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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!
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 guys? Welcome back to the show. This is your host Brady. And today I want to talk to you guys about my own personal story. Um, I've had kind of an unconventional fat loss and fitness journey for the past decade. Um, you know, a lot of people are kind of like, oh, I've just never worked out. I've never really known what habits to have. And so I'm kind of just starting from scratch. And then they have this, like linear journey of, like learning to do the things, learning to work out, learning to eat properly, and then they see changes, while mine has not really gone that way. So, um, I've actually been someone who has exercised my entire life. I grew up working out literally with my mom because she would do these at home videos, and I thought that that was so fun, and I would join in with her doing like, Tebow and and you guys remember, like the Sean T hip hop abs, um, all of those things. I was always in sports and then going into, um, you know, high school, I was always in conditioning classes. I learned how to lift weights when I was a freshman in high school. Um, so I had a lot of exercise experience. Which really fueled my passion for fitness and why I got into the fitness industry to begin with. So I always kind of maintained my weight relatively easily and was fit and healthy. You know, all through college even. And it wasn't until my early 20s when I really started to notice declines with my health, how I was feeling, how I was looking slow weight gain, um, hormone symptoms, things like that. And so really, when this started, I was about 22, I was gaining weight and I was working in fitness. So that's why it was extra frustrating. Like I was working in gyms, I was teaching group fitness classes, I was running programs at a YMCA and doing personal training. Once I got a very basic, you know, certification to do that right out of college. And then as I moved to Colorado, I started managing a fitness studio. I was surrounded by fitness. That was my profession. And yet personally, I was really struggling with what am I doing wrong? Like, why can't I help other people achieve these results? I feel like I'm doing the right things, and yet I'm seeing like backward steps in terms of my fitness progress and results. It was extremely frustrating. It made me insecure, I lacked confidence, um, you know, it was really hard. Like standing in front of a class, um, And for group fitness or working with clients and not feeling like I was providing the type of results I wanted for myself. And so it really was messing with my head for many years. And this kind of continued through my late 20s. And on top of that, I started to have pretty big hormone issues. I stopped getting a cycle. I wasn't on birth control, so it wasn't as a result of like any sort of birth control things. But I wasn't having a cycle at all for years. Um, and so I was just really confused because, you know, that might sound nice, but when you look at the facts and, and the science of it, that's not normal for a young 20 something girl to just not have a cycle. And I definitely wasn't underweight. It wasn't because I, you know, was too low in weight to have a cycle or something like that. And in fact, I was still steadily gaining weight. Um, so there was just a lot of question marks for me. And, um, on top of that, I was also really wanting to get into hiking. I was new to Colorado. It was exciting and fun, but I found myself going on hikes, always feeling winded. Um, not really being able to keep up with the people I was going with. And I was working out a lot, like constantly. So I was feeling like just kind of failing in so many areas that were really important to me. And it was very, very important to me to get to the bottom of this and figure it out. Um. So really, here are the main mistakes that I now in retrospect know that I was making. But at the time I didn't understand what was going on. One was just not addressing underlying stressors that were affecting my hormone health, inflammation levels, and eating habits. Um, this is a big one, and I think it's something that we tend to overlook because it just feels so vague. It's like, okay, yeah, of course I'm stressed. Everybody has stress, but I really didn't realize how powerful stress is and how much it can affect pretty much every system in your body, and how much it was affecting me and my lack of results, too. I was really overdoing it with the hit and cardio type of classes and workouts. I was working out like six days a week, oftentimes twice a day. Um, usually running, doing like sprints, running long distances, doing hit style classes that were a lot of like high energy, high stress. Um, and I was just trying to burn calories constantly. That was my number one goal. It's like I got to just burn these calories because I'm gaining weight and I don't want to be gaining weight. Um, but unfortunately, this also created a negative cycle of, um, overeating. I struggled to control my appetite because I was working out constantly. This is a side effect of doing a ton a ton of cardio or, um, kind of cardio based classes, you are going to be hungry. So I was eating way too much and kind of basically just cancelling out any sort of deficit that I would have been creating from those workouts. This was also creating kind of like a week to a weekend binge cycle. So during the week I would be all over it with my diet. I was like barely eating. I was really trying to restrict calories even though I was working out in excess. So then by the time I got to the weekend, I was so hungry. And then I'd be in these situations socially or whatever, where I felt very out of control, and then I would end up binging and also excessive cortisol as a result of this type of excessive exercise. And if you already have a lot of stress going on in your life, which I did at the time, um, then your stress bucket is going to be overflowing if you're just throwing tons of high intensity, cortisol spiking workouts on top of things, it's kind of adding fuel to the fire, so to speak, because you are just overloading your nervous system and what you can handle. So it really wasn't helpful for me at that time. Um, it also was hindering my proper estrogen production. My estrogen at the time was almost non-existent. I was told by a doctor that I had the estrogen of an 80 year old woman, and I was like 24 at the time. Um, very, very unhealthy. This is why I wasn't having a cycle. So it was hindering my natural, um, hormone production. And it was really throwing things off for me. And if you are kind of interested in the hormone side of things. I've done so many different hormone related episodes, but one of our first ones and a good place to start would be episode 24. If you kind of want to learn more about the hormone side of things. Um, also, I was always looking for my next quick fix. As far as following a diet, I was always looking for like, okay, what's this like new diet that's coming out or a fad? Or what extreme thing can I do just to lose weight as fast as humanly possible? Because I was so uncomfortable in my skin and so not confident, I thought I didn't want to be patient and do things the right way. I just wanted to, like, find the path of least resistance. Cut carbs, cut sugar, cut this or that. You know, do a whole 30, do a cleanse and find a fast track to results. Um, but unfortunately that always backfired where I would like lose a few pounds, be feeling good, and then go back to kind of eating how I was before because that diet would quote unquote end. And then I was right back where I started and then some, because I hadn't done things properly, and I was really causing some metabolic issues for myself along the way by taking these extreme approaches. Um, number four was weekend eating totally was derailing me. Um, I kind of spoke to this with the weekend binges, but I just didn't realize how much I was overdoing it. You know, I think oftentimes we think like, oh, I eat pretty healthy because we're looking at like how we're eating maybe Monday through Thursday or Sunday through Thursday and we think, oh, Friday and Saturday eating. Yeah, I'm not that great. But it's like it's not that bad. But it really it wasn't until I actually started looking at the numbers that I realized, Holy cow, I am like eating double what I eat on weekdays. So of course it's canceling out the small deficit that I'm creating Monday through Thursday or Sunday through Thursday. Like, it should have been a no brainer, but I really didn't look at it for what it was. I wasn't being honest with myself about my intake. And number five. My training just wasn't supporting my hiking. Not only was it not supporting my physique goals, but it also wasn't supporting my hiking goals. And that is where really being specific with your training is so crucial. Because a lot of times we just find these like fun classes, like a spin class or a Pilates class or a hit style class. And we're like, cool. I actually kind of like this. This will be great, but unfortunately, a lot of those types of workouts are going to have kind of minimal results or, you know, you're going to get so far and then you're going to struggle to continue to see progress, diminishing returns essentially. So it's really important to find a style of training. Yes, it's important that you like it, but it also needs to support your specific goal. Like if you're trying to change your physique, if you're trying to lose fat, if you're trying to become a better hiker, your training needs to be reflective of those goals. And the hit style classes and things like that are kind of this ambiguous style of training where you're getting like generic results, but you're going to have a hard time really going further with it than that, because it's not specific enough. It's not progressive enough. Um, so that was where I was really kind of shooting myself in the foot and, and not training for what I needed. So I had to learn how to train to support my goal of getting leaner and doing some body recomposition, as well as training to support what I wanted to do with my hiking. Okay. So let's talk about the shifts that I made. And I want to be clear that this happened over a very long time. It wasn't like, oh, six months later and I learned all of this and I transformed everything. Like, these are big changes that have to start with your mindset, your habits. And those types of shifts don't happen quickly. That's why so many people do look for the quick fixes. It's human nature. Like we'd rather just like take a quick route versus doing the hard work. But the hard work is what's going to allow you to actually maintain your results. And that's what I was lacking. I was always doing quick fixes. I'd get faster results, and then I'd go right back to where I was, and then I'd be actually a little heavier than I was, because I was not doing the work to support my metabolism while I was trying to lean out either. So there was just so much going on that was hindering me long term, even though it might have been good in the short term. So you got to really look at like your end game here, okay? If you want to see results long term, then you have to focus on the habit building and the mindset shifts. And that is going to take a little bit longer unfortunately. But I'm so glad that I did it that way now because now I'm looking back. And it was like six years ago that I started to make these changes. And maybe five years ago, and over those past five years, I've had two kids and I've been able to maintain my weight post-baby now, um, and that's really exciting because now I don't have to worry about like, vacations, travel, having kids, life circumstances, having less time, all these obstacles just derailing me back to where I was before. I've been through it. I know how to maintain because I have the proper mindset. I have the tools, I have the habits, and I have a healthy, thriving metabolism on top of it. So. It's really important to look at the endgame and really focus on these following shifts. If you want to see the results long term instead of just as a quick fix. So give yourself a couple years even like this might take you some time, or maybe you'll start seeing progress, but you're not going to get to maybe your goal weight or exactly where you want to be, where all this is second nature for a couple of years. And that's okay. That's actually a much more normal progression than these like one month transformations. That's not realistic. Okay. So let's talk about it. Four big ships. Um, actually five big ships. Okay. So five things that I focused on. Number one was I started working on my relationship with food. I realized that what I was doing just wasn't working. And if I wanted something different, a different result, I had to change my approach. So it had to start with no longer having off limits foods, I was no longer saying, oh, I can't keep sugar in the house, I can't keep carbs in the house, things like that. Um, and this then as a result, over time led to me being able to eat those foods without feeling the need to binge. I could have small portions, keep it in check, and then move on with the rest of my day. Food wasn't dominating my head space anymore and that is huge. We have to get to the point where there's less food noise in our brains. Otherwise it's going to be really, really tough to just eat like a normal maintenance amount and be able to stay lean pretty easily. So less food obsessing, no more off limits foods led to less binging. I just let myself eat the same types of foods all week, and my weekdays and weekends no longer looked vastly different. Yes, I might eat out a bit more, but I still know how to, like, moderate what I'm eating when I'm eating out so that it's not like a massive calorie difference or food quality difference. Um, my portion size is evened out too as a result, so I wasn't feeling the need to like, clean my plate every time when I go out to eat, maybe I eat like half of the meal and then I save the rest. I realized what portion sizes I actually needed, and it turned out I was eating really big portion sizes, and I really didn't need all of that. So that was really making it difficult for me to adhere to any sort of deficit. Um, I got out of a relationship that was causing a lot of emotional stress eating. Um, I know that this is kind of a tricky one because this is not cut and dry, but I was in a relationship that was causing me a lot of emotional turmoil, and I didn't even realize how bad that was for my like, uh, stress levels, relationship with food, binging all of that stuff until I was out of it and I no longer felt those urges. So if there's an underlying stressor in your life, maybe it's not a relationship, maybe it's a job or just something going on a dynamic in your life that's causing, um, stress or emotional eating. That's something that you really have to address, get to the bottom of. Like, okay, if I emotionally ate today in excess, why? What happened? What triggered that? Until you get to the bottom of that, you're just going to continue seeing that pattern and it's going to make it really tough to get where you want to be. As far as nutrition. And I ultimately stopped with the diets. I no longer do these like, oh, I'm going to cut carbs, I'm going to cut sugar, I'm going to do whole 30 for a month. I'm going to do 75 hard or anything like that. Anything that's remotely extreme. I say no to that because the bounce back rate is so high for these types of things. It's like people do them and then you're just going to rebound that weight and then some afterwards. And I'm I was so tired of that cycle. I was like, okay, I'm not doing that anymore. If I can't maintain this for months on end, then what's the point? So stopping with the diets. Um, so that's kind of where I went with the nutrition that really made big differences. Um, number two in my big shifts would be the training I stopped running or doing any hit to get my hormones regulated and stress under control. And this was hard for me mentally. It was so, so tough because I was so used to those types of like, high energy feeling absolutely exhausted, sweaty, just ridiculously out of it after my workouts because I expended so much energy. And then I shifted to slower lifting where I was hardly sweating at all. I was like, okay, this is such a different style of training, but it's what I needed to get my nervous system regulated, to get my hormones under control and to have less inflammation going on, get my estrogen regulated, all of that. And that's not to say that I could never do hit or run ever again. I actually ran a half marathon a couple of years ago, so this was after the fact. But I had to get things regulated, and I had to find the right balance of not just relying on hit or cardio to burn calories. So now my primary form of exercise is slow, progressive style training weightlifting to build muscle instead of like the super high intensity type of classes or workouts. This helped me then get my cycle back, get my hormones regulated, inflammation went down and I did slowly lose £25. And again, that's not just as a result of the workouts. Like if you just stop doing your workout classes and lift instead, that's not going to immediately translate to losing £25. It was a culmination of all five of these things that I'm touching on, but that definitely was a big part of it was that shift in my mindset around exercise and my training style, and actually having a plan instead of just like showing up and doing this random class where they have no idea, like what type of workout you did the day before and there's no progression involved whatsoever. Having a plan that you can follow that's progressive overload style. Um, this is what we do with metabolic coaching. It makes such a big difference for our ladies who are focusing on body recomposition and weight loss and just doing things the right way and actually having structure. Um, number three was my education. I really expanded on the education that I had. I became certified as a holistic health coach and learned how to do things the right way in terms of combining like general fitness and the macro side of things with the functional, holistic side of things. And this is something I don't really think that gets talked about very much, but it's so, so important. Um, there's kind of these two camps when it comes to fitness and health. There's like the bro science, which is all about like calories and calories out muscle gains for the results. And that is very much like valid and true. But then there's the other side that's functional. Health focused. And this says yes, calories and calories out matters. Yes, muscle gained for results. But also we need to focus on food quality, not just how much we need to focus on gut health, stress management, hormone health, sleep quality, metabolic health. There's so many more components than just calories and calories out and your training routine that will affect your overall health, quality of life, vitality, energy, hormone function, how easy it is for you to stay lean long term. All these things. It's a much more holistic approach to just the calories and calories out and muscle gains. So marrying these two sides together for the best possible results long term. This has helped me in my own life having this education, and it also has informed how I built mountain metabolic coaching to be so much more than just like, here's your calories and here's your workouts. Like, we got to focus on all of this holistically. Yes, you got to nail those basics before we can really like expand on the other things. But if you have the capacity to really, like, go all in and learn all of this stuff and implement it, then we're going to go deep with it because there's so much more to this, especially as women. With the functional side of things. Adding that into what we typically look at with coaching. Um, so it's really kind of changed my life, honestly, looking at both of these sides together. Um, number four has been focusing on metabolic health. Um, so this is really crucial if you are looking to lose weight, lose fat, um, and you want long term success, you have to do this strategically and focus on metabolic health while leaning out while losing weight. Um, because if you don't, you're so much like more likely to have that regain to have that like lose £10 and then after a few months you gain back all £10 plus them. Um, so if you really want to avoid the, the swings and the like, constant back and forth in yo yo of your weight, then you need to be looking at the metabolic side of things. So how do you actually do this? One is strategic fat loss phases. Not to drastic or to fast, but really having a plan of like, okay, this is my fat loss phase. I'm being intentional with this. This is what my protein looks like, my calories look like, and I'm not doing this forever. A big mistake that a lot of people make is just kind of being in this ambiguous, like, I'm always trying to lose weight. Always. Like for the past ten years, I've been trying to lose weight, and then you're always kind of feeling deprived or like you're in diet mode, but you're never really seeing the results because you're not actually buckling down with a plan. So have an actual plan. Work with a coach. Have a training plan. Have a fat loss phase plan, and do it strategically so that you're not just like flailing and like kind of sorta dieting, but not really getting the results. Number two is muscle maintenance. While in a deficit this is so, so important. So you need to be practicing progressive overload style training with your weightlifting in order to focus on muscle maintenance or gain while you are in a deficit. Otherwise, you're just going to be losing equal parts muscle and fat. And this is not going to serve you from a body composition standpoint. If you want to look toned and lean, but also you're going to lower your basal metabolic rate by losing muscle, and already it's going to come down naturally as you're losing weight. This is just what happens as we get smaller. Our basal metabolic rate also will go down a little bit, but we can kind of slow that process by maintaining as much muscle as humanly possible, so that your basal metabolic rate has to stay a little bit higher to compensate for keeping that muscle alive. Number three habits that you can sustain for life. Instead of taking the extremes, actually focus on what can you do long term instead of just focusing on the end result, focus on the process. How are you doing this so that you can keep it going? So maybe that's like a daily walk that you're always building in, um, or focusing on good sleep quality and having a good bedtime routine, having a good morning routine. The next one is food quality and quantity. Okay, so not just focusing on the if it fits your macros. I can eat whatever as long as I'm hitting my target. Yes, technically you can, but are you going to feel your best? Are you going to have enough micronutrients coming into your body from those foods to support a happy and healthy gut, um, to support proper hormone function? All of these things affect then your basal metabolic rate. They all work together, so you can't really compartmentalize them. And this is why food quality and quantity are very important when it comes to metabolic health. And leaning out in the proper sense, and not just like surviving off of processed foods and crappy stuff, but still staying within your calorie range. Yes, you can do it, but your energy is going to be crap. Your satiety probably won't be optimal, your gut health will suffer, your hormone health will suffer, and overall, your general health markers won't be great because you're not going to be getting your nutrient needs met. And then the next one is not overdoing it with cardio or focusing too much on a calorie burn when you're losing weight. Don't even look at your calories burn. Don't even look at it, okay? If you have one of those watches, or you're looking at the machine at the gym, that is not going to be helpful. Those those types of things are typically very, very inaccurate, first of all, and it's so easy to overeat as a result of looking at that. You're like, oh my gosh, I burned 200 calories on this machine. Hey, I'm going to add that back in to what I can eat today. And then you're kind of just ending up undoing any deficit that you created. So just don't focus on that. It's also not helpful from a metabolic standpoint because your body does adapt quickly to calories burned. So that's why I'm focusing on calorie burn with exercise is not a super efficient form of long term weight loss or weight maintenance. And then finally, number five, from the hiking stamina standpoint, what I ended up changing was learning the proper ratio of steady state cardio to strength training, to interval training, because they do all have their place. But it's important to know how much to be doing based on like what you're trying to accomplish on the trail, how often you're going to be hiking, when you're going to be hiking, all of those things. And that's something that we help you with in Mountain Metabolic coaching with how we program. So that's going to be tailored to you because everybody's different. If you don't have any upcoming big hikes, you can kind of just focus on, um, maintenance when it comes to your steady state, cardio and stamina for hiking and just focus on the muscle building portion for that while. And then the closer you get to hiking season or big hikes, then you can ramp up the intervals and steady state cardio conditioning work. Also learning the most effective training exercises to be doing to help with hiking strength, stamina, stability, making sure your joints feel good. All of these things. It does make a difference. Um, not all exercises are going to be created equally when it comes to how effective they are for your specific goals, so making sure that you have the proper things programmed into what you're doing on a weekly basis, and then being consistent with these things year round so that you're always trail ready. Because yes, you could definitely like do this for a few weeks. But if you want to always be trail ready, um, then you've got to be doing kind of just the basic maintenance of these things year round, week in and week out. Also eating properly to ensure energy while training and hiking. Uh, for me this looked like not cutting carbs out anymore. I was such a like low carb girly for years and years and years, thinking that was like going to be the secret for my success. And it actually was just really making things harder for me. Um, from a like hormone standpoint. And my energy sucked. So make sure that you are getting enough good quality carbs. Yes. You want to kind of get some of those lower glycemic carbs, meaning that they're not going to digest into your bloodstream as quickly to spike blood sugar and insulin. So these are going to be things that will sustain you energy wise a little bit longer, like sweet potatoes, whole grains, oats, um, things like that. Um, also on this topic, you can listen to episode 105. This one goes into details of what you might want to look into. If you're not seeing the results that you want for your hiking. All right, you guys, that is a wrap on this episode. I hope that you have found this helpful of me, just kind of sharing my own unconventional story. It wasn't a super linear thing for me of like, start working out, start focusing on eating the right things and boom, weight loss. Like there was a lot of like mental obstacles, hormonal and lifestyle obstacles and unlearning of things that I had to go through over many, many years to get to the place where this became second nature for me. And I've been able to maintain my weight loss with ease. So just know that it's not always a linear journey for everybody. And if you have some of these more like complex things that you're needing to work on, this is why I created Mountain Metabolic Coaching to have a more holistic approach, instead of it just being black and white, so we can meet you where you are and figure out what's not going right, and troubleshoot and work through it together with all the support that you need to actually make these changes for life. So if you're interested in learning more about what we do within that program. You can check the show notes. There's a link there where you can apply. It's a quick application, takes like 1 to 2 minutes. But then I will reach out to you and schedule a discovery call. This is totally free and we can just see if it's a good fit. Thank you so much for tuning in today. You can connect with us on Instagram at the Fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page. We'd love to chat with you over there and hear how you're liking the show. If you are liking the show, please give us a shout out. Um, sharing us on social media, sharing with a friend, or leaving a rating or review is really, really helpful. So thank you again for tuning in. I'll chat with you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to 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.