Deep sleep is a period of sleep when your brain waves are at their lowest frequency. This is when it is hardest to wake you up. Usually, people get spurts of it within the first couple of hours of the night. Some with genetic mutations are able to get more deep sleep, but studies are showing that around 20% of deep sleep for adults is optimal. This equates to around 1.5 hours a night or more. You can track deep sleep through tracking devices such as an Oura ring, Fitbit, Whoop, and other brands. You may be able to tell if you’re not getting enough deep sleep if you’re waking up a lot early on in the night, not feeling rested in the mornings, even with 8+ hours of consistent sleep every night.

If you’re looking for a quick, easy and delicious dish to add to your menu this week, look no further! Not only is this recipe tasty, but it’s packed with vitamins and minerals. One of the things we’re talking about this month is sleep. And the foods you eat can have a huge impact on your sleep quality.

There is a myriad of chemicals, amino acids, enzymes, nutrients, and hormones that work together to help regulate our sleep cycle and improve the quality of our sleep. These include, but aren’t limited to…

Pomegranates. I'm sure some of you have seen me tout the benefits of utilizing pomegranate, and a lot of my clients have heard me recommend it as well. I want to dive into WHY I'm being such a pomegranate pusher (insert mean girls quote: I'm a PUSHER, Cady).

A lot of folks think that they need to do MORE MORE MORE to lose weight, gain muscle, or achieve performance/athletic goals, and yes, we DO want to exercise, but people forget that exercise is also a stressor on the body.

Excuse me while I get on my soapbox for a second… Why are we always so mean to ourselves? Why do we put so much stock in a piece of metal or glass THING on the floor of our bathroom?! Why does the scale have the power to ruin our entire day before it even begins?!

Food prep is for most people a very daunting task that also feels like it’s the only way to success. Some of that might be true, but it’s not always what you think it is.

Meal prep gets a bad name because of the plain redundancy that it used to be when it was first popular. Food prep has really evolved to the actual meaning of those words: a way to prep your food for your week.

There’s not a “right” way to prep your food, it’s all about what works for you. It might take some trial and error (more on the importance of that here), but finding what works best in your life is going to be key.

It’s officially my favorite time of year. The weather is warming up and I’m so excited for the barbecue season. And what goes better with some grilled meat or a juicy burger than a side of fries? I love french fries, but they’re one of those foods that I eat mindlessly and before I know it I’ve consumed an excessive amount of carbs! Not that there’s anything wrong with carbs, but I thought, what if I could make them a little lower carb and really indulge? Plus, at any good barbecue, there are going to be a variety of delicious options, so you’ll want to have enough carbs to try everything.

I am always trying to recreate salads at home and sometimes it can be really hard. They just never taste the same….UNTIL NOW! This salad is super simple and SO GOOD. This salad has very little sodium because I was able to control the ingredients and seasonings. You can adjust the fat content very easily as well by omitting the avocado or using a light salad dressing. It’s also a great salad to make for a large group of people at your next barbecue!

the scale and it’s really not the best method for tracking progress. Yes, it’s one tool, but it doesn’t tell us how our body composition is changing (if we’re losing fat and building muscle the scale might not change at all, or it might even go up). And then there are factors that affect the scale day today. Lack of sleep, stress, overtraining, or an excessive amount of sodium in your diet (which is what I want to discuss in this post) are all things that can cause the scale to jump.

This challenge is meant for anyone who is interested in having a healthier understanding of themselves and their eating habits. Whether you are brand new to healthy eating practices or have years of practice, this is meant to be fun and experimental. By the end, you will have learned new things about yourself, and as a result, be closer to feeling like the best version of yourself.

Usually, my blog posts are like "self-love, be kind to yourself, you're amazing..." I'm a positive person and I feel like people are WAY too hard on themselves a lot of the time. But today, I'm doling out some tough love.

It’s beach season! For some people that means bikini’s, white sand, and those fruity drinks with the umbrellas! But what if you have fat loss goals? Can you still drink? How does it impact your body and what are the “best” ways we can fit drinking into our macros?! We’re not here to tell you what to do, we just want you to understand the physiology of what happens when you drink and let you make the best decision for you!

I can’t get enough of Italian food lately and it has become my mission to find healthier versions of my favorites. I love the sweetness of Spaghetti squash with the acidity of red sauce and sausage. This is a great addition to your meal prep this week.

Okay, it’s warm out there. At least, for some people. (again, being in the Northeast is great and all but yesterday was cold and rainy and today it’s 65 and sunny… you just never know).

When I first started writing this post it had a different tone and feel. I initially started writing it for me because I wanted to share my story. The more I asked around and spoke with fellow strength-sport athletes, the more I realized that this isn’t about me, and my experience is about all of us. I discovered I was not alone and that 90% of the women I spoke with shared a similar story. I was shocked.

One of the most frequent topics I discuss as a nutrition counselor is how to successfully stay on track with goals while traveling. This is understandably a confusing and anxiety-filled topic. Yet, the answer to success is simple. You must care. In this piece, I will offer some helpful tips for different travel situations. It is important to understand that ANYTHING can be successfully executed in any situation if you care enough.

There are some mixed feelings on aesthetic-based goals; it is healthier to focus on self-love and not agonize over every little thing on our body that we can’t always control. Don’t get me wrong; I think for our mental health, we should focus most on internal health, such as what we put into our bodies and how we treat ourselves, as well as how we deal with stress. But sometimes we want to look good too, and that’s OK! It’s natural to want to look good. As long as we don’t give it too much focus on our health and have positive intentions behind it.

April is here and the weather is warming up (in the Northern Hemisphere at least). And we’ve been talking a lot in the office about what that means for our clients. We start to see it in check-ins, the “Summertime Panic” to lose weight, and a lot of questions about how to handle barbecues and social gatherings. If you’re a BINer, you know our philosophy, your diet should be a part of your lifestyle, something that you can manage no matter what time of year it is.

The warm months are coming (and if you are in the Northeast like me, THANK GOODNESS), but you know what that means for a LOT of people - that panic to *lose the winter layer of fat* and to lose it quickly.