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The One Strong Mother Podcast
Pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of coffee (or reheat it for the third time—we get it), and join me for candid conversations about the messy, meaningful intersection of motherhood and personal growth.
This isn’t just a podcast about planners and productivity—though we love a good system around here. It’s about what it really looks like to pursue your goals while raising a family, managing chaos, and trying to stay grounded in the process.
Each week, I’ll share stories from my own life, behind-the-scenes lessons from building the One Strong Mother brand, and practical tools to help you stay organized, get intentional, and move forward—even when it feels like you're doing it all with a baby on your hip and laundry on the couch.
Whether you're in the thick of diapers or driving teens to practice, there's space for you here. Let’s figure it out together, one strong mother at a time.
The One Strong Mother Podcast
When a Calorie Deficit is the Right Way to go: Navigating Calorie Deficits, Stress and Lifestyle Choices
Are you ready to revolutionize the way you think about nutrition, stress management, and achieving a healthy lifestyle? This episode of the One Strong Mother podcast is chock-full of insights that will empower you to take control of your weight loss journey and overall wellbeing.
Initially, we dive into the unusual topic of farm animal nutrition, and surprisingly link it back to our dietary needs as humans. We reveal the significant role of Extension Agencies in guiding farmers on animal diets and how this knowledge can be paralleled in human nutrition. We also shed light on calorie deficits, tearing down the myth that they're all about slashing calories. Instead, we stress the importance of managing your relationship with food and debunk common misconceptions about weight loss, including the often overlooked factor of stress.
Moving forward, we explore the connection between stress, sleep and weight loss, emphasizing the need to manage cortisol levels for sustainable weight loss. We then switch gears to discuss macronutrients, micronutrients, and the concept of reverse dieting as a way to avoid weight loss plateaus. Our conversation also takes a turn towards resistance training and cardio, highlighting how these can aid in calorie consumption. Finally, we wrap up the episode with a set of practical tips to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle while enjoying your food, even when on a calorie deficit.
Ladies and gentlemen, this isn't just your typical chat about nutrition. Join us for an engaging conversation, filled with practical advice, surprising connections, and empowering strategies. Don't miss out!
P.S...
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Hey, welcome to the One Strong Mother podcast, the show dedicated to empowering and inspiring moms just like you to embrace strength, balance and well-being in the beautiful chaos of motherhood. We're your hosts, charlie and Ashley, fellow moms, on this incredible journey together. Each week, we'll dive into candid conversations, expert insights and real life stories that explore the many facets of modern motherhood From pelvic floor rehab to nutrition, from stress management to self-care. We're here to provide you with the tools, wisdom and encouragement you need to thrive as an individual while nurturing your family. So, whether you're listening, well, on a quick coffee break or during those precious moments of solitude, know that you're part of a vibrant community of One Strong Mothers. Together, we'll navigate the challenges, celebrate victories and empower each other to become the strong, resilient women we were all born to be. Thank you for joining us today and, without further ado, let's dive into today's episode.
Speaker 1:What is up, ladies? Welcome back to another episode of your favorite podcast, the One Strong Mother podcast. It is your hosts, ashley and Dr Charlie, in the house on a beautiful Friday afternoon. Thank God it's the weekend. It won't be Friday when you're listening to this, but for us it's a.
Speaker 1:Friday and we are excited because it's been a busy, busy week in the clinic, in life and all things in between. So absolutely Welcome, Charlie to another episode.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone, I hope you're doing great and I hope you enjoy this podcast today.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, do you guys have any big plans for the weekend?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think I'm going to be doing some canning of peaches and pears this weekend.
Speaker 1:Oh yum no more moving hay.
Speaker 2:Nope, that is done as of yesterday actually, and almost all of it is stacked up, so may have to put some hearts over there, Harry, but it's all good.
Speaker 1:Do you guys have to worry about that getting moldy? Does hay mold? I would assume it does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is so much science behind hay. Oh my gosh, you know between humidity, what temperature you bail it at, what humidity level you bail it at, what percentage of humidity is in the bale, how big you got before you store it.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I didn't know all that. I grew up around the ranch life but I didn't know all that. But that was always like, like, because we lived the furthest away and my cousins were like they lived on the ranch, they did more of that stuff. We would always go down and like help move cattle and just do like the big stuff. But they took care of all of that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's some places that don't have to worry about that because they make silage. They don't really have to worry about that too much, but because we have to let our sit in the bales.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, there you go yeah Plays, they didn't get us. Now you guys get to know me a little bit more too, so. Not only are you an expert in pelvic floor, but you're also a hay expert.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no no. That is not me. I'm not a hay expert in the ropes there too, but dang, there's a lot to do so, listen.
Speaker 1:nutrition for cows and do this. Is God you know what? There's some question that should be asked, and then there's some questions that you should just stop coming out of your mouth before you even ask it, and that was going to be one of them, but I'm going to go ahead and ask it and make an ass out of myself here. Horses eat hay too, right or no? Yes, yes, our horses always eat grain. I don't remember them eating hay as a kid. Oh, I'm sure they did.
Speaker 2:They did eat hay, or they ate grass but horses are more finicky than cows and you've got to be very careful on what kind of hay you give to them, Otherwise you can have them founder or have Cushing's disease and all sorts of weird things.
Speaker 1:Oh God, I mean it's the same with cattle too.
Speaker 2:You got to be very careful of percentages of what you give to them. You can't give them like, oh, there's a thing called first, second, third, fourth hay season fourth, cutting the first hay will have a lot of stem and leaves associated with it, so that's pretty good to give to everybody. But that third and fourth hay, ooh, you better be careful, otherwise you can make an animal real sick real fast.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. You know what I've learned from this conversation. What's that? That farmers and ranchers need to make a hell of a lot more than what they do.
Speaker 2:Oh, gosh, yeah, yeah, and you have to. You know, what's really interesting is and I know we're going to tie this off all to humans here in just a minute but you have to be, careful and like. So if you take an animal, say, from Texas and you take an animal from Wyoming, they're going to have to need two different types of nutritional value on a diet, because it just depends on the nutrients in the soil too, and what they're getting and what they're not getting. Oh, that's so true, that's so true.
Speaker 2:That's why your extension agencies are amazing. They help you with determine all that stuff too.
Speaker 1:That's crazy, that's kind of cool, though I never knew that much science and like I mean it doesn't surprise me, but I never had to pay attention to that because I was just a kid that showed up and got told what to do. So there you go, and then I became an adult and moved away, so then I never had to learn it, but anyways, I guess it does. It does tie into nutrition for adults and that's been like the question of the week of the month of the year. I get asked a lot, a lot, a lot about nutrition and moms constantly. I mean, let's be real in today's times, I would say like 90% of nutrition clients want to lose weight versus maintain or gain. I've worked with like maybe three clients that wanted to gain weight, which is way more fun to me. It's way more enjoyable than losing weight. But I thought it would be really cool to talk about calorie deficit and when, the right timing, what is a calorie deficit and all the things in between.
Speaker 2:You got it. You know, the one thing that I'm going to say is for all those listening out there, I have the nutrition background for more of my pregnant moms, the changes in your world as far as menopause and perimenopause, but I'm going to hear it to say everybody. I am not the resource that I'm going to be. You guys think I am on this Today is more about Ashley and her knowledge base. So, because we're going to use that to our full, full advantage and I'm going to be the one asking her questions today, everybody so be prepared to be like odd and inspired.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's a nice change of pace.
Speaker 2:Oh it is, it is, I can actually sit back and go, woohoo.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So let's delve into this and just enjoy the heck out of it. For those people interested in nutrition, I know we kind of had a list of things put together for this, but what? When is the right time to actually really do a calorie deficit?
Speaker 1:It's a great question. So let's first answer what is a calorie deficit? Because I don't think that women Genuinely even understand the concept of. I think they know that the main goal in mind is to lose weight. How do we do that? It's by putting ourselves in the calorie deficit.
Speaker 1:Okay, so what is that? Your body requires a certain amount of calories to maintain. You burn a certain amount of energy throughout a day and then and we're not even going to go into like major details About, but the one thing you need to know is your TD E total daily energy expenditure. This number is going to be what your maintenance calories, and there are plenty of Websites I have one favorite that I use to calculate your TD II. It's. It's not going to be like exactly spot-on, however, it's been the closest resource that I have found that has always provided like really good information, and we'll link that in the the description of the pot of that. Oh my god, I can't talk of this episode. So if you are interested in learning what your TD II, this is like the most vital number that you can acquire in order to start any kind of health journey weight loss, maintenance or Gaining muscle mass any of it. This is the number that you're gonna need to know, first and all it is Sorry that you're putting up right this is.
Speaker 2:It's a generic type or thought process Because it's not gonna fit everybody's like Weight and shape and everything like that, correct? Or is it more Designed to really focus on pinpoint your shape, your height, what kind of energy levels you expand?
Speaker 1:Oh, so you, yeah, so you answer questions. So it's like it's a short questionnaire of, like, what's your height, what's your weight, what's your activity level, are you male, female, how old you are. It actually does a really darn good job and if you happen to know your body fat percentage, it asks you that too. It does. That one is left optional because we know that not everybody's gonna fully know their body fat percentage and a lot of times with women, I will also hand out like a resource of it's, like a picture Scale of like what different bodies look like at different body fat percentages. And sometimes we'll go off of that, sometimes we'll leave it blank and and I've actually tested this on myself both ways of leaving it blank and putting in my body fat percentage and I will say this particular resource that we're going to link is Incredibly accurate, like it's. It's it has yielded Really really close results of what that actual TD E should be set up. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a good.
Speaker 1:It's a very reliable and then it will. Now I will say what I don't use this resource for is it will go beyond just your TD E and it will break down like. It'll give you options of like. If you're wanting to lose weight, it'll set your macros at that, or maintenance or gaining muscle. I don't necessarily pay attention to the macros that it provides it, but it does provide you of your maintenance calories after it does all the calculations for you, which is great, because this actual formula to figure out your TD, td E is incredibly long, it's ridiculous and complicated and the odds are you're probably not going to do the math right and you're going to get it wrong.
Speaker 1:So that's the important part is that this particular resource does give you your maintenance calories by calculating that TD E Got it. So from there. That and the reason we need to know what that is is because, like I said it, it provides the maintenance calorie number. So if you don't have any goal of losing weight or you don't want to Gain muscle or gain weight, your goal is like you're just, like you're happy who you are. That number is your maintenance calories. So if you're consuming those amount of calories, your body should not go up or down drastically either direction, so what?
Speaker 2:how much is the drastic? What do you think like in a daily value if, let's say, like somebody's weighing themselves Morning and then in the evening? What do you think that fluctuation should be in calorie or weight wise?
Speaker 1:Oh God Like fight within five pounds, like we change within five pounds Even from morning to night, but even from day to day. Five pounds is totally normal because some days you drink more, some days you get more sodium in your diet, some days you are not consuming as much sodium, some days your carbon take is going to be higher, some days it's not. So you're going to retain differently with with different calories consumed throughout the day, and so it's completely normal to fluctuate on the scale anywhere One to five pounds. Did you hear that?
Speaker 2:ladies, it is normal to fluctuate. Yes, don't wait yourself twice a day, three times a day, no oh my gosh no we do one time a day, if you want to do one time a day, but otherwise you know what? Literally put that scale away for a little bit.
Speaker 2:Honestly don't weigh yourself every day, please don't. It's okay to weigh yourself once a week or so. Make sure you're on a good, you know peace, make sure there isn't anything weird happening in your world, but don't weigh yourself every day, please. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're listening, yeah, okay, I mean I.
Speaker 1:Do what? Sorry you're cutting out.
Speaker 2:No, oh yeah, you're there. Oh, I don't know what's happening. I don't know, I don't know. We may have some technical difficulties, but hang in there everybody. So why do we care about a calorie deficit?
Speaker 1:So that's what's going to Create weight loss. If weight loss is the goal, then a deficit just simply means being less than maintenance calories. So Most coaches, most nutrition people that you're work with, they're probably gonna put you in a like 500 calorie deficit From your maintenance calories to kind of kickstart weight loss.
Speaker 2:Um, this, ideally, what is supposed to technically like, let's say you meet a coach? Like, for instance, like, say, for instance, you, if a person like myself was gonna come up to you and you're like, hey, I know your number one goal is weight loss, would you put me in a calorie deficit right away, or would you know what would you do?
Speaker 1:No, I don't like coaching deficits right away, because, for a lot of reasons actually, um, one of the biggest ones is I need to know more about Lifestyle. Are you a busy mom? For for you in particular, you're really busy, charlie, so you work full-time. You work out several times like you're go, go, go, go go all the time. So my, my first questions are going to be to you.
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, at this point you should have already brought me a food log and so I can look at that food log and see what you're eating. So I'm looking at three days worth of Food that you have consumed and I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions how are you feeling with the food that you're eating? Are you tired, are you overly sore all the time? Do you feel like you experience brain fog all the time? Like what, where, where are you? So I'm gonna, I'm gonna let you kind of answer that question for me and that will kind of guide me on. Okay, if you answer gosh, yes, I'm just really run down all the time. Or, oh my god, the brain fog. Yeah, like it, like I have gone through many of phases in motherhood where brain fog is incredibly Present all the time.
Speaker 1:How busy are you also affects whether you should be in a calorie deficit.
Speaker 1:I do not like coaching and putting someone in a calorie deficit first, because I need you to first understand the foundation of food what food does for you, and Nine times out of ten, most women are afraid of food anyways, and so the odds are you're probably under eating, as it is, specifically on certain macro nutrients, which we'll get into that later on in this episode.
Speaker 1:So I'm gonna try to balance things Before I pull, because at the end of the day, food calories whether it's it's highly processed or whole foods or anything in between At the end of the day, that is energy for your body. Calories convert to energy in your body. So if you go into a deficit, you are drawing away energy from your body. Well, if you're a tired mom, the last thing I'm going to choose to do is pull away and pull energy out of your day. That's like that's crazy and I know that that sounds super backwards and probably really confusing as to like, but I want to lose weight. That's got to be so frustrating. We need to get to the root of your foundation of nutrition before a deficit should ever be part of the conversation.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, because how many times in the clinic are we seeing patients and I'm not talking about like, oh, the older ladies that have post-metaposal and stuff like that. Yeah, you know, like our new moms that are like, their calories are maybe adding up to 800 a day For sure. For sure we see that constantly and they look at us with a deer in the headlight. Look of you want me to add more calories, but I'm trying to lose all the baby weight, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:So this is where, ladies and gentlemen, I literally do have Ashley talk to the patient about their calorie deficits, how much calories they do get, and a lot of times when she says, hey, we need to get this certain specific calorie level for you and getting you more food, you will see the patient come back in about two, three weeks and go oh my gosh, I'm losing weight and I feel so much better as far as health and energy, but they've added more calories to their diet, in their healthy calories.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, it's it feel it's a very scary journey to, and you have to have a lot of faith in the beginning, especially when you don't understand how your body works and we're kind of problem solving like, oh, your body responds to this or that. It's a lot of faith. You have to trust the person that you're working with wholeheartedly. You have to trust them and trust that they are guiding you in the right direction, because nine times out of 10, you probably are majorly under eating. But we live in a society of moms should shrink, and so we always hear doctors say Well, move more, eat less, that's how you do that. And so they think, oh, if I just eat less and less and less and less, and they almost like, I find that women almost wear hunger like a badge of honor. Well, I skipped that meal, so I know I'm going to start losing weight. No, ma'am, that's not how it works, like you have to fuel your body.
Speaker 2:It's amazing how many people have this unhealthy relationship with food. You should have a very healthy relationship with food, but when we have our society that we have specifically in the United States, the relationship is horrible because we are taught hey, we need to be skinny, you need to look like Barbie dolls that are just this, you know, perfect figure. But in reality, how stressed are we that we have to look a certain way? How much distress play a role in this whole world of calorie deficits and making sure we lose weight when we want to, etc.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, it's a huge role, and that's another thing. That's, that's a heat like. That's probably.
Speaker 1:Area number two that I start with, before I'm willing to let someone go into a deficit, is stress management, and how under control of stress management, and what tools are you using?
Speaker 1:Because if you are living on cortisol, your stress hormone you are going to naturally hold, it's going to affect your hunger cues, it's going to affect where you hold on to fat in your body, and it's not until we are able to regulate that system.
Speaker 1:So, not to go like too nerdy and too boring, but if you are living on spikes of cortisol on a regular basis, your body cannot actually go into rest and digest and process that food as it should, and so your, your GI system, like you're, you're going to hold on to extra fat in the body because of how stressed out you are, and so that's another thing.
Speaker 1:Like we usually, I will target stress management and stress tools. And let me be clear stress never goes away from life. We are like, we live in a like. Stress will always be in your life, no matter what, and so it's just a matter of some simple tools that we develop and some take some, some people don't take long to adapt to these tools and can can control that, and there's different cues that you can. You can feel it physically in your body where, for example, maybe you start sleeping a little bit better, and that's another thing, too is stress and sleep should go hand in hand. You're not. You're also, you're not, you're also not ready for a deficit if your sleep is not in order as well.
Speaker 2:Stay tuned for another episode in relation to sleep.
Speaker 1:Yes, we will. Yeah, sleep is like a whole episode of its own. But I will touch just as like, not on sleep routines or anything like that, but like if you're not setting aside seven I for me minimum seven hours, like that's what I coach people, that's what I strongly, strongly suggest is seven hours of sleep, because your body will physically not recover. Specifically if you're high stress, high cortisol all the time, your body does not properly recover and sleep is the only thing that provides that level of recovery. And so then and then not to mention stress also affects your sleep cycle. And when you produce melatonin and so you want that cortisol to kind of spike when you wake up in the morning, it's a very natural spike, it's very healthy and that's what you're looking for. But throughout the day you should let it naturally come down, and that way that's when your melatonin production goes up, and so you should have this ebb and flow of cortisol and melatonin coexisting in your day. But if you don't have your stress management under control, then your melatonin is going to produce at maybe like the wrong time, like for me when I was struggling with my hormones. I was like at peak melatonin at like lunchtime, and it's because my cortisol spikes would ebb and flow so highly that that I would get incredibly exhausted around noon and then come the evening time. That's when my brain would come back alive. And I would like want to get all of this stuff done. And it's partly because I had younger kids and that's when they went to bed and so I needed that. I needed that time to get everything done. But it would like ramp up my cortisol spike again and it just really messed. But that and so I say all of this to wrap it back into weight loss it affected the way my body held on to weight.
Speaker 1:You're not supposed to spike your cortisol into the evening. That's why I don't like working out in the evening. It's not ideal, because working out is a natural spike of cortisol as well. I'm not like some people cannot control that. And I'm not saying like that's the only time of day you have to work out. Please, for the love of God, like still go get your workout if that's how you're showing up for yourself. I'm just saying for me, like it wasn't working for me and it was affecting everything about my weight loss journey. So so, yeah, so, some specific tools and actually, if you go back to the very first episode of this podcast, and it talks all about breathing. That's like one of the main tools that I give, for stress management is just simply taking time to breathe because of the physiological changes that happen while you're breathing. You are. That's literally what it's designed to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and don't think that stress management, like I was actually talking about this cortisol. I mean, as young moms, we're always going to have this aspect of our kids crying. I'm stressed they're gonna die or I'm stressed, I can't go out in public, I'm stressed. But there's good stress and there's bad stress. So she's talking about this stuff. I mean, this is a whole new topic. But think about your good stress and thinking. You know what my baby is able to cry and let me know that they need something. Got it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I need to take care of something. Yeah, oh hey. You know what? I'm having difficulties getting out of the house, but you know what? I have the ability to get out of the house if I need to. So yeah make it positive stress, so that as you're working on your weight loss aspect or weight gain or weight maintenance, that you think of the good stress pieces so you don't spike those cortisol.
Speaker 1:For sure. Yeah, that, and that's why I wanted to clarify, because there was a time where I was like when I was first learning all of this stuff, and especially when I had, like my hormones have tanked majorly. I remember like crying so hard one day to my husband and I told him I was like I don't know how to get rid of all of this stress in my life, like it's never going to go away. And it was like this. It finally dawned on me and just through all of the self development and the work that I had put into all of this, that stress doesn't go. You're right, like I was so right that stress doesn't go away. It's never, ever, ever going to go away.
Speaker 1:Whether you have kids or no, kids like you exist in today's world, there is some form of stress in your life. It's just a matter of being willing to look at it through a different lens. Just like you said, like turn it. Just understand that it's just a task in front of you. Take a deep, like if you, if it's really stressful, just okay, take 30 seconds, even just 30 seconds. You can shift your cortisol in in that short of time. Just take like a couple of really deep breaths and then tackle the task. That's it, like you have. You have physiologically shifted your body and the way it responds to that just enough to not live in quote, unquote survival mode, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And so, therefore, like you, can focus on your stress management. You can focus on your nutrition. You can focus on who you are as a person versus feeling like, oh my god, I need to set down hours of my day to focus on this management. No, it can only be like 30 seconds. Yep, yeah, the nutrition can be the same way.
Speaker 1:For sure, for sure. This is not anything that I ever have coached with women Like. This is not stuff. I am not asking you to sit down and meditate and, like go on this hour long journey of how to deal with what's in front of you. I don't. First of all, I don't have time for that. Like I meditate in the car, like I work on my breathing tactics in the car while I'm driving my kids to daycare and to school, I don't have time to sit down and do that. So I would never suggest that. If you do have time, cool If that's what you're into. Also cool If that works for you. And that's another that actually, like leads me into my next point about nutrition. Before I'm even willing to go into a deficit is you have to find what's sustainable to you, not to me. I'm not gonna coach you on the things that I do on a daily basis and say this is the only route to get there. It has to feel sustainable to you in order for you to be successful at it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, because I feel like you know, like you were mentioning early, you have to have the knowledge of what your body needs to be able to do a calorie deficit.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now my question for you then is you know, let's say I'm working on trying to lose weight and I wanna go into this calorie deficit and I'm doing everything that I think is right. I'm eating the right foods, I'm maintaining and I'm like, okay, I am ready to do this. How long should I stay in a deficit?
Speaker 1:Oh, that varies for person to person and the goals and also how overweight you are.
Speaker 2:Let's rewind just okay, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll get there.
Speaker 2:But let's rewind information, ladies and gentlemen, which she's just like. She's so excited to give us this information so what so she's gonna backtrack her brain and get there and okay, let's rewind. Okay, go for it.
Speaker 1:So, before another step, we need to know the basics and why we're following the basic foundations. So I mentioned your macros, your macronutrients. Whether you track them or not, macronutrients are your fats, carbs and proteins. Micronutrients are all the minerals and vitamins that come along in your food and that the body absorbs. So the macronutrients is what is physically going to dictate what your body looks like, feels like and performs. So you have to understand that carbs and fats are energy sources to the body. That is their sole purpose. Fats have a few other sole purposes, but in this context, we're going to just simply talk about it as that is your energy source. Protein, however, is what I don't know why I'm like this is not the first time I've talked about this today and my brain. It's what rebuilt. Rebuilt why couldn't I think of that word earlier, when I was talking to a patient? Protein is what rebuilds your muscles, your body, and that is what provides lean muscle, lean tissue within the body. Protein is the number one thing. So if you are not someone who-.
Speaker 2:Who uses protein and fats, because there is a lot of things oh yeah. There's proteins and fats that are way confused.
Speaker 1:Yes, so in it, 100% 100, like peanut butter. Peanut butter is not a protein source. It is a fat source. There happens to be protein in it, but at the end of the day, it is much more of a fat source than it is a protein source. So it's important to know these. Why do we care? Because carbs will dictate how your body holds water weight, fat will dictate how your body holds water weight.
Speaker 1:And protein a low protein diet. If you ever think about, like what we call skinny fat, where someone may wear a size, some girl may wear a size five, but she looks a little pudgy, I can almost like, I can almost guarantee you she's not eating nearly enough protein. Protein is what gives you that like shredded, lean, toned, just like you see them in the magazine. You're like I wanna look like that. Well, eat your freaking protein. If there's anything that you take from this episode, it would be eat your protein and then balance out the other two. I do not like coaching. Oh, you know, if you want, you should be eating high carbs. If you wanna look this way, no, no, no. If you wanna eat keto, fine, eat keto. If you wanna eat high carbs, low fat, fine, eat high carbs, low fat those two can ebb and flow. I do not like dictating amounts, because it is truly okay to let those two ebb and flow of higher fat days and higher carb days it's okay. But what you should never let yourself fall off the wagon on is eating high protein. Protein should always be the priority and let the other two come organically. Okay. So now that we've covered that, I feel like that's a huge piece of information.
Speaker 1:To then get back to the question of how long should you stay in a deficit? This really depends and honestly, I don't like cut cycles going any longer than six weeks for a lot of reasons. The main one, especially for moms. When you're working with moms, you're busy, you're all over the place, especially if your kids are younger. You do not sit still very often. It is hard, and when you're in even just a couple hundred calories, like two to 300 calories, you're still going to feel it and that's okay Like you've gotta make the sacrifice at some point. I understand that. But when you're in that high of demand, your body needs that energy in order to think clearly. So I personally don't like putting in a deficit for any longer than six weeks and then I'm gonna have that person go back into maintenance calories and if you've lost a couple pounds, if you lost weight during that phase of being in a cut, then we will recalculate your TDEE and you now have a new maintenance calories. Okay, Perfect.
Speaker 2:You need to be able to maintain what we lose.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:There's so many times that people will do this whole calorie deficit and they'll lose weight and then all of a sudden they gain that weight. So what you're saying is we really, really need to figure out what we need after we've lost it and go okay, what's my new maintenance level? Let's see if I can maintain this for a little bit. Make sure your body's under control. Then try it again if you need to.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep. And there are certain times where I would put someone in what we call a reverse diet, where you do go into, you stay at maintenance calories, but you shift the macro balance to say oh, okay, so you'll go in like it means carbs fat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you'll go in many phases where you're eating higher carb, lower fat, and then you'll go like a week or two where you kind of reverse that. It just what happens is you give your body the ability to adapt to new energy sources and then you kind of pull it back and so you're keeping your body from a major plateau for too long.
Speaker 1:And then you can kind of reel it back and you can go back into a cut phase, but you have to give your body that rest. It's kind of the same concept. If you think about, like, if you are, if you're a mom that works out specifically lifting weights let's use this as an example You're in a training program and you're lifting really heavy five days a week. You're not going to, you're not going to keep doing this forever and ever and ever. Your body needs a break. You take what we call we talked about this in a different episode a D-load week. Right, your body needs that break. Well, your body needs the same from from dieting and I don't even like calling it dieting, but but you're truly, your body needs a break from dieting. And so it is like when you hit that plateau and you're like man, I'm in a deficit, but I'm not losing, nothing's happening.
Speaker 1:Okay, that is your body telling you exactly right then, and there it's time to stop being in a deficit. It's time to go back to maintenance. If not being in a small surplus, your body is asking for more energy. You have to listen to it. You have to respect your body enough and trust your body, because that is like your body is designed to tell you exactly what it means. Your body will tell you exactly where it's at when you hit that plateau. That lasts several weeks and you're like I I'm not budging, the scale is not moving. I'm getting frustrated. My clothes are not fitting any differently. Nothing is happening. Cool, it's time to go. It's time to get out of that deficit and go back to maintenance, if not a small surplus, so I'll give this example to you for everybody.
Speaker 2:So you know, have you ever thought? You know, when you're sick let's say you have the flu, right, and you're down and out your whole body is achy. It just doesn't feel good at all and you don't feel like eating. And you know you've lost a bunch of weight. Because you know things aren't feeling good, they're irritating your skin. Do you remember how crappy you feel when you start like coming out of being sick? You know how so fatigued you are and your body's still trying to recover. That's the same I feel like in my brain. That's kind of the same stuff that you need to listen to for your body of you know what is it telling you? Do you need to be in that calorie deficit? Do you need to change where you're at, or do you need to gain those calories? Is that, is that, the thought process you think you know? As far as some of that sensation, yes, definitely.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think it's a really good example. It is. Your body will tell you exactly what it needs. If you're tired, it's because you need rest. If you're hungry, it's because your body is asking for another energy source.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. And you know from speaking from experience, and I'm going to fill everybody in on this I have what they call a polycystic ovarian syndrome and my body decided to shut down on me about six years ago as far as liking foods, having sensitivities, and I I'm going to say this out loud I lost 70 pounds the wrong way and I lost 70 pounds in two months. Oh my God.
Speaker 1:And that was way too fast.
Speaker 2:I felt horrible. I still was PT at the time, but I knew I was not doing my job effectively and I had to figure it out and I was like, oh my God, something's happening. I was worried I had cancer and it's just. I couldn't eat. I was telling you one time it was like I could eat like half an egg a day and that was about all I could muster, and I knew my calorie deficit was huge. Yeah, that's completely the wrong way. That is completely the wrong way. I have since gained about 30 of that back, which I am very thankful for.
Speaker 2:And I'm working on getting that muscle built back up. So I'm trying to maintain my current weight but get that muscle built to back up and get rid of that sloppy kind of that excess fat that's not doing many good. But you got to be careful about how you eat and how you feel and what your body says. My brain was not functioning at that point.
Speaker 2:And I don't want any of you to go through that same process either. So, besides foods and thinking about calorie deficits and intake and output and everything like that, is there something. I mean we've talked about this. I know that there's multiple other ways to get those results of losing weight, toning up your body, kind of going into that direction. What do you, what do you feel like is the best? Not maybe not the best, but some ideas to kind of put in the thought process of everybody, because I know that you know everybody thinks cardio is the best thing to do to lose weight.
Speaker 1:Josh, what do you think? Yeah, so I laugh at cardio. I wish that women. Here's the thing is I do cardio, but I don't do cardio for appearances and aesthetics. I do cardio because I want better cardiovascular endurance. Cardio is not going to make you look any better. It will aid movement. Any movement will aid in the process of losing weight. However, resistance, training, lifting weights, any form of resistance it does not have to be. You don't have to be a power lifter, you don't have to be a bodybuilder. Any form of resistance is going to build that lean muscle which is what we want. I hate the word toned. I hate when women say that's their goal, but it's going to give us that more. Quote unquote toned look.
Speaker 2:But here's the thing about lean instead of toned, maybe we should use the word defined.
Speaker 1:I know, but that's just like the most common word that I want to look at Toned.
Speaker 2:So that's why I say it the way, that way it's completely different. Yeah, oh for sure, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:It is stupid, because what they don't, what I wish, what women understood, is okay, that's a great goal, but what you're wanting is to build muscle, like that's actually your goal, without realizing that's your goal, Okay. So how do we build muscle? Well, we add resistance, progressive overload, right. But here's the beautiful thing, here's the main thing, if this is any motivator at all, if I can get you to take two things from this podcast. One being high protein diet is always going to make you look better. Two is you want to build muscle.
Speaker 1:Every woman should want to build muscle and be more defined or toned. Why? Well, because lean tissue requires more calories. You heard that right, ladies. The more muscle you have on your body, the more your body has permission to eat more calories, because your lean muscle mass is going to burn those calories more efficiently than fat in your body. The more muscle you have, the more calories you consume. I don't know about you, but this is literally my goal in life. I want all the muscles so I can eat. I have a big appetite, I love food. I want a body that can burn. It does everybody.
Speaker 2:It's awesome to see her love of food, and you should see when she eats. Ladies and gentlemen, oh my God, it is like you would think love is in the air with this food, because, you know that she's feeling her body the way she needs to, and this love of food and her are like two peas in a pod. It is awesome to see.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, yes, and it's literally like my sole purpose now. I literally just want muscle One so I can walk into a room and nobody's going to want to mess with me, but two so I can freaking eat. So resistance training is going to be your best friend. Building muscle, progressive overload is the biggest thing, but also more movement. That being said, I'm an avid weightlifter. However, I do track my steps every day. I know that these trackers are not 100% accurate, but it's a data point. Okay, I can. At least I'm using the same tracker. And so, therefore, between days, I can see like oh, I still need this much before I hit my goals, my step goal for the day. Again, I'm not stupid. I know it's not 100% accurate, but it keeps me, it holds me accountable. That's the important part. So more movement in general, it is going to be beneficial for your cardiovascular health to just engage in movement. This is gentle walking. I don't do crazy impactful cardio because my body is not ready for that quite yet. So more movement, oh, come on, you know.
Speaker 2:I know, I know You're going to run that 10K with me. I want to.
Speaker 1:I do want to. It's killing me, it's killing me, it's killing me, it's killing me, and every time I think, ladies and gentlemen, you know, some people are just not made for running.
Speaker 2:And it's okay to say you're not made for running show. I'm right there with Ashley, you know it's. It's okay and cardio can be anything. It can. Resistance training can be anything. So this progressive overloading can be anything from picking up your baby to vacuuming and dusting around your house to hey, I'm just going to do some wall squats on my wall over here, Chair dips, you know silly things like that. You don't have to go to a gym, Do you?
Speaker 1:No, no, you don't. Okay, you can use resistance bands. Those are super cheap. You can use milk jugs. You can use backpacks as your weight, like fill it with pillows, fill it with books, fill it with whatever you want. We have a sandbag that we keep, like we have like an actual, like duffel bag that has sand in it that we keep and we do like a ton of functional fitness. We jump rope. Jump rope is probably my favorite form of cardio, like it has nothing to do with having to go to the gym and lift weights like the bodybuilders do. It has everything to do with having the mentality of intentional movement that will build more muscle.
Speaker 2:Is how I don't like to jump rope. I'm not going to lie, I don't like to jump rope, but goodness knows, you will see me like going and going, and going, and that's my cardio aspect too. Yeah, it's just the intensity of going yeah. And that's okay. If you want to swim, go swim.
Speaker 2:Yes, enjoy that, oh my gosh. Yes, if you want to ride the bike, ride a bike, enjoy. You don't have to have that treadmill, you don't have to run, you don't have to have that stairs stepper, it's okay. Now if I let's say our new moms, okay, let's say we just had a baby a month ago, if you gave her a target for cardio and let's say, hey, pay attention to your steps today, what would you say if this mom's, like you know what I may be getting 5,000 steps a day. What would you say to her?
Speaker 1:Like, 5,000 is what she's currently getting.
Speaker 2:5,000 is what she's currently getting. What do you think? Do you think we need to add?
Speaker 1:more. I would say, only bumping it up to 7,000 to be a starting point. Why Just slowly building that endurance? I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it, so she's not so sore. She can't handle it, right, right.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, because that I would never tell a new mom you need to be getting 10,000. For one, her sleep's not there, so her recovery is not going to be there. Yes, so love it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, she understands a new mom.
Speaker 1:Yes, for sure, for, oh my God for sure. But and plus, like man, she's taking care of a brand new human, like that's a task of its own, stressing out her mind by putting the burden of adding double the amount that she's already getting. That's so unsustainable for a new mom. Some days she might hit that. But adding that added stress is not beneficial. So but I do feel like adding like, okay, anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 more steps, that's like maybe vacuuming twice. And you're already adding like I don't know, I move a lot when I vacuum, but but you know, it's like, and it's simple tasks, it's not anything. But even just putting that baby in a stroller I mean the weather obviously has to be weather permitting, but put your baby in a stroller and go walk up and down the sidewalk one or two times. That's so gentle on her body, it's. You're not asking too much, but you're asking enough to make a difference and create a new adaptability. And there's still room for progressive overload.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and you know what You're getting a different kind of nutrient to your body. Yeah, oh gosh, yeah, oh my gosh, that's a whole yeah, that's a whole episode of its own.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it, I love it.
Speaker 2:So we're basically, when we're talking about everything I mean this whole calorie deficit maintaining, increasing. It says a whole science to it. It really does, yeah, so that may be something that we talk about in one of our courses is how do you really don't you know really bring back that information and what your body looks like and how it functions and everything like that.
Speaker 2:But if you gave our audience today like, besides the two things you talked about, you know, besides protein, higher protein and then resistive training is there any other thoughts that you feel like we should really let them know about today?
Speaker 1:I think to wrap it up in like one short sentence that could sum up everything high protein, good sleep, don't make it complicated and it doesn't have to be scary and not to be afraid to feed your body.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:If it feels complicated, if it like if you're making it too complicated, it's probably not going to work and it's and it's definitely not sustainable. Stop overthinking it. It should be as simple as it possibly can be. Find what makes you happy. Find the joy in the foods that make you happy and make it sustainable.
Speaker 2:And not Oreo cookies, ladies, not a whole bag.
Speaker 1:Not a whole bag, you know what they're that this is like the biggest. Oh my God. Maybe we should record a podcast on on on habits around food and just life. Habits is a good topic because here's one habit that has when I went into, when I was coming out of my surplus from my recoveries, I was in a surplus and so I got a really bad habit, like it was so easy. I mean, let's be real, for someone who loves food, it's real easy to overeat and it was necessary at the time and it definitely aided positively in my recovery. But the biggest thing that I started doing for myself, because I was noticing like I was subconsciously, I had no control if something large was in front of me. So I will have the Oreos, I will have the Doritos, that's okay. However, I will not let myself walk away with the whole package in my hand, but I will portion. I'll get my three, maybe four Oreos, close the container, put it back in the pantry and go sit in another room to sit and enjoy those.
Speaker 2:Yes, you enjoy your food. Like you said, you have to have that enjoyment of your food, but don't overindulge in something that's not going to be healthy for you. It's okay to have that ice cream, it's okay to have that cookie, it's okay to have that donut, but moderation, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and like I even stopped buying whole bags of chips and I would only buy the single serving bags, so like snack size bags, because I'm not, I'm going to feel embarrassed if I walk away, and not that anyone in my house would food shame me, but I I know I visually can see it's very inappropriate to walk away with like four bags of chips in my hands, so I'm only going to walk away with one there you go but but that's I mean, that's what worked for me, that was that was what was sustainable for me was walking away with one snack size bag of chips.
Speaker 1:I get my chips, I get to enjoy them. The pleasure aspect is there, but also I didn't over consume.
Speaker 2:There you go. You still made what you needed to maintain and be able to do what you needed to do for your body to be able to enjoy life, but make sure that it does what you needed to do still, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So I hope that this was helpful for people. Calorie deficit it can feel very, very, very scary. There is a time and a place for it. There is a time and a place to not be in a calorie deficit and there is a time to walk away from it. But please learn the foundations, manage your stress, manage your sleep before you even consider putting yourself in a calorie deficit.
Speaker 1:We will link that source in the show notes, and I would like to very proudly say that we were working our butts off on an entire recipe book that will be included in our pelvic floor rehab course. I don't know the name of it yet. We will come up with it, but anyways, there's going to be all this nutrition stuff ton of value added today. But there will be so much more that's included with this course, including recipes, and once you buy the course, you will forever get all the updated recipes. So you are locked in to the course and to all the updates that come in the future. So, as always, ladies, don't forget to subscribe, join that waiting list and enter to for your chance to win that monthly giveaway to our favorite supplements. First form products are the best and they are made here in America. So also a side note, that's a fun. I don't know about you, but that's what we choose to support, is American made. So, anyways, any closing thoughts? Dr Charlie, I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it. Hey everybody, always stay healthy, stay well and keep a positive attitude.
Speaker 1:Until next time, ladies, don't forget to be one strong mother.