Prepare yourself for some deep insights about entrepreneurship, leadership, online coaching, the fitness business, mindset, and more from today’s special guest. I am extremely excited to be joined by the amazing Lauren Tickner. Lauren is ranked as Forbes Magazine’s #1 business coach for 2021…and a Forbes Top 10 Entrepreneur in 2020. Lauren now works with her team at Impact School to help their clients implement systems and gain freedom in their businesses. You'll learn all about: Lauren's story ...
Jan 24, 2023•45 min•Ep. 42
Today we are digging into shifting your mindset to achieve self-mastery and live your best life through things like identity, habits, productivity, and of course as always on this show, how those tie back to your fitness and health. My guest is Monica Ricci. Monica has been facilitating positive change for over 20 years. She founded Catalyst Organizing, LLC in 1998, working with individuals, business owners, and business teams to help clarify priorities, achieve goals, create organization, and i...
Jan 17, 2023•47 min•Ep. 41
Whether you're trying to lose extra weight, switch to a fat loss phase after building muscle, get lifestyle lean, or finally achieve success with your new year’s resolution, this episode will help you get there. You will learn everything you need to know about fat loss so you can lose the weight and keep it off sustainably, efficiently, and in a way that actually improves how you look and feel for the long term. This is NOT a “rapid weight loss” prescription. This is a “fat loss for life” approa...
Jan 10, 2023•48 min•Ep. 40
I am joined by a member of our Wits & Weights Facebook community , Matthew Spiewak, to chat about training and nutrition, including flexible dieting, compound lifts, pain and injury, and programming. Matthew is an ACSM-certified Personal Trainer in the Chicagoland area with a degree in Kinesiology. He loves helping people feel and look better and transform their health through his hands-on work in the gym as a trainer, so Matthew has both the educational and practical experience to help you ...
Jan 03, 2023•55 min•Ep. 39
This episode from my appearance on Paul Hanton’s podcast, The Healthy Fit Life, for the episode “Avoiding Common Issues with Sustainable Fat Loss.” Paul interviewed me about body composition, body fat overshooting, the difference between weight loss and fat loss, what happens when we lose weight, mistakes people make during weight loss, and what we can do instead for a more sustainable approach while still getting results. If you feel like you’ve put in effort to improve your health and fitness ...
Dec 27, 2022•40 min•Ep. 38
Today is a special one because it’s our first episode featuring a member of our Wits & Weights Facebook community , Josh Isley. We discuss strength, lifelong health, training for events, avoiding overtraining, and lots more. Josh Isely is a 42-year-old mechanical engineer who loves hunting the backcountry and mountains but who also rides a desk every day. He was an athlete in high school and as happens to many people, relied on his natural abilities for too long and, in his own words, “let h...
Dec 20, 2022•49 min•Ep. 37
This episode is from my appearance on Karen Martel's podcast, The Other Side of Weight Loss , where we demystified as much as we could about lifting, cardio, nutrition, fat loss, and more. Topics discussed in this episode: What is the best way to train? What is the best cardio for weight loss? How long should our workouts ideally be? What does the science tell us about step counting when it comes to weight loss? What cardio is most stressful? How many times a week should we be lifting? How can w...
Dec 13, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 36
Paul Hanton joined me to talk about different types of training and how to be consistent and get the most enjoyment from your workouts so you can reach your fitness goals. Paul is the owner of Hydra Fitness, a personal training company that helps career-driven men lose weight without giving up spending time with family or friends. He is also the podcast host of the Healthy Fit Life podcast, which is focused on educating listeners on how they can improve their health through quick and easy tips t...
Dec 06, 2022•37 min•Ep. 35
What if there was an easy way to speed up fat loss, burn 500 more calories a day (which is 1 extra pound a week), increase your potential lifespan, reduce your chance of disease, all without excessive cardio or dieting? This is not the next big fitness industry secret but instead one of the easiest, natural, and most effective forms of movement for humans . . . and that is WALKING! Whether you already “get your steps” or you sit around most of the day behind a desk, we are going to dissect the m...
Nov 29, 2022•43 min•Ep. 34
Joining me on the show today is Paul Salter, a Registered Dietitian (RD) and Sustainable Weight Loss Expert. Since 2013, he’s personally coached over 1,500 women to lose 20 pounds or more and KEEP IT OFF (without feeling like they're dieting). He’s done so by taking an inside-out approach that focuses on cultivating feelings of self-love and self-worth from day one—not after weight is lost—and by paying much more attention to one’s mindset and emotional intelligence, in addition to the nutrition...
Nov 22, 2022•47 min•Ep. 33
Tyla Serro joined us live in the Wits & Weights Facebook Group to share her journey. She was my first interview guest (back in Episode 17), before we started working together on her nutrition plan, and she even planted the idea of me becoming a nutrition coach. Tyla Serro is a powerlifter, mom of a toddler, military spouse, and working professional. She keeps herself busy lifting heavy weights, volunteering with Protectors of Animals , all this while working full time as a Configuration Mana...
Nov 15, 2022•57 min•Ep. 32
I am extremely excited for today’s guest, Karen Martel, not only because of her work in women’s fat loss and hormones but her genuine passion for helping others, which comes through on her podcast and in my personal interactions with her. Karen Martel is a Certified Hormone Specialist & Transformational Nutrition Coach and women’s weight loss expert. She is the host of the top-rated women’s health podcast The Other Side of Weight Loss where she helps women to unlock the mysteries of female f...
Nov 08, 2022•50 min•Ep. 31
Dr. Glenn Livingston is a veteran psychologist and was the long time CEO of a multi-million-dollar consulting firm for Fortune 500 clients in the food industry. You may have seen his (or his company’s) previous work, theories, and research in major media outlets like The New York Times, ABC, or CBS radio, among many others. Disillusioned by what traditional psychology had to offer overweight and food obsessed individuals, Dr. Livingston spent several decades researching the nature of bingeing an...
Nov 01, 2022•54 min•Ep. 30
This is another "Science Says" episode, where we break down a single recent article relevant to the fitness (lifting, nutrition, health) industry and strategies you can apply right away based on what the science says. Today's article is "Reduction in obesity and related comorbid conditions after diet-induced weight loss or exercise-induced weight loss in men. A randomized, controlled trial." by Ross, et al. (2000). The main question is, which is better for weight loss: diet (a calorie deficit) o...
Oct 25, 2022•15 min•Ep. 29
Whether you’re trying to lose weight, get healthier, increase strength or performance, or just look and feel better in your body, improving your body composition is the path to overall health. Body composition refers to the percentage of muscle versus fat in your body, which determines how “lean” you are. The lower your body fat percentage (or higher your muscle percentage) relative to your weight, the leaner you are. Someone who weighs 180 pounds at 40% body fat is not as lean as someone who we...
Oct 18, 2022•51 min•Ep. 28
Eric D’Agati joins me to talk about training. Eric has spent over 20 years in the fitness industry as a coach, trainer, and instructor. Each year, he travels around the world teaching and speaking to trainers, coaches, and therapists as a lead instructor for Functional Movement Systems and guest speaker for prestigious organizations including Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York University Medical, the Navy SEALS, The Mayo Clinic, and multiple major universities. Eric also appeared in the NY Times bests...
Oct 04, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 27
Today I am joined by Louise Valentine to talk about how to achieve sustainable fitness goals by doing less rather than more, how to work WITH our physiology and not against it, how to optimize health for women 35 and older, and actionable tips you can start applying right away to unlock your best health despite age, a busy life, or obstacles. Louise is a Physiologist, best-selling author, avid runner, and military spouse. She was named #1 Health Specialist in the U.S., has worked for the NFL, an...
Sep 20, 2022•46 min•Ep. 26
What if you have significant weight to lose—around 30 pounds or more? Most people have no problem losing weight . . . in the short term. What usually follows is a rebound, usually because calories or the diet itself were so restrictive that they were impossible to maintain for more than a few months. In this episode, we discuss a completely different approach. Instead of “weight loss,” we want to achieve FAT LOSS. We want to improve our body composition over time and actually become leaner. Our ...
Sep 06, 2022•44 min•Ep. 25
This is our first "Science Says" episode, where we break down a single recent article relevant to the fitness (lifting, nutrition, health) industry and strategies you can apply right away based on what the science says. Today's article is "Evenly distributed protein intake over 3 meals augments resistance exercise–induced muscle hypertrophy in healthy young men" by Yasuda, et al. (2020). The main question is, can we build more muscle mass by evenly distributing protein throughout the day (primar...
Aug 30, 2022•11 min•Ep. 24
If you could be in a calorie surplus for three-quarters of the year and constantly get leaner, would that appeal to you? Today’s topic is something that ended my many, repeated unproductive cycles of crash dieting and changed my mindset to one of abundance, performance, improved body composition, a better relationship with food, and sustainable results. You’re going to learn how to periodize your nutrition with cut and bulk cycles to get leaner and leaner by minimizing fat gain while maximizing ...
Aug 23, 2022•33 min•Ep. 23
This episode is all about achieving LASTING results: finding that place where you no longer have to yo-yo diet, jump from one program to another, or feel like the only way to success is severe calorie restriction, excessive cardio, or short-term transformations. If what you’ve tried before just has NOT worked, maybe it’s time to engage the help of another person. Someone who can hold you accountable, give you some extrinsic motivation to help you build momentum and develop new, sustainable habit...
Aug 09, 2022•40 min•Ep. 22
How do you know when you’ve reached your goal? If you’re trying to lose 20 pounds, do you just instinctively change your eating behaviors and eventually magically arrive at your target weight? If you’re trying to build muscle, do you go to the gym without a program and randomly hit up different weights and machines, rep ranges, rest periods, and muscle groups? Chances are, when you’re committed to a goal, you come up with a plan and then measure progress along the way. Otherwise, how do you “clo...
Jul 26, 2022•41 min•Ep. 21
In this episode, we’re talking about what to do with your carefully-honed, consistent, so-far-successful training and nutrition plans when you go on vacation! Summer’s here, and despite exorbitant gas prices and airfare, we can’t help but get away from it all, even for just a week or even a long weekend. Vacations are the perfect time to shut off those devices, relax with a drink in your hand, and enjoy that well-deserved leisure. But that raises the question, should I continue my current health...
Jul 12, 2022•24 min•Ep. 20
Today we have another special interview guest! Ken Caputo is a lifelong athlete who eventually found his way to strength training in his late 30s—something he and I have in common! From an early age, he competed in swimming, track, cross country, and even pole vaulting and spring board diving at the University of Connecticut, eventually becoming an expert in martial arts. I invited Ken on today because of his passion for lifting and nutrition, and how they can keep someone healthy physically, me...
Jun 28, 2022•55 min•Ep. 19
Today’s topic may not seem exciting, but it could be the critical missing ingredient to your nutrition and recovery, whether everything else is dialed in or not. I’m talking about sleep: too little sleep, low quality sleep, irregular sleep, and poor sleep habits. Many people suffer from insomnia or a sleep disorder, and a lack of sleep can lead to terrible consequences like medical errors and car accidents. A lack of sleep can increase hunger, reduce your metabolism, impair memory, affect hormon...
Jun 14, 2022•24 min•Ep. 18
I have the honor of hosting a very special guest, Tyla Serro, for the first ever interview on this podcast. Tyla is not only an engineering colleague of mine—we work for the same aerospace company—she finds time to train and compete as a raw powerlifter, placing second this March in the 2022 USPA Connecticut state championship in her weight class…and only missing first in a close tiebreaker against her training partner. I invited her on the show because I think her story is very relatable to tho...
May 31, 2022•56 min•Ep. 17
Last year, I went under the knife for a microdiscectomy, a type of minimally invasive spine surgery where a portion of a herniated disc is removed using microsurgical tools. In this episode, I share my story of what happened, how I dealt with low back pain in the context of health and fitness, the surgery and recovery process, and lessons I learned along the way. I hope my story sheds light on some productive ways to think about pain and injury and even inspires you to consider multiple options ...
May 17, 2022•25 min•Ep. 16
Let’s say you’re a busy, working professional, perhaps in your 40’s with a family, a mortgage, and a high-stress job. But you want to improve your health through lifting and nutrition. That’s why you’re listening to this podcast! The last thing you want is a one-size-fits-all training program that has you lifting six days per week with 90-minute-long sessions. Something so out of whack with your current lifestyle is not exactly sustainable, and it’s a surefire way to bomb out within weeks if not...
May 03, 2022•32 min•Ep. 15
As a follow-up to the last episode on losing weight without losing muscle, I want to address the frustration many of us have experienced with either not being able to lose weight or hitting a plateau, usually in the form of scale weight no longer going down. This is a complex, nuanced topic that ultimately comes down to understanding the root cause behind being unable to lose weight and taking back control so YOU can do something that will nudge your fat loss back in the right direction. That’s ...
Apr 19, 2022•24 min•Ep. 14
The last episode covered why gaining weight while training hard is an effective way to get lean by packing on muscle, increasing metabolism, and making it easier to lose fat later. Today we’re tackling the “losing fat” part of getting lean. If you haven’t listened to episode 12, go back and do that first. If you’re a newer lifter who is not extremely overweight, your best gains will come through hard strength training and eating at maintenance or in a slight surplus to improve your body composit...
Apr 05, 2022•33 min•Ep. 13
