The 5 Biggest Diet Mistakes Women Make (and how to avoid them)
On February 22nd we will be kicking off our 30-Day Jumpstart Program for Women!
Our program is specifically designed to help women jumpstart their fitness and feel their best this spring with our Women’s Group workouts and nutrition guidance.
30-days of commitment, support, and results!
For the first time ever, we've combined our Coach-Led Workouts and our Nutrition Coaching into one program just for you!
And this program is now available 100% online!
Our mission is to provide the ultimate amount of guidance, support, and direction to help you jumpstart your health and fitness, build some momentum, and feel your BEST this spring!
One aspect of our 30-Day Jumpstart Program that I am most excited about (aside from our workouts) is the nutritional guidance.
When it comes to making real changes and working towards your goals, improving your nutrition is a must!
In fact, when it comes to weight-loss, changing your nutrition will have the biggest impact.
But how?
Where do you start?
Which information do you trust and how do you make it work even with a busy schedule?
These are very real questions and concerns.
Improving your nutrition is flat out confusing, especially with the amount of products, diets, and information so easily accessible.
Our goal with our 30-Day Jumpstart Program is to clear the confusion and start to build a great foundation of nutritional education (like how to build balanced meals, how to eat for fat-loss, the importance of proper hydration) to work from.
To get you started I have created a list of the 5 biggest nutrition mistakes and how to avoid them.
1| Eating Too Little
What if I told you eating too little can have reverse effects when it comes to fat-loss.
This is the most common mistake I see women make in their efforts to improve their health and lose weight.
Yes, we have had countless women lose weight and drastically improve their energy by eating MORE of the right foods.
Many of us have been told in order to lose weight, we just need to eat less. Or because we're so busy during the day, we don't plan out balanced meals and we end up drastically under-eating.
While it is important to be in a slight energy deficit (consuming less calories than you expend), too much of a reduction in calories is a bad thing, both for our overall health, energy, and weight-loss.
So what happens when you eat too little?
Your body goes into survival mode.
Your body actually burns less calories during the day and your workouts, raises your stress hormones, and holds onto your body-fat.
This causes you to always feel tired, retain water, and store more body-fat.
My goal is to help you eat in a way that actually FUELS your body to burn fat and energizes your day!
2| Not Eating Enough Protein
When I talk to women about what they eat during the day, there is typically one very important food that is consumed much less than the rest.
That is protein.
Proteins are made up of molecules of amino acids, also known as the building blocks of life.
They make the building blocks of our muscle.
Proteins also help with various functions like the formation of new bone and muscle tissue and the production of enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters and antibodies plus many others! Think growth and repair!
Proteins are made up of essential amino acids (those that our body cannot make) that we need to consume through our diets and non-essential amino acids that our bodies can make.
Protein can be found in high quantities in animal products such as chicken, turkey, Greek yogurt, and fish, as well as some plant foods like beans, tofu, and quinoa. I also LOVE protein smoothies!
Checkout some great smoothie recipes below!
Consuming enough protein has been shown to help with:
Reducing body-fat
Helping you feel more full after meals
Growing and repairing muscles
Workout performance
The speed of your metabolism
Once women start to eat enough protein they recover better from workouts, burn fat, and feel more satisfied after meals!
3| Jumping from Fad Diet to Fad Diet
One of my favorite quotes is "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is."
This is a great way to describe dieting.
You see, dieting falls into 2 categories.
- They don't work at all
- They work for a while, and then they don't
Simply put, diets just don't work for lasting results.
A group of UCLA researchers analyzed 31 long-term diet studies. Participants on these various diets stayed on them for 2 to 5 years.
Their findings?
Some people lost weight in the beginning, but only 5-10% of their body-weight.
The result? The majority of people regained all of their weight, plus some.
The health benefits of dieting like decreasing blood pressure and disease risk? None.
In fact, researchers believe they would have been better off not dieting at all from the stress of losing weight and putting it back on. The yo-yo effect of dieting actually can increase our risk of disease.
So, why don't diets work?
First, they are unsustainable.
Those who go on diets sometimes see success early in the program.
The reason of this is restriction.
Low or no carbs -- restriction. Low fat -- restriction. Low calorie -- restriction.
These deficits in certain foods work for a short time mainly through a drastic drop in calories and we see weight loss.
But how do we feel?
Ask anyone on a diet how they feel and you'll hear words like:
"Deprived"
"Tired"
"Sluggish"
"Hungry!"
It's only a matter of time before we lose our will power and give in to temptation.
Secondly, where is the support?
It's just you and the program. And that is a big problem.
Where do you turn for guidance and support?
Who is checking in with you, seeing how things are going, and making sure you are working toward your goals?
No one.
This is one of the major issues with diets. There is no help. There is no support system. It's you and you alone.
Instead, my goal is to help you build life-long, sustainable habits.
To arm you with nutritional education and simple, easy to implement tools.
Things like how to build a healthy breakfast to fuel for your day, how to plan your meals for the week, how to eat for more energy, and how to eat mindfully (not because you’re stressed or bored).
4| Putting Everyone Else First
A common theme we hear from our women members is their hesitation to do something, like joining a new fitness program for example, because they are not used to putting themselves first.
Plain and simple: whether it's a spouse, child, friend, parent or even a pet... women tend to put the needs of everyone else above their own.
This is one thing that makes women so amazing and it's not inherently a bad thing, however, when it starts infringing on your own health and wellbeing it becomes an issue.
The thing is, you deserve to be a priority. Number One. Top of the list.
And that does not make you selfish.
In fact, the opposite is true.
Putting yourself first to focus on your health and wellbeing will only make you a better spouse, mother, friend, caregiver, etc. in the long run.
This is why on planes they still advise passengers to put their own oxygen mask on first before helping others.
While you may initially think that seems backwards, it actually makes a lot of sense!
When you're not functioning properly, your capacity to help those around you will diminish, even if you have the best of intentions.
By always focusing on everyone else, your nutrition will suffer.
You revert to eating out a lot or grabbing the quickest food, or you don't eat at all.
I am going to cover how to plan ahead and navigate your nutrition even with the busiest of schedules.
5| Ignoring Pre and Post Workout Nutrition
Improving what you eat around your workouts might be the most overlooked, yet most beneficial ways to improve your workouts and ultimately, your results.
I often ask our members what they ate before class or what they are going to eat after.
I unfortunately often get a response of, "nothing".
There seems to be a fear that eating before will make them sick and eating after or too late will make them gain weight.
Here's the truth though: eating properly before your workout will give you the energy needed to push harder, fatigue less quickly and help you lose fat and eating the right foods after your workout will help you recover from your training session and help build muscle.
Getting your nutrition around your workouts right will also help you:
Increase energy
Build strength
Burn fat
Boost performance and delay fatigue
Burn more calories during your workout
Stay mentally focused and motivated
Decrease soreness
A big theme of our program will be how to eat properly before your workouts to help you feel energized, shred fat, build strength, and feel GREAT!