Diet & Fat Loss

My position is that you should be focused on manipulating your body to burn fat. This is a very different focus than calorie-counting and is based on the scientific explanations of Dr. Jason Fung (and our own experience running diet studies and supporting fat loss coaches).

To manipulate your body to be in fat-burning mode, most people will have two options: reduce carbs or increase fasting time.

Try both at once if you want to burn fat quickly, but also know that for long-term health you should be looking for a permanent change. In our experience as behavior designers, the 16:8 intermittent fasting option — where you skip breakfast everyday — is a much easier permanent lifestyle change than avoiding carbs for the rest of your life.

There are a couple of caveats. We haven’t covered diet changes for people with significant pre-existing health issues. If this is you, trust your doctor, not us. Also, many women have told us anecdotally that they experience low carb and fasting differently than it is described by men. I feel like this is a blind spot in our coverage, and I’m sorry.

Last, a huge amount of diet writing comes with a heavy dose of fat shaming. We’ve tried to avoid that, but if you have arrived here feeling like you’ve been fat-shamed in the past, please read Ragen Chastain’s piece about Leaving Toxic Diet Culture Behind.

Intermittent fasting:

We don’t have an intro to fasting article yet. If we did, it would be focused on eating windows. That form of fasting is commonly called 16:8 and refers to an 8-hour eating window: say, noon to 8pm. You do all of your eating in that window, and then fast for the remaining 16 hours.

• Science: Does Fasting Burn Muscle? ~Dr. Jason Fung
• Case Study: Tracking Ketones and Energy During Intermittent Fasting ~Mark Moschel
• Case Study: I lost 50lbs on a 5:2 Intermittent Fast ~Dave Wentworth

Low Carb:

There are a lot of variants of Low Carb that are mostly on the spectrum of how aggressively you will avoid carbs. Keto is the most aggressive.

Tim Ferriss’ Slow Carb uses a weekly cheat day to make the diet change easier to follow.

• A Blueprint for Fat Loss with Slow Carb, Low Carb & Keto Diets ~Dorothy Stainbrook
• How to Eat According to Your Carb Tolerance ~John Fawkes
• How to Check if a Food Label is Keto ~Abigail Roaquin

Comparison of Diet Approaches:

In 2014, we ran a weight loss experiment using control groups and randomized assignment. Our goal was to compare popular diet approaches and what we found was that they all led to weight loss (even as compared to the control group). As part of that experiment we wrote up helpful diet cheat sheets that you can use now as quick guides to different approaches:

Slow Carb | Paleo | Whole Foods | Vegetarian | DASH

Skills:

The importance of these articles is in the behavior change. It’s easy to know how you should eat, but much harder to follow through. Hopefully, these skills will help.

• How to Use Mindfulness Meditation to Overcome Emotional Eating ~Stefy Uotani
• How to Conquer Food Cravings ~Dr. Jason Fung
• How to Meal Prep Like a Champ ~Jen
• If You’re Going to Count Calories, Make Sure You Also Count Macros ~Serdar Tuncali

Case studies:

• Case study: How I Lost 40 Pounds in my 50s by Combining Strategies ~Steve Spring
• Case study: How I Lost 12 Pounds During My Month of Whole 30 ~Steve Spring
• Case study: Lose Weight and Get Fit After 40 ~Larry Cornett, Ph.D.
• Case study: How I Lost 65 Pounds and Reversed Pre-diabetes ~Abigail Roaquin

Fasting vs. caloric restriction:

So many people are unhelpfully locked into caloric restriction as the way they view fat loss, so here are some ways of looking at it. The TL;DR is that yes, you do end up in a caloric deficit with any fat loss, but that’s a side effect that you can ignore and instead focus on hormonal manipulation.

• Obesity is a Hormonal Imbalance, Not a Caloric Imbalance ~Dr. Jason Fung
• What is the Difference Between Fasting & Caloric Restriction ~Dr. Jason Fung
• The Science of Why Caloric Restriction Fails ~Dr. Jason Fung
• Why Fasting Succeeds Where Caloric Restriction Fails ~Dr. Jason Fung

Exercise

Just seven articles — obviously there’s a much bigger world that we haven’t covered yet.

• The Complete Guide to Overcoming Gymtimidation ~Ragen Chastain
• How to Prevent Injuries Even if You Work a Desk Job ~Carol Moynham
• The 1,000 Calorie Protein Shake ~Jesse Warren Tevelow
• How to Stick to Your Fitness Habits ~John Fawkes
• How to Overcome Resistance to Running ~Odille Remmert
• Grease the Groove — The Russian Military Secret to Strength Endurance ~John Fawkes
• How I Squatted 100 Kilograms After Just 37 Hours of Training ~Reinoud Schuijers

Sleep

Sleep is the ultimate brain training and health habit. You get more done when you’re rested and so it’s almost always worth the trade-off of giving yourself a full night of rest.

Of course, getting to sleep and staying asleep isn’t always easy:

• How to Fall Asleep Quickly and Wake Up With Energy ~Melissa Chu
• The Complete Guide to Curing Insomnia ~John Fawkes
• How to Power Through Sleep Deprivation When You Have No Other Choice ~K. Markle

Your morning routine:

• How to Stop Struggling By Building Your Own Morning Routine ~Jason Gutierrez
• How to Wake Up Early ~George Halachev

Tracking:

• Case study: What I Learned From Six Months of Obsessive Sleep Hacking ~Chris Davidson

Give Up Caffeine

The benefits of doing this are often for sleep, but also to save a small amount of money, and, counterintuitively, for productivity.

• A Very Thorough Guide to Quitting Coffee & Caffeine ~John Fawkes
• How to Kick a Caffeine Addiction in 5 days ~John Fawkes
• Case Study: The Effects of Caffeine, Alcohol, and Exercise on Sleep: Analyzing the Surprising Results ~Max Frenzel
• Case Study: What I Learned From Quitting Coffee After 15 Years Of Daily Consumption ~Angelo Belardi

Give Up Alcohol

A lot of people develop unhealthy habits around alcohol that turn into a drag on their health, their sleep, and their productivity. Here are some ways to turn those habits around.

• How One Year Without Beer Unlocked My Performance in Business and Life ~Andy Ramage
• What Happened to Me After Giving Up Alcohol for One Year ~Malcolm Bedell

An important part of embracing a healthy lifestyle is by being active and keeping your body moving throughout the day. And what easier way to accomplish this than by walking?

There’s been no research to suggest that 10,000 steps is the magical number, but research published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activityestablishes that healthy adults typically take between 4,000 and 18,000 steps/day and that 10,000 steps/day is reasonable number for healthy human adults.

So how can one go about making sure that they walk 10,000+ steps every day? This post discusses some unique and creative ways you can go about embracing this new habit into your life.

1. Walk a pet

Walking a pet is an effective way of getting some time off from your phone, spending some rare cherished moments with nature, and also spending time with pets, which is, as suggested by scientists over the years, an excellent way to boost your mood.

If you don’t own a pet, you can volunteer to be a pet sitter. This will not only help you get your daily step count in, it will also make an excellent source of extra income.

2. Take the stairs

This is a no-brainer but incredibly effective. Avoid elevators and always take the stairs, especially if you have to climb upstairs as this acts as an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise.

3. Take ‘active’ breaks

When you take a break in between work, don’t spend that sitting down and scrolling through your phone. Instead, you can walk around the room, go to the balcony and stare outside for a while, or simply stretch a bit and work your muscles.

You can also combine this with the Pomodoro technique to boost your productivity while making sure you aren’t compromising on your health.

4. Get a treadmill desk

Working while you’re walking might seem like a bit of a stretch. but it’s an excellent way to increase your daily step count while also making sure you have a lot f creativity juices flowing inside your body.

You can also watch this talk by our in-house expert Sarah Milstein

5. Park away from the office

No matter where you are headed, park your vehicle a few blocks away from your destination. If you use cab services, ask the cab to stop a few miles away from wherever you’re headed.

This way, you can get in a few steps and also use that time on the road to organize your thoughts and prepare yourself for whatever is coming next.

6. Walk after meals

Science has proven that taking a 15-minute walk after dinner can help you digest your food better. So, after every meal, simply put your walking shoes on and go on a short walk to sid your digestion and get some me-time to declutter your brain.

7. Walk while you talk

Never take a phone call sitting. Whenever you see your phone buzzing, grab it, get off your desk, and start walking as you have the conversation.

8. Go on walk-meetings

This might sound like a new concept, but when a friend comes to you saying they need to talk about something important, ask them if they would like to have the discussion as you walk.

This is an excellent way to add more steps to your daily count and also bond better with your friends over this shared activity you two commence together.

9. Get a habit tracker

If you’re trying to build this new habit of walking 10,000 steps or more every day, you can turn to technology for help if you ever feel you’re struggling or faltering. Simply download a habit tracker that lets you mark each day on the calendar when you successfully stuck to your new habit. Seeing an unbroken streak will serve as the biggest motivator and keep pushing you on this new journey.

10. Have an accountability partner

You can also hire an accountability coach to help keep you on track. These are trained professionals who will hold you accountable for your new habit of using the Pomodoro technique and help you get back on track if you ever fall off the wagon.

So, what are you waiting for? Find a life coach from the world’s best coaching directory to unlock the next level in your life today!

When you start working out and tracking your diet, it becomes second nature of weighing yourself daily. This is a great habit that can give you an honest look at how far you’ve come on your fitness journey and what’s still left to achieve. Studies have found that people who adopt this habit and weigh in daily tend to lose more weight compared to those who check their weight less often. 

If nothing else, weighing in daily will push you to stick to your fitness goals. Every small change will act like a motivator and help you get back on track if you ever fall off the wagon. It might actually motivate you to consume less calories and hit the gym more often.

This post discusses practical ways you can adopt in your life right now to build a habit of checking your weight daily:

1. Keep the weighing scales in your gym so you can check them daily after working out.
2. Tie this habit to a trigger. Every time you perform the trigger activity, you’ll remember to check your weight as well.
3. Set an alarm on your phone for a specific time every day.
4. Find a way to reward yourself each time to weigh in, so this craving for the reward can also become a cue for you to check your weight.
5. Get a habit tracker and mark each day on the calendar when you manage to stick to this new habit of yours.
6. Find an accountability partner — someone to check on you every day whether or not you have accomplished your goal.
7. If you can’t find a friend or colleague to hold you accountable, you can hire an accountability coach. These are trained professionals who will help you stick to your goal and support you on your journey.

If you work out, you can stretch right before you start to exercise to prevent joint and muscle injury. And even when you don’t work out daily, you can incorporate stretching into your daily routine. This post discusses some helpful steps you can apply right now to incorporate stretching into your daily routine.

1. Do it in the morning

Stretching right after you wake up helps the blood flow into your extremities and makes you more awake, alive, and ready to seize the day. It can also help you achieve better breathing control and leave you with more energy to have a productive day ahead.

2. Do it during breaks

This routine helps especially if you have a job that requires you to sit in one place and stare at a computer screen all day long, Each time you take a break to drink water and go to the washroom, stand up and do a few stretches. Reach your arms all the way up over your head, bend down to reach your toes, and rotate your torso from side to side. This will help you feel invigorated and return to work with renewed vigor.

3. Do it after you reach home

If your job involves going out of your house and working in an office, stretching right after you reach home can be a good way to reconnect with your body. It will also help ease the stress of a tough day. It can be your small act of self-love, your way of reclaiming control over your time, attention, mind, and body.

4. Do it when you brush your teeth

Every morning and right before you go to bed, stretching when you brush your teeth can be a great and effective way of getting your heartbeat up and burning some quick calories while spending minimal effort. Stand on your toes and feel the stretch in your calves. You can also lift your leg, bend it at the knee, and stretch it behind your back. This not only helps you achieve better balance, but it can also be a great way to stretch without actively thinking about it.

5. Get a habit tracker

You can also download a habit tracker where you check off the days on the calendar when you managed to stick to your goal of stretching each day. You’ll soon start craving for an unbroken streak. This can act as a great trigger and a cue for your body and mind to start your habit immediately. Soon, the idea of not stretching at all and spending your day in a sedentary manner will no longer look so attractive.

6. Get an accountability partner

No matter how hard you’re pushing yourself, doing something so big and challenging all by yourself can get tough at times. To make sure you don’t lose motivation midway, have a friend who is working on the same goals of stretching even for a bit each day. If you stay with a friend or roommate, try and get them on board. This is a great way to ensure you don’t miss out on your stretches and take care of your body as well.

If you aren’t able to find a friend working towards the same daily stretching goals, you can hire an accountability coach to help you keep on track. They are trained professionals who will hold you accountable each day and make sure you don’t fall off the wagon even if you are demotivated.

Waking up early is a great way to keep up your spirits and feel energized for the rest of the day by putting in minimal effort. So many people from across hundreds of countries have expressed interest to wake up at 6.30 AM every day. 

Even though this is such an important habit, several people struggle to accomplish this. This post discusses seven easy steps you can apply to your life right now to wake up at 6.30 AM each morning. These are science-backed tips you can add to your life from today onwards and watch the visible change it brings to your overall physical and mental health.

1. Shift your bedtime a few hours earlier

Getting up early might seem like such a chore, but sleeping early is much easier. Shift your bedtime a few hours earlier and see the magic for yourself. This will train your body to wake up early.

If you go to bed late each day, forcing yourself to wake up early might be a health risk as most adults need 7–8 hours of sleep each night. But going to bed early will make sure you don’t sleep less, while at the same time enable you to wake up early.

2. Don’t use any devices before bed

Keep your phone, computer, or iPad in another room before coming to bed. This way, you won’t be distracted and keep checking notifications each time you get reminded of something. Also, science has proved time and again that the light from screens damages the quality of your sleep.

You can get rid of this problem with a simple step: unplug all your devices before going to bed and keep them in a separate room.

3. Eat nothing at least 2 hours before going to bed

Late-night snacking could be your biggest enemy. It’s easy to confuse exhaustion with hunger, so even if you crave that delicious snack before going to bed, be strong-willed and say no to the craving.

Several studies have proven that late-night snacks can cause acid reflux and interfere with the quality of your sleep. They can also make you feel worse about yourself, leading to overthinking which might not let you sleep on time.

4. Sleep with your curtains open

While this might seem like an extreme measure, this is a great way to wake up early in the morning without having to set an alarm clock.

The natural light coming in through the windows would wake you up better than any alarm tone, and also leave you feeling energized and excited throughout the day.

5. Place your alarm clock across the room

Again, this might seem like an extreme step, but keeping your alarm across the room will push you get out of bed if you want to get rid of that annoying alarm tone the first thing in the morning.

As you get out of bed, you get a chance to stretch your limbs, while will help you rub some of that sleep off your eyes. This can also be an exceptionally valuable routine if you keep multiple alarms, and have to jump out of bed every five minutes to turn each of them off.

6. Set a night routine

A night routine might sound like a chore, but do it right, and it can be the biggest act of self-care you indulge in throughout the day.

A night routine can be something as simple as reading a book for thirty minutes each night. Or you can even incorporate elaborate tasks like lighting a candle, washing your face and wearing a face mask, etc.

It depends upon you what routine you pick. Either way, you’ll have something to look forward to each night, and the routine will train your body to feel tired and immediately fall asleep once it’s complete.

7. Track your waking up early habits

Using a habit tracker to mark the days you woke up early can be an excellent way to make sure you don’t fall off the wagon. Seeing a streak of several days would be an excellent motivation to keep pushing yourself. It can also serve as a reminder of what you are capable of and how much remains to be done before you can reach where you’re supposed to.

Walking is one of the easiest, most fun ways of keeping your health in check. No matter what age you’re at, what kind of work you do, or where you live, you can easily incorporate walking into your daily routine and add it as a viable form of exercise in your daily habits.

While researchers are still conflicted about the exact number of steps one needs to walk daily, some studies claim that walking 10,000 steps every day is a good start. But for someone who has never walked a lot and mostly leads a sedentary lifestyle, how to go about including walking in your daily routine?

This post discusses five easy steps you can apply to your life right now to start walking more often. These are science-backed tips you can add to your life from today onwards and watch the visible change it brings to your overall physical and mental health.

1. Stroll with friends

Going on a walk all by yourself can be hard if your job requires you to sit in front of a computer all day long. You can start small and build this habit gradually by going on a stroll with your friends every evening. 

Walking with friends is a great way of getting your body used to walking more as you can laugh, share stories, and have fun. It will feel more like a fun activity than a workout session. It will also go a long way in building a habit you’ll forever be grateful for.

2. Boost the intensity

While strolling with friends is a good way to incorporate walking into your daily routine, it might not be very effective health-wise as you won’t be walking fast. You can take care of this by slowly increasing the pace. If your friends refuse to follow the pace you set, you can start embarking on your daily walks alone.

Start by playing music in your headphones and choosing tracks that have a high beats per minute ratio. The fast-paced tracks will pump your heartbeat and make it easier to walk faster without thinking too much about how hard a task you’re accomplishing.

3. Head out after a meal

While scientists are not sure if working out after a meal is a good idea, some form of light exercise disguised as brisk walking never hurts. 

This will act as a great mood-booster, and you can walk all those calories away. A quick post-meal walk can also help clear sugar from the blood,according to the American Diabetes Association. This will prevent spikes that can take a toll on people with diabetes or who are at risk of developing it.

4. Put your phone away

Looking at your phone all the time while walking will require you to be hunched all the time and lead to bad posture. To prevent this from happening, you need to keep your phone away.

Don’t keep it at home. Instead, get a fanny pack or a small pouch to be slung over your shoulders and keep your phone inside it. Get some Bluetooth earphones that allow you to listen to music while being hands-free as you walk.

5. Use a steps tracker

Having a fitness tracker app on your phone or wearing a Fitbit on your wrist as you walk is a great way to count the daily steps and keep yourself motivated. When you know you need to walk a fixed number of steps daily, you will feel even more inclined towards doing it if you have a tracker to count how many steps you have already walked. This will also put you in the mood to celebrate better once you’ve accomplished your daily steps goal.

Bonus: Have a partner

Having someone else do it with you can make building any new habit easier. If you can’t find a friend who’s also learning to walk every day at the same time as you are, you can hire an accountability coach to help keep you on track. These are trained individuals who will hold you accountable and help you get back on track if you ever fall off the wagon.

You can also turn to technology and download a free habit tracker. This is a great way to mark your progress on the calendar and use it to motivate yourself to keep pushing on.  ,

No matter what age you are or how busy your lifestyle is, you can always find time for Yoga. This post discusses six simple steps beginners can use to incorporate Yoga into their lives. 

1. Get into the mindset

More than a form of exercise, Yoga is a state of mind, a form of acceptance. The word “Yoga” means union in Sanskrit. It’s effectively a way to find union among all the aspects of your life. 

The right mindset to being a Yogi is one of acceptance, of surrendering to a higher power, and embracing the benefits of being present in the moment. 

You can start by taking a few deep breaths and appreciating your body for all the wonderful things it is capable of. Then, you can tune out distractions and be present in the moment with your mind, body, and soul.

2. Get rid of expectations 

If you want to start Yoga because it would make you flexible and give you a lean body within a few days of practice, you’re approaching it wrong. 

Instead of getting side-tracked by unrealistic expectations, focus on the present moment. Concentrate on your breathing and get into the mindset of being a Yogi. The gratitude of the present moment, being fully aware of your surroundings, and appreciating all that your body is capable of is a great way to start.

The results will follow later. It’s important to first start.

3. Concentrate on your breathing

A major component of Yoga, aside from bodily movements, is breathwork. 

When you are inhaling lungfuls of air and feeling your chest and belly expand with the energy of the universe, it’s important to feel the connection between your awareness and breath. 

This awareness will stay with you when you’re not physically engaged in the act of repeating an exercise. It can help you become more mindful of the present and ease your sleep.

4. Embrace the stillness

Unlike HIIT training or aerobic exercises, a large part of incorporating Yoga is to get comfortable in the stillness.

When you stretch your limbs and contort your body into an asana, it’s important to be mindful of how this pose is making each part of your body feel. Close your eyes, concentrate on your breathing and feel the strength in the individual fibers of your muscles.

A basic tenet of Yoga is being present in the moment. Once you cultivate this mindset, it can stay with you during other moments of your life as well. While you’re waiting for the doctor to show up on your appointment, you can choose to be mindful of the moment rather than taking out your phone and mindlessly scrolling through social media.

5. Perfect the basic poses

Before opening up a YouTube tutorial and getting into a long Yoga routine, shift your focus to mastering the basic Yoga poses. Pay special attention to how your feet should be placed on the ground, where your palms should be facing, and the angle of your neck. Also, concentrate on the breathwork — when should you inhale and when to exhale.

Mastering the basic poses first will help you transition into more complex routines later on in your journey. It will also help you reap the benefits of a Yogi lifestyle right from the beginning.

6. Join a beginner’s class

Working on your Yoga poses alone at home is not a bad idea. But joining a class will help you develop the feeling of working on self-improvement as a community and make it easier for you to ease into the routine.

If you can’t find a class just yet, you can also do the same at home, but get yourself an accountability coach. They are trained professionals who will help you ease into the routine and guide you if you miss your new habit for a few days.

You can also download a habit tracker app to mark the days on the calendar on which you didn’t skip your habit. This is a great way to keep yourself accountable and not miss your routine of practicing Yoga even on days you don’t feel like working out much.

Coach.me provides everything you need to improve performance in diet, fitness, productivity, and life. If you’re feeling inspired by what you’ve read, try adding these habits to your dashboard:

• Meditate: Try one or more of our guided meditation plans.
• Stand More, Sit Less @ Work: Lessen the health risks that come with a sedentary lifestyle by standing at your desk
• The Whole Foods Diet: Eat only recognizable foods and avoid processed ones.

Rader provides that knowledge and support by offering coaching services, her blog, and in the Coach.me community. Rader is a popular coach and author of the 25 in 25 December Fitness Challenge and 10 by 10 challenge. She shared her daily routine with us along with some of her best tips for habit change that works.

How do you start your own day? Do you have any daily rituals or routines?

I wake up and check my heart rate variability for three minutes, drink at least 8 ounces of water and then straight to exercise. Even if I have plans to exercise in the afternoon or evening, I still do something in the morning. Exercise is like brushing my teeth. I don’t feel like I can get on with my day without it. I feel more productive and energized. After, I meditate using calm.com or a mindfulness meditation for 2-20 minutes. Sometimes I’ll eat breakfast right away or I may wait until my husband wakes up, in which case I start on my most thought-intensive task for work. As many mornings as I can, I sit with my husband and have our bulletproof coffee before we go on with our day. It’s an important ritual that I miss when I can’t do it.

What are your eating habits like? Do you follow any specific program of eating?

I was a vegetarian for about 20 years. In January of 2014 I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease, adrenal fatigue, leaky gut and hypothalamic amenorrhea. It was a gut-puncher but really changed the way I eat and view my health. Being a gluten-free, soy-free, almost bean-free vegetarian was more difficult than I wanted it to be, so I started eating some meat again. I eat maybe one serving of grass-fed beef, organic chicken, turkey or wild fish a day, but my diet is largely plant-based. I eat 1-2 servings a day of a grain, typically rice, quinoa, corn or buckwheat—but most of my carbs are from vegetables. I don’t eat a lot of dairy—mainly Greek yogurt and kefir. I eat a 40-50% fat diet with about 20% protein and 30% carbs. This is VERY different than what I used to eat, but works well for me with my Hashimoto’s disease and the amount of activity I do. What we (including me!) used to think about fat isn’t true! I even had my cholesterol checked recently and my already stellar levels were even better after 10 months of eating this way.

There’s so much research being done and advice being published, how do you tell what’s real and what’s fake? How do you decide what’s relevant and what isn’t?

Being diagnosed with these conditions led me to research so much more, from a scientific journal perspective and not just what was popular. It has really opened my eyes how much misinformation is out there and won’t seem to go away. I enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and will be an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach by June 2015. By the time this article is published I will also have my National Academy of Sports Medicine Fitness Nutrition Specialist Certification as well. I now look at the research that is being cited, how large the sample is and what the flaws or bias is in the study. Having been a vegetarian, I know that I was biased towards that diet so it was easy for me to find only the positives. I think that it happens in research as well. Looking at the whole picture is important. Vegans will always reference the China Study but there were flaws in that study. Paleos will advocate their studies but there are flaws there too. You can be a horrible Vegan eating a bunch of processed soy products and you can be a horrible Paleo eating a bunch of hormone-filled bacon. You can also be great at either with careful and conscious planning. Bioindividuality is what’s important. One person’s potion is another person’s poison. What works for me may not work for you. In the end, there is always going to be a commonality between any healthy nutrition plan that works: no or little refined white flour, no or little sugar and lots of vegetables. If you move toward that, you will succeed!

Is there any current thinking about diet and fitness that needs to be challenged?

That there is one sure-fire way of eating that works best for everyone. That to train for endurance or ultra-endurance events, you have to do an insane amount of hours (which is what I used to do).

Is there anything new you’ve started doing recently, or anything you’ve quit?

I started drinking a tapered-down version of bulletproof coffee with only half the oil and butter. This is new for my husband and I. It is delicious and satiating. I rarely drink coffee in cafes anymore because I prefer our version at home. I quit eating gluten this year due to Hashimoto’s Disease. It was hard for about three weeks, but now it’s fine except at restaurants and when visiting my family. That takes more planning. I can’t go without doing research first or just taking my own food.

How do you make adjustments to your workout? It’a hard to know what to do when you’re tired or having a bad workout.

I’ve had to make a LOT of adjustments to my training this year. I used to compete in ultra-endurance events up to 30 hours. This year was a wash while figuring out my thyroid but I plan to be back in business in 2015 now that things are steady. I don’t know if I’ll ever compete at that level again but I’ll still compete. My biggest realization is that I can stay fit with a lot less hours. I’m taking a more ancestral approach to training which gives me much more time to work on growing my business. I’m also a lot more flexible with my workout schedule and change it up based on my heart rate variability. This was a game changer for me. I bought a heart rate monitor and check my HRV every morning using the Sweetbeat App. Heart rate variability is different than heart rate. It is a measurement of your autonomic nervous system. If my HRV is low, I need to do a lower intensity workout. If it’s high, I can get to movin’!

Can you share some of the specific things you notice your top clients doing differently than the average client?

Consistency is key. People will make excuses for everything. Finding a trigger is important. That trigger can be waking up (like mine) or anything that you do before you move or exercise. I coach my clients to think of exercise as opportunities instead of workouts. The word workout insinuates putting on specific clothes, going to a gym or some other kind of setting, and getting sweaty. I have a hairdresser for a client who I gave five minute opportunities—exercises she can do in a skirt without getting sweaty. After two months of just 1-2 opportunities a day she sent me a text telling me her butt was a little higher, just from opportunities! Now that’s the kind of text I love to get

[Tweet “”Think of exercise as opportunities instead of workouts.” ~@marceyrader, How I Train”]

Coach.me provides everything you need to improve performance in diet, fitness, productivity, and life. Improve yoru fitness habits by adding these plans to your dashboard:

• 25 in 25 Holiday Exercise Challenge: Rader’s challenge for staying fit through the holidays, December 1-25. You can read about last year’s challenge: 25 in 25 Challenge
• 10 By 10 Exercise Challenge: getting just ten minutes of exercise before 10am can have a huge impact on your health and productivity. Beginner to advanced plan. It doesn’t matter what you do. Just do it!