Some thoughts and discussions from me.
Okay — let’s talk food, and specifically your relationship with it.
If you ever find yourself struggling with knowing what to eat and when, or if you’re ever feeling constantly hungry and looking forward to that next meal, and like you’re not really getting any satisfaction from your meals and may even feel a bit anxious from your meals. Maybe you just want it to feel easier and don’t want it to feel like such a struggle — this post is for you.
Your relationship with food is important not only from a mental aspect, but also when it comes to long term success.
One of the most rewarding pieces of feedback I get from my clients who go through my programs and boot camps is not necessarily the fact that they lost 4% body fat, or lose 8 inches, or lose 10 lbs. — which is all great and something to be celebrated! — but it’s that they’ve developed a healthier relationship with food!
That is so rewarding for me to hear as a trainer because not only does that mean they’re set up much better for long term success, but also that they have a sense of ease in their life from this lifestyle. Truly, I think improving your relationship with food and and fat loss go together hand in hand.
In my programs, I’m a huge advocate of teaching my clients how to eat in a way that not only supports their physical goals, but also supports their training performance, their energy levels, their sleep quality, and helps them to feel good and satisfied. This cannot be done if you don’t like the way you eat — at least not long term.
For example, one of my clients in my previous Lean Body Lifting boot camps came to me after participating in another program. To make a long story short, the practices in that program weren’t aligned with her lifestyle — they weren’t a good fit and didn’t make sense for her lifestyle. She was constantly hungry, she was constantly thinking about when her next meal was, and she became agitated and anxious as a result. Because of that, she didn’t see the results she was looking for, especially considering all the effort she was putting in!
In order to see results from your nutrition plan long term, a few things need to be in place.
You meals need to be satisfying.
You need to enjoy what you’re eating, at least up to a certain point. To do this, a couple changes need to take place. First, your macronutrient split — the amount of protein, carbs, and fat you’re eating — needs to be optimal, as well as the times at which you eat those macronutrients during the day, what your breakfast, lunch, and dinner consist of. Also, the amount of time in between those meals is important as well, and looking at the size of the meals you’re eating, because that has a lot to do with meal satisfaction. Putting a few of those changes in place and making some smart changes regarding your macronutrients, their timing, and you’re meal size and make-up can truly make all the difference in how satisfying your meal is!
**Side rant ahead** I will never tell my clients that they can’t eat any certain foods or food groups, or that they do have to eat certain foods or food groups! I truly believe it comes down to being prepared and having strategies in place, eating what you have on hand and what sounds good to you, in order to see results and keep those results long term.
It needs to feel automatic.
It needs to eventually be somewhat of a seamless process, because if you’re constantly thinking and grinding through it to make changes, then you’ll get burnt out eventually. Most of my clients do track macronutrients in grams, at least during the first few weeks, and some clients even longer (that will depend on your goals, personality, lifestyle, etc.). At first, preparing meals will take a little longer and it will be a bit of an adjustment those first few weeks, but eventually it should become more automatic and streamlined to your routine. That means making it so that when you go to eat your breakfast, you think to yourself, “Okay, I know my breakfast should be about like this, I’ll grab this, this and this to put it together… boom — done!” The same thing should happen with lunch and dinner. Even if it’s a training or rest day, just knowing exactly what to go for and have it be seamless — that truly is the end goal!
When my clients have these two things in place, they get satisfaction from their meals and it becomes more of a streamlined process that they can just integrate right into their routine, using some proper execution strategies. They almost always report having a much better relationship with food, which goes hand in hand with seeing the best body composition results.
So I hope this is helpful for you! If it is, I’d appreciate you sharing this blog with someone else who might also find it helpful!