I think it's easy to forget that coaching should be a 2-way street. Yes, there is a level of trust and respect that should go into the relationship you have with your coach, but to get everything you can from your experience and investment, there should always be an active conversation going. So what does this mean for clients?

When we start making nutrition changes, I think we all start looking for “progress”, and that’s fair! Progress photos and measurements are so useful, but we CANNOT overlook our mental progress. We can't only feel good about ourselves when we’re eating all the “right” foods, or when we’ve seen progress in the form of a smaller waist. If we’re solely focused on eating “healthy” and “good” foods all of the time, and then hate ourselves the second we eat something “unhealthy,” I’d argue that’s not very healthy at all.

I read this quote the other day, “If you’re gonna quit, then quit on a good day” and that hit.

Can you imagine how many people wouldn’t give up on themselves if they utilized this statement more often

If things are going good, you're “winning”, it’s easy, results are showing, we aren’t often giving up, or running to something different.

When we’re stuck, frustrated, have a bad day, lose, our thoughts can often lead us to wanting to quit, give up, change, think something is wrong. Cuz to be honest it’s hard.

It is really common to see clients mention in the first few weeks or months of working with a nutrition coach that they’re disappointed when they see the scale go up.

From experience, many clients come to a nutrition coach chronically dieting, eating in a caloric deficit, or undereating for longer than 3-6 months. It is imperative that they reverse diet back up to at LEAST their maintenance calories and spend at least 3-6 months eating enough food to boost their metabolic rate. This will allow them to lose more weight effectively in the future. Your metabolism slows down when you eat lower calories, so as calories increase, your metabolism should increase as well.

I had a friend ask me this question the other day and it led me to understand that most of us really want weight loss to happen as fast as possible. But in order to lose weight quickly, it’s often not going to happen in what I would consider a “healthy” way.

There are so many “diets” out there that have you restrict so many calories that you no longer have the energy to exercise; high fat, no carb, meal replacements, you name it, it’s out there. And about 95% of the time my clients tell me they have tried some, if not all of these kinds of diets. They come to me worn out from it all.

My face when a client says they are upset they “only” lost half a pound this week 😡

The toughest part about being a nutrition coach is getting clients to buy in on a few ideas.

Look, I know I JUST said I want you to be bored. But I also want you to have fun!

For some people, it’s hard to find joy in the grind of the process even if they know deep down it’s worth it. If you can trick yourself into enjoying the tedious need-to-dos, the odds of sticking with lifestyle changes, reaching your goals, & maintaining progress long term are much greater.

How can you reframe or remix the boring stuff to feel fresh & fun?

At some point, the daily tasks and habits necessary to reach your goals are probably gonna feel pretty boring. Consistency is boring, but it’s where progress is made.

Constant changes - with your macros / nutrition, training program, daily routines - are just whirlwind. If a coach (of any kind) is promising instant gratification and keeps things “interesting” or keeps you “motivated” by switching things up very regularly with no explicit purpose, proceed with caution.

Me when I try to explain body neutrality…

A body is just a body. It doesn’t have moral value. It changes as you change. There’s nothing inherently good or evil about it. I used to think I had to constantly, aggressively love my body- if I didn’t feel that way on a day, I felt like I was failing or not being “positive” enough.

In 2021, I committed to walking one mile per day. When I told people I was doing a mile a day they always looked at me funny because they knew that I had a moderate level of fitness and could run much longer distances. But I knew I couldn't commit to running or even walking those longer distances consistently every single day for an entire year.

When you have surgery of any sort, your body has a heightened level of stress and inflammation. You want to minimize that to support your body’s recovery process. Oftentimes skin or tissue is torn and in need of repair. On top of that, when you have surgery, it's likely that you are not getting as much movement as you're used to. Considering all of these factors, here is what I recommend adding to your routine to help you recover better and faster.

Did you know that the average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep per night?

Did you know athletes may need even more?

Lack of sleep or sleep deprivation can cause slow reaction times, can alter pain reception and can even decrease accuracy. All things every athlete needs to stay in tip-top shape.

We talk all the time about how consistency is king/queen, but if you’re someone who is struggling with consistency you might be missing out on the piece that comes right before it: TRIAL & ERROR

I get it, you just signed up for a coach and you’re ready to GET. TO. WORK.

I firmly believe that now more than ever, it’s important for us to prioritize our health and nutrition. Having support and accountability during this time is what many of us need right now. You can work with your coach on…

If you are able to––or when you are able to if it isn't quite time yet––try to slowly begin to get back to a normal (ha!) routine as much as possible given the circumstances. Our minds and bodies thrive off of routine and structure. It makes us feel secure, safe, and stable. Uncertainty causes large amounts of stress on us both physically and mentally. Humans are creatures of habit.

New year! New you...? What’s it really going to take to accomplish those goals this year? Here are five things you should be focusing on.

So, you’ve made the decision to improve your health through nutrition this year. Uh, okay… now what?

Having a vague goal like “eat healthier” or “lose weight” can end up being really frustrating. Why? Because there is no clear starting point or first step and no clear endpoint or why to evaluate that you have attained your goal.

I’m not sure why our loved ones and friends think that they need to have an opinion on how we choose to eat and take care of our bodies, but they always do. It can be an uncomfortable situation and often leads us to feel bad about the choices we are making to improve our health and find balance in our relationship with food.

My clients all know that having a positive mindset is crucial to making physical progress. A negative mindset usually means we’re stressed and a stressed body is not a happy body. Does this mean we have to be happy and pretend like everything is okay when it’s really on fire? HELL NO. There are a few categories people fall into when it comes to having a negative mindset:

Okay, if you are like me, you may be asking yourself, “I don’t have a big kitchen and big yard to be able to do anything *meaningful* in regards to being more sustainable and help the earth”. Or maybe you’re not thinking that and that’s just me. But sometimes I find a small mental hang-up with what I can do in my little apartment in this big city to help the world around me.