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Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!
Fat Loss Hacks I've Learned from Losing 30 lbs (And keeping it off)
Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for Hiking podcast. What's up you guys? Welcome back to the show. This is your host Brady. Today we're going to talk about fat loss hacks things that I've learned personally through losing £30, actually keeping it off, doing things the right way. Finally, after years of trial and error and actually doing things the opposite of how I do them now and really kind of taking the wrong approaches. Okay, so I've learned through my own personal experience. Also from coaching hundreds of women. Now, at this point over the years, what works? What makes fat loss not only successful, but easier, more enjoyable? Because let's be honest, if we are miserable while trying to lose fat, you're not going to be nearly as successful. Okay, so it's not just about what gets the job done, but it's like, how do we actually do this in a way that is manageable, fits your life, doesn't suck, and doesn't make you want to quit within the first few weeks. Okay. So this is going to be kind of like rapid fire. Some of these will be really just quick, simple hacks, and then some of them are going to be a little bit more in depth of like mindset things that you need to consider and really understand. If you are serious about fat loss and really ready to actually see results, instead of just kind of having the knowledge and not really applying it. Okay, so let's get into it. If fat loss is not really a goal for you, then we have plenty of other episodes that are more about performance, muscle gain, things like that. So I definitely recommend checking those out. But this one is for the girlies who have body recomposition goals. Maybe it's not even a big fat loss goal, but you just want to lose a little bit of weight or even just feel your clothes fitting better. It doesn't even have to be about the scale. Sometimes it's better if you don't even look at the scale, but more so seeing more muscle tone, feeling happier with body composition, and liking how your clothes fit. Okay. So let's get into this. So first hack is if you're only doing 2 to 3 workouts per week, you need to be doing full body workouts. Okay. There's a lot of different body parts splits that you can go with. You might have heard like okay I'll do a lower body day, upper body day, or you know, like an upper push lower pull type of split. But if you are doing only 2 to 3 workouts per week, you're not super consistent with getting to the gym more than that, and sometimes it's even less. It's really important that you do full body workouts, okay. Because if you're only doing 1 to 2 workouts a week, so you're only hitting maybe upper body once and lower body once, the frequency is not high enough to elicit changes. Okay. To really experience muscle growth and change, you need more frequency, more volume for each muscle group. So that's why hitting multiple muscle groups multiple times a week is going to produce more of a stimuli that will kind of prompt muscle growth, okay. The body needs that multiple stimuli per week. Your muscles need that in order to actually get the signal to grow and change. Okay. If they're only getting that signal once per week, it's just not very strong. Okay. So you want to be doing full body workouts if you're not working out more than three times per week okay. Definitely, definitely recommend that. For best possible body recomposition results also. Drinking big cup of water before every single meal or snack. So basically anytime you sit down to eat, maybe you're not even really being mindful. You're just kind of feeling snacky. Stop what you're doing. Reroute. Get a full glass of water. Drink that before you eat. Because sometimes we just kind of are eating out of boredom. We're actually thirsty and we just haven't been getting enough hydration throughout the day. It also will just kind of give you a bit of fullness before going into your meal. Okay, so that's definitely something that I recommend doing. Another thing you want to do is try to get a big portion of protein. So 20 to 30g, if you're actually tracking it out after your workout, it does not have to be like within five minutes of finishing, but within about two hours of your workout, you're having a meal or a very protein dense snack. Okay, that's going to just optimize what you did in your training session to get the most out of it. Okay? You don't want to not optimize your results, right? Like if you're going to take the time to go work out, have your your nutrition support you along the way. And if you're mindful of protein, which you should be, if you're focusing on fat loss, you're going to want to get protein and frequently throughout the day anyway. So just time it out. Pay attention. When's your next meal after you work out? If you already had a meal recently, then go ahead and have a snack to kind of fill the gap between those meals. Next one is to track your intake perfectly for a full week. This is something you cannot skip. You guys, I know so many people are like, I don't want to feel restricted, blah blah blah. It's not restricted to know how much food you're getting. It's actually really, really important. And skipping this step is going to keep you stuck for way, way longer. It does not mean that you have to do this forever, but just for one week, have an understanding of your portion sizes, how much you're actually eating. Because way too often we don't check labels. We have no clue what a portion size looks like of the food that we're consuming on a regular basis. Come to find out, we're eating for a full family of five sometimes. Okay, so it's really important to be diligent with this for one week. If you're really wanting to lose fat, this is the most important step okay. Don't skip it. And then you kind of have an idea of where are your calories actually going. The snacks that you're having, are they actually more like meal portion sizes? Is it fat that you're going overboard with? Is it carbs? Is it not enough protein that's keeping you full so you end up snacking later in the day? Is it that you eat nothing until 1 p.m. and then you're so hungry that you binge all night? Or are you great all day? And then you stress eat in the evening? Okay, so it's really important to look at that for your data and understand where is my starting point. How much am I actually eating on a regular basis? I'll kind of along those same lines. The snacks, they are usually sitting down and kind of grazing with. Like if you're someone who sits down with a bag of chips or you sit down with a bag of chocolate chips, okay, whatever that looks like for you. Stop taking the whole thing with you to go sit down and watch a movie or watch TV or whatever activity you're doing while you're kind of mindlessly snacking. Instead, I want you to look at the back. Look at what one portion size actually looks like, count out that amount of chips, chocolate chips, whatever that looks like ice cream, anything. Put it in its own bowl and bring that with you. Now you understand what an actual portion size looks like, and you're not just going to mindlessly grab. You're going to be more mindful throughout the whole experience because you're like, oh, I only have like 21 chips or something like that. So I'm going to take my time. I'm not just going to grab them by the handful and shove them in my mouth. Okay. So not only will it kind of give you future awareness of portion sizes, but it just kind of is going to make you more mindful while you're eating to not just go crazy because you only have a small amount to to eat. Okay. This really, really helps if you're a nighttime snacker, especially sitting down in front of screens. Things that kind of numb you, and you don't know what's going on in the world around you. And you just tend to eat, eat, eat. Okay. Next one is to weave more walks and movement in your day to day. This might sound like so basic, and it kind of is, but it actually is so important. And we don't want to skip this because your non exercise activity has the potential to increase your calorie burn drastically throughout the day without increasing your hunger or even like awareness of wow, I worked out so now I need to eat. It's not that way when you're just incorporating more movement into your day. Okay, so it really, really helps with actually sticking with your calorie deficit when you're not necessarily doing tons of cardio, but you are moving more throughout the day. So think of things like family walks after dinner, active weekend. So planning one big activity every day. It doesn't have to be anything exhausting or crazy, but maybe you go to the pool with your family and you're swimming around having fun, or you plan a little hike or a bike ride, things like that that gets you off of the couch that get you outside and moving together. Take your calls standing and pacing and walking as often as you can. Walking pads are great for this. If you sit down a lot at work, standing desk, even just to be able to stand and kind of do some calf raises while you're working things like that. Okay. Um, do dance videos with your kids. If it's cold outside and you can't go out. I love looking up like the Danny Go videos or YouTube videos where it's like kind of a workout, but it's for kids and it's a dance and you can do it all together and it's really fun. Meet friends for walks or workout classes instead of happy hour. Okay, little things like that march in place for the first 30 minutes of any movie or show. Way too often we like eat dinner and we just plop down on the couch and then we don't move the rest of the day, okay? And that's our decompression time. But then we look at our watch and we realize we've only walked 3000 steps the whole day because you went from sitting in your car on your commute to sitting at your desk to sit in your car again. Right. We just sit all day. So really be proactive about breaking that up and looking for opportunities to walk more. Oftentimes it's just that awareness of, wow, I actually sit a lot throughout the day, and you don't even need to have a watch to have that awareness, okay? You can kind of just pay attention to how much time are you sitting on your butt? Are you actually getting up and doing activities where you're walking for more than 2 to 3 minutes at a time? Okay. Next is to stop over complicating meals. I feel like we think that healthy eating has to involve like insane amounts of meal prep. These 20 step, 20 ingredient meals. And that's overwhelming even for me. And I've been doing this for a long time. Okay, so all you need to do really is pick a protein that's kind of the foundation of your meal. That's the base. Pick a carb source, typically something lower glycemic so that it's going to digest more slowly. So think things like whole grains potatoes or sweet potatoes, beans, quinoa rice. Good sourdough bread is a great option. Two things like that okay. Then you're going to want to pick your veggie. But whether that's like a greens type of mixture um, arugula, actual veggies that you are cooking, things like that. And then your fat source is going to be whatever source dressing or topping like cheese, avocado or nuts or oil that you're putting on top of the meal. Okay? It doesn't have to be its own thing necessarily, but you're going to get that fat content if you have things like sauces, dressings and things like that. Okay. And put it all together, kind of pick your flavor palette that you want to go for and base it off of that. It really does not have to be too complicated. We have so many recipes ideas within Mountain Metabolic coaching that are good, healthy, high protein. They rotate every single month. Half of them are plant based every month. So if you need some ideas, we got you covered within the program. Um, but really just kind of taking out that complication factor. You can even do things like ordering pre-made meals, like if you know that money is not necessarily an issue, but it's your time, you just don't have time to cook healthy things like factor meals or pre-prep things can be really, really helpful, even if you're only able to do that a couple nights a week just to save you on that time and overwhelm, but still get your healthy meals, okay. Next is to pre-order your groceries for pickup or delivery. Delivery is going to be extra, but pickup is totally free and this just makes it so much easier because it's going to recommend things to your cart that you've gotten in the past. You're not going to browse the aisles hungry and order and pick up all these crazy things. You're just kind of going in, getting what you already know that you need. Hitting the order button. And then you show up. You pick it up and you roll out. You save so much time and truly you will save more money too, because you're not going to kind of emotionally buy or just going graze and grab things that look good in the moment. Kind of just keeps you on task. And I trust me when I say this has saved me so much time, especially as a mom of two little kids, I don't have time to go and like, browse a grocery store every single week. Okay, so if you're not doing this already, definitely pick up that habit. Um, next one is to have protein sources readily available every single week. You don't want to get to Tuesday and be like, oh crap, I literally have no protein to eat from my lunches this week. Okay, so taking a little bit of time on Sundays or Mondays or whatever day works best for you and making sure that you have readily available protein sources like precooked meats, tuna, smoked salmon, whey protein, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, protein bars, hard boiled eggs, chicken sausage or turkey sausage. Protein noodles like things that are made of lentils and chickpeas, just roasted chickpeas, sliced turkey, things like that. Okay, you have so many different options. It's really important to have that. Piece prepared before you head into the week. It's going to make things so much more seamless. With the pre-cooked meats, you can get things like the Kevin's meats or things at your local grocery store that are already cooked for you, or you just buy large amounts of things like chicken and throw it all in an Instant Pot or a slow cooker or something like that. Or you just do a big ol saute and grill day, right? Just prep it all in advance and then just have it ready. It really is not that time consuming other than just like the prep the seasoning and throwing it into the oven or onto the grill or into the Instant Pot. Okay. But just that little bit of effort is going to save you so much time and frustration throughout the week, and you're way less likely to just grab convenience items or, you know, order, um, just like to go food all week from crappy places, right? So set yourself up for success. Take the time to do that. Yes, it's effort, but it's worth it. Okay. Next one is to focus on blood sugar balance with how you are eating aka no naked carbs and sugars. So sugars and carbs by themselves are going to spike your blood sugar. This is going to set you up for energy crashes, make you hungry again very quickly after and it's just not going to optimize your health. It can also, over time, create bigger health issues. So you really want to make sure that you're not just going for like, a croissant and a sugary coffee first thing in the morning with essentially zero protein, zero fiber, and you're just getting a load of carbs and sugar. Okay, so think about the base of every single meal being your protein and a fiber source, if possible, for the best possible results on blood sugar balance. This is going to help you sustain not only your satiety so you're not hungry constantly, but also your energy, your focus. You're not going to have those late afternoon crashes okay. So definitely focusing on that versus always thinking like, what do I need to take away? What can't I eat? Focus on what should you be doing. And that is a big one. Focus on blood sugar balance, protein and fiber for every single meal and snack that you are eating, especially if you know you're going to have like a cake or a cookie or something like that. Have the protein and fiber first. It you can literally see on examples of like blood sugar curves when you have the right timing. And in terms of like having the protein and fiber before you have something sugary, that's going to minimize the butcher spike immensely. Okay. So your food order in your meal does matter. Next is to actually eat for fullness. Eat for satiety. Okay. So you want to think about volume eating. So for example I actually shared this on Instagram recently. It was an example of how my husband and I are eating. Similar meals, but slightly different because we have different goals right now. So his goal has been to gain weight. He's trying to bulk. He's been gaining weight slowly throughout this year and he wants to continue to do so, whereas I'm more trying to like stay lean, maintain my current physique. Not necessarily in a deficit, but I, I don't get to eat a ton. I'm a small female, so my maintenance calories are not like crazy, crazy high. So he had a regular bison burger on like an asiago bagel. He had two of these. Okay, with like all the full fixings for a burger. Now is his meal. I took the the bison burger patty and I put it over greens, and I had a little bit of parmesan and a little bit of olive oil and lemon juice. Um, and that was how I took my burger. Okay, so very big difference. But it's the kind of the same foundation of the meal. So if you're going to have, um, a burger or something like that, putting it over grilled veggies or putting it over squash or sweet potato or, um, greens, that is going to increase your volume of food. So you're getting a lot of food for lower calories versus if you have it over a bun with all of these high fatty fixings like mayo and ketchup and things like that. Yes, your calorie count is going to go up and it's not going to fill you up very much compared to the higher volume foods that are high in fiber. Okay. So that's we're getting really good. Um, veggie and carb sources is so, so crucial for the satiety factor because you don't want to be miserable, so why be miserable and hungry when you can do this with just a few small tweaks that will make you way more full? Okay, plus, you're getting more micronutrients, which will make you a lot healthier, healthier gut, healthier hormones. So it's kind of a win win. Um, okay. Next up is strength workouts for muscle maintenance, walking, and nutrition for fat loss. Way too many times we get this wrong where we're like, I'm going to just do so many workouts to lose fat. I'm gonna do lots of running, lots of sprinting, lots of hit, lots of cycling, all of these things because I want to burn calories and lose weight. And we're kind of getting the priority backwards, because by doing that, you're going to make it way harder for yourself to stick with a really solid calorie deficit. Okay. So first and foremost, figure out what your deficit range needs to be for you to lose fat and focus on hitting that. First and foremost. You can you can literally lose weight and never once work out. However, I don't recommend doing that way, which is why I mentioned strength workouts for muscle maintenance so that you don't end up really unhappy with your body composition. I talked to so many ladies who have done like the shots or like just really like hardcore dieting or just not eating very much, and they lost a ton of weight, but they're not happy with their body comp because they did not do anything for muscle tone. Okay. So make sure that your daily meat so your non exercise activity and your nutrition are what's driving your fat loss. While your workouts are what's driving the shape and tone of your body okay. It's really important to have that shift in your thinking if you want to have a successful fat loss journey. Trust me, I did it wrong for years. Save yourself the time and the frustration and focus on that. Um, okay. Next is develop a bedtime routine that promotes consistent bedtime, consistent quality sleep, and minimizing screens before bed. This is just so important because what you do at nighttime will bleed into how you set yourself up for success the next day. So if you're drinking a ton of wine or, you know, binging Netflix until midnight or scrolling on your phone super late and now your brain's all stimulated, or you just have this really inconsistent bedtime situation. Yeah, it's going to be harder to get up at a normal time and get a move on with your day. Get your workout in and get your steps in. Plus all the other things that you have to take care of, inevitably. Okay, so set yourself up for success. Have a few things. It doesn't have to be anything crazy like these. You know, ten step routines that you see on Instagram, but have a few things that you do that kind of set your nervous system on track to wind down, power down. Get rid of the screens as soon as you can. Set them aside. Put them on a charger across your room if you have to, to get your brain less stimulated. Okay. The more that you're scrolling, the more you're looking at that blue light, the more your brain thinks it's still the middle of the day. Okay, so you really got to prioritize that if you want good quality sleep. Um, okay. Next is to not allow yourself to sit and scroll until you've gotten your steps. This is a good one. If you are someone who just tends to, like, get stuck in these patterns of sitting down and looking at your phone, and then before you realize it, it's been an hour and you've just kind of been like mindlessly scrolling or doing something on your phone. Okay, here's what I want you to do. Go for a walk, either on a walking pad or walk outside, or march in place, or do something like that while doing your social media scrolling or posting or whatever you're doing, listening to podcasts, listening to audiobooks, even reading. You can walk and read at the same time if you're careful, or calling a friend. All of those tasks I want you to do while walking until you've gotten your steps in for the day. So whether it's 8000, 10,000, whatever your goal is, do it while walking until you hit your goal, and then you can sit. Okay, that one little thing helps me so much. I just do a lot of, uh, phone tasks throughout the day, and I find myself sitting so much and I'm like, why am I doing that? I can do this while walking. And in doing that, I get way, way, way more steps. Okay, so that one little tweak will make a big difference for you. Okay. Next is to factor in daily treats into your calorie target. Once you know what your deficit range is, pick out a few low calorie treats or small portions or things that you can fit in realistically and plan for them so that you don't feel deprived and go crazy on weekends. Because when we don't do that, that is when we tend to binge on the weekends or we we follow the diet, quote unquote perfectly for two weeks, and then we lose it and we go off the rails and we're like, that's miserable. I can't do it because we are not meant to constantly feel like we're depriving ourselves. And when we're in this brain of of deprivation, it just is going to make this whole process feel more miserable. Versus if, you know, oh, yeah, I can still have that. I just, I gotta like factor in and I got to plan for it. I can't have as much as I normally would, but I can still have something sweet. We have a client right now in our program who has lost like 25in something crazy over the past three months, since starting in January with us, and she is only working out three times per week, and she's still having chocolate every single day. That was really important to her. And she talked with her coach about like, I don't want to have to cut out chocolate. And we were like, no problem, we can make this work. She's seen these crazy body recomposition results in just three months, and she's still having treats and she's not going crazy with the workouts. Okay, so it just goes to show that planning ahead and doing this the right way, where you don't have to feel miserable, is going to make the experience much more realistic for you to stick with it and actually see results, because you're not going to see results. If you only can do it for two weeks, and then you feel like you have to quit because it's too extreme. Okay. Okay. Moving on to the next one. Be honest about your liquid calories. Liquid calories are sneaky. Okay? And you'll figure this out. When you do your week of honest tracking, it's very important that you don't skip your liquids because very, very often you're starting the day with a coffee to go from a place where you're getting like maybe an iced latte or matcha or something like that, and then you're having an energy drink throughout the day, and then you're having alcohol 4 to 5 nights a week or whatever that looks like, or soda or juices. All of those add up very, very quickly while providing zero satiety, zero food volume. They're not going to fill you up at all, but you can consume them so, so quickly. Okay, so that's why it's very important to be honest about your liquid intake and really look closely at what is what are the liquids that you really want to consume, and where can you fit them in throughout your week without going overboard? Because calories from liquids absolutely still count, and you can't expect to have a thousand calories of liquids every single day and still hit your deficit. It's just not going to work. So you got to kind of think of it like a puzzle, like, how are we going to fit this in? Like, I really enjoy wine, so I want to have wine maybe two nights a week. How do I fit that in to my overall calories that I need to stick with in order to hit my physique goals? Okay. All right. Next is to have a dopamine producing activity that you can turn to whenever you feel the need to kind of stress. Eat. Emotional. Eat. Mindlessly snack. For most people I talk to. It's in the evenings. It's after you've had a stressful workday. It's after the kids are finally down and you get a moment to yourself and all you want to do is like, binge eat or just have a super sweet snack that goes on and on, or drink alcohol or whatever that looks like. Okay, but the reason you're doing it is because you need something that provides dopamine in that moment. You're stressed, you're emotional, you want something that kind of fills a void. So have an activity that gives you dopamine that is not food or drink related. So for me, this is reading and I've realized this over the years. I love having a good book to look forward to. I love having a story that I can kind of get lost in after the stress of my day. So once I finally get to sit down and nobody needs me anymore, instead of just turning to food and drinks, I like to have a book ready that I can, like, get into cozy mode, maybe take a hot shower, get into my PJs, get into bed, have my book, and that's my relaxation time for the day. Okay, so it's really important to have an activity that you can pivot to when you feel those moments of like, I know that I need a stress release, I know I need some dopamine, have something that you can turn to that is not the food and beverage. And having a coach for support with this is really helpful too. If you just have some deeply ingrained patterns and bad habits that you turn to around food, it can be really, really helpful to have someone to talk to about this and figure out what that looks like for you. Okay. Next is to package up half of your meal when eating out. Our portion sizes typically in the US are pretty crazy and unreasonable, and we really don't need all of that food in one sitting. So, um, just go ahead and ask for a box as soon as you order. Package up half when it gets there. If you find that you're still hungry after eating it, maybe have some water, wait ten minutes, then go for it. Have a little bit more. But just bringing that mindfulness of I don't have to clean my plate every time I go out to eat will help keep your, um, calories still in a reasonable place while still being able to go out to eat and enjoy it. You can still eat out and lose fat successfully, but you can't just go crazy every single time you go out to eat, especially if you like to eat out very, very frequently. Okay, um, along those same lines is look over the menu before you go, if possible. If you know where you're going to go, look up the menu. Have a plan. That way when you get there, you don't all of a sudden kind of have the decision fatigue. And you've been making healthy choices all week and you decide to say, screw it, okay? So go into it with a plan of, okay, this looks like a good option for me, and I'm not going to go crazy. I'm just going to enjoy the company. That's what I'm there for. I'm gonna order this plan that I this meal that I already have planned out, I'm going to package up half of it, and then you can kind of pick what's your fun item? Do you want a little bit of an appetizer? Do you want to share a dessert with someone? Do you want to have a drink but don't do all three. Pick one. That works really, really well for me. Um, after meals out where you feel like, oh my gosh, I maybe did go over in calories, or I just had a bad weekend where I totally kind of blew it. I know I didn't do my best. Instead of spiraling, calling it quits, or turning to excess cardio, starving yourself, just get right back to plan. This is so, so important because when you do an extreme like reaction, you're going to then create a pattern of, okay, I'm going to eat really unhealthy or binge. And then I react and then I, you know, starve myself or do excess cardio. But now I'm really hungry again. And then repeat cycle. Okay. This is really, really unhealthy. And it's going to promote a very unhealthy relationship with food and exercise. So just get right back to it. Don't beat yourself up. Just learn from the experience. Say, okay, here's where I kind of could have done things better. If you have a coach, awesome. You can talk with them about it and say, okay, what could I have done differently? You know, is it worth it sometimes to just have those times where you enjoy it and go all out? Or could I have maybe made this adjustment gone in more prepared, whatever that looks like? Okay. Next one is to remember that the more consistent you are, the faster your fat loss phase will go. Being wishy washy or only giving like 50% in compliance is going to make it drag on longer. So you need to pick your desired timeline and then put forth those appropriate efforts a lot of times. I'll work with ladies and they kind of are like, yeah, I want to like lose this much weight this fast. But then we talk through, okay, how do we actually do that? Well, you need to be in this much of a deficit consistently for this long and it becomes so real. And it's like, oh, crap. I don't actually want to be super extreme about that. I don't want to have to eat that low calories. So then we come up with a plan of like, what will actually be realistic while not making them hate their lives. And the more that you stick with it, the faster it will go. Okay, so you got to be honest with yourself of like, I'm not really in a place where I do want to be really strict or have to track perfectly. Okay, then your fat loss phase will take longer if you'd rather just get it over with. And you might be someone who does well to just do a get in and get out approach where you have a strict calorie deficit, you're really nailing your workouts. You're nailing your steps, you're doing everything pretty flawlessly for a shorter amount of time and then moving to maintenance, it will be easier. Okay, so you have to remember that maintenance is going to be easier than fat loss. So get through the crappy phase first. It's going to be harder. It's going to require some going to bed hungry, some restriction, some more planning than normal. Okay, you have to be okay with saying no. Sometimes you have to be okay with the occasional hunger. You have to be okay with the adjustments of not being able to have everything in excess, because that's what's going to be required in a fat loss phase. It won't be that way once you move to maintenance. Yes, you'll still have to be mindful, but it's not going to be as strict. Okay, so just remember that there is a difference between the two and fat loss will be harder. Next one is to stop fixating on things you can't control and instead be ruthlessly, ruthlessly consistent with the things that you can control and still do well. Way off. Way too often I hear people being like, oh my gosh, will I have people in from out of town? Or I have multiple days of socializing or I, you know, I have a trip or whatever, and it's all of these things that feel so out of their control that make them feel like crap. I just can't do this. So it's always really important to come back to, well, what can you control? Can you still, like, go for a walk every day, recruit a friend, recruit a family member, plan it into your schedule for your travels or your time with with loved ones. Can you look over the menu before you go? Can you still control your portion sizes? Can you still order a protein at all of those restaurants? Okay, look at what you can control. Instead of just freaking out that you're not going to be eating at home for all of those scenarios, you can travel consistently. In fact, we have ladies in the program who have lived in vans, who have been traveling literally every single month for their job the entire time, living out of hotels for months on end, living on cruise ships, things like that. And they're able to still stick with their plan and lose fat because we have a solid approach that's actually reasonable with their lifestyle that makes sense, fits their life. Um, but also, we don't let the things that they can't control spiral and turn into. Oh, I'll just start again next week. Like, I just can't do it. Okay, so you can't stick with all four of your workouts. Can you still do two workouts and then go for two really long walks? Awesome. Let's do that. Okay, so just that one mindset shift really makes a big difference of still doing something instead of just throwing in the towel because things feel out of control are not perfect. Um, okay. And then really focusing on the most important things. Okay. Yes. I've been giving you lots of little quick tips and hacks, but nothing is going to work if you are not consistently in a calorie deficit for what your body requires, not for what your sister's body requires or your husband's or your best friend, it's going to be unique to you and actually hitting your neat goals. So your steps. Getting out for walks, not sitting all the time, hitting your protein, doing your strength training and getting good sleep. Those five things you have to be doing, those you have to be insanely consistent here, not just for like two weeks, okay? You got to do these things well, like 80% of the time for months on end before you throw in the towel and say it's not working, because way too often we skip to these quick fix things, or we think that our body's broken metabolism is broken, whatever it is. But we haven't actually been consistent with the basics. Okay, so none of these little hacks are going to work unless you are doing those five biggest things. Hopefully these hacks will help you do those things more consistently and successfully. Right. Because. Like we talked about. Yes. You can say, okay, it's important to eat in a calorie deficit. It's important to hit your protein. But how do we actually do it? How do we do it and not be miserable and make it work with your life? And that's what these hacks have hopefully provided, is some insights into the how. How do we get this done on a day to day basis? Okay. But those are the most important things that will be the biggest hitters for success with body recomposition, with getting lame, with fat loss. Okay, so don't assume that something's broken or something super wrong with you until you've done those non-negotiable things for months on end with like a 70% to 80% at least consistency rate. Okay? And that's where having something where you're tracking and looking at those numbers is so helpful. The app that we use with our clients, it tracks compliance with workouts, with steps, with hitting your nutrition goals, with all of the daily habits that are going to contribute to success. So we can actually look at where are we going wrong, what are the things that we need to focus on more because it's not as good as what we were thinking, right? Compliance is not actually aligned with what we are wanting to accomplish. Um, yeah. Okay, so that's it, you guys. That's kind of our rapid fire fat loss hacks. These are the things that, like I said, I've learned from so much trial and error from doing it wrong and not seeing results and gaining weight slowly to finally getting the weight off, doing it the right way and actually maintaining it throughout multiple pregnancies and postpartum, and helping hundreds of ladies do it the same. Do the same now with our Mountain Metabolic coaching. Um, so if this is something that you're interested in more support with. If you hear me talking about coaching and you're like, I'm just not able to put this all together on my own, I've tried, I've not I'm not doing it the right way. I know I need support or I need someone to show me where I'm going wrong. That is literally why we exist, okay? And why we get women amazing results. Because oftentimes it's the things that we just don't see that we need to adjust or just not having that support, trying to do it on our own for months or years, and it's time to do it differently and, and finally see those results. So if that's of interest to you, if you want to learn more and see if it's for you, you can apply at the link in the show notes. I'd love to chat with you and hear a little bit about where you're feeling stuck. Um, thank you so much for tuning in today, you guys. I hope that this episode has been valuable for you, and I will chat with you on the next one. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this. Be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at ponytail on Etrailer.com. Happy and healthy trails.