Meal planning is a powerful tool that can transform your cooking routine and make your life so much easier. By taking a little time to plan ahead, you can save valuable time and energy throughout the week, reduce stress, and ensure that you're nourishing your body with balanced and delicious meals. In this guide, we'll dive into the art of meal planning and provide you with practical tips and strategies to help you become a meal planning pro.

Navigating through the overwhelming amount of nutrition advice available can be a daunting task. If you have specific goals related to body composition, weight loss, or improving your food choices, it may be time to consider hiring a nutrition coach. Working with a professional who understands the intricacies of nutrition can provide you with the guidance, accountability, and support needed to achieve sustainable success. In this article, we'll explore the reasons why hiring a nutrition coach can benefit you and help you make an informed decision about taking that next step towards a healthier and happier you.

There are probably two types of people who clicked on this article. The first is your average person who just wants to make sense out of the conflicting and confusing information that is presented to them in the mainstream media, social media, or other sources who seem to use research to present completely contradictory views on fitness and nutrition. If this is you, maybe you were hoping to read this and come away with a fool-proof strategy that enables you to enter the correct things into Google to come away with the right answer to your fitness or nutrition question. The second kind of person, might be a graduate student who is curious how I possibly hope to condense the 6-15 credits of courses that they took, or are about to take, dealing with conducting research into a single article.  

No prep meal prep foods can be a LIFESAVER during busy weeks, traveling and weeks when you just don’t have the mental capacity to cook everything fresh.

Black Iron Nutrition coach Ryann breaks down “No Prep” food options by macro, along with some additional no prep food options specifically for fruits and vegetables. Hopefully this makes you dread meal prep a little less and gives you some more time on the weekends for FUN!

If you have ever struggled to lose or gain weight, I guarantee you have at some point heard the advice: 

“You just need to eat more/less than you burn”

The person that typically says this kind of thing most likely also holds the belief that being overweight or having obesity is a result of pure laziness or a lack of morals. At the surface level, this advice is correct. However, it is correct in the same way that going to a football game and telling the head coach of your team “Hey pal, you just gotta score more points than the other team and you’ll win” is correct. Correct, but very unhelpful and lacks any understanding on what contributes to the scoring of points. 

A SPRINT! This one is fast - and we need to make sure your shoulders are ready to rumble. For many, this is a 6 minute sprint. For some others, it’s still a quick one, but we want to make sure to be ready to handle the heavier barbell loads. 

In this grocery guide, we have broken down everything you need to create a balanced and healthy meal plan. We suggest how many items to pick from each category, including your major macronutrients like proteins, carbohydrates, and healthy fats, as well as micronutrient-rich fruits and veggies, quick snacks, and seasonings to add flavor to your meals.

The secret to success here is carbs- you’re going to need all of your glycogen stores for this one, and we’re even going to try and sneak in some refueling mid-workout. For all athletes: we are again suggesting a refeed the day before you compete, but this weeks will be a bit more substantial. In addition to your daily allotment of carbs - we suggest anywhere from a 30-50% surplus of carbs to keep your muscle glycogen stores packed for the WOD.

It’s the ~Most Wonderful Time of the Year~!!! The OPEN! The Open is a celebration. It’s a time for every crossfitter to test themselves, to immerse more deeply in their community, to compete, have fun and learn some stuff. Whether you’re trying to get to the next stage, or trying to get your first muscle up or string those dubs together, we are here to help you make sure you don’t have to stress about the food side of things.

How can we achieve optimal health through a holistic approach? Let's dive a little bit deeper into these 6 foundations to learn. 

In the world of health and fitness, there's a lot of emphasis on exercise, nutrition, and supplements. But there's one crucial factor that often gets overlooked: sleep. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that more exercise, more supplements, or a new diet plan will be the solution to your health and fitness goals. But the truth is, without enough sleep, all those efforts may be in vain.

Many people are quick to blame nagging health issues on their food habits and often rightfully so. But they’re more likely to pin it on over-eating when often the root of the issue is actually the opposite. Under-eating is VERY common. We’ve conditioned ourselves to believe that eating less  = better life. The truth is that’s not always true. I know, I KNOW, this is the opposite of what you’ve believed your whole life! Eating too little is just as unhealthy as eating too much.

While I'm not proud of it, when I first started losing weight, I was 100% into cut mode every day 24/7. I didn't have the slightest clue as to what a real maintenance period was, because I thought that was something you only did once you reached your ‘goal weight’. I also didn’t realize I was doing more harm than good by trying to be in a straight deficit for a majority of the year. Maintenance is where so much of the magic happens; habits are built, there’s more flexibility with food choices and social gatherings, cortisol levels are lower, and energy is higher.

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

Water is essential for life, but despite its importance, many of us don't drink enough. Here's why you should prioritize hydration and how to make it a habit.

Nutrient timing is generally discussed in relation to two things: the circadian rhythm, which are your natural internal processes that ebb and flow, and repeat every 24 hours or so; and timing around training sessions. In this article, I will discuss how each of those can affect weight/fat loss, and then separately discuss performance implications.

When you think about exercise and hydration, the first thing that comes to mind might be drinking water. While staying hydrated is certainly important, there's another aspect to consider: electrolytes.

We know the statistics. The majority of our clients come to us with fat loss as their main goal. Before joining Black Iron Nutrition, many have tried every diet under the sun. Keto. Paleo. Intermittent Fasting. Carnivore. Vegan. Vegetarian. They’ve tried other nutrition companies – and have found themselves on dangerously low calories. And while we won’t deny that they saw results initially – they weren’t able to sustain their results in the long-term. Many end up right back where they started.

Overwhelmed by all of the nutrition information out there?

Do you find yourself constantly giving up because you find dieting to be too stressful and complicated?

We understand! There is a seemingly endless amount of advice out there when it comes to nutrition – as well as a lot of conflicting information.

Make some non negotiable habits you want to work on even when you are not traveling or tracking.

There are so many habits you can work on even when you are out of your normal routine or aren’t tracking your food. These habits can help you stay mindful and give you a little bit of “routine” even when your routine is off.