of me is just messenger there. I'm very responsive.
Speaker 1:Okay, sounds great. We'll leave this all in the show notes. Well, thank you, stacia, so much for coming on. You've you've provided some great insight and I'm sure people will really get a lot of ever out of everything you've shared and learned from coaching. So, thank you, and that's all we have for today. Have a great rest of the week, thank you.