#52 - Getting Lean for Summer: A Better Approach

recording, where are we at? What are the summer goals? You know, and what are some common mistakes I think people do still make, because we're still kind of thinking, hey, I'm going to do this summer thread, like two weeks before your vacation and just lose a whole bunch of weight very quick. That is usually a recipe for disaster. But first of all, Christine is back today. How are you? Doing pretty good. Pretty good. complain?

Training has been really good. I definitely spend like the first kind of like four or five months in a year, really being in a weird spot, like not really wanting to go kind of skipping leg day, a little bit every now and then. And, but now it's been it's been good since like, the last two weeks or so it's been really picked up, which partly, I will say. And it's been because of the momentum a challenge that we were doing in our Facebook group. That's really helps me kind of get my

shit back together too. You know? So it's, it's cool. It's cool. I'm feeling good. It's snowing.

work out yesterday. I was like, no, not happening.

that people often overlook. You know, when they're feeling like that, and they're trying to like figure it out, I'm like, Well, have you switched things up? lately? I've had conversations with this with clients, like two clients recently, actually three, I've had this conversation with. And, like me myself, I did this recently where like, I was training at home and like, it was becoming so hard. And I feel lucky that I have, you know, the gym here that I have. But it was just

getting like, so hard. I couldn't figure it out. And then Eric said, why don't we like go? Just like workout at crunch? So we got like, a membership for 25 bucks. And that reignited that spark, right? I just love going like, it's this new, new scenery change. Like I'm doing some different things. And like, I do that with my training, like, I will have times where like, I'm doing bodybuilding, I'll have times where I'm doing more running. And like, we're just trying to be healthy, right. And

so any movement is good. And if you're really lacking that motivation, I think switching it up can be helpful.

was ridiculous. It was it was a two hour leg day, I couldn't keep all of them anymore.

a couple of days. But just going in with the right expectations, I think is important. Also, because you mentioned, you've got a couple of questions about that. Like, how do you do that when you travel and go out? You know, when you went to Texas, for example, like how do we manage our nutrition? What are some useful things for people to do? And I got a question in our group about this, from Caitlin, which really ties into this exact topic. So I wanted to talk about that in a little bit, too.

But first of all, right, so if we think summer goals do we feel like we should be doing like a quick diet? Or should we just kind of be ready and just kind of they're already like months ahead.

But you know, that's something to think about before you go into it. But ideally, I would say, you know, your your if you want to be leaner for the summer, you do that in the earlier months and then now you would be transitioning more into maintenance.

different. But I guess Long story short, like I think is good to at least be not like super far away from like where we want to be for the summer. So that we can also kind of like go into it, like you said being a little bit more flexible, like not maybe going too hard, you know? Because, I mean, the month of May was in Norway, at least, there's just, you know, holidays, or every fucking weekend is like Sunday, there's like, a day, you know, and I never follow those kinds of

things. So I never know. And then I'll just towards the close again. And then my girlfriend's like, yeah, yes. Like, whatever they, you know, like, hell yeah. Okay. But either way, so people have a lot of events, you know, a lot of stuff, social settings, you know, I mean, it does still snow to date on June 1, but people are going out a little bit more often, you know, outside. So it does become a

little bit more difficult. And if there's one thing that I see in our group, as well, in a coaching, or group coaching program, is that it's always kind of like the social settings and these kind of weekends and those moments like that's where we kind of start to worry a little bit where we step away from, okay, I'm home weighing on my food. What do we do now? You know, so let me actually bring up this question. I said Rosario told me

tracking at all, etc? In addition to that, what about longer seven to 10 day applications? What approach is

better for those longer durations? So let's start with the shorter one. Like how would you go about that?

every meal, right? So you could go into something like that personally, like I would say not to track and again have those pillars of like okay, what are my days gonna look like I can have protein at every meal, stock up on water you know, when I get there. Like for example, I just went to Texas and I pretty much laid out everything that I did on my Instagram if you guys want to check it out under travel nutrition. So what I did was I went and got like, right when I got there, like right off

the plane. I went to the grocery store and I got breakfast food. So I was making my breakfast every day at the Airbnb so she sounds like like it sounds like

her she could do that. Or she could have breakfast at the Airbnb, if it's even better like she's in charge of cooking some of the meals so like she could just ask them okay, like do you guys want me to cook you breakfast every morning and then maybe like some days we go out lunch and dinner and then on Sundays I cook lunch and breakfast and we go out for dinner you know just things like

that. So like you're still your your choices and your actions are still aligning with you wanting to feel good, which is important to think about you want to feel good so what's that balance look like to you making some meals going out for some you know, stocking up on the water, you know still if you go for walks like getting out in the morning when everyone else is sleeping going for a walk,

like just things like that. So I more or less would focus on that and how you want to feel vers actually tracking your macros and like worrying about that and stressing about that because it just can become so complicated truthfully, like when you're eating out and like there's just there's just such a huge could be a huge margin of error there that OSI even like worth the

tracking. So and I think it's important to just do You know, practice that intuitive eating and be present with who you're with and not worry about tracking and worry about numbers?

protein I've seen. I would say half of the people who decide to trach change their minds on the treadmill.

right or wrong there. Right? If someone wants to, okay, cool. All we can do is try, no, maybe we want to focus on habits, just same ones that you mentioned, your water, your, you know, your steps, those kind of things. Those are all still things that we can do. But I think like, as long as we go into it, kind of with a plan, that plan could literally be like three basics,

just note check for a day. But if we do that, instead of expecting kind of like, the being away with the family for four days to be the exact same scenario, as I'm at home, weighing on my food at etc. Now, I stress about it like not not being like that, like, you know, we want to go in with the right expectations. And it's got to be different, it's got to be more flexible. And personally, I think especially those moments is all about just trying

something. And it's going to be different for a lot of people. But as long as we go in with a plan, we say, Okay, this is what we're going to try. We're going to proactively try to hit that. And it could be super simple, right? Then once we're back from the trip, let's reflect. Let's look at Hey, cool, how did it go? Same with as with the daily, or the weekly check ins, you know, what, what went well? What can we learn, right? Is there anything we want to change for next time? And how will we do

that? Because that's the thing, that's all we got to do. Going on a vacation like that, whether it's a short one or long one, or we can even go in with the plan. We reflect we learn. That's how you win, you know, it's, it's never like failing, I think it's, it's about just testing something, collecting the data, getting that feedback, and then either doing the same thing, or trying something new next time. Yeah, eventually you figure it out. Yeah, I

when I was there. And I think it's important to remember that like, how do I word this? Like, my thought process is like, I'm not the person that's like going on stage or like, this is like a super serious thing, like, and I think we can take it a little too far sometimes and like miss

out on experiences and being present with people and like, I'm at restaurants and there's these these gluten, like I can't have gluten. So like there's all this like, awesome gluten free food. And I'm like, I'm not missing out on this experience to like, try these foods because I'm supposed to be in a cut. But yet I'm still mindful and intentional. So I'm, I'm eating those foods, I'm still eating protein and vegetable in each meal. They're delicious meals.

And then like I shared dessert with whoever I'm with or like we share appetizers. So that right there, you're still being intentional and mindful. You're still allowing yourself flexibility. You're still enjoying these experiences and this food like I'm not gonna say no to something because I'm on a cut, you know, just to lose like a few How it's like, okay, I'll extend the cut if I need to

later on. But I think it's so important to not pass on those experiences or look at it as if like, you're off track or like you're making a mistake or anything like that. Yeah, I just want to talk about that, because I feel like people can start to feel guilty when they are doing nothing wrong.

know, yeah. Which is great. And, of course, I will say, you know, if we plan for a cut, and maybe those, you know, like, more flexible, like special moments, like aside, when we are in those phases, we do want to make it count, you know, but it's okay, if something goes a little bit slower than you know, than planned, because we add something like a weekend where we go away for four days, or where we take a diet break and use cardio a little bit longer afterwards, you know, as long as

it's fine from

don't drink. So that you know, changes things. But regardless, I really stayed up on my hydration. So I was having like three litres of water a day, I was still staying off all my movement. So I still kept to my routine. And I really just wanted my digestion to be in a good place. I wanted to feel good. When I came home, those were like two things that were really important to me. And then I kept in my mind the entire time when I was making my decisions. And I came home and I

weighed like a pound less. And I'm like, holy crap, see, like this, this, this stuff is doable, even with eating more even with, you know, eating stuff that I don't normally eat. And it was because of those other you know, things that I had in place, you know, I was still prioritizing protein are still prioritizing veggies, I was still prioritizing water movement, etc, etc. So it is doable. To have that flexibility and come home feeling good.

yourself perfectly. I think in the beginning, especially a lot of people are still going to have the idea of hey, I'm gonna go modification and enjoy a little bit extra, because now I have the opportunity, you know

what I mean? And, yes, we want to be more flexible, but that also needs to be something where there's something in plays where we still have the basics to kind of focus on and we are at least aware of, hey, when we do kind of go all out there are consequences, you know, we can mitigate that by focusing on those basics. And that's what I did on tour as well. I think this was like last year. I did a few tours one I tracked and I cut and I went great. I came back home from tour lighter. So

that worked. I didn't do like a single like weigh in or anything with my bodyweight. I didn't wait any food. I still manage it just eyeballed it. But it was a lot of extra work. You know, it was a little bit tedious and, you know, do you need to do it? Well, I tried and I then decided like hey, you know, actually I don't really want to do that next time. Next time I did, and it was fine. I just maintain. And to my point of kind of like

testing something. And then learning from that, I have a client who's in the band, and they talk a lot. So he went on tour. Three weeks ago for two weeks. You just started this cut, like, just before, like, last month, this thing and from top of my head, but he was like, okay, cool. Like, I'm going to try and cut, you know, got to try and track, try be in a deficit, see how it goes? I told him, Hey, Coach, you want to try that? Sure. There are other ways to go about this. But let's give

it a shot. Let's see how we do. Well, schedule is crazy. A lot of times getting in the van. Food is very irregular, and you know, like, a lot of like outside of your control, like a lot of crazy like travel, you know, schedule. So I ended up being a little too overwhelming. You know, he didn't get as many workouts in as he wanted. But it's like, well, sure, but you're also kind of like not getting enough sleep. And his

schedule is too crazy. Like, it makes sense that it's more difficult to get those things in. So we got back from a trip or he did you know, two week tour Kitco. We're dialing things back. And now your next couple of weeks is going to be at home, weighing his food, going to the gym, etc. And then after that he has another two week tour. But now we're gonna go in with a different plan, because we did try to cut and he didn't notice it was a little overwhelming. It didn't go as planned. Okay,

cool. Now we're just going to try something else. We're gonna go for more almost like a intuitive kind of like maintenance kind of trial, I guess, you know, where we're just gonna focus on a couple of basics, and we'll see how that goes.

she's back. She's gonna, so it's gonna take a longer period of time. But she's, you can get best of both worlds there. So, yeah, there's so many. And one thing I wanted to add to that was like, if there is one thing that I recommend everyone do is go in to your travel. And I mean, go in with how do I want to feel while I'm there? How do I want to feel when I come home? Then when you're? When you're there? And you're doing your thing? And you're out for dinner? How's this? How's this

meal gonna make me feel? Right? Can't just just check in with yourself? That's like, if, if you don't do anything else, that's what I want you to do. Just constantly check in with yourself. How is this meal that

I'm about to order? Gonna make me feel? How is this next drink? Gonna make me feel? Right? And you can save everything? How is this? I don't know, if I miss this workout, like, how am I going to feel? Right? Like just different things like that. It can, it can, it can help a lot with your decisions in the moment.

afterwards, you know. And we all know those days where we did kind of go all out where we had too many drinks, or too much of whatever food or we kind of had the food that we knew our digestive system doesn't really well with or whatever it is, you know, we have to live with the consequences there. But like, we kind of know ahead of time already, I think. And it's cool to make more flexible decisions. That's totally fine. But it's about kind of like okay, how many are we making two hours a

day? How many, like better choices are we making that do benefit, you know, feeling good in that moment, but also afterwards, so that you don't go home from your trip feeling like shit. And now you have to cut for an extra couple of weeks just to make up for that. You know, I mean?

walk. So like it can go that way to like be honest with yourself like, yeah, this probably won't make me feel good. But I want to be in this moment. I want to experience this. But to get myself back to feeling good. I'm going to do this. Yeah,

on your trip. And you're like, oh, shit, okay, so what I'm going to have for food and you know, I'll just eat whatever and get my you know, my water, okay, I guess I'll drink some water. If you're not in that, like now. It's like proactive you, you go in with a plan. And that way you get to enjoy that trip to the fullest. You may like better choices was feeling good, right? Flexible choices to and then when you're back, you're glad you that that you're glad you went on that trip. Proactively

got the most out of it, and that you still feel good. You know? What to think well wrap it up for the week. Yeah, I