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You’ve started a new diet, a new training program, and you feel like nothing could stop you from achieving your goals.

It’s easy to maintain a positive mindset when, in your head, you’ve already achieved your goals. However, in life, one thing is certain. It won’t be easy. You will NEED to work for this. There will be set-backs, struggles, and new emotions to manage.

You hear this often, as did I, and just like I did: You probably think you understand what it means.

When I first started my fitness journey, coming off a cross-country injury, I discovered the world of Powerlifting. Within months I was pushing weights I never thought possible, and by October 2021, I had squatted 418 pounds, benched 237, and deadlifted 391 in competition. This secured me 1st place in the Junior 75kg class.

Before this meet, I had progressed continually. My mindset was ironclad, I was a powerlifter. I was strong. I was always ready to take the next step. However, following this meet I began my battle with a long-term injury that still limits me in 2023. My diet broke down the longer I was injured, as did my training, and my mindset.

My worst struggle started in August 2022, when I began losing a significant amount of muscle mass as my mental health kept me out of the gym and my diet became insufficient to even maintain my weight. By October, I had lost 20 pounds, most of it muscle.

I was weak, an imposter, not qualified.

These were the thoughts that crept into my mind as I struggled with having lost significant progress. These sorts of thoughts lingered for weeks. As I now pull myself from this mindset, I have come to realize that the greatest injury I endured was the wounds I inflicted upon my own mind.

I slowly tore myself down, when I should have been building myself back up.

When you’re starting your fitness journey, start with your mind. Prepare yourself for the possible setbacks. When they say to push through the struggle, this is what they mean. Remember that you are in charge of your thoughts, that you can take control of your mind at any time.

You aren’t going to be perfect, you might not always be “on track,” but if you keep going despite these struggles, you will see that progress is inevitable. As I adopt these mindset changes myself, I hope to be back on the platform later this year powerlifting once again.

Looking to overcome a negative mindset? Here are 3 Tips for the Injured Athlete.

1. Positive affirmations 
   1. Though this may seem useless to many who first try it, framing things in a positive light can truly make the difference you need to stay encouraged through injury or setbacks.
2. Stay busy
   1. Though it may seem your entire journey has come to an end, it’s important not to let it catch up the rest of your life. Make sure to enjoy company, hobbies, or anything you enjoy as you work through an injury.
3. Do what you can
   1. When injured, try to stay active and do activity that doesn’t aggravate your injury. Staying active will help keep your mind clear and may help your recovery.
4. Bonus Tip! 
   1. Take yourself and your feelings seriously. It’s easy to dismiss your own emotions/feelings, but pushing them off can create more stress (especially if you are ignoring an injury).

Motivation, it’s seen by many as an insurmountable wall, preventing them from meeting their fitness goals. Think about it, How many times have you heard “I just don’t have the motivation to stay consistent,” when someone is discussing getting in-shape?

Whether it’s slow progress, struggle adapting to new changes in routine, or outside life stress, those who first begin a new exercise or nutrition program may find motivation dwindles (New gym-goers quitting shortly after new-year is an example of this).

This is normal, and there will always be moments where motivation varies. However, by effectively managing expectations, not making too many changes too soon, and setting SMART goals you can keep motivation generally high and manage the sticking-points that throw people off of their new life changes.

Managing expectations – Try not to set unrealistic goals (i.e rapid weight loss, spot reduction). When motivation stays high it can be easy to overload yourself with expectations and changes. But when unattainable or unrealistic goals can’t be reached, it can grind your motivation to a screeching halt.

One change at a time – When looking to make significant life changes, people tend to stack them on top of each other. Managing a new nutrition program, exercise program, sleep schedule change, and/or any other new activities all at once can be overwhelming. To prevent this, I recommend making one change at a time. For example, instead of completely overhauling your diet and starting an intensive exercise program at the same time, first introduce the one more important to you and adapt to said life stressor before adding additional changes.

Setting personal goals –  SMART Goals

• SMART Goals – Setting good goals is a cornerstone to any life change, if your goals aren’t personal or don’t get you what you really want, it’s unlikely you’ll want to be consistent to meet them. One strategy to make sure your setting effective goals is the SMART goals method.
  • Specific – goals shouldn’t be general, instead aim to set goals that are specific with set numbers or values (i.e hit a 100 pound squat, lose X amount of weight, running under a certain time in a race, etc.)
  • Measurable – If your goal isn’t measurable, there won’t be any good way to make sure progress is occurring. (i.e setting a weight loss goal might be more measurable than saying “I want a smaller stomach,” or setting a specific lift goal will be more measurable than a goal of getting stronger)
  • Attainable – While goals should be challenging, they also need to be grounded in reality to prevent disappointment. If your goals include something such as incredibly fast weight loss, to entirely change your body, never eat junk food, etc. you will find it difficult to build motivation.
  • Relevant – Goals should be relevant to you; for example: if you really want to look muscular but go on a weight-loss diet, you may be disappointed when you reach your goals and they didn’t give you the results you truly wanted.
  • Timely – Set goals that have a dead-line, but also make sure that they give you enough time to reach your goals. Another problem would be setting dead-lines too far away, if you need a year to hit a goal try thinking about breaking down your goal into more specific goals that you can reach, leading you to your long-term goals.

Beyond goal setting and motivation, it is important to remember that Consistency is going to be the best friend of progress. Quite simply, something being more difficult will not always mean that it will bring more progress. In-fact, making it too difficult will make it harder to remain consistent, and in turn, to make progress. A big example of this is intensity in the gym; remember that going too hard from the start won’t make you more progress. At a certain point, more work will hinder progress more than it helps. By managing intensity you can put in the work to achieve maximum results, rather than putting in maximum work to achieve similar levels of results. 

Remember that life changes, such as going to the gym or changing your diet, don’t have to and shouldn’t have to make you feel like you are burning out. There will be enough blips in the road to push through on a fitness journey, so be cautious of adding too many rules/restrictions to your life. What is optimal for your new training program or diet, may not always be what is optimal for you.

So when you’re looking to make your next life change or fitness endeavor remember: Be consistent, be realistic, and be patient.

You’re doing amazing, now it’s just time to put in the work.

 

 

It’s the popping new diet fad – The Carnivore Diet.

Spread by the likes of Carnivore MD, the Carnivore Diet is one that idolizes meat, organs, raw dairy, honey, and fruits (although many on this diet have foregone honey/fruits). It is popular for those who follow this diet to demonize seed oils, vegetables, and grains/legumes (1). They often dismiss the negative impact of high saturated fat intake on health, even going as far as saying that LDL cholesterol doesn’t increase risk of cardiovascular disease. While their claims that “plant defense chemicals” are ravaging our immune systems and seed oils ruining our health may be scary, there isn’t much evidence to support them.

To break it down, here are some of the main claims of the Carnivore Diet

1. Seed oils/linoleic acid are terrible for our health (2)

2. Saturated fat is the best fat for health (2)

3. LDL cholesterol is not as bad as it seems

4. Plant defense chemicals harm us in vegetable/grain/legume intake (4)

Quite simply, there’s a lot wrong here.

Continue reading The Carnivore Diet – Seed Oils | Health Hack or Diet Fad?

You hear it often:

*click warning* Potentially ED Sensitive Comments Listed.

• “I can’t eat that, I didn’t workout today.”
• “You workout so much, you must be able to eat whatever you want.”
• “I shouldn’t eat that, I didn’t workout yesterday.”

Alone, this represents a concerning relationship with food that has spread throughout the modern generations. It is important to remember that we don’t have to earn our food through exercise, and aiming to do so can be harmful.

However, this also highlights a strong misunderstanding that people have about how the body burns energy, and that will be the focus of my post today. Typically, people tend to think that exercise activity will greatly impact their total energy burned in a day, and while it is true you can burn extra calories through exercise, it’s important to remember that exercise is arguably the least impactful part of the Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).

So, what makes up the TDEE (1)?

Continue reading The Impact of Exercise on Weight | The TDEE | 5 Tips for Overactive Appetites

When discussing the factors that play into weight gain, it is common to see those who have a misunderstanding of what someone means when they say:

“It’s all about Calories” – The Energy Balance Model 

Perhaps that is an oversimplification, considering the many genetic and environmental factors that impact our lives. However, it is safe to say that calories exclusively determine someone’s weight gain. Before anyone gets upset, allow me to explain.

One of the most common objections to this is the Body-Fat Set Point Theory (BFSPT):

Continue reading Genetics load the… | The Energy Balance Model

Safer People Safer Places (SPSP)

SPSP is an educational program by Penn State that covers LGBTQ terminology, resources available on campus, and promotes an inclusive and safe space for all students. In addition to being an informative and enjoyable program to experience, it also covers the principles of empathy and consideration for others. Principles that lay the foundations of diet positivity.

Everyone eats, this is such a given in daily life that those struggling with nutrition or disordered eating are often met with insensitive comments that can be damaging to their mental and physical health. For example, how many times have you heard any of the following?

*Click Warning, ED sensitive comments below* 

• You know that’s bad for you right?
• You are sure eating a lot.
• That’s all you’re going to eat?
• You look like you put on/lost weight.
• You know diets don’t work?
• You look too skinny now.

Continue reading Nutrition’s Place in “Safer People Safer Places” | 5 Tips to be More Diet Sensitive

Protein makes up ~50% of the human body weight excluding water, and is involved in countless physical and chemical reactions at any given moment. Even as you lay in bed not moving a muscle, your body is still continuously breaking down these tissues (and constantly re-building them). Considering this, it’s not surprising that more protein in the diet is associated with improved body composition and improved health even WITHOUT additional exercise (7).

Seriously, don’t sleep on protein.

The RDA for protein is set almost comically low, at .8 grams per kg (~.36g per pound). This is set just high enough to ensure that the body can replace the nitrogen (a byproduct of protein metabolism) used by the body throughout daily life (1).Unsurprisingly, low protein diets like so tend to be correlated with higher levels of fat mass and energy consumption (4) while also being less effective for weight loss compared to high protein diets (5).

In addition to being (arguably) optimal for weight loss, an increase of protein can be a great benefit to anyone who wants to reduce their risk for diabetes (3), recover better from exercise (2), and/or promote healthy aging (1).

SO… How much should you eat?

I recommend a daily consumption of around 1.6 g per kg (or about .72 – 1g per pound bodyweight) to see the potential benefits of a high protein diet (6).

If the idea of finding high protein foods scares you… Here’s 5 Tips to Easily Add Protein to Your Diet

*This advice is intended for healthy individuals, always consult your medical doctor to make sure any recommendations are appropriate for you.*

1. Greek Yogurt
   1. I’m not kidding. Ranch dips, in a smoothie, as a chicken marinade, as sour cream… the high protein options are endless with this one.
2. Cottage Cheese
   1. You can use this in protein pancakes (they are delicious), Mac and cheese, or as a snack
3. Meal around a Protein
   1. When preparing meals, pick your protein source first and then the sides. This will help make sure you get protein in every meal.
4. High Protein snacks
   1. Beef jerky, whey proteins, boiled eggs, all make easy on the go snacks that pack lots of protein.
5. Buy leaner cuts of meat
   1. When grocery shopping, options such as low-fat hamburger, chicken, or lean ground turkey all make for amazing substitutions to fattier cuts of meat and can significantly increase the protein content of your diet.

Sources Cited Continue reading The Body on Protein | 5 Tips to Easily Add Protein to Your Diet

1,931,945. That is the number of minutes the average person will spend in their lifetime eating during a meal, and does not even include time spent eating during other activities (1). Meaning eating food plays a HUGE part in our daily lives. Social events, family dinners, trips out to the movies, they happen. All the time. Considering this, it’s not surprising that food actually plays a huge role in our mental health.

Paleo, Keto, Weight Watchers, AKA… fad diets. All heavily advertised, promoted, and promise amazing results. There is one thing all of these diets have in common. The demonization of food. It is a common sight in the diet scene to see a post saying “X (carb, fat, sodium) will cause X disease,” however, these claims are not often based in science and are designed to take advantage of your emotions (check… they’re most likely selling a “solution” to the problem). Think about it, if every diet was right by now we would be eating nothing.

By demonizing foods, and often setting unrealistic body standards, the fitness industry has created a slew of disordered eating that has plagued the young and upcoming generations with confidence issues, fear and anxiety around food (2), and a lack of understanding surrounding their nutrition.

This exacerbates the importance of a positive and informative education regarding diets. Leading me to 5 tips you can use to be diet positive

*information provided is not medical advice and should NOT be employed by someone struggling with an ED without consulting their medical doctor/care provider.*

1.  Avoid calling food “good or bad”
   1. Food has no moral value (it’s all just food… not a movie)
2. Avoid body-checking yourself 
   1. We only have one body, be kind to yourself.
3. Study Diet Culture
   1. Seriously?… YES. Unlearning diet culture is crucial (4).
4. Add Fruits and Veggies
   1. By adding minerals and vitamins to your diet, you can actually have a positive impact on your mental health (and they can be delicious) (3).
5. Exercise!!! 
   1. By getting active you can reduce anxiety and stress, as well as improve confidence and strength (5).

Sources Cited Continue reading The Impact of Diet on Mental Health | 5 Tips for Diet Positivity