Kimberly Kennedy ONE LIFE Coach. Violinist. Inspiring Habits of Harmony

I tend to do the most thinking at the start of a new season. Thinking must lead to writing…I guess I needed to put the pen to paper, so to say 🙂

Latest blog post:
(From pain to surrender…my current path.)

https://kkennedymypath.wixsite.com/mypath/post/undefined

I tend to do quite a bit of reflection at the start of a new season. Maybe it’s my Jewish heritage, somewhere in my ancestry…this time of year feels more like the “New Year” than January 1st usually does.

This year, I’m starting the season in pain. You may have heard me mention it in a recent post on Facebook. I have some chronic neck issues which are getting better, but as the season begins, they aren’t quite solved, and I’m feeling desperate.

Being in pain stirs up some old triggers. Going through a phase where I am experiencing chronic physical pain has been eye opening. I am learning much about myself. There are skeletons that I thought I had buried, but they are resurfacing. I really want to deny this is what is happening, that I am regressing. No, it must be something different. Something new… I am now going through menopause which I wasn’t before. The hot flashes are interrupting my sleep when I’ve never had trouble sleeping before. I am now an avid fitness enthusiast and runner which I wasn’t before…

Sure, I am certain those things are part of the picture, but, when I dig deep, I see evidence of my discipline and self-control waning.
(Read more using the link above 👆)

Sometimes, you just have to start writing. I have been personally dealing with some of these things this week, and having several conversations that just bring it all up. Sometimes it’s therapeutic to write about it.
And, apparently, I have more than one health blog website! Oops! I will figure out how to get the two of them joined, but here is the address to the other one, lol! https://kkennedymypath.wixsite.com/mypath/post/there-is-a-way-through

Today’s blog post is published here:

https://kkennedyviolin1.wixsite.com/mypath/post/knowing-what-is-most-important-and-why

Knowing what is most important and WHY… I was talking to my dad the other day and he admitted that there was a moment where he told his doctor who was encouraging him to lose weight and keep it off that he literally lived to eat. It was surprising to them both to hear those words, but also a huge realization at what those words really mea...

Like I said in another post a few days ago, consistency is the true secret.
Consistency of what? … of following a pattern, a system that you believe works best for you.

We all have probably heard the quote, “We fall to the base of our systems.”
We don’t rise to our ideals in tough situations. What systems and structure are already in place and automatic is what we will tend to do when life happens.
Life happens all the time! Becoming very intentional and conscious of what works for our body and what doesn’t work for our body is essential if we ever want to get better, feel better, to take charge, whether we have been in a program or not.
I don’t believe in blindly following any program. If the program works, I want to understand why it works so I can carry that wisdom onward. I want to understand what those numbers mean for my body and why it causes my body to do this or that. I am empowered by that knowledge to help determine the boundaries I want to stick to going forward.

Boundaries are important.
Does that mean that we have to eat the same exact thing every single day? No!!!!
Does that mean we have to eat the same exact numbers every day? Sort of…

The thing is, when we go out of bounds, how far did we go? If we don’t have boundaries, any supposition is meaningless. The goal is consciousness and integrity.

What makes me feel great consistently?
Know what that looks like.
I can’t say this strongly enough….Get disciplined, show and prove to yourself that you can stay in bounds. See what happens when you do. It’s exciting and you build SO MUCH CONFIDENCE, SELF RESPECT AND SELF TRUST AND SKILL at being disciplined and staying on target day after day doing what you know is best.
Create intentional plans for the times you do go out of bounds. You can even create a strategy that keeps everything where you want it to be over the average of a week.

No matter what, YOU are in charge. Take that responsibility seriously. Your life will change once you take responsibility. How many times have we “failed“ only to give up entirely on our quest? That’s like getting a flat tire and then slashing all four tires. Does having a flat tire set us back? Yes, but that is so much more repairable than all four tires at once. One of my personal boundaries is to be conscious of how often I let that one tire be slashed.
Do I always want to be in repair mode? Or, do I want to be cruising on my life adventure not being held back by anything, especially anything I have control over.

Having boundaries, structure, discipline, restraint is not the same thing as deprivation. If that (feeling deprived) is your way of thinking, I’m going to say something that could be considered offensive,…I believe your priorities are not straight.

Pleasure at the expense of anything important is called addiction.

Am I in charge or is it the food or the drug or the drink or the drama or the trauma or the pain or the fear in charge?

Practicing being in charge of how I eat multiple times a day is great practice for learning how to be in charge of practically anything. Remember, once we take responsibility, everything changes.

Do you have a system or a plan that you already follow or that you know works for you? If you are not following it, why not?

👉Today’s action step:
Create a plan of eating that you know you can stick to most of the time. Set boundaries that you will stay within. Figure out what those boundaries are and what that plan looks like, using numbers. Numbers are fabulous data to help us gain understanding and wisdom. Next, set boundaries for how often you will go outside of those numbers, and how far will you go outside? Next, keep your promises to yourself. Next, watch how this will become automatic and you will be able to soar with a foundation of habits that support health and vitality. You won’t always have to track, but if you don’t ever dial that in, you will never know.

Remember, whatever leads to whatever.

📢My biggest tip, ask for help when you need it. Having a coach, mentor or accountability partner made all the difference for me.

I remember in college, studying Bach Partitas and Sonatas, I would often try to imitate what I liked from recordings. It was clear to my professor that I had no idea what rhythm Bach actually wrote. He asked me, “Can you play what’s on the page?” I literally couldn’t. He was not asking me to play metronomic, he wanted me to know what was on the page, to know what the boundaries rhythmically were, so that when I am choosing to go out of bounds, I could sense how far. Life-changing. 

📢 I recommend sticking strictly to a specified structure until it is truly dialed in and automated before allowing yourself to go “out of bounds”. The psychological and longterm habit building benefits of doing this are incredible.

Goal: Be conscious, have integrity creating the ONELIFE, as an artist would, that we were each given.

WHY bother?
All these numbers can just seem like a maze to navigate through. Too much?
It would seem so…
Unless you look at it from the perspective of an engineer or scientist wanting to dial in what seems like an elusive pie in the sky dream to most…including me, how I used to think….
…Optimal Health…
I am actually not motivated by numbers, macros, weight, body fat%’s, blood sugar, ketones, calories in/out. They are boring, triggering, confusing, frustrating, meaningless all on their own.

I am not continually motivated or impspired to AVOID anything either. Sure, it’s a swift kick in the pants to be reminded what happens if I forget to stay motivated, inspired, disciplined, in charge of my choices, aligned with what I know deep down is best.

What I am motivated by is to CREATE a FEELING, a vibrancy, a capability, a strength, a beingness that promotes LIVING, and living well, fully alive and thriving in my ONE AND ONLY LIFE. I love how it feels to have this, and I hate how it feels to dip below the thresholds I have set for myself to STAY in this state. It’s kinda like playing the violin. There are certain qualities I LOVE that I want to find and keep. Once I get more used to have a beautiful sound and pure intonation, anything that diminishes that is no longer tolerable. Does that mean I’m always perfect? No, but I don’t let my standards slip by allowing poor qualities to suddenly become acceptable. I address them. I take responsibility for whatever happened. I don’t become desensitized or tolerant of what doesn’t truly light me up or is truly satisfying. I aim to stay in alignment. To have integrity.

The same is true of my health habits. Whatever starts to steal away my vibrancy, or keeps me from ever feeling vibrant in the first place, I relentlessly pursue, I am even obsessed, (I’m personally fine with this word as I apply the same word to my adventure in my violin playing) to correct what is robbing me of the health and vitality I know God wants me to have. What might be robbing me of fulfilling His purpose? It’s so easy to blame everything or everyone else. But the truth is, if it’s going to be, I have to choose it and take responsibility.

Living at peace is a blessing we are offered from above. I don’t think we find that when living out of alignment. The TRUTH will set us free. How do we navigate all the forest, trees, weeds and find the TRUTH about how to best eat and move? I believe deep down we already know, at least to some degree. It’s never the SHOULDS and SUPPOSED TO’s that keep motivating or inspiring us anyway. Live in alignment with what you know already. Maybe at the root of where you are you realize you are ready to ask for help. That’s where I was!
Stop the guilt trip.
But… also stop the dishonesty. If you know you tend to be lazy and disorganized, stop making excuses for that behavior. Stop living in guilt over the voices in your head or online telling you you should and shame on this or that. Nope, start doing what you know will help you, and ask for help if you need it.

Sometimes we literally don’t know specifics because of all the confusion out there. We try this or that suggestion, but it doesn’t seem to work for us.

I thought I knew and literally tried all the things I thought I knew… I realized I needed help and support and structure to find my way. I needed to learn something I didn’t know yet. I didn’t know yet how powerful eating smaller meals in balance every 2-3 hours really was. I didn’t know yet how much I needed a coach until many weeks after having one. I didn’t know how much I needed to brainwash myself into a different way of thinking and relating to food until I was exposed to people further down the path doing what I wanted to do. I was pretty confident that I knew enough already, a bit arrogant, actually!! until I admitted that really I didn’t know enough. Just like in my violin playing, when you hear an example of what your heart yearns for, when you start to touch that magical sound, you want it more and more and you relentlessly pursue being the sponge and soaking up immersive every way you can to get it. I need violin mentors. I need recordings. I need to surround myself with players I admire. I need to stay diligent with my own standards and boundaries. I need to take responsibility when something is off and stop blaming the weather 😅. I need to take advice from those with my best interests who are a bit further down the path.

A sign of health, including our mental health, is the ability to grow continually. Maybe what we thought or believed 10 years ago needs some fresh curiosity. Are we stuck in our ways? Are we trying to make changes using the same approach we have always used and getting nowhere? Isn’t that the definition of insanity?
We must get curious and also accept where things are before we can see things shift.

Therefore, I am motivated to study, get curious, investigate what works to make me feel great and what doesn’t.

We go to the Dr for blood tests. They spit a whole bunch of data back at us that tell us when we are in a healthy range or not. We don’t mind that data even though it can be confusing and is literally just a brief snapshot in time. If we had our blood drawn every day for a week, would those numbers be the same?

I personally want to take charge, day in and day out with things I have direct control over -like how I eat think and move, and not wait for a Drs appt and lab results. Are they going to sit with me and tweak how much water, how many carbs and protein grams, how much cardio and strength to do during the week and how to manage my stress or sleep to optimize my health? No. They likely prescribe a pill. Want to lose weight? They have a pill and injections for that now too. 😕 I’m not judging anyone choosing that, but I want to have a chance to hear where you are and maybe offer some possible alternatives that will help you especially when it comes to the rapid muscle loss with those things as well as the habits that you will want to have to be able to sustain the weightloss. See, this is about the longterm trajectory of our life, our health span. Keep doing the same thing, expect the same results or worse as we age and naturally all systems decline. We have to set ourselves up to live optimally.

So, WHY is having a personal eating strategy important? Because in 20 years, when I am 68 years old, I still want to be hiking mountains, running half marathons, swooping up my grandchildren, getting off the floor gracefully, climbing my stairs, fitting into my cute clothes, having energy to live my best life. It’s up to me to make that happen and I know I lose the compounding effect of my effort the closer to that age I get.
It’s never too late to start, no matter how old we are!!!
Please believe that!!

The more excellent we want to get at anything, the more intensely we need to study it, practice it, obsess over it, do it repeatedly and automate it. Think of playing golf, of performing a concerto, of running or racing anything, of our spiritual walk, of our relationships. Whatever we focus on grows. Let’s aim that focus on what will benefit us toward living our one and only life to the full.

👉Today’s Action Step:
Get curious about what an optimally healthy life looks like for you. Are you living it now? Why not?
What would it look like in 20 years? What do you need to do now to have it?

📢My biggest tip: Live in alignment with what matters most to you and what you deep down know is right.
Peace awaits.
A little, not so little, secret: My faith matters most to me. God promises that if we keep our focus on Him, we will experience perfect peace. Living in alignment for me means living in alignment to His will for me. That includes doing nothing that keeps me from being fully who He created me to be and doing fully what He has called me to. What holds me back? I take responsibility, learn and make better choices. I stop blaming some external force. He that is in me is greater than anything in this world. Food can so easily be an idol or source of comfort. We are to have no idols, and Jesus wants to be my Comfort. I’m learning to let Him.

Time to talk FATS.
We talked about carbs and protein the last few posts. I have a lot of clarity about how I feel and how I aim for specifics, why and how, about protein and carbs.
Fat is a little trickier for me.

See, while I absolutely need enough fat, how much is too much for the liver? There are lots of studies that also say it’s bad for the cardiovascular system, then again other studies say it’s not bad for the heart or blood vessels… it can be so confusing!!

When I had lower calories, I felt fantastic keeping my macros fairly even, feeling literally the best at 33%, 33%, 33%…but as I began fueling my exercise, I have increased those calories. If I keep the 33% for each macro, my carb number of grams goes WAY higher than my body likes. I get so easily inflamed and keeping the carb grams 120 or less per day is really where I like them. I aim for 110-140 grams of protein. More than that on occasion is fine. But when I “need” to eat more than 1800 calories, this gets tricky. Fat is where I choose to increase to attain higher calories.
(Big question…do I really need more calories?)

My concern is how well my body, especially the liver, can work through it all. I like to stay clean inside. I don’t want any of my pathways clogged up. I have several reasons why I have to stay on top of this. One of them is the MTHFR gene that makes it harder for me to methylate, autoimmune which seems to cause all sorts of issues especially with the thyroid, perimenopause wreaking havoc hormonally with fibroids, cysts and endo, chronic and active Epstein Barr which means I have virus shedding happening all the time, I’m easily inflamed in my joints from sugar and starches and alcohol and heavy stress, digestive issues since I was a little girl. I know, I know! So much drama!! 🤦🏻‍♀️ Ever wonder why this health journey the last 3 years has been so important to me!!? The cleaner my body, the better my cells and blood work to move all these things along and not hold me back.

Not hold me back…that’s WHY ALL THIS is so important. We get ONE LIFE, remember?

A HUGE benefit of exercise is all the sweating. It’s literally the BEST I have felt my entire life to be exercising as much as I do.

That being said, I notice with more calories that some of the old stuff comes up if I don’t do it just right. Adding more fats (when it gets to be 50% or more of my calories) seems to wreak the most havoc on my hormones. I don’t understand why.
I’m committed to being a lifelong student. I’m literally learning new things every day. I am determined to dig into this and figure out HOW can I make it all work.
There are so many variables that affect all the above, not just ingesting fats. My sleep, my stress, my digestion, what KINDS of fats, how are my portion sizes? Am I eating too many nuts or cheese as my source of fats? What would happen if I had more emphasis on fatty fish like salmon?
I promise myself, I will figure this out!

The thing is, I feel best when my macros are more even and calories aren’t above 1800. Smaller meals are so much easier to digest. The energy food gives me is what it’s all about, so if I’m weighing myself down just to get in calories, I don’t think that’s the goal. There are beautiful nutrient dense options like bone broth, salads with arugula and my homemade salad dressing, my greens supplements. I don’t feel hungry on lower calories when I make sure they are nutrient dense ones.
So, this part is still a work in progress. Thanks for hearing me out! 😅
If I had my way, I would be able to figure out a way to keep even macros with fats being 40% of my calories at the most, and target the nutrition more than the calories to fuel my body for the exercise I love to do.

See why this is so personal? And see why tracking can be so valuable? That way the data instructs me and guides me to make conscious and aware choices and changes.

Action step: (for me too)
👉 Choose the most nutrient dense foods possible. Our bodies are craving the nutrients not the calories.

Next: what about protein?
The last post we focused mainly on the number and quality of carbs and the importance of keeping a certain threshold that is very individually determined to keep blood sugar even all day.

A big part of keeping that blood sugar even is being strategic and targeted with how much protein we take in at different times of the day.

Remember, “whatever always leads to whatever.”

If you don’t know where you are, how can you aim and change what needs to in order to get where you need or desire to go?
Do you even know where you need or desire to go? I sure didn’t!!

I advised in post #2 that when making smaller, snacky meals that we call fuelings, to aim for no more than 15 lower glycemic carbs and at least 10 grams of protein per 100-150 calories. This is a helpful place to begin, but we need to go deeper.

Even the number of daily carbs suggested might fluctuate based on your body, height, gender, goals, exercise, hormones, metabolic function or dysfunction, stress….I feel great keeping my carbs under 120. When I was in my weightloss phase, I kept them under 85. Someone shorter than me (I’m 5’ 5.5”) might need to keep them under 80, or even under 70 times have similar results. If your goal is to lose weight strictly calorie in/calorie out without caring how many carbs make up those calories, that’s fine. The reason I chose to do it this way is that being in a slight fat burn, as I shared in one of the previous posts, is such a beautiful space with no hunger, no cravings, and fast fat melting potential! ☺️ (By the way, that slight fat burn isn’t JUST for weightloss. You can have this for maintenance too. It’s my preferred state. I tried the higher carb way…I don’t personally feel great doing so. Everyone is different!! I coach people very specifically how to make adjustments so that their body comp numbers are doing what they want them to.)

But what about protein?
My biggest tip:
📢 Basically, aim toward your lean mass number. Less if trying to lose weight, more if wanting to add more lean mass.
If trying to lose weight, having too much protein that might be under utilized will turn into glycogen storage. When the storage vats are already filled up, any extra glycogen (including that converted from protein) will be stored as fat. We want our body to dip into fat stores and use less and less of glycogen as fuel. We certainly don’t want to ADD more fat!

We also don’t want our body to use muscle as fuel, which it will greatly want to do if we are not supplying enough protein.

Protein also helps us feel full faster and stay full longer.

So, myself, for example, I have 106 (ish) pounds of lean mass. My current goal is to gain muscle. I aim for 110 grams or more (depending on my exercise) of protein per day. I usually don’t get more than 140 grams. When I was in my weight loss phase, I had around 98 pounds of lean body mass and I would eat between 80 to 90 grams of protein per day. My exercise during that phase was 30-90 minutes per day of walking and yoga. Nothing too taxing on the heart rate. I personally waited til after the weight loss was finished to ramp up the intensity as well as develop a strength program. I recommend not waiting so long to my clients, especially when it comes to strength work or getting very accustomed to movement throughout the day.

👉The biggest risk factor for literally all of us is how sedentary and weak we are. I do Not want any of my people to lose muscle in their process of losing weight. If you are considering a drug like Ozrmpic, I want to have a conversation with you and hear where you are and perhaps see if there might be a better way. There is SOO much muscle loss using this drug!!

Muscle loss WILL happen to some degree when losing weight.
Think about it. Someone weighing 200 pounds loses 60 pounds…in order for the legs to stay as strong as they were carrying around 200 pounds, the person will need to ruck sack 60 pounds all day!!😅 But, luckily, as we will see below, we can minimize this natural loss.

A tool we (from my program) have now for all those wanting more intense exercise are the amino acids with 3500 mg of leucine! Taking high quality bcaa supplements is a fantastic way to preserve muscle, recover, fuel the muscles before and after workouts and curb the HUNGRY that inevitably comes after longer more intense exercise. I HIGHLY recommend taking a quality product, if not the one I use and recommend, and make sure the one you choose has at least 3000 mg leucine for effectiveness!!! I have tried several. This one from the OPTAVIA ACTIVE line is my favorite both because of its effectiveness, overall quality and taste! The taste factor is important to me! And, remember, I’m picky. I don’t ingest sucralose or aspartame, and I don’t recommend anyone do so either because of the longterm effects on our brain health.

Even if you aren’t exercising much, if you are over the age of 40, I cannot emphasize enough how much attention we need to have on reducing any age related muscle loss. Sarcopenia is REAL, and there are so many studies coming out correlating loss of muscle with increased risk of dementia!!
This is Huge information!!!

Aminos (specifically leucine, at least 3000 mg) will be a great tool in your arsenal to fight against this. That, and, start strength training YESTERDAY!! Figure out a way to love it. Your longevity and healthspan depend on it!!!

👉 Today’s action step:
Know how much protein you tend to get.
Eat protein strategically, never eat a carb without it, at least within 20 minutes.
Aim for within 95-105% of your lean body mass in total grams of protein per day.

Do you wonder what your lean body mass number is? Get a body composition scale like Renpho, FitTrack Pro or use the In Body at the gym. Tracking (including apps like my fitness pal or lose it) are essential to knowing, understanding and implementing. Without them, unless following a specific program to a T, we are allowing whatever to be whatever. And, what happens if we veer off any program? We won’t have any idea what boundaries we had been in and what those numbers meant and therefore nothing to compare to when we start to change them.

In other words, know your numbers. Know what doing this or that does to YOUR BODY!! Then, we can tweak things from there.

Questions? Send me a message. I want to help as much as I can. ❤️🦋🙏

Yesterday, I mentioned that I am strategic and calculated in what my eating strategy is from day to day.
I want to share that this was never true before I began my health journey three years ago, and that I started only little by little to figure all this out.

If something’s too hard or too complicated you just can’t stick with it. We must find a way to inch into something in a way that is sustainable so that we CAN continue on the worthy path.

There are many great eating and nutrition programs out there. The best one is the one you will actually do, and keep doing!!
The one I found, gratefully, had many layers deep to keep digging into, but on the surface level was SUPER SIMPLE to make work in my already busy, even overwhelmed, daily life. If at any point when I began, had I thought that where I am now, how I behave and think and move today was the goal, I might have never begun. I would have assumed, “Impossible! I can barely walk up my stairs and can’t even run a block! My size 14 dress no longer fits, a size 2? Give me a break!” I would have laughed it off as ludicrous.

Simple, easy, doable and repeatable.

That HAD to be the way.

If it wasn’t, it would be exactly like all the things I had ever tried before, white knuckle it for a few weeks, maybe even as long as two months, but never more than that. I worked on something until I started to feel “better”. Then I stopped working at it hoping I could coast along for a bit. For some reason, I never coasted forward…coasting always took me backwards. 🤷🏼‍♀️

🦋 First impressions of this Habits of Health program:
I was fascinated with the progress stories of others doing my same plan. There were so many losing literally hundreds of pounds, getting off their meds, getting their lease back on life and even more amazing-keeping it off, making a committed lifestyle of healthy habits. THAT is what I truly signed up for this time. No more roller coaster for me! If these people who literally lost hundreds of pounds could first of all accomplish THAT and then KEEP IT OFF!! THAT made me believe that maybe I could lose my 40ish pounds and keep that off too. Those 40 pounds felt like a huge enough mountain to climb! 😳

I was also intrigued by all the science that backed up the nutrition plans. It reminded me of the ZONE diet I had tried years earlier…The zone had you eating within certain macros (40/30/30) 5x a day. Creating that perfect balance day in and day out was difficult. I knew I would fail if I strictly went by that book on my bookshelf. I needed support. I needed a coach and community. I needed tools. I needed workbooks and regular teachings. This program included ALL of that! And, I utilized ALL of it fully (with one exception that I will get into in a bit)… you can say-I swallowed the koolaid. 😂

I listed to all the calls. I read the books. I journaled in the lifebook. I connected with my coaches every week. I followed the science of the plan to a T. I used the fueling tools as much as I needed while I figured out how to create my own.

The science behind the nutrition for the weightloss, transition and maintenance plans are from John Hopkins Diabetic and Weightloss doctors and researchers. The goal of the plan I started with was to have dense nutrition 6 times per day in such a balanced way that we feel satiated and full of energy while the pounds literally melt off. They did, and I literally felt amazing the whole time. I lost 42 pounds total between February and July 2021…my initial goal was 30, but even through transition (yes, we are coached how to transition out of the weightloss phase and also taught how to maintain!), 12 more pounds came off. I have been able to keep that weight the same since then and have also been able to trade fat for muscle. Being fit, strong and capable is much more rewarding than just hitting that number on the scale. I’m super proud I hit it, but I’m more proud that I’ve maintained it and managed to get stronger in the process!
Ok, back to the science…it’s all about regulating blood sugar and keeping levels even all day with no spikes up or down. Insulin/blood sugar spikes cause us to store fat. Even and non spikey blood sugar throughout the day turns us into fat burning machines!! (Eventually, I will share the separate journey of fueling for my runs this past year. I strayed away from this well-oiled fat burning machine to fuel the muscles with glycogen as do many in the running world profess to be THE WAY-ie carb loading, gels, gu, syrup….. I had already been fat adapted. Let’s just say, I’m back to being fat adapted. It’s a lovely place to be!! My body does NOT like sugar!!)

Ok, what does it take to get into this fat burn/fat adapted state? Sorry to say, it IS slightly different for different individuals based on your stress, your exercise intensity, your height, your hormones, your gender…but generally, it means eating only low or lower glycemic carbs, keeping that under a certain threshold per day and even per feeding, getting enough protein (always paired with any carb) and not doing the things that can throw us out of the fat burn as it may take up to 3-4 days to get back in. That in-between time is no fun. That’s when there is hunger, cravings, moodiness…when I coach people through the program, I always warn them about day 2&3…don’t expect to feel great yet. Make sure to get your electrolytes. Don’t give in to the usual reaction to the hunger and low energy you feel these first few days. It will just prolong it. Once you hit the fat burn zone, though, you feel AMAZING!! You want to wake up earlier, you don’t need your nap in the afternoon, you are clear headed, you have constant even energy all day long. AND, your body is burning through stored fat now, not just the glycogen running through your veins.
The weightloss plan that I did that gets us into that slight fat burn (I say slight because it’s not deep enough to be considered ketosis, it may or may not register that there are ketones on a test…) has the upper carb threshold at 90-100, and usually above 80 grams per day. Again, the glycemic value of these carbs matters greatly. There are some carbs that are simply off limits during the weightloss phase if you are hoping to stay in this beautiful fat burn. And, unlucky for the shorter folk out there, that upper limit gets lower and lower the shorter you are-that’s NOT something I knew for quite a while, but glad I learned it eventually. Knowing this has REALLY helped me better coach my clients to win during this first phase of their journey as well as ongoing.

I said above that I followed the science behind the tools to a tee, but maybe didn’t do EVERYTHING exactly by the book, and what I’m implying is that I DIDN’T only use the fuelings provided by the company. I used several of them at certain points, but right from the beginning, somewhat due to my food allergies/sensitivities but also philosophically, I was committed to figuring out how to create my own using the amazing science behind them. The hard part was figuring out a way to get all 24 vitamins and minerals, probiotics and fiber each of their fuelings were fortified with as well as the perfectly balanced macros and intrinsic portion control, as well as many of them are just plain yummy (not all, believe me, not all!) and what I was creating wasn’t quite as satisfying. Still, I knew it was important for me to cultivate the habit of understanding how to do this myself as often as I could, and, to be honest, I attribute much of my long term success to exactly this. It is important to me to train everyone I work with to do the same ASAP on their journey as well.

It always boils down to our habits. What we tend to do is what we will tend to keep doing. If relying on a package is my habit, I will continue to rely on a package. But, to be honest, I would not have been able to sustain my consistency without those packages. They proved essential for me. I have no regrets to have chosen to use them as a tool to help get me where I am today. Remember, I’m a label reader, and I’m picky. So, I chose the ones that suited me the best! While in phase one, the simplicity of the program allowed me to get into the head and the heart work which is the REAL work necessary to do that rewiring and reprioritizing of my lifestyle and my relationship to food. The food part proved to just be the beginning. Starting to master just this one aspect created a gateway to so much more….

But… today, the biggest aspect I want to focus on is threshold of carbs. 😅

Questions:
Do you know if the carbs you eat are high, medium or low glycemic? Do you know how many you eat in one sitting and per day? Do you eat them alone or pair it with a protein? How much protein?

📢 My top tip for this is to limit your carbs to 15 grams and get at least 10 grams of protein when eating a smaller meal/snack or what we call a fueling. AIM for 100-150 calories (or more depending on your daily calorie goal) for these smaller meals. When eating a bigger meal (what we call our Lean and Green), aim for 2-3 servings of lower glycemic veggies (1/2-1 cup is a serving depending on the veggie-leafy greens are typically the larger portion) and 4-7 ounces of protein. This meal can be anywhere from 300-500 calories depending on what kinds of foods you choose and your daily calorie goal. Be sparing with any condiments and make sure you have healthy fat if your protein doesn’t already have it intrinsically. You will mix and match fuelings and Lean and Greens to eat 6x a day, again calories to match your personal goals. My plan had me eating one lean and Green and 5 fuelings per day.
I was never hungry or weak. I never felt deprived. I literally always felt great!! Very unlike previous weightloss attempts. 🤦🏻‍♀️

We will talk about timing of all these meals in another post.

👉 Your action step for today is to know what kind and how many carbs you are eating at a time and per day and to always pair a protein.
What are ways you already know to make this EASY?
Do you need tools? I’ve got you!!

Feel free to ask anything anytime, and if you want personal guidance for yourself ongoing, reach out via private messsge. I’m here to help.