The best approach is one that you can maintain throughout the duration of the cut.

An aggressive approach can be more rewarding as progress is faster.

However, it is more challenging to remain consistent as it requires a greater degree of disciple. This can be especially challenging in social situations.

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

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

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

The thing about nutrition is that every meal doesn’t have to be complicated or a masterpiece. Keeping things simple makes each day almost effortless when it comes to cooking.

I tell all of my clients when they’re starting out to keep it simple.

Here’s what I recommend for building your meals:

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

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

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

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

I know a lot of people struggle with is staying on top of their nutrition for events, or even just a night out.

There are couple ways to approach events and going out to eat, and it really depends whether you plan to track your food while you are out or not.

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

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

Training in the heat can be challenging, especially if you aren’t used to it. When Black Iron Nutrition coach Amanda May moved south she realized pretty quickly that she was going to need a game plan for managing the heat; from hydration to meal timing, training volume to straight up managing her performance expectations. Similar to acclimatizing for high elevation, our bodies need to do the same thing for heat.

You’ve been eating “good” all week long and now the weekend hits. You are so sick of eating your boring, un-satiating food, and your appetite is UNREAL. You are ready to go ham on some ice cream and pizza because you think “I stuck to my plan all week and now it’s time to treat myself.”

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

One of the first obstacles that many nutrition clients face is figuring out how to add a little more protein to their diet. Your first inclination may be to order up a big batch of protein powders and bars—I mean, the word “protein” is in the name…it’s a no brainer. However, there are also plenty of ways to incorporate more protein into your diet utilizing real, unprocessed, whole foods without sacrificing flavor and while still being able to enjoy the meals you know and love. Here are five go-to ways to add more protein to meals.

How many times have you looked at pictures of CrossFit athletes, weightlifters, etc. and thought “I would kill to look like that” ?

But if we knew what it actually took to get there, we might reconsider.

This also brings up one of the biggest misconceptions in fitness - the idea that looking shredded is equivalent to better performance in the gym or in sport.

Nutrition for hiking is something we see a lot of people make mistakes with – they’re either overcomplicating it and bringing too much food, or underestimating how much they should eat OR choosing types of food that simply aren’t as optimal for a day hike.

When you’re planning out a hike and trying to determine how much food to bring, we don’t need to be concerned about mileage or vert. We are most concerned with how long the hike is going to take you and how hard that hike will be for you.

Gut health is quite the hot topic in the health and wellness space, and for good reason as more and more research shows the connection between your gut and many of the human body’s functions.

This is a question I get weekly and its a good question! It’s hard to sift through all the adds on social media and see what’s truly important.

I want to start this off by saying if your nutrition, sleep and hydration are not on point, supplements aren’t going to be doing ya much good. Supplements are just that, to supplement the things you are missing from your diet and lifestyle.

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

Protein is involved in nearly EVERY process in the body! It’s essential for muscle, cell, and tissue growth, as well as repair. It’s involved in cell structure, enzyme function, and transport in the body. It improves recovery and increases strength. It even strengthens our immune function!

Most people know that protein is essential for body composition, performance, and muscle gain, but they’re unaware of how important it is for optimal health. With so many functions, adequate protein consumption is incredibly important.

It's tempting to wake up and rush to make your morning cup of coffee. You need the jolt. It's part of your ritual. Water doesn't even cross your mind. Breakfast and two cups of joe later, and suddenly it's 10:30 am...and you realize you've had NO water yet today. It happens to the best of us. And that's what inspired our October Habit of the Month - Drink 20 ounces of water FIRST thing every morning!

Here’s a secret for you: When I first started flexible dieting, eating around other people was really hard for me. And where do I eat around other people the most? At work! When I ate alone, I felt in control. When I ate at home, I felt safe and had the support of a loving partner who was willing to accommodate all sorts of weird requests as I sorted through what did or did not fuel my body effectively.