Making changes requires vulnerability: an openness to admit we might fail, to say we don’t know what we’re doing, but a willingness to try.
This takes courage.
Like, buttloads of it.
When faced with vulnerability, whether we acknowledge it or not, our goals and our purpose suddenly become very clear. It’s the yardstick of our deepest desires: what’s worth doing even if I fail?
Most of us want to engage in our lives from a place of worthiness. When we realize that no matter what choices we make – pizza, salad, lifting, walking, having that tough conversation with our boss or partner, avoiding it for another day, etc. – no matter what gets done or what gets left undone, we are still enough, our perspective on our choices changes.
Getting to that point requires us to show up and let ourselves be seen. Which can be terrifying, especially if we are used to putting up a shield (which manifests in various forms, but, for me, perfectionism is my go-to…more on that soon :) ). Cultivating a sense of worth – remembering that it is our birthright – changes everything about our approach to food, exercise, work, and relationships: it has the power to set us free.
Taking the leap to become a stronger, more resilient version of you is worth the courage it takes to get there EVERY TIME.
Together, we will uncover the daily rhythm of your food choices and mindset, where your struggles are, and- most importantly- where your strengths lie. We'll work together to level up your nutrition, so that you, too, are no longer obsessed with food. Or so that you're healthily obsessed with food. Either way. ;)
You'll also get access to exclusive one-on-one nutrition coaching with me and a bag of my go-to post-workout vegan vanilla protein powder (seriously, so good. Not the grainy ish.).
APPLY VIA EMAIL (steph@strongbysteph.com) and let me know....
1. Your goals
2. What you struggle the most with in your nutrition
3. Why you want to make a change now (as opposed to some future time)
I'm looking forward to partnering with you!
Typical Steph meal: chicken, asparagus, broccoli salad (broccoli, Greek yogurt, cheese, shallot, walnuts, cranberries). Protein + veggies + satisfaction factor. Satisfied, not stuffed.
“Hyper-palatable, highly-rewarding, heavily-processed” food… you know, the stuff you find yourself face-first in after a few drinks or that terrible argument with your partner… is a major disruptor. Have you ever noticed that after eating a whole can of Pringles/2lbs of Sour Patch Kids/half a pizza, that you don’t really feel full…or even satisfied? Foods like this light up the pleasure centers of our brain and override our natural “stop” signals. We keep eating, ignoring that we’re stuffed, waiting until we feel sick or blacked out or there’s none left. Typically, these foods also contain relatively few nutrients, so we haven’t nourished our bodies properly: we’ve consumed a ton of calories, very few of which are actually serving us. We’ve moved from mixed eating into pure hedonic eating, and this hormone loop disruption is why it’s so hard to control: our natural regulatory system gets interrupted, and we feel powerless to stop it, as our innate stop-gap measure is thrown out the window.
We've taken some serious leaps toward getting a handle on our nutrition recently.
I've thrown a TON of information at you, so, this week, I wanted to go a little lighter (no pun intended).
I've included 2 recipes that are go-tos for me on a conditioning/fat loss plan. They're super simple and super satisfying. No tricks or gimmicks or special ingredients, just real food that isn’t complicated and keeps me on track (and is ready in 30m or less). I include both of these in my diet regularly. I’d love for you to try them out and let me know what you think!
Trying to white-knuckle our way through a plan that doesn’t work for us, no matter how “perfect” it is on paper, sets us up for failure, hormonally, mentally, and physically.
Our nutrition is a commitment to serving ourselves. I, personally, hate to disappoint people, and this was a wakeup call for me to stop disappointing myself and instead act in service to myself so that I can better serve others.
I add conditioning days to the lighter or more moderate days, mostly from a length-of-time standpoint, both in the gym and in the time it takes to recover. Conditioning workouts, if done with high intensity, are super tough! Overloading my system on heavy days + conditioning is too much; I’d never recover properly to produce enough force for my lifts (with sound movement patterns, anyway) the next day, plus I’d just feel terrible, which is rarely (heh.) the goal.
Placing the conditioning workouts where we will be able to both drive the intensity highest (lighter lift days or days where the posterior chain is activated and primed for movement) and recover in time for heavy lifts is vital to being able to achieve both strength + body change goals. I find many programs run into trouble by trying to do too much all at once, leaving you exhausted after a week or two, and giving up after three, leaving you pretty much right back where you started (we’ve all been there, myself included.).
Finding a balance is huge. This is what works for me and many clients, but all programs are adaptable to your individual needs. Working in the realm of high intensity + building strength is where the magic happens. Figuring out strategies to do both in the context of real life was the game changer for my consistency in workouts, because I was actually having fun AND seeing results.
There’s a lot going on in there- way more than just “eat less, move more.” And it’s all dependent upon which hormones are released in which amounts and at what times. Can you conclude the main determinant of how much of each hormone is released in response to exercise? You guessed it: intensity.
We are strong and worthy. Our goals should always be plans to improve and upgrade ourselves into elevation, not fix what’s “wrong” with what we see.
That framing makes all the difference in the world between yo-yo dieting and effortlessly eating to serve your goals, and between a 21-day “banish xyz flaw” plan and training to be more mobile, energetic, and powerful.
There is strength in fully showing up.
What I mean by that is, enter your relationships being fully, honestly, unabashedly YOU- boundaries, goals, struggles, and all. It certainly can be scary, especially if you’ve never done it before or if your closest friends don’t have the same goals as you. But creating space to express that vulnerability is your job; how others react to it is theirs to decide.
