Metabolism and your mental.

Let me tell you a little story about a woman I know. I have permission to use this story, but I’m not using her name. :) 

She was absolutely crushing her program – getting her workouts in, following her nutrition, and staying active even outside her workouts – and she also was making sure she got plenty of downtime to destress. 

Her fave destressor: arriving early for appointments and listening to audiobooks in the car (her personal sanctuary, where no one would bother her)!

In just a few months she dropped 4 pants sizes and 30 pounds. Amazing, right?

But then her elderly mom had a stroke … and suddenly she was in the middle of a major stress overload. 

Especially when the job of being a caretaker (which she took on happily and willingly) fell onto her shoulders – on top of her already demanding career.

And you guessed it … suddenly her results screeched to a halt … even though she kept up with everything else on her plan to the best of her ability. She even started to regain some of the weight she had worked so hard to lose!

It’s tempting to think we can “walk it off” when it comes to stress, but your hormones are powerful and they can throw your entire system into disruption. 

This can happen when you have chronic stress like the woman I told you about – who, with a few lifestyle changes – was able to get back on-track.

And it can also happen when you have unchecked CHRONIC stress that you’re under every day. 

Here’s a quick list of what can happen metabolically/hormonally when you’re under stress:

Almost immediately, you can start burning fewer calories. A study done a few years ago at Ohio State found that stress was linked to burning fewer calories for women.

In the study, women were fed a high-fat, high-calorie meal. Those who reported being under a lot of stress the day before burned 100+ FEWER calories than the women who weren’t under stress.

Plus, the stressed-out women had higher insulin levels, which can exacerbate fat storage. 

You start to crave high-fat, high-sugar foods, thanks to the extra cortisol (a primary stress hormone) in your system.

Emotional eating. Snacking on those fatty, sugary comfort foods can fire up your brain’s reward centers, giving you temporary relief. Over time, this can become a habit or go-to method of self-soothing.

These less-than-healthy comfort foods can leave you feeling blah and tired, affect your mood, and set you up for feeling even worse.

PLUS … studies show “ultra-processed” (like the fatty/sugary foods in the studies) actually cause you to eat more than you would if you ate healthier foods.

So … what can you do?

Stress is a natural part of life, and it hits all of us eventually. It can be a job with constant deadline pressures … relationship or financial issues … and it can even come in the form of “good” stress, like a new baby in the house!

The most important thing you can do is to BE AWARE and listen to your body.

1) Be mindful about how you are feeling … and what you are eating. This lets you stay in (or regain) control. If you find yourself stressed or tense, take note!

2) Take regular anti-stress breaks. Sometimes you have to be sneaky. I know of several people who make solo grocery trips and stand in the longest checkout line to extend their “alone” time.Also, experiment with meditation or breathing exercises a couple times a day.

3) Make time for exercise. This can help with stress management and boost your metabolism in the process. A brisk walk counts!

4) Honor your needs. Just because someone in your life has an urgent need doesn’t mean your own needs are less important. Make time for YOU!

And above all, don’t stress about stressing! The key to it all is being MINDFUL, and adding “self-care” to your do-do list.

You need to know these numbers before starting your health and fitness program…

You ready to take back control of your health and fitness? Over the past few months if you haven’t realized how important it is to make your health and fitness priority, you’re in trouble. Not saying that to scare you, I’m saying that to make you take a look at what are you making priority, and in return sacrificing your health?

The amazing thing about this journey is it’s never too late to start! The key is understanding where your current fitness level is at, and starting from there. This is where most go wrong.

Some will try to pick up where they left off over 5 years ago, before having kids, career change, relationship change, or maybe an injury and think “this is what used to work for me.” This is where you hit the ground running hard, and burn out because your current demands in life don’t allow for the 1-2 hour workouts anymore. So you’ll quit because, you don’t have the time, what was working before isn’t working anymore, or your friends program isn’t as effective for you as it is for him or her….. and that’s because it’s not YOUR program.

Below are the key numbers that you need to look into before starting your journey to understanding and achieving long term results! ⬇️⬇️⬇️
1- How many days a week can you commit to? This is great for building momentum and confidence early in your process. After you’re able to complete 2-3 days a week of working out you’re getting quick wins and you can work on adding additional days from there. If you haven’t been in a routine in over a year, it’s not a good idea to tell yourself “starting next week I’m going start working out everyday day” you will be setting yourself up for disappointment.

2-Resting Metabolism- for effective weight loss and/or gain this number is important as this is the number of calories burned when you are at rest. Yes those of you with lean muscle mass, you are burning a lot of calories outside of the gym to feed that muscle and to keep the body functioning. Dieting?? Are you still doing that? Restricting yourself from calorie intake? This is a definite way to destroy your metabolism and have everything work against you once you are off that diet, and could take over a year to regulate. When starting your journey, find out what your resting metabolism is. This number is going to shock you at first because it’s going to be a number that is more than what your intaking now. More than likely, a lot more. 80% of the time, I have to tell a client who is just getting started that they have to eat more! (What trainer tells their client they need to eat MORE!??!?) I do, if I want them to be successful. I need you to fuel your body for the work we need to do ahead and the calories need to be available for energy. What happens if you’re not getting the sufficient amount of calories in? Your daily energy source will come from muscle, instead of bodyfat. Yes we want to lose 20lbs, but not 20 pounds of muscle.

3- Skelatal muscle/lean muscle mass- keeping this number in a good range, will keep your metabolism reved up and allow you to bend on your intake a little more. For most this happens when they’ve put in some years and made the process a lifestyle! (The best way!!) during your process you want to make sure your intake is on point as you don’t want this number to decrease too much, as well as increase to much if you’re not wanting to put on too much muscle mass. Sometimes the increase in muscle could cause the scale number to increase, but what you’re not seeing in that Scale number is the decrease in bodyfat% (which normally happens when your muscle increases) the increase in metabolism, and more energy!

4- Bodyfat%- again, get this number in YOUR recommended range, and your body is functioning at peak! Metabolism is high, energy is through the roof, appetite is healthy, and them jeans or that new suit that you want to get in Is yours! This also helps regulate body temperature, cushion joints and protect internal organs.

Now, we now what the damage of a high bodyfat% can do, but also too little may lead to osteoporosis in later years, leave your more prone to injuries, irregular periods and possible infertility.

5- BMI%-LADIES!!!!!! this is an important number for you, as this plays a big roll in the number that’s reflected on the scale. The number we use as a measure of success in your process (which we have to work on stopping) If you have a a couple of days of high sodium intake, this number will be up because that sodium is holding on to all the water in your body, you’ll feel the puffiness, and then for some strange reason, you’ll get on the scale🤦🏾‍♂️ Of course you’re heavier. If you don’t get in enough water, your bmi% will be up as well, again making your weight increase. You’ll then get on the scale, and yup, your weight is up 🤦🏾‍♂️ Time of the month? Yes, this is major water retention time, hormones are all over. Knowing this, guess what? You still get on the scale and your weight is though the roof! 🤦🏾‍♂️ During this time realize your weight is at least 3lbs up during your cycle, and bmi% is high as well. Only numbers that are pretty accurate during this time is your bodydat% and skeletal muscle/muscle mass. Last but not least, if you’re not getting enough sleep or you’ve been stressed, will cause your bmi% to increase as well as our body is producing some cortisol. But it never fails, you continue to get on the scale, validating why you never wanted to start the journey anyway.. sound familiar?

Get these numbers before starting your journey for longterm results, and an enjoyable process!

Ommmggg I want to quit!

Is this what you tell yourself after you feel like you’ve tried everything?? 8 weeks in you were seeing some results, then boom, everything stops. There’s a brick wall holding you back that you need to get through because everything you want is on the other side. Yup, welcome to your weight loss plateau.

2 reasons your results have flatlined. One- a metabolic adaptation to your current diet and exercise regimen. “Homeostasis” which is just a sexy term that describes your bodies preference to stay the same or basically your body has found its comfort zone!

Two- there have been accumulated changes in your current exercise and eating routine that are causing you to eat more or burn less calories with exercise, and you aren’t aware of it. (This is why I have all my clients track their training sessions with Apple Watch or Fitbit and we stay consistent with doing assessments)

At the beginning of your program the weight may seem to have been melting off, but as you get more fit, your body is going to require more work load to be challenged and get uncomfortable again. This is when new stressors need applied.

Adaptation is a disadvantage to us as we improve fitness levels. Don’t try to change too many variables at once, as this will lead to confusion and you won’t know what’s working and what’s not.

Action steps⬇️⬇️⬇️
DRINK MORE WATER- this will help aid in appetite control. Keeping you from overeating and just eating out of habit or boredom. Also will improve workout performance and speed recovery.

INCREASE WORKOUT INTENSITY- add more reps, maybe add just 5 more pounds to the current weight you’re doing, and try varying your rest intervals between sets.

INCREASE DAILY ACTIVITY- don’t confuse busy with active. Add mobility and stability work daily to insure joint and muscle health.

IMPROVE FOOD QUALITY- like movement, we over estimate how well we eat. Start with decreasing sugar intake and eliminating processed food.

SLEEP- This is a secret weapon we all have access to and misuse it! Sleep is key to recovery enabling you to be more active and train harder during your training sessions.

You have to grow into your vision.

Over 6 years ago, I knew I wanted to impact my clients more in overall lifestyle not just exercise. It’s the lifestyle factors that effect our training results overall. So that’s when I decided to brand The Real Life Changer and offer more tools to provide a better client experience and help develop more longterm results. At the time I didn’t know exactly how I was going to get there or what my daily duties were going to look like, but now I’m living it, and grew into that name and the brand we wanted to build.

How did that happen? Small, daily actions of personal growth. Very uncomfortable, ugly at times, but I was committed. It made decisions on other projects, activities, sometimes even clients to say NO to if it wasn’t going to help me get any closer to my vision.

Have you ever been checking your phone… or vegging on the couch.. and suddenly start thinking about a goal you want to work toward?

It’s a little push from deep within you- something you can feel in your gut. Almost everyone has felt this way at one point or another.

Maybe you finally want to clean up your eating to improve health.

Maybe you want to start working out so you get your energy back and feel stronger.

Whatever the exact push is, author and motivational speaker Mel Robbins call this “an instinct for change.”

She says that unless you do smoothing about it within 5 seconds, that instinct will die. She came up with the 5-second rule to help keep that instinct alive. ( This rule I still live by to this day)

Basically, as soon as you have that instinct, you count backwards.. 5,4,3,2,1 and then guy DO IT! And guess what? It works. Your brain wants to protect you and keep you safe and comfortable l.

As a result, it sees change as a threat.. so it will do whatever it can to shut down that change, including sending you a bunch of thoughts to keep you doing the same-old, same old.

That’s why it’s important to take action on those gut-level urges IMMEDIATELY..

This can apply to so many areas of your life:

• walking into the kitchen to meal prep

• speaking up at a meeting at work

• Lacing up your shoes for a workout or run

This can lead to LIFE-CHANGING results now and into the future!

The more direct action you take toward your goals, the more in control you’ll be over your life. This will lead you to bigger urges , bigger actions- bigger success.

6 tips to great client/member experiences

Due to Covid the fitness industry has been turned upside down. And I believe personally in a good way. Over the years many trends have been developed to help intensify clients experiences and interactions. Technology has been a major part in making that happen.

Through this evolution of fitness and technology the focus has really turned to friendly competition and personal recognition. These are great factors to keep you motivated and engaged through out your class or training session, but there are some fundamental factors we don’t want to over look to keep clients/members coming back, engaged, sharing with their circle, and continuing to get results.

1- Teach/Train clients to their level, You have to meet them where they’re at. This is very important as most people think they can be a trainer because they’ve been able to achieve personal results and think they can train or instruct their clients the same way they train. Yes, it is our job to make clients get uncomfortable to achieve goals, but that doesn’t mean you train them how you like to train or only doing exercises you like. The key is to give your client/member a little say in what makes them feel good, so they can take some ownership in the process. When they hit small milestones, it gives them more confidence as they know they were part of the decision making.

2- music- set the tone and energy for your clients/ members soon as they walk through the door. This is where relationship building is vital in client relations as you have to dial into what gets them going. Again, this has NOTHING to do with what music get YOU going through your personal workouts, but what will keep the client engaged and energized throughout their session. I have at least 15 different playlist that stay on heavy rotation throughout our studio. A cool trick of keeping music fresh, updated, and tailored to your clients is it naturally increases intensity 🔑 There is nothing more draining to your workout than hearing the same song, at the same point of your workout every time you’re in session.

3- Prepare- Nothing more disrespectful than a trainer/coach/instructor using a client’s/member’s time and money winging a workout with no plan of effectiveness. Just putting together a workout as the session/class goes. Now I’m not saying you need to have a complete workout written out with exact reps, sets, rest, drink breaks, and whatever else the session brings, but you need to have an idea of what the individual is trying to achieve and each session should be working toward that. If a client unexpectedly has a slight injury or some discomfort, you know how to modify the exercise still working the areas needed, but not furthering injury. Show the client you have our time into their program as expected, and you have a plan for them to succeed. Clients love when you can look back at last weeks workout and point out exactly what exercise they loved, that felt sore at, or what may have caused them discomfort that you can give them feedback on. Again- ATTENTION is big.

4- Remember names- Trainers, no excuse! Of course you better know the client’s name coming into your session , but take an extra step in knowing significant others and children as well. Instructors, yelling out an individuals name during a class or circuit goes a long way, and makes the client/member feel special. It gives them a nice energy boost to complete that last rep or last few seconds!

5- Professional attitude- client/member is there for their headspace, stress release, their goals. Let’s not make their session all about you and your problems, your plans for the weekend. This is their time to getaway from their stresses and demands and sometimes they need a listening ear. It’s great to give advice and a plan of action to help if you’ve built that relationship to allow that space. This is big because most individuals won’t hit their goals only because they try to separate their personal lives from their health and fitness journey. Just doesn’t work that way. Trainers this is where it’s good to find a mentor, business coach or maybe even get some session with therapist to discuss your stresses, or things holding you back from peak performance. This is such a hidden tool, that most have a bad view of, but does a amazing things for you, your business, and relationships!

6- ASSESS… ASSESS..ASSESS- I can’t stress this enough. Trainers you are doing yourself a huge disservice not assessing your clients. Members/clients, you are doing yourself a huge disservice not assessing or having your fitness professional not assess you. I’m not talking weigh yourself everyday (that’s a huge no no!) but there are some important numbers you need to know. Bodyfat%, skeletal muscle/lean body mass, and for females Bmi% is very important as that number effects the magic number you want to see on the scale (stress, time of the month, water retention, sleep, sodium) Start tracking these numbers (every 2 weeks) take pictures, and use clothing!

You’ll know better how your body is responding to workouts, are you eating enough, sleeping enough..?? All this is figured out during assessment. Then make the adjustments necessary for better results going forward!