Fit Female Project

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00:00
Chelsea's Failed Proposal
03:08
Weight Loss Plateau
06:07
Managing Diet on a Holiday
08:51
Weight Loss Plateau and Calorie Adjustment
10:17
Milk Options and Bread Choices
13:17
Exercise Frequency and Alcohol Consumption
19:30
Overcoming Weight Loss Struggles
20:21
Working Out and Tracking Food
21:21
Staying Accountable and Making Progress
22:38
Finding Solutions for Busy Lives
23:37
Overcoming Challenges and Building Confidence
24:07
Managing Breakfast and Snacking
25:09
Managing Depression and Mental Health
26:25
Taking Small Steps and Focusing on Daily Wins
27:07
Balancing Ready Meals and Whole Foods
28:14
Enjoying Fruit and Making Simple Diet Tweaks
29:12
Simplifying Meal Choices for Stressful Times
30:06
Focusing on Whole Foods and Portion Control
36:14
Understanding Calorie Deficit for Weight Loss
39:09
Reframing Portion Control and Enjoying Food
40:44
Closing Remarks and Next Intake

Creators & Guests

Host
Chelsea Labadini
Co-founder of Fit Female Project
Host
Maz Phillips
Co-Founder Fit Female Project

What is Fit Female Project?

Realistic chats about your most commonly asked fitness, fat loss and health questions.

chelsea (00:01)
Hello everyone and welcome to your weekly check -in. Hi, Maz.

Maz Phillips (00:05)
Hello, how you doing?

chelsea (00:07)
I'm all right, thank you, how are you?

Maz Phillips (00:09)
I'm good, thank you, not too bad. How was your evening last night, Chels?

chelsea (00:17)
Oh, I'm heartbroken, Maz. I really am heartbroken. No one's even checked in to see if I'm heartbroken. I'm just deflated.

Maz Phillips (00:27)
and tell us why.

chelsea (00:29)
Well, basically, Maz messaged me, when was it, like last week, and you, no, you saw how it started.

Maz Phillips (00:38)
Oh, I say how it started. Oh, I see. So yeah, I messaged Chelsea saying, okay, it's a leap year coming up this year. And it's a tradition that on the 29th of February on a leap year, a girl can propose to their boyfriends. And I said, listen, you've been with Shane 12, 13 years. I think it's time that you took the step. And then I gave her a nod yesterday, messaged her saying, right, Chelsea, today's the day, you ready?

chelsea (00:41)
Ehh.

Yeah!

Maz Phillips (01:08)
Got the ring ready?

chelsea (01:08)
Reminder, I didn't have a ring. I forgot that you messaged me that actually, because it was a very busy day yesterday. And then at 9 p .m. last night, we were watching TV.

and I was in my dressing gown, he went into the kitchen, so I set the camera up to the side, I thought I've seen everyone do that, that's what people do, that they get it and they show their friends the moment, the moment that their partner said yes, and I got down onto one knee when he walked back into the room and I said, Shane.

You know, we've been together for a long time now. Will you marry me? And he, when he clocked what I was doing, he was so grossed out by me. He was just shaking his head and he went, he went, go, get off, get away from me, get off of me. So I guess that was a no.

Maz Phillips (02:01)
So it was a hard no from Shane, but.

chelsea (02:05)
He was so grossed out. My client this morning said this morning, she was laughing. She was like, God, he just really couldn't be anywhere near you. I was like, Oh my God, that's so true. He didn't. He didn't want to be near me.

Maz Phillips (02:19)
was so funny if you've not seen the video I really urge you to go watch it because it gives you a good giggle even if even if Charles is heartbroken

chelsea (02:26)
It will make you laugh. It will really make you laugh. But the thing about it is like, I 14 people have saved it. That you save a post. Why they saved that.

Maz Phillips (02:38)
That is so weird. It's like they want to watch your rejection over and over again.

chelsea (02:45)
Yeah, they're like that bitch like, let's see I get rejected. I'm gonna keep watching it. I'm gonna save that. What the hell? I'm just unfollowing me guys. Don't watch my rejection. Oh, yeah.

Maz Phillips (02:57)
Oh, goodness me. So you're a bit emotionally drained, as am I, because the pregnancy hormones are real this week and I cannot stop crying. But we move. But we move. Should we crack on with the questions? Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay, Katie Crook. My weight seems to be plateauing. A couple of weeks ago, I was stuck on 65 kg and now I'm around the 64 .5 kg mark.

chelsea (03:02)
Yeah.

Oh my -

Yeah, really good questions this week.

Maz Phillips (03:26)
why does this keep happening? Okay, so a few things to note, Katie. This week you've had your period, so that will always skew the scale weight. Obviously during those weeks, we know that it's not indicative of how much fat loss you're actually having. You're holding a lot more water weight during those weeks. So the plateau often happens around that time. If you go back, the...

The beauty of tracking your weight every day is that you can go back and you can see the trends over time so it doesn't freak you out as much. Your steps were 60 ,000 last week, so let's try and get those up to 70 ,000 again. And then the other thing is, I had a look through your food diary and some of your daily staples are honey, cheese, and mayo. Obviously these are all totally fine to have in your diet, but they are really hard to track and very easy to overeat.

because for example, a squeeze of honey could easily be one teaspoon of honey or two teaspoons of honey or 10 grams or 20 grams because let's face it, no one's got time to weigh that out. So just be really mindful because they are highly calorific as well. So just be careful with your portion sizes. And then we were having a little chat about UKT. I don't know if your ears were burning, but Chelsea had a really good point as well on this.

chelsea (04:48)
Yeah, so I think since joining us, you've made so many lifestyle changes and at the beginning of your journey, the biggest ones happen then, you'd stop drinking and that in itself really helps people get into a calorie deficit because you're having a lot less calories than you were before, you know, your eating patterns change. So,

I think you would have seen lots of progress and also you weighed more then so the scales will go down if you're in your calorie deficit and they'll go down a bit faster. It's harder when you're lighter to lose weight because your, hard is not the word, your calories have to be lower the lighter you are.

when you're in a fat loss stage. So I think that you have to be kind to yourself and know that it's maybe not gonna be as fast as it was in the beginning because of those main things. So stick with it, but it is gonna be like an ever -changing, ever -evolving journey at the moment because you're in a place where you've already lost quite a lot of weight and your shape has changed. But now it's kind of like narrowing down those little things that Maz is picking up on, you know, your honey, that will help you.

Maz Phillips (05:54)
Yeah but you're going in the right direction Katie so don't give up the hope and keep keep going because you're doing really well.

chelsea (05:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, I actually think if we look at Katie's check -ins, like every month, we've probably got a similar one around your period where you're like, why is it, why is the scales not going down? And then the next week you're like, well, they've gone down. So it's like, know that you maybe are prone to doing that as well. And you're like, okay, it's going to be fine. Yeah. Rachel, I'm off on a holiday next week. Oh, lovely. I'm in a hotel for a couple of nights, but then it's self catering.

Maz Phillips (06:17)
Yeah,

chelsea (06:26)
I will take my food scale so I can track as accurately as possible. Should I take my people scale? We love that, a people scale. So I can weigh myself. I think we should sort of call in the scales, like people scales so people know the difference. So you can take your scales if you want to, your food scales if you want to, but don't feel like you need to. Listen to our podcast, Holidays and Social Life podcast, and that will give you...

Maz Phillips (06:40)
Yeah.

chelsea (06:55)
some nice tips on how to eat mindfully, using the knowledge that you've already gained in the last, like the time that you've been with us. And that's why we do it because you're not gonna be tracking forever. So use all of those sort of things that you've learned from looking at your food, knowing your portions. Base your meals around lean protein sources. That's gonna help you choose your indulgences. Just cut out all the meaningless snacks like crisps and things like that.

Maz Phillips (07:14)
that we're going to

chelsea (07:24)
Remember that your holiday starts the minute that you leave the house and you get on that plane, or no, the airport even, that a lot of the time you can see on planes, people get loads of snacks, loads of sweets, get yourself up something nice to eat on the plane. I wouldn't bother bringing your food scarce, however, if you feel like it's gonna help you out for breakfast, tracking oats and things like that, if it's gonna make your life easier.

Maz Phillips (07:45)
Okay.

chelsea (07:48)
bring them with you, your body weight scales, you can leave them at home 100%. You don't need to weigh in while you're away. And also don't do it as soon as you get back if you don't want to, or if you want to do it as research you can. The scales might fluctuate because you'll be holding on to more water because you've been traveling. Sometimes people like to weigh themselves when they get back because they're like, whoa, that's gone up so much because I was flying and then you get on the scale the next day and it's gone down and you're like, whoa.

Maz Phillips (08:13)
Yeah and have a lovely holiday we're very jealous. Okay Brenda I think I'm having a weight loss plateau.

chelsea (08:17)
That's why the scales are a little bit cray cray. So if you're going to get triggered by it, then don't go on it and just give yourself some time, but know that whatever happens, like if it does go up a little bit, it's going to come down. Just stay and listen to the podcast. It will set you up like for success.

Yeah. Yeah.

Maz Phillips (08:42)
Should I lower my calories or increase my exercise? This week I had my period and a very busy stressful work week so my energy was lower. Brenda, we are giving you Star Student of the Week because we love this question because it shows us that you've really understood energy balance and also you have gained the knowledge and you are in tune with your cycle. So you know that during the weeks where you're on your cycle and your periods.

chelsea (08:56)
Mm -hmm.

Maz Phillips (09:12)
coming, you may not see that drop as usual and it may affect your symptoms like your energy but also you know that okay I'm staying still on the scales therefore I'm not in a calorie deficit therefore I either need to move more or eat less. They're your two options and it's really good great great question because we can see that you've understood this. You've had a tiny spike on the scales this week we're talking like 0 .4 which in all honesty I could have on a daily basis.

You know, I think that's quite normal fluctuation, but I understand that you're concerned. Your steps were 35 ,000 this week. So what we want you to do is up that, preferably double that. 70 ,000, work out how you're gonna get those steps in. Can you schedule them in before work or after work? Make that a non -negotiable and let's see if that speeds up your fat loss.

chelsea (10:06)
Sarah, I always use semi -skimmed milk, but looking at the calories in my porridge breakfast, cups of tea and flat white, it seems to be high. Do you advise skimmed milk or is there a place for semi -skimmed milk? So we'll just answer the milk question first. There's another question on bagels. Love bagels. Yeah, milk is fine. Semi -skimmed milk is absolutely fine. I have semi -skimmed, do you have semi -skimmed baths?

Maz Phillips (10:31)
do that's my milk of choice.

chelsea (10:34)
Yeah, and we have whole milk as well sometimes. But I mean, it's kind of like a smaller, we're thinking about the small things, but they do add up. So you can of course have semi -skimmed. In your porridge, if you feel like it's adding up too much, you can do half and half, so half milk, half water. But just, I would say avoiding milk.

sort of like in your in your coffees, you know, like for flat whites, you could swap that for an Americano with a dash of milk that can help you because sometimes about 100 calories in a in one coffee, things like lattes as well. They're quite high in calories. Yeah.

Maz Phillips (11:05)
God, and they go so quickly. If you get a flat white and it's like 130 calories, I could drink that in like the space of three minutes, if I'm honest.

chelsea (11:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, so true. So, so true. So, and again, if you really love a flat white and you're like, no, that's a hundred and eight calories that I absolutely love in one day, then, then, then that's your choice, obviously. But if you're having, say, for example, two in a day or whatever, then it's kind of like, maybe you could do one really nice flat white and then one Americano. Like it's just finding that balance, like choosing where you want to get your calories from.

And then bagels, she said, bagels have never felt like a diet food in my head. I had one for lunch yesterday. It was yummy, but I would value your thoughts on healthy, low calorie bread options. Thank you. So bread is allowed. That's why we get you to track your foods, because you'll be like, well, bread is not the devil, so you can totally have a bagel.

So if you love it, enjoy it, but just make sure it fits in your calories and your macros that we've given you. If you feel like it's too much and you could go for like bagel thins, they're low in calories, they're like 130 calories, or you could just have half of a normal bagel. Pita bread is around 140 calories, wraps around the same, there's nothing wrong with them. But the thing is, bread is very easy to overeat if you're having, you know, where you're...

Maz Phillips (12:28)
Yum.

chelsea (12:36)
slicing things like sourdough and stuff like that yourself because it's delicious. So yum. Yum! We love bread!

Maz Phillips (12:43)
Nice bit of bread and butter. Yum.

chelsea (12:46)
We've really come to life talking about bread. But you know, if you, you can have it, you can totally have it, but just be, be mindful of it. And sometimes when we're having really like dense breads and stuff, we just want to keep having more and more. So it's allowed, but just track it and it's fine.

Maz Phillips (12:50)
I'm sorry.

Yeah, you can make me hungry now. Okay, Claire Scott, filling in this form has highlighted that I haven't done as much as I thought exercise wise. Steps still need improvement as does water intake. Great acknowledgement. That's something to focus on this week. So little challenge there is for you to get an extra workout in this week. You completed three, no, you completed two strength trainings.

chelsea (13:10)
Yes.

Maz Phillips (13:35)
sessions last week and one cardio. Let's try and up that to three strength training sessions this week Claire. That's our little challenge for you. And then I'm going out out on Saturday the 9th and it will possibly be the first occasion having alcohol since starting the program. I don't plan on letting it derail me, but it's in the back of my mind. Can I save calories from the days leading up to the for that day? Say 100 a day maybe.

chelsea (13:44)
Yeah.

Woo!

Maz Phillips (14:04)
Okay, so I love the idea of banking your calories throughout the week if you feel like you can do that easily. Okay, so having a look through your food diary, that shouldn't actually be too challenging. You could, you love your little daily KitKat, which is totally fine if it fits in your calories, but that is something that you could sacrifice every day if you think, right, I'm choosing my indulgences this week, I know I'm gonna be going out on Saturday.

So I want to be able to have a little bit more flex that day. So therefore I'm gonna not indulge during the week as much and save myself. The other thing about cutting out things like a chocolate bar is it's not really gonna indent your hunger levels during the week.

What we try and avoid is this whole binge restrict thing, which is why we're cautious around the banking calories, because we don't want you to be so restricted during the week that then on the Saturday, you really go for gold and you actually blow over your calories anyway. You would have been better having high calories during the week. But if it's something small that actually doesn't play a massive role in your hunger, totally fine to cut out. So you have eggs on toast for breakfast, maybe you have one slice of bread rather than two, for example. And then when you are out,

have a listen to the socials podcast Chelsea is queen of this. But just think about choosing your low calorie options. So maybe spirits and low calorie tonics and sodas. And maybe track in advance. Set yourself some boundaries, think about how many drinks you might have during the night realistically, try and avoid splitting bottles of wine because they're very easy to over drink. And just be really strategic with it and just have a great time.

chelsea (15:43)
Yeah, enjoy yourself. Pam, how many workouts should I do? Am I doing too many? As after writing them down, I've done quite a few. As workouts from home, getting out to class is important as it gives me a full hour to myself. Well, I love that you go into class, it's something that you enjoy and you're acknowledging that and I think that's really important that you're doing that for yourself. So that's good. It's not like a punishment or like I actually love the hour to myself, which is when.

Um, so it depends how your recovery is. If you're feeling strong and you're able to progress in your home workouts, and we're totally happy for you to add, um, as many additional classes as you want. If you feel like you're, you're nailing those two. Um, however, at the moment you're doing two boxing classes, one CrossFit, three strength, two cores. That's a lot of training in a week. I wouldn't be able to do that. And I'm not doing half as much as you in your general life. So I think remember that you came to us because.

The classes that you were doing before weren't changing the shape of your physique, how you wanted to. So I think that you should drop down to three strength training sessions. You can add some core into at the end of one of those days, we'll do it another day. One CrossFit and one boxing. And really focus now on having your rest days to walk and recover. And that's what they're there for. And

Maz Phillips (16:44)
Okay.

chelsea (17:09)
really go for it on the days that you are training. Think of your workouts as a delicious, like one meal, not a buffet where you go in and you're throwing on any old shit. You've got every cuisine in the world on your plate and you're like, oh my God, this actually isn't great. You're never gonna remember that.

But if you have one amazing thing that's going to be memorable and that's even better. So less is sometimes is more actually in this situation. So think the workouts that you're going to do, they're to be really good, really good quality and focus on that. And then tune into body and be like, actually, I did really know that workout. That was better because I had a rest.

Maz Phillips (17:45)
But I love that so much, you know, those, like, round the world buffets, and you have, like, a bit of pasta next to, like, a chow mein, next to a pizza, next to anything. Gross. Like, as you said, how on earth can you taste the different flavours? Because it's all just...

chelsea (17:57)
Yeah.

Oh!

Maz Phillips (18:11)
blending together and you're not focusing on one thing. I love that analogy so much. I'm going to steal that.

chelsea (18:12)
Yeah.

Yeah, it was like on the cruise ship when we lived, when we were like, basically in Mads and I were dancers on a cruise years and years ago. And I remember going into the buffet, the first I got on there and I was like, oh my God, this is insane. And then like the more it went on, I was like, what? Oh my God, I've got, I definitely have got a bit of every day. It's awful, awful.

Maz Phillips (18:20)
Yeah!

UGH

It's the novelty though, isn't it? It's the novelty of being, of having such a great selection in front of you. But actually when the reality of it is you look down and you're playing, you're like, what have I put together? This is not a meal. Yeah.

chelsea (18:45)
Yeah!

What is this? What it's also very untochable. You're up and down. Like I love going for dinner and you sit there, someone comes over to you and you sit there and you discuss with each other what are you gonna have? I'm gonna have this, I'm gonna have that. With a buffet, you're up and down. You don't even have a conversation.

Maz Phillips (19:12)
No, exactly. Okay, Christina. I honestly struggle to actually lose weight. I work out, I do my best to eat well. That's it. It's just demotivating. I cannot work out every day, or go for walks all the time, or plan for hours what to eat. I also have to cook for the family. I don't know what I'm asking because you can't really fix this. I lost

200 grams which I can probably inhale next time I walk past a cake. Okay Christina we had a little chat about this on the group during the week but obviously you're sounding like you're a little bit overwhelmed. I want to reassure you to start with and to trust us that a lot of busy mums have been in this exact situation when they start the program and it's taken them a while to work out how they're going to fit this around their lives.

You just have to get through this sticky part where you work it out for yourself in your schedule because we don't know what your day -to -day schedule looks like. We don't know when you've got time to get your steps in. We don't know when you've got time to get your workouts in. Remember your workouts, we're only asking you to do three a week and they're about 40 minutes long. So if you're training from home, that's all we need from you. Okay, that can be at the weekends, whenever you think you've got a bit more time. It's not been three weeks yet.

and we're undoing years of bad habits here. Okay, so the reality check for you is that you only actually been tracking your food for four days now, maybe five, now this has been released. In those first three days, you actually saw a drop and that what may have been just 0 .2 kg, but it's a drop in the right direction. That is proofing itself that tracking your food and staying accountable works. If you do that for the next three weeks, you will see,

progress. Okay, if you don't, if you stop tracking, you're probably not going to see the same progress. On one of those days, you went over 600 calories. I know it was your daughter's birthday, but it's kind of now choosing, right, am I going to get serious about this? What can I realistically change in my life right now? Make it really easy for yourself. Stick to one breakfast that you know.

calories for it doesn't mean that you have to log it every day then well you can just repeat the meal swipe right add meal from yesterday swipe right add meal from yesterday every single day you could do that with lunch as well and then in the evenings you could have a little bit more flex if you want to eat with your family so try not to make it too complicated okay think about how you can make it easy for you and yourself and ask us specific questions as well what what exactly are you struggling with are you you say you do your best to eat well

Okay, well then, where do you need the help with your diet? Do you think that you're getting snacky in the afternoon? Are you finding that you're having unstructured lunches? Are you getting a decent breakfast? Are you too busy for breakfast? What is it that you're struggling with? Please let us know and we can help you with maybe a bit more specific actions.

chelsea (22:19)
Yeah. And you, if you look at your question as well, you've put, I, um, I can't work out every day. I can't go for walks all the time. I can't plan hours what to eat. I also have to cook for the family. I don't know why I'm asking this because you can't really fix this. You have to ask us because we can, because we want you to say what you can do. So can you do a food shop? Can you plan in advance? All those things. It's like what?

can you do, not what can't you do. You've got to get into that mindset of what can you do because everyone, the reality is everybody struggles to lose weight. I haven't met, worked with one person that said, yeah, losing weight is easy. Have you, Maz?

Maz Phillips (22:55)
No, everyone struggles.

chelsea (23:01)
And we're not trying to say that you're not busy at all. We totally get that. Everybody is busy and that saying everybody is busy is and also trying to make you feel like you don't deserve to feel stressed. You totally do because you are bloody busy. But we got to get into that headspace where it's like, no, I can do this because you can.

Maz Phillips (23:17)
Yeah, and we have full confidence in you, Christina. We know that you can do this. And we've had this conversation with lots of women. Actually, I think the group will be good because they'll be able to reassure you. Actually, a lot of the people that are now on the Pro Plan went through this exact same thing of like, it's not working, I can't do this, this is too much, I'm stressed. And then you just go, right, let's break it down for you. How can we help you? And I promise you, you can get those results. So please don't feel like a failure. You've got this, okay?

chelsea (23:26)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah, yeah. Tiffany, any tips on improving eating free meals a day? I always seem to skip breakfast as the thought of eating in the morning makes me feel a little sick. I think it's leaving me to feel hungry later on in the day. So that's okay. Lots of people don't like having breakfast. It's fine. If you make you feel sick, don't not force feed yourself. Although we like the idea of front loading of calories. So having more to walk in the morning than loads in the evening.

it and then that basically in theory makes people overeat in the evening. It doesn't mean that you can't make progress and we understand that some people can't eat in the morning. So why don't you add a high protein snack?

Maz Phillips (24:28)
Yeah.

chelsea (24:30)
in mid morning when you get hungry. So just have something like you can have eggs or Greek yoga or fruit or protein smoothie, something easy that you can take to work and start having something again, more like mid morning and just make sure you're eating throughout the day. That might help you.

Maz Phillips (24:50)
Okay, I'm not going to say this client's name. How can I refocus myself when in a period of GP diagnosed depression? Okay, so obviously this is a little bit out of our scope of practice because we can't advise you if you have been diagnosed with depression. We would always suggest listening to your doctor's advice or your therapist's advice, whoever you're leaning on for support.

But what we'd say from our coaching perspective is a bit like what we said to Christina, what can you do right now? What do you think is manageable? Make things easy for yourself. Don't fill your cupboards up with rubbish food. Fill your fridge with goodness. Get some really healthy, nourishing food in the house. Use a way of walking as a good way to clear your mind. And then just take it one day at a time.

Yeah, try not to stress about your long -term goal, which may seem completely unachievable and is adding to your anxiety and your mood right now. Think about winning the day every day, a little win that's gonna actually make you feel a little bit better and a little bit more self -accomplished and prove to yourself that you can do it.

And if yeah, if there is anything specific that you're really struggling with, whether that is food or movement or workouts, please do let us know. If you don't feel comfortable writing in the group, send us an email and we'll be able to help you navigate that.

chelsea (26:17)
Yeah, big time. You're never ever alone and nobody on this program is ever alone. That's why we are here to coach you. That's the difference of you, you know, just joining an online app or having an online calculator. Like we're here to support you and help you. So please know that everybody. Um, Joe, no, no, no, no, Margaret. No, we've missed. We've missed. No, no, no, Margaret, Margaret. We've missed one. We're going to.

Maz Phillips (26:45)
No you did Margaret!

chelsea (26:48)
No, I've used frozen berries in my overnight oats. We haven't done that yet. Yeah, we did, the last podcast went wrong, didn't it? We had to re -record one question. We don't know if it'll come or go. I'm gonna do, Margaret, you've skipped Joanne. You've skipped Joanne, man. Oh God, what are we like? Right, Margaret, I used frozen berries in my overnight oats.

Maz Phillips (26:53)
sure we did that? Oh no maybe not.

Alright, alright, I've skipped. I've skipped ahead. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Alright, go Margaret first.

chelsea (27:16)
Is that a good option or should I aim for fresh fruit? I also snack on fruit most days with a spoon of Greek yogurt in my 11 a .m. break. Is this too much fruit? Is it bad? Well, that's a good problem to have, isn't it? Am I eating too much fruit? No, it's good. Fruit is brilliant. We want people to eat fruit. Everyone should be eating fruit every day. It's good to have fiber. It's lots of good, loads of goodness.

Um, yeah, keep going. We love that. Have you Greek yogurt in there. That's great. Uh, frozen fruit is also brilliant and also a bit cheaper as well. Um, but chuck in whatever you like. It's great.

Maz Phillips (27:53)
Yeah. Okay, Joanne. I've been dealing with a difficult situation in work over the past few weeks. I'm struggling to do everything and feel like I'm letting myself down. What key things should I be focusing on during this time? Okay, so you're 1 .5 kg down and you're going in the right direction. So even though the last couple of weeks have been stressful for you, you've done really well. Okay, I just want to reassure you about that.

Your food tracking has been erratic over the last week. So I was thinking, if you have looked on the Fitfuma Project Instagram page, Chelsea did this fantastic post this week about alternating your meals, taking away of decision fatigue of what the hell you're gonna eat during the day. Okay, so if you choose two meals for lunch and dinner, usually breakfast is the same, let's face it, then it completely strips away that stress.

So for example, you could have some chicken in the fridge and for lunch you could alternate between a wrap, a salad, a wrap, a salad, a wrap, a salad. You can take that to work with you, easy peasy. And then for your dinner, you could alternate between a bolognese that you could batch cook at the weekend. So do bolognese one night, stir fry the next night. Bolognese one night, stir fry the next night. And I know that sounds a bit boring, but I promise you, if this is the stage of your life that is...

where you're under a lot of stress and you and fat loss is the goal. Sometimes removing variation is helpful in these early stages. Just so you get on top of your routine and you know what you're eating and it means that your tracking becomes really quick and you know what you're having, you know you're hitting your protein. So have a look at that post and try and implement that this week and I think they will help you clear your head a little bit.

chelsea (29:42)
Yeah, for sure. Emma, should I be worrying about my carbs being too high? So we've had a look at your food and they're a little bit high the last couple of days. Try and stay within 10 to 20 grams of your carb target and just make sure that you have enough room for your protein within your daily calorie target. So that's why we've given you those targets to hit. We've given you a macros. Just try and stick to around 10 to 20 grams and...

Yeah, that's that's good. You don't have to necessarily worry about it, but it's not going to give you the progress probably that you that you want to be seeing.

Maz Phillips (30:22)
Yeah. Okay, Kara, what are your thoughts on eating ready meals that have decent protein? Find it easier at the moment to have these as I don't have time for food prep right now. So for ease of headspace, but not sure if it's the right thing. Every now and then, of course, it's totally fine to have ready meals. If they've got good protein in them and you can gauge the calories, totally fine.

However, I would challenge the question of I don't have time to food prep because it could be as easy as chucking a load of chicken breasts into the oven on a Sunday night, chopping them up and having them as protein in your fridge for the week. Buying microwave vegetables and lentils and butternut squash and then just banging it all together in a meal takes less than 10 minutes. And the same for your lunches, you can chuck a can of tuna and some light mayo into a wrap and have an apple.

It doesn't have to be a kind of elaborate cooking. I think we get into this, we get into this world of wanting to have really delicious, elaborate dinners. And maybe I'm saying this because I'm a basic cook, right? I am, but I think sometimes trying to just keep things simple can make it all seem a little bit more manageable. Do you agree?

chelsea (31:45)
completely agree and Cara as well, but we know how busy you are and you've got you you've got the kids and you are here there and everywhere as well. So we understand that you've done that in a way to keep making progress. And I think it's been quite clever that you've done that instead of in your busy week gone into like the effort bucket and been like, I can't do this. So I think it's a step in the right direction. But the thing is about these, do you actually enjoy them? Like we've had meal prep foods before and

Oh, they all end up tasting the same. You're not enjoying your food. There's a load of crap in a lot of them to keep them like their shelf life up. You don't really know what's in them because you haven't made it. So if I'm being honest, I actually think that they're probably not the best thing. And I would prefer you not to be having that and do exactly what Mazza said and see if you can be really basic and just try that or a hybrid of both on those days where you're like, oh my God.

Maz Phillips (32:25)
Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's kind of not optimal, but when it's very necessary, it's not the end of the world.

chelsea (32:45)
This is impossible. It's either one of those or a takeaway. Then get one of those. Do you agree? Yeah.

Yeah, there's actually that I saw somebody shared once that they would always say, you know, if you get hungry, if you go on a night out and you're prone to having like a late night maccy D's or something or, or you get hungry when you get in, someone said that they would always keep a microwave meal in their fridge. You know, like one of those low cal microwave meals, maybe they're like 400 calories.

Maz Phillips (33:21)
like an emergency, like an emergency ready meal.

chelsea (33:26)
Yeah, and just keep it there as a backup because that would help them because that would help them say it basically saves like 500 calories because if they didn't have that, they would just go wild on eating something else. So I think that's quite a good that's out of context. But it's that thing of like, that is better than the effort bucket.

Maz Phillips (33:46)
That's so clever. I actually had a funny situation this week because we had a bit of a scare and we were in the hospital late and we'd left the hospital about midnight. And I was like, Steve, I'm starving. And there was a McDonald's on the way home and I'm not eating McDonald's in years. And I said, oh, do you know what? I could eat some chips. And I thought, right, this is the first time and his eyes lit up thinking, are you my girlfriend? What have you done with Maz?

chelsea (33:49)
Mm.

Mmm.

Maz Phillips (34:16)
And so we actually stopped off and it was shut. And I thought that was, it was fate. It was God's way of telling me, don't do this to yourself right now. So I know, rubbish. And then we ended up having to stop at a petrol station. That was the only thing that was open and get me a tuna sandwich. It was like soggy, I know. I just needed something. It was so sad.

chelsea (34:20)
No!

Oh no.

Oh, that's so sad. Yeah, you know, do you like McDonald's though?

Maz Phillips (34:47)
Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, I've not had it in that long, but yeah, I mean, who doesn't? Who doesn't like McDonald's chips? I mean, come on.

chelsea (34:53)
Yeah. Oh, so good.

Maz Phillips (34:58)
I mean, we're all, we're all heathen.

chelsea (34:59)
So good, I'm a fan. Yeah, yeah. There's one actually that there's like everyone's it's caused uproar because I think they're opening a McDonald's on our high street and everyone's like want obviously people in their high streets to be really nice and McDonald's might not be like this like a little boutique cafe that everyone's hoping for but I'm not gonna lie, I'm quite happy about it.

Maz Phillips (35:20)
No!

chelsea (35:21)
Just, you know, every once in a while, just as a little, mind you, again, it's the same as you. I haven't had one for a long time, but when I do have one, I think, oh, God, it's almost like a little bit, it makes me feel like a child again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's nostalgic.

Maz Phillips (35:37)
Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly that. Actually, I'm not being an adult right now. I'm allowing myself this. Yeah. Okay, last question.

chelsea (35:45)
Okay, anyway, back to the food podcast. Audrey, as I said previously, my weight is up and down. While I'm not seeing results just yet on the scales, I do feel changes in my body, which I love. But what more can I do to see changes on the scales too, please? So Audrey, I love that you're still finding a positive on this. This is great and seeing changes. This is really good. Although your food tracking is good.

you're not dropping on the scales. And this actually means that you're at maintenance calories. So you're actually not in your calorie deficit, which doesn't mean that you're not working hard. We know that you are and you're making an effort. But if the scales aren't going down over time, then that's a better tracker than my fitness power, all of those things, your body's the best tracker of all. So we've got to get make sure that you are in that calorie deficit.

because the way it works is if you're on a calorie deficit, then your body uses fat as an energy storage. So that either means that we need you to expend more calories through your movement. You've ordered your treadmill, which is great. Or we need to make some tweaks in your diet. Now that's going to be doing the two things together. It's going to be great, but tweaks in your diet is going to get you there the fastest. Let's try something really, really simple. So we know that you love your skinny bars, but...

We cannot be having two or three a day. One a day is gonna be enough. And also, I want you to eat your skinny bars and be like, am I actually enjoying this? Does this taste good? Because having three of those a day isn't gonna be anything like mind blowing. Have one a day, enjoy it, and that's good. We'd rather you start having some pieces of fruit, some actual whole foods. Just think the more whole foods the better instead of processed. And that goes for everybody. There is nothing wrong.

with reaching for a bit of food as a snack. And just in your mind this week, use that as the focus. Whole foods are always gonna get us there before any of these ultra processed foods, right, Maz?

Maz Phillips (37:46)
Yeah, that's such a good point actually, Charles. I was just thinking you can relate that to any food really. Like the first taste or the first one is delicious. Whether that's a slice of pizza, your first slice of that pizza or your first biscuit out of that packet is always going to be really nice.

chelsea (38:03)
Yeah.

Maz Phillips (38:12)
The second one, yeah, okay. Some of the novelty's gone there. It's still nice, but you've kind of exasperated the sensation by the third, the fourth, the fifth. And that's where kind of, you know, if you are having a pizza and you feel like you've enjoyed it, but you've had enough and you're not getting any more enjoyment by eating more, you're just feeling overful, then that's maybe your sign to stop.

chelsea (38:29)
Yeah.

Maz Phillips (38:41)
And that is what intuitive eating is. Yeah. So it's allowing yourself, actually, I really fancy that. The first one was really good. Is the second one going to be as good? Is the third one probably not? The fourth one, definitely not. Same with a glass of wine, same with anything. You never really enjoy them as much when you get to the fifth round. So it might be a nice way to kind of reframe portion control for everyone this week. Maybe that can be a little something to focus on for everyone.

chelsea (38:44)
Yeah.

I think that's a good idea. And also there's nothing wrong with you if you have one of those things where like lots of people go, oh my God, once I start having it, I can't stop. And that's very normal because that's usually with those ultra processed foods because for newsflash, they're designed to make you want more. So sort of avoiding that.

situation is going to help you out and make your life a little bit easier. There's nothing wrong with you. They're made for you. They're highly palatable foods where you have a bit and you're like, Oh yeah, I want more of that.

Maz Phillips (39:42)
Yeah, for sure. Okay, lovely, lovely questions this week. Really good progress from everyone and we're really enjoying working with you all. And yeah, so we're on to the second half of this challenge now.

chelsea (39:45)
On that night.

Yes.

Yes, let's absolutely do it. And if you're somebody that hasn't joined us and you've listened to this and you are like, oh my God, this relates to me so much, then we have our next intake on the 25th of March. You can join the waiting list now and then we will send you all of the information, but we'd love to help you and we would love to coach you.

Maz Phillips (40:15)
Yeah, have a great week everyone and we will speak to you very soon. Bye.

chelsea (40:19)
Bye!