Is your HIIT workout routine making you less consistent?

December 11, 2018December 11, 2018 Katherine

If you’ve ever had a hard time maintaining a healthy eating and HIIT workout routine, keep reading – I wrote this for you.

Girl, I see you. You’re prepping your food, trying to sleep 8 hours a day, and planning out your HIIT workout routine for the week. But even with your best made plan, you still have a hard time finding consistent time to workout and fighting against the cravings for sweets.

You’re so frustrated and confused why staying consistent is so damn hard when you’re trying to do all the right things.

But lovely, what if I told you it had nothing to do with your willpower, your lack of motivation, or your mistaken attempts to eat intuitively without gaining weight? What if I told you that your well intentioned, solidly planned HIIT workout routine could be what is keeping you from staying as consistent as you’d like to be with your healthy eating and exercise?

Today, I’m sharing two of the main reasons your HIIT workout might be making you struggle with consistency.

Your workouts are too long or require too much time

When we start trying to train for hours upon end or every single day of the week, we limit our ability to stay consistent. Why?

When our schedules change, when life gets busy, we find it hard to stick with our routines.
Additionally, when we are spending all our time planning our workouts, we have a hard time prioritizing rest and recovery – which are super important parts of a HIIT workout routine. This is why I recommend my clients shorten their workouts.
Long workouts also mess with our hormones….more on that below.

Your workouts are disrupting your MASTER

In order to stay consistent with healthy eating and workouts, our MASTER (more on that here) must be in check.

My MASTER your Eating Model is the main way I guide my #EffortlesslyConsistent clients through creating their personalized nutrition blueprints.

All elements of MASTER can be affected by our workouts but I’d encourage you to pay close attention to the following parts:

Appetite: if your hunger is out of whack or you feel crazy hungry, your workout routine might be making it harder to eat consistently.
Satisfaction: sometimes, our intense HIIT workout routines can lead to cravings. If our cravings are tough to handle, it’s gonna be a heck of a lot harder to stick with our healthy diet plans, isn’t it?
Energy: when we’re working out intensely, we can end up overtired and under-recovered. When in these moments of low energy, we get the desire to eat everything in site.
Mindset: is your HIIT workout routine making you feel stressed? Overwhelmed? Unaccomplished if you don’t do things perfectly? All these expectations can be obstacles to consistency.

Lovely, I hope this was helpful and that it resonated with you. It is totally NOT your fault. Consistency is tough. But if you take one thing away from this blog, know that trying to take downloadable, one-size-fits-all nutrition & fitness information (cough cough – that HIIT workout routine you downloaded from Pinterest) is just gonna keep you from staying consistent.

If you’re ready to feel more confident and consistent, take my consistency quiz below. It will help you identify your #1 roadblock to consistency – and exactly how to fix it.

How to make it through Thanksgiving without binging – step by step

November 21, 2018November 21, 2018 Katherine

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and my heart is overwhelmed by gratitude for all of the blessings of the last year. And to be real, one of my biggest blessings is the opportunity to coach my 1:1 clients – especially through the holidays. So, inevitably, I’m getting lots of questions on how to make it through Thanksgiving without binging. It can be such a challenge, so today, I’m sharing exactly what you need to do to make it through Thanksgiving without binging.

Here we go!

How to get through Thanksgiving without binging

Here’s how to handle Thanksgiving without binging. thanksgiving recipe – thanksgiving plan – thanksgiving cheat sheet

Wednesday night

While not sexy, it’s super important to get a good night’s sleep before Thanksgiving. When we haven’t rested enough, our hormones get wonky, our MASTER is out of whack, and we have a really hard time staying consistent. So, even though it seems unrelated to Turkey Day, make sure to get some good rest tonight. This will make it a heck of a lot easier to stay on track tomorrow.

Thursday morning

Although everything may be telling you to skip breakfast and do a crazy long workout, it’s super important that ignore these restrictive thoughts. When we do crazy long workouts and fast, we make it even harder to eat moderately on Thanksgiving.

Instead:

Do a quick, effective, fun workout

I’ve put together 2 Thanksgiving themed workouts for you to try out. If you have a TRX, try this TRX workout. If you’re traveling and have no equipment, I’ve got you covered with this Thanksgiving HIIT workout.

Prioritize #ProteinAndProduceFirst at breakfast and lunch

Don’t skip breakfast and lunch; this will make it way too easy to binge later (more on the #1 reason you binge here). Instead, get plenty of protein, hydrate, and eat a couple servings of vegetables.

Thursday afternoon

As you approach the Thanksgiving table, it’s important not to look at it as a “once in a lifetime” meal. Look at it for what it is – an indulgent, delicious opportunity to enjoy time with your friends and family.

When we focus on what really matters – family, friends, and gratitude – it is a lot easier to make decisions in line with our values.

With Thanksgiving dinner, you’ve got a couple options. None are better than the other; it’s just important to have a strategy going into the meal 🙂

Conscious indulgence

For the Thanksgiving meal, continue your focus on protein & produce – filling your plate with protein and vegetables. Once you’ve had that, choose one indulgence via #MyConsciousIndulgence Framework. You can learn more about that here.

Mindfulness

More than anything, your goal is to be SUPER aware of what you’re eating, how it tastes, and how it makes you feel. To help you with that, start with just three items on your plate. Enjoy them, ask how they’re making you feel, and ask mindfully if you want more. If so, go for it. Choose three items and add them to your plate. Repeat until you’re satisfied/

“It’s just one meal”

While this isn’t what I generally recommend – because it leads to a lot of food guilt – you can definitely eat exactly what you want, because it really is just one meal of your entire year. It’s not gonna make or break your progress. It’s not gonna stop you from meeting your goals. BUT if this is your choice, just pay special attention to the guidelines for handling Thursday night 🙂

Thursday night

The most important part of the day is upon you, and the best thing you can do NOT beat yourself up.

As you wind down from the day, continue reflecting on gratitude – not the extra serving of pie you chose at dinner. Write down the top three things you’re grateful for before you go to bed and focus on that.

This meal is one tiny part of your year and stressing over the food/what you ate/what you didn’t eat just isn’t worth it.

Hugs to you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Why do I binge? The #1 reason

November 6, 2018November 5, 2018 Katherine

Most women will question – at one time or another – why do I binge eat? This can be such a tough question – and one that can be so isolating. We believe so deeply that binge eating is our struggle alone. But, as I have connected with hundreds of women over the last two years, it’s become clear that binge eating is a super common problem that leads to a lot of food guilt, weight gain, and an overall poor relationship with food.

Do you think this thing will ever stop? I’m so afraid of this never rending as I want to recover and do want to get happy, healthy, and free.

I lost a lot of weight on a very restrictive diet and lifting. After a while of that, I found myself on the floor binging on ice cream and chips.

My number one goal is to deal with the guilt around binges – I want to improve my relationship with food.

And I get it.

For years, I would eat clean every week until Friday…when I would drink three Mike’s HardER Lemonades, takeout sweet potato fries, and Halo Top ice cream. I’d wake up feeling guilty, bloated, and miserable every Friday. It was a vicious cycle that I didn’t know how to escape.

So I too asked myself the same big question…

Why do I binge?

From working with dozens of women 1:1 over the last two years, I’ve found there’s one main reason that keeps you from quitting binge eating and finally finding consistency.

And it’s pretty simple: you’re restricting too much.

When we hold ourselves back, try to eat perfectly, and follow strict food rules, we have a really hard time with consistent healthy eating…all because we’re restricting like crazy.

It’s not about willpower or finding the perfect diet plan. It’s about making sure you’re getting enough food.

First, I encourage ladies to focus on protein and produce. This should be the foundation of every meal. Show me how you’re doing it by hashtagging #proteinandproducefirst so I can support you!

Once you have a solid foundation of protein and produce, it’s really important to actually incorporate indulgences to help keep you from binging. When we allow ourselves to indulge, in a structured way, we make progress towards eating intuitively without gaining weight. One way you can do that is through using #MyConsciousIndulgence Guide. This simple guide will help you incorporate indulgences in a way that helps you feel IN control and making progress to your goals.

By ensuring you’re eating the right diet for you – and including indulgences in a non-bingey way – you can start to lessen your binging AND get more consistent.

How to use your lack of motivation to get MORE consistent

October 17, 2018December 4, 2018 Katherine

When ladies come to me, one of their most common pain points is a lack of motivation. They can follow strict rules, crush the 60 minute workouts (here’s why I recommend you shorten your workout), and track all the macros…for about 6 days. Then, of course, their motivation gives out. They’re frustrated and down on themselves, thinking there’s something “wrong” with them and that they’re not good enough, because they’re unable to follow a plan.

This. Is. Just. Not. True.

If you’re unable to follow a plan, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you, lovely. There’s something wrong with the plan – you need something customized to YOUR situation and life (which is why I love 1:1 coaching).

In fact, I want you to start looking at a lack of motivation as a gift.

What now?

Yes. 100%.

Your lack of motivation is a TOOL you can use in creating your own personal nutrition & fitness blueprint.

With my 1:1 clients, one of the first things we do is identify the behaviors & thoughts that they historically have seen as negative. Then, we learn to appreciate them and use them to our advantage. As an example, it wasn’t until I stopped fighting my restrictive and disordered eating tendencies that I finally automated my eating, exercised in a way that changed my body, and rebuilt my confidence and self-esteem.

See, I actually embraced my restriction and started using it to my advantage (like how I help my clients eat intuitively without gaining weight by embracing a bit of structure).

You can do the exact same thing with your lack of motivation.

How to use your lack of motivation to get MORE consistent

1. Begin identifying trends

Does your motivation change at different parts of your cycle? Is it in line with stress at work? Do you feel less excited to eat healthy when you don’t get enough sleep?

In order to get through a lack of motivation, we have to learn to ask better questions. Simply accepting that we’re “in a rut” doesn’t help us level up.

Instead, we can use my MASTER your Eating System as a guide to start identifying trends to help you stay more consistent.

2. When motivation shifts, use that as an opportunity to re-examine your nutrition/training plan.

If you’ve been motivated for a while, and it changes, it could be a sign that your eating routine is too rigid (are your food rules doing more harm than good?) or your workouts are too intense.

When you have a lack of motivation, it could be a sign that something needs to shift.

Can you try eating intuitively for a few days?

Can you do bodyweight only workouts (here’s a 7 day plan) for a bit?

Do you need to incorporate more indulgences into your life (my #ConsciousIndulgence guide can show you how to do that without gaining weight)?

By trying a few small tweaks, you can get to a place where your eating is more automated, your workouts are second-nature, and it all feels easy. If you need more help, let’s chat.

3. Lean on low motivation times to simply have fun

Often, ladies come to me saying consistency and motivation are problems.

But are they really?

Have you stopped simply having fun with your workouts and nutrition?

If that’s the case, a lack of motivation can be an amazing wakeup call to choose things that YOU enjoy. Whether it’s cooking a healthy (yummy) meal or doing your favorite HIIT workout, consistency gets WAY easier when we stop trying to be perfect and choose what serves us.

If you wake up on Monday morning dreading your workout, it could be as simple as changing your schedule to do something that’s more enjoyable for you.

Lovely, if you take one thing away from this blog, your lack of motivation is not a failure; it’s a tool you can use to create your own customized blueprint for consistency. You got this.

If you’re ready to feel more confident and consistent, take my consistency quiz below. It will help you identify your #1 roadblock to consistency – and exactly how to fix it.

3 unexpected obstacles to consistency – and how to overcome them

October 10, 2018December 10, 2018 Katherine

Women come to me almost weekly frustrated that they can’t stay consistent with healthy eating and exercise. We try SO dang hard to get it right, so it’s even more frustrating when our good intentions get derailed AGAIN by a plate of cupcakes in the break room.

As a coach, I find that we struggle with consistency for all the reasons we don’t expect. We aren’t lacking motivation or willpower. Instead, I find that we’re dealing with 4 common – but often unexpected – obstacles to consistency. Today, I’m breaking them down and helping YOU overcome them.

3 unexpected obstacles to consistency

Your expectations

Are your expectations or your habits the problem? So often, as women, we try to be absolutely perfect. But when we apply that perfectionism to our eating and exercise, we can manufacture a problem where there really isn’t one.

Eating perfectly doesn’t work. Strict rules are great until they’re not. And lovely, the problem isn’t with you; it’s with how you’re viewing the situation.

Let’s take weekend eating for an example. Even if you eat differently on weekends than you do on Monday, you can still see results (I wrote more about weekend eating here) and be mostly consistent.

So if you’re struggling to stay consistent, check yourself. Are you really struggling or are you trying to be perfect – not consistent? The story we tell ourselves truly matters.

If being 80% consistent is good enough, then we are WAY more likely to stick with it.

Changing the narrative in your head could can help you get way more consistent with your nutrition and workouts.

Your stress levels

The latest HIIT workout craze and diet program can be much more fun to discuss than recovery and stress management. But truth is, not managing our stress is keeping us from being consistent.

When we’re stressed:

-our hormones get out of whack, leading to intense cravings

-our sleep suffers, which affects our appetite (a central component of mastering consistent nutrition)

-we feel anxious and resort to emotional eating (which isn’t always bad)

SO, if you aren’t able to stay as consistent as you’d like, take a look at your stress levels and adjust appropriately. Take a nap, walk the pup, journal, or do some yoga, instead of stressing out over your calorie count for the day (if you’re trying to stop counting calories without anxiety, I can help). That just might be the missing piece for you.

Your workout & nutrition plan itself

You’re trying to eat intuitively without gaining weight but you gain weight anyway. You’re working out daily but not seeing results, so you fall off the wagon. You try so hard to get back on track but it’s so dang hard.

If staying consistent is challenging you, the problem likely has NOTHING to do with you: it’s probably your workout program and eating routine.

When our programs are too strict and require perfection, we set ourselves up to fail (why diet plans fail), because restriction always wins.

So, if you’re having a rough time sticking to your plan, it’s time to question the plan – not yourself or your worth. I’d encourage you to stop seeking out the best new information and focus on what’s right for YOU. I break down how to do this without stressing here.

If you’d like some customized guidance on how to stay more consistent, you’ve GOTTA take my Consistency Quiz. With just 8 questions, I’ll unpack your #1 roadblock to staying consistent then send you personalized recommendations on what to do next!

Consistent healthy eating with ease – 10 questions to ask

October 3, 2018December 4, 2018 Katherine

When ladies come to me for nutrition coaching, their goal is always consistent healthy eating. Often, they’re trying intuitive eating but they’re gaining weight (here’s how to stop), which is leading them to diet, deprive, and binge. Which is so common, because honestly…it can be so hard to eat consistently, can’t it? There are SO many things that get in the way of consistent healthy eating.

Happy hours with coworkers

Crazy schedules

Boredom

Lack of planning

And while most coaches preach the importance of planning for high stress situations and maximizing willpower, the solution isn’t necessarily that simple. Psssst….if you want my guide on #ConsistentNutriton, you can grab that here.

We need to get more self aware in order to make lasting changes.

And that’s tricky.

So, to help, I’ve compiled the 10 questions you need to ask yourself if you want to achieve long lasting, consistent healthy eating. You can pin this list for later here.

10 questions to consistent healthy eating

What emotions are coming up for me today when I’m eating?

Most nutrition plans fail, because we forget to pay attention to how food makes us feel (I’m actually not always opposed to emotionally eating, either. Here’s why). It’s super important to tune into the emotions that come up when we eat so that we don’t neglect our mindset.

How hungry am I?

Hunger can be tough to track – especially if you’ve been dieting for long periods of time (PS – if your body isn’t changing, check yourself. You might be telling yourself one of these 4 lies) – so, start tuning into your levels of hunger throughout the day. If you’re super hungry – or not at all – that’s telling you something.

Am I feeling full after my meals?

If identifying hunger is tough, start by tuning into your fullness levels. For most of my clients, it’s easier to know if they’re getting full. If you’re not feeling full after eating (maybe you’re eating tons of mini meals instead of 4 meals), it’s time to make a tweak so that you can get to consistent healthy eating.

Am I satisfied by my meals?

Hate to say it, but if you aren’t satisfied by how you eat, you won’t be eating that way for very long. This is one of the top reasons you struggle with consistent healthy eating: you’re trying to eat in a way that just plain doesn’t satisfy you!

If you’re struggling to feel satisfied throughout the day, I’d recommend trying out the tools in my Conscious Indulgence Guide. You can download that here.

Am I have cravings?

Cravings are SUPER helpful, because they can give us information about how to tweak your diet to better fit YOU. If you’re having cravings, it can be because of:

Hormones

Exercise

Emotions

Nutrient deficiencies

So no matter the reason, you wanna tune into your cravings (especially if they’re for a specific trigger food). If binge eating is your issue, here’s how to stop.

What thoughts keep coming up for me around food?

We often forget about the importance of our thoughts and how they affect our food choices. So pay attention to the thoughts that come up and make sure that they’re not causing you to restrict. Sometimes, our healthy eating actually makes us unhealthy, simply because of all the negative thoughts that come up.

Do I have stable energy throughout the day? If not, when does it lull?

And it makes sense that we struggle with consistent healthy eating if we are exhausted most of the time doesn’t it?

Lovely, it’s not normal to be falling asleep at your desk at 2pm or need a giant cup of coffee as you’re cooking dinner. When our energy levels wane throughout the day, we often are missing something in our diet.

So if you’re not having sustained energy all day, it’s time to troubleshoot.

Do I find myself restricting to make myself smaller?

If the only reason you’re choosing certain foods is because they’re low calorie or they will “help” you lose weight, you can bet that you’re gonna struggle with consistency. You are worth SO much more than that, AND it’s keeping you from staying consistent.

Am I feeling guilty over my choices? Which ones?

Ackkkk! Food guilt is the enemy of consistency. If you’re feeling guilty, here’s my extensive guide to end food guilt. I’ll walk you through my 3-2-1 system to ending food guilt and make sure that we use your food guilt as a tool to improve your relationship with food.

Do I actually like the way I’m eating?

This is the final question, because it’s what I call the “gut check” question. You could answer the above 9 questions favorably but honestly lovely, if you don’t actually like or enjoy how you eat, there’s no way it’s gonna stay consistent for you.

But I promise, it is possible to eat consistently and still see changes in your body (if results have stopped for you, it might be because of this).

I know it can feel overwhelming to try to put all these pieces together. So I’d recommend starting with a couple of these questions each day. Tune into the answers and make tweaks based on what doesn’t feel right. If you need help doing that, try my quiz below. We will unpack your #1 consistency roadblock, and I’ll send you personalized recommendations on how to fix it.

How to eat intuitively without gaining weight – 3 tips

September 26, 2018October 1, 2018 Katherine

Intuitive eating sounds pretty appealing, especially for those of us who’ve dieted off/on for as long as we can remember (like me before about 2015). Eat what we want…without limits or restriction…and just live our lives. But how can we eat intuitively without gaining weight?

Well, lovely, it’s not easy.

The problem is, most intuitive eating advocates and nutrition coaches give general advice that just doesn’t work for those of us who struggle to listen to our bodies (here are a couple ways to listen to your body when you have no idea what that means) or who’ve restricted for long periods of time. And while intuitive eating books are a good place to start, they don’t offer a way to incorporate the specific guidelines into your life.

So…we end up standing on the scale, questioning how the heck we’ve gained ten pounds by following intuitive eating guidelines. It can be super frustrating—and can often send us backwards in our restriction recovery journey.

How does this happen?

We forget that intuitive eating is the destination—not the roadmap to get us there.

Throwing yourself into intuitive eating—with zero structured guidance—is setting yourself up to fail. And frankly, it’s irresponsible of the nutrition professionals who suggest it.

It’s kind of like telling an alcoholic, go ahead and drink until you come to peace with it; as long as you think positively about the alcohol while you drink it, it’ll balance out.

Yeah, no.

Instead, I recommend Strategic Intuitive Eating as a solution to eat intuitively without gaining weight.

What’s strategic intuitive eating?

Strategic intuitive eating offers specific strategies that you can implement as you attempt to eat intuitively without gaining weight. Instead of throwing you into the deep end, you have specific steps to follow and questions to ask yourself along your journey to intuitive eating.

If you want specific guidance on how to do this, you can sign up for a free 30 minute strategy call with me here. We will discuss how your intuitive eating journey is going and come up with 1-2 things to focus on during the next week.

But to get us started, I’m gonna give you three tips to get started with strategic intuitive eating.

How to eat intuitively without gaining weight – 3 tips

Don’t throw your nutrition knowledge out the window

I know, I’m going against all the intuitive eating wisdom by saying, that trying to eat intuitively does NOT mean that you can eat whatever the heck you want.

That is the #1 reason that intuitive eating isn’t working for you, and it’s causing you to gain weight.

As you get started with strategic intuitive eating, maintain focus on basic nutrition.

Get plenty of protein (here are my favorite protein foods)
Add veggies wherever you can (some suggestions here)
Don’t stuff yourself – stop when you feel full

Just by doing this, you ensure that you’re not going overboard when it comes to food, which helps you to eat intuitively without gaining weight.

Be conscious of your indulgences (AKA choose them)

Being mindful of your indulgences is central to intuitive eating, but I’d argue it’s especially important when it comes to treats. For those of us who’ve struggled with restriction, dieting, or disordered eating, indulging can be really hard. We associate indulging with guilt (here’s how to process food guilt), and it can be tough to get past this, even when giving ourselves freedom to eat what truly sounds good.

So, I suggest structuring your indulgences and being super conscious of them—especially at the beginning. I show you exactly how to do that here.

Pay attention to thoughts and feelings as they come up

Our mindset around food and the thoughts that come up are often ignored by nutrition coaches (I address that topic and all the things to consider when it comes to healthy eating here), which perpetuates many of our issues around food. Instead, it’s super important you work through emotions and thoughts that come up as you experiment with strategic intuitive eating.

For example, if you feel guilty about choosing a cheeseburger instead of a salad at a restaurant, you can use my 3-2-1 system to process that guilty emotion. If we don’t work through the emotions that come up, we will continue to struggle with things like binge eating (here’s how to stop).

These three tips are a great place to get you started but if you want specific guidance, sign up for a free 30 minute strategy call with me here. We will discuss how your intuitive eating journey is going and come up with 1-2 things to focus on during the next week. Can’t wait to chat!

Why diet plans fail – 3 reasons

August 25, 2018September 11, 2018 Katherine

Hello from Florence! If you’ve been following along on Instagram stories, you’ve seen my travels through Europe over the last week. Last week, I was in Budapest for work and ended up chatting a bunch with my amazing coworkers about food (isn’t it interesting how we always end up talking about it?!), losing weight, and what hasn’t worked. Of course, a common theme emerged: diets don’t work.

But instead of getting frustrated, I took some time to break down WHY we are struggling so much. Through all these conversations, I’ve been able to break down three key reasons that we’re still struggling with nutrition on our diet plans.

And if you’re looking for some specific help with your nutrition so that you can feel successful and confident, signups for #ConsistentlyLean are now open. We have a couple spots left and start on September 17!

3 reasons your diet plan keeps failing you

1) Your diet plan focuses on the wrong things.

So many diet plans list out foods that are okay to eat, tell you to track how many ounces of water you’re drinking, or measure all your food.

Sure, these things are not (all) inherently bad but they do take away valuable time and energy from the things that really matter (like protein, produce, recovery, and stress management). If you want some personalized guidance on WHAT to actually focus on to start eating intuitively, stop overthinking food, and finally get consistent, sign up for my #ConsistentlyLean Coaching program which starts on September 17. You can get more info and sign up here.

When we have limited energy and we focus it on the wrong thing, we inevitably run out of willpower, slip up, and binge (here’s how to stop). Not fun…which leads me to another key issue with diet plans.

2) You’re restricting too much.

Sure, when you eat tilapia and asparagus for a week straight, you’re gonna lose weight. But what happens the following week when you are “free” again…you eat crap. A lot of crap. And that crap causes you to regain weight and feel…like crap.

If your diet plan is too restrictive, you’re gonna end up binging, because it’s not sustainable.

And most women will rebuke me and say, “I just can’t do moderation. I need a food list of what to eat, what not to eat, and when. Otherwise, I can’t do ‘just have a little bit.’” And I get it; taking a more balanced approach can be really tough, especially when you try to do it without structure (like #MyConsciousIndulgence framework) or support. Which leads me to…

3) It’s not customized to you.

When you download a food list on Pinterest or join your gym’s 6 week weight loss challenge, none of what you do is structured specifically for YOU, which 100% sets you up to fail. It’s honestly not your fault. People want to sell you their nutrition knowledge but not teach you exactly how to implement and evaluate it in your life. That’s why, with my clients, I give them specific frameworks to follow when it comes to the following questions:
-what changes should I make?
-how do I know if the change is working for me?

If you don’t have a series of steps (and a way to evaluate if those steps are working), your plan is gonna fail. How could it not?

As a result, almost every single day, I hear from women that they’re feeling so unsure about their nutrition.

My first response is always the same — OF COURSE YOU’RE STRUGGLING…and in no way is it your fault. With all the information flooding your feed, all the nutrition coaches preaching their special macro plan, it’s pretty impossible to know anything for certain. And as long as coaches keep preaching their once and for all solutions, we’ll continue to struggle.

Because we know it doesn’t work that way.

>>How many nutrition plans have you purchased, only to feel dissatisfied and stressed as you try to make it work in your life?
>>How many coaches have you followed on Instagram only to try their advice and end up binging a few days later?

That’s why I am SO STOKED to open signups for #ConsistentlyLean Coaching. This is the 6-week fitness + nutrition coaching program for women who are ready to stop obsessing over losing weight & getting leaner and learn to get consistent results that last.

Click here to grab your spot for this exclusive, high access program.

Three reasons nutrition coaches perpetuate our food issues

August 8, 2018August 13, 2018 Katherine

This post may ruffle a few feathers. But as a Precision Nutrition L1 coach, I felt compelled to share some of the reasons my clients come to me, still struggling, after working with other personal trainers and online coaches.

Most nutrition coaches ignore mindset

Here’s the thing. Good nutrition is so much more than how we’re fueling our bodies. It is about so much more than the food we eat, the macro counts, and how often we eat.

And honestly, as a nutrition coach, for the first year in business, I kind of neglected this fact too. I thought that by teaching women all the things about protein, veggies, and nutrient timing, I would help them make lasting changes.

But even I was forgetting the importance of MINDSET and how we feel around food.

When we ignore mindset:
-We keep struggling with the same food situations, even though we “know” the right thing to do.
-Guilt around specific food situations continues.
-We struggle every time that we cannot easily apply our nutrition rules (because the underlying feelings haven’t been addressed).

There’s SO much information out there but information is never enough. If it were, wouldn’t we all be perfectly consistent? 🤷‍♀️

Most nutrition coaches don’t dig deeper than food

When working with clients, nutrition coaches are focused on food. Duh…Katherine….isn’t that what they should be doing?

Yes and no.

Yes…

Good nutrition is important
Clients come to coaches looking for nutrition advice
Sometimes we need explicit guidance on what to eat/when

BUT

No…

There is a shit ton of information out there.
We often KNOW what to do but have a hard time DOING it.
Underlying beliefs about food play a HUGE part in how we show up and engage with food.

When we only focus on food, we ignore the underlying beliefs that really, truly change the way we eat and drink. By doing so, we perpetuate our struggles, because we are not dealing with the baggage that’s underneath the surface.

Nutrition coaches want to keep their jobs

Unfortunately, the exact things that we, as clients, say we want (meal plans, macronutrient guides, food lists) keep us struggling and relying on nutrition coaches to tell us what to do. Many coaches and companies build their business off of people being unsure around food – because that keeps clients coming back, doesn’t it?

My point in writing this post is not to trash the nutrition industry—but to shed light on some of the issues so that we can be the solution.

As a restriction recovery coach, I pride myself on tackling mindset, digging deeper, and teaching clients how to move forward on their own. One way I do this is teach them specific strategies to help where they’re struggling.

Take #MyConsciousIndulgence Guide as an example.

My clients struggle with depriving all week, binging on the weekends, feeling guilty, then starting the cycle all over again.

So, I put together this step-by-step guide to stop the binging and the guilt, while also addressing the underlying issues leading us to binge.

Check it out and download your free copy here.

Why do you work out?

July 22, 2018July 24, 2018 Katherine

Over the last few weeks, I’ve chatted with clients about their motivation for working out. We’ve dug a little deeper into WHY they feel called to head to the gym or lace up their shoes to go for a run. And of course – it goes way deeper than trying to get stronger or leaner.

Everyday, women are told that they have to head to the gym or switch on the latest HIIT workout on YouTube to make our bodies “good enough”. We’ve been long conditioned to believe that if we aren’t working out intensely to be the leanest possible, we won’t be accepted.

But the truth is, if we’re working out solely to be lean, we likely won’t continue. Workout motivation will wax and wane depending on the results we see. There’s a difference between forcing yourself to go to the gym and choosing to plan a hike with girlfriends. One of those you are doing because you feel you should, the other, you’re doing for fun…and which do you think you’ll continue doing?

Of course, exercise is important. As a personal trainer, I understand all of the benefits of working out. But the truth is, until we connect with those benefits, we’ll continue to struggle with consistency. So, instead of dragging yourself to the gym to lift weight because you feel like you “should” try focusing on some of the other benefits of working out:

Improved Memory. When you work out – whether rock climbing, hiking, or lifting weights , your brain is getting more oxygen. There are plenty of studies indicating a definitive link between the increased amount of oxygen to the brain and improved memory.

Boosted Confidence. When you spend time doing something you enjoy, you are happier and more satisfied with your life. Exercise can give you that boost of confidence you’ve been looking for. More than that, as you build specific skills, get stronger, and achieve goals not related to your body composition, your confidence will sky rocket.

Lower Stress. Stress is a big rush of cortisol which can trigger adrenaline ricocheting around your system. Working out can decrease these stress hormones, which will help you feel a thousand times better and more calm.

Better Sleep. With our high stress lives, our sleep often suffers, which impacts our hormones and mood. Exercise makes you feel worn out in a good way, which leads to better sleep, better skin and a generally better mood.

Girl, it’s soo important that you exercise because of the thousands of benefits – not because you want to shrink. When we are simply trying to get smaller, our motivation is fleeting. Instead, focus on the lasting benefits of fitness, so that you can stay consistent for the rest of your life.

If you want a little more support on working out consistently, my #Goldilocks Fitness program could be a great fit. Check out the details here, and download your free copy.