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Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray

Nutrition

141. How to Fix Your Metabolism

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If you are overweight, chances are it’s a problem of metabolism. Your metabolism is not working properly. By nature, animals (including humans) do not become overweight unless there is some kind …

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Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 141 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today how to fix your metabolism. If you are overweight, carrying around more body fat than you’d like, then chances are it’s a problem of metabolism, your metabolism is not working properly.

By nature, animals, like animals in the wild, including humans do not become overweight, unless there’s some kind of dysfunction happening in the body most likely a dysfunction of metabolism. One of the most common dysfunctions in humans is that we have either purposely or accidentally slowed down our metabolism. Okay, this is where the body is not burning enough calories to maintain homeostasis, which just means, you know, stable and optimal health.

And I usually don’t talk about burning calories here on the podcast. But today, I’m gonna make an exception because I believe this is an important topic. And I really want to share this information with you. So today, it’s all about how to fix your metabolism here on the Running Lean podcast.

And I read a lot of books on the topics of metabolism and in the art and the science of exercise and running and mindset and building strength and nutrition. Like I’m always reading books and listening to books and listening to podcasts on these topics. And one thing that I’ve found to be 100% true from everything I’ve read and listened to, is that while books might provide you with some knowledge, the personal application of that knowledge is a whole other ball of wax.

Okay, this is why I do what I do as a coach, because what’s written in a book is going to be generalized information. It’s not a specific plan that’s created just for you. Okay, listen, you have your own goals, maybe you want to run a half marathon, or maybe you want to lose 30 pounds.

And the way that you get there will look different for you than it will for somebody else, maybe somebody else is pretty lean, they just want to drop 5 or 10 pounds, maybe they want to qualify for Boston, these are different people with different goals and different body types. The same plan is not going to work for these two people, right?

So and then we talk about how we structure workouts, how much muscle we’re trying to build, the different food preferences that we have, our different lifestyles, work schedules, travel schedules, cultural differences, there are so many differences, like we’re all individuals. And so this is why I do what I do as a coach, because there’s not one book that’s going to work for everybody. There’s not one plan is gonna work for everybody.

And this is why I offer coaching because what works for them probably won’t work for you. So in my program, you and I sit down together, we put together a plan that will work for you based on your goals and your life and your preferences.

So if you’re ready to make some changes that are designed for you, specifically for you for your goals and your lifestyle, maybe you want to lose weight or get stronger or run faster, then come and join me in the Running Lean coaching project.

This is my unique coaching program for runners to help you crush both your weight loss and your running goals because you can do both. To learn more, just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply. And get started I’d love to have you in the Running Lean coaching project where the project is always you.

All right, fixing your metabolism. How do you fix your metabolism? Why am I even talking about this today? Well, like I said at the beginning here, if you’re overweight, it’s most likely a problem of metabolism. There’s some kind of dysfunction happening there. And in order to get your body to where it needs to be to get your body into homeostasis to lose weight, we need to fix the metabolism. And I think we all kind of know this on some level that there’s some metabolism dysfunction and happening. But I want to talk about this kind of frankly today and I want you to understand what your metabolism is and what it’s not. Maybe dispel a few myths about metabolism because there’s a few myths floating around out there that you may think are true but maybe they are not.

I want to share some key lifestyle choices that really affect your metabolism, you know, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. And then there are certain things to consider, especially if you’re a runner, and a fat adapted runner. Okay, so we’re gonna get into all of that, let’s first talk about what metabolism is. So metabolism is a term that describes really, it describes all the chemical reactions in your body that keep your body alive and functioning, right, the main way, we’re going to be using metabolism today.

And the main way that I think we all understand metabolism is how we convert nutrients from the foods we eat into fuel that we can use for our bodies. Okay, so we convert our food into energy. And, and our body needs energy to breathe and to digest food and to circulate our blood and to breathe our lungs and to repair damaged tissues and cells and all those things, right.

So our body needs energy, and we get it from the food that we eat. And when our metabolism is working properly, our body is in a state of homeostasis when it’s not working properly, we’re out of that state. Okay, so what we’re really talking about is, you know, the process our body uses of converting our food into energy. And really, we’re talking about, you know, broadly we talk about calories, you know, it’s like, okay, we’re burning more calories. Okay.

So, metabolism is why some people seemingly can eat a lot of food without gaining weight, while others seem to eat a lot less and still maintain their weight or get fatter because their metabolisms are working differently. Some of this has to do with genetics, some of it has to do with lifestyle, we’re going to talk about all that in a second here.

But I want you to understand that really, your metabolism, the speed of your metabolism is how you burn calories, how you burn calories at rest, how you burn calories during exercise. And this is commonly called like your metabolic rate, sometimes they call it the resting metabolic rate or, or basal metabolic rate, those two terms are very similar. And we can kind of use them interchangeably. Okay?

If you’re a scientist, don’t give me a hard time about that. Because I don’t, there’s a subtle difference there. But I don’t want to confuse you with that. But let’s just say resting metabolic rate is what your body is burning, while you’re just sitting around not doing a whole lot just sitting around, right, which we do a lot of the time, right, you want to increase your resting metabolic rate, if you want to increase your body’s ability to burn calories. Okay?

So one thing that is very, very important, and I want to color this whole conversation with this is, what are you metabolizing? What types of calories are you burning? Because this makes a huge difference. We talk about how we want to burn more calories, and everybody’s talking about calories and how calories are so important. We got to burn the calories burn the calories, but what calories are you burning? Are you burning carbohydrates? Are you burning fat?

Because if you’re trying to lose weight and become fat adapted and improve your endurance as a runner, you want to be burning more fat, you just do, you can’t lose weight without burning fat, you got to burn the fat that’s on your body. Unless you have liposuction, right, you can certainly do that and lose some weight that way for sure.

But if you want to change your body composition, and lose fat and gain muscle, then we have to be training our body to burn more fat, we got to get more efficient at burning fat. And eating a diet that’s super high in sugar. And super high in carbs means that you’re just going to be burning mostly sugar and carbs. Right.

And for some people, this is fine. Maybe they haven’t gained weight. Their diet is mostly carbohydrates and sugars and, and they burn that stuff just fine. And they don’t gain weight. That’s great. But for most of us, probably 80 to 90% of us, that doesn’t work, especially as we get older, right? So if your goal is to lose weight, all the sugar and all the carbs, it’s going to make it very difficult for you right?

Losing weight means we got to be burning, we want to be burning mostly fat, right. So when you ditch the carbs, when you ditch the sugar, even as a runner, you get fat adapted and you train your body to be really good at burning fat. This means you’re going to be burning more fat at rest and during exercise.

So when we increase our metabolism, that means we’re actually going to be increasing the amount of fat that our body is burning, because our body is focused on fat as our main source of fuel instead of carbohydrates as our main source of fuel. I want to make this very, very clear at the beginning here so that when I talk about what I’m going to be talking about today, the factors that affect your metabolism, how we can increase your metabolism, the diet matters, it really, really matters, okay?

We want to be metabolizing more fat instead of carbohydrates, okay. And especially if you’re an endurance athlete, and especially if you’re an endurance athlete who also wants to, you know, change the body composition and lose some fat, we got to increase the fat metabolism, it’s also called fat oxidation, the more fat we’re oxidizing, or more fat, we’re metabolizing, then the more energy we have, and, you know, that’s how we lose weight, too. So it’s a win-win, it really is okay.

And that typical runner’s diet that I’ve talked about before of all sugar, no carbs, is probably not going to get you there. Because your body always wants to prioritize the carbohydrate metabolism, because it’s just an easy source of fuel for your body to use. And as long as you’re filling your body with that stuff, you’re never going to be really getting into fat burning mode. Okay?

So step one is to ditch the sugar, ditch the carbs, let’s get into fat burning mode. That’s really the first step here. Okay, that way, when we increase our metabolism, when we’re burning more calories, we will naturally be burning more fat, we’ll be using fat as fuel. And this is our goal here. Okay.

So let’s get into what affects your metabolism and how we can fix the metabolism, how we can increase the metabolism. And some of this is pretty interesting. And some stuff that I, in my research for this, I think, is kind of new data. And there’s some new studies out there. So I think you’re gonna find this pretty interesting.

So the first thing that affects your metabolism, of course, is going to be the foods that you eat, how much food are you eating, how often are you eating, you know, the amount of food you eat, can really affect your metabolism positively or negatively. If you’re over eating constantly, if you’re constantly eating more food at each sitting than your body really needs, you will slow down your metabolism, you know, your body just cannot handle that much.

And so what we want to do is not overeat, we want to eat just enough, okay, when we want to eat enough to be satisfied, you don’t have to count calories to know if you’re overeating or not, right. If you’re eating to the point where you get uncomfortable, you’re eating too much. Okay. But then we talked about the types of foods and already mentioned, you know, that we want to be, we want to get off the sugar and the grains in the refined carbohydrates.

And when we do that, we’re going to be obviously metabolizing more fat. But for example, if we increase our protein intake, you will actually increase your metabolism, at least temporarily, at least for a few hours. But if you’re eating plenty of protein at each meal, you’re going to do yourself a big service, because you’re going to have an increase in your metabolism overall.

And the reason for this is something called the thermal effect of food or TEF. So when you eat the food, your body has to burn some calories to digest that food, okay? And protein between the three major macronutrients, you know fat, carbohydrates, and protein, protein causes the largest rise in the thermal effect of food, meaning that your body will use more calories to process and digest protein than carbs or fat.

So dietary protein requires 20 to 30% of its usable energy to be used for metabolism of the protein. So that is huge, because 20 to 30% of the calories that you’re eating from protein is actually being used to digest the protein and to metabolize the protein compared to 5-10% for carbs and 0-3% for fats. So your body does not use much energy to digest and metabolize fats, it uses a little bit for carbs, but a lot of energy for protein.

So right there, eating protein will help you to increase your metabolism, right. It also helps you to feel more full, and helps to prevent you from overeating, because it’s really hard to overeat a lot of protein, sit down and try to eat, you know, a pound of chicken breast. I’m going to tell you right now it’s gonna be really hard to do. So, a lot of food and you know, but you could eat, you know, a couple pounds of pasta probably pretty easily without really feeling that full from that. Okay.

So people that have a drop in metabolism, when they lose a lot of weight, we’ll get into this in a second here. When people have a drop in their metabolism from losing weight, a lot of this is due to losing muscle mass and eating enough protein can help prevent this, right? One of the things that we want to do when we are setting out to lose weight is we want to lose fat weight, we don’t want to lose muscle weight.

So we got to make sure we’re maintaining some sort of strength training and getting enough protein. And that’ll actually help to keep your metabolism going. You know, because more muscle means you’re burning more calories in general. Again, I’m gonna talk about that in just a second. But listen, like we got to make sure we’re getting enough protein at every single meal, it’s definitely going to affect how your metabolism functions.

Okay, body size. Another thing that affects your metabolism. In general, larger people typically have faster metabolisms, right, it just requires more energy to maintain a larger body. So people that are larger, will generally have faster metabolisms. This is not to say that you should become larger.

That’s not what I’m saying here at all. But people with larger frames, even obese people tend to carry around the who are carrying around way more body fat and muscle, then than typical people, their their metabolisms are actually going to be a little bit faster, which sounds kind of counterintuitive, but there’s other things happening there. There’s some other dysfunctions happening there. But just understand that if you’re a bit of a larger person, your metabolism might be a little bit faster, okay?

Sleep is a big one. Sleep will really increase your risk of fat storage, okay, Sleep is linked to major increases in weight gain and the risk of obesity, and partly because of the negative effects of sleep deprivation on your metabolism. So lack of sleep actually increases blood sugar levels and increases insulin resistance. It increases your risk of developing type two diabetes, it affects your hunger hormone ghrelin, and your fullness hormone leptin.

And this explains why some people who are sleep deprived they’re often pretty hungry, and they have a hard time losing weight, you know, you’re in this, you’re putting your body in this chronic state of stress when you don’t get enough sleep. Right. So if you’re having a hard time losing weight, if you’re having a hard time metabolizing fat, one of the things you have to look at is getting good sleep consistently.

And good quality sleep on a regular basis, this is going to get your body out of that stress mode, and get your body working the way it’s supposed to. Another thing that affects your metabolism in a good way is caffeine. And I know some people don’t don’t do caffeine at all. And that’s great. But studies have shown that caffeine in coffee and green tea can have a little bit of a temporary boost on your metabolism and promote more fat burning.

So if your goal is to lose weight and burn more fat, then coffee can definitely help you there. I know that’s good news. For some of us, it’s good news for me, I love coffee, and I drink a little bit of coffee every day. And I really love it. And you know, I’m one of those people I don’t, I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t eat sugar. And really the only the only thing that I ingest that gives me a different feeling is caffeine, it does give me a little bit of a boost of energy in the morning when I’m drinking coffee and especially helps me with workouts. It’s a good performance enhancing drug, so to speak, right. So I’m cool with that.

And, you know, I think I live a very clean life. And if caffeine is the one thing that I use to kind of give me a little bit of a boost in the morning, then I’m happy to just keep doing that. Okay, maybe one day, I’ll decide that it’s just not for me anymore. But for now, I love my coffee and I’m gonna keep doing it. And it does help with weight loss, it does help with weight maintenance. And it does help with metabolizing fat. So there’s a lot of good things about caffeine if you like it if that’s something that you want to do.

And then another thing that can affect how your metabolism functions is the types of workouts you’re doing. So I used to be like, oh, just cardio, cardio, cardio all the time. And this is all anybody talks about: burn calories, burn calories. But one of the types of workouts you may want to consider if you’re not doing it already, is HIIT training. So this is high intensity interval training.

So this is where we’re doing very quick, very intense bursts of activity could be sprints, you know, sprint repeats, 400 repeats, it could be more of a group class where you’re doing, you know, high intensity intervals in a different way. But basically what happens here is that when you do these types of exercises, you increase your metabolic rate. And even after you’re finished with the workout, right?

So they found that the effect of increasing your metabolism is greater for HIIT workouts than for most other types of exercise. And that hit has also been shown to help you burn fat. And this is one of the reasons why I talk about intervals so much. Like we don’t want to be doing all this, what I call like chronic cardio where you’re just like, always doing the same kind of long ish runs at a, at a medium pace, like all the time, we want to be really doing some short bursts of intense activity, and some longer slower running as well to improve endurance, but the HIIT types of workouts are going to help you to increase your metabolism for sure.

And then kind of along with that is weight training. So increasing your muscle mass will help you to burn more calories and burn more fat. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat, your body requires more energy and will burn more energy carrying around muscle, then fat. So the more muscle that you have on your frame, the more calories you are burning each day even at rest, right. So lifting weights can help you build muscle and maintain muscle.

And like I said, a lot of people that that do what I call like dieting, or you know they try to lose weight by restricting calories or something like that, a lot of times they’re just losing muscle along with fat, we don’t want to lose muscle, you know, we’re athletes, we want to maintain our muscle mass, or we want to build some muscle.

And when you build muscle, you will increase your metabolism and it’ll stay increased even at rest. So this is a really important thing. I talk about the importance of strength training all the time. This is one of the reasons why it’s important. And then they did this review of 58 different studies. So this is what they call a meta study where they study studies. And so they looked at 58 different studies.

And they said that resistance training was significantly more effective at reducing body fat percentage, total body fat mass and belly fat compared to a control group. So resistance training is going to be one of the best things you can do for yourself. If you’re not doing this currently, get into it. Okay.

Another factor that will affect your metabolism is how much water you drink. And they did a study, an older study back in 2013, but it was a study that showed that drinking 17 ounces of water. So roughly about a pint of water increases your resting metabolism by 30% for about an hour. That’s pretty interesting. So if you’re drinking more water throughout the day, you know, you are just going to naturally have a faster metabolism. Plus, we need water, water is good for you, we have to have it or we will die.

And then there’s something I want to talk about. I’ve kind of touched on this a little bit. But people that do like the crazy calorie restriction type of diets, they kind of put their body into what is called starvation mode. It’s also called metabolic adaptation or adaptive thermogenesis. But you know, I think we’ve all heard the term starvation mode. What does this mean?

So, starvation mode is when your body adapts to a calorie deficit. So when your body isn’t getting enough food, it will compensate by reducing its metabolic rate and the number of calories that you’re actually burning. So when you restrict calories too much for too long, then your metabolism will slow down significantly. This is one of the main reasons why I do not focus on just you know, restricting calories to lose weight. If you restrict calories as a weight loss method, it’s going to be problematic, you know, you can restrict a little bit, but you got to be careful not to restrict too much or for too long.

Because it can have a rebound effect, you will lose weight, but it’s also not sustainable. It’s one of those things where you might lose weight in the short term, but long term, your metabolism is going to slow down and then you’re going to start gaining that weight back again. And then you’re going to try to reduce calories even more and it’s going to have just a negative effect. And so this is just not a good way to go and think about us as human beings.

We don’t need to count calories. We’ve never counted calories until the last 50 years or so, like, do we need to be doing this? No, we don’t, there’s a better way. Just eat real food, eat food, our answer shows we have been eating for thousands of years. And I promise you, you won’t need to count another calorie again, okay. But when you look at shows like The Biggest Loser, you know, they have these obese people, and they lose a ton of weight by really restricting calories for a long time, and they’re doing tons of cardio or whatever. And they lose the weight, but then they gain it all back.

And then some, I think something like 96% of people on that show have gained the weight back or more, which is not a good, that’s not a good number. Okay. So starvation mode is a real thing. And we got to be careful not to do that. So that’s why I don’t preach restricting calories really, I don’t right.

And then there’s some other things that affect your mere metabolism. And things like hormone disorders, okay. So hypothyroidism will slow down your metabolic rate, causing a higher risk of weight gain. And then there’s genetics that can play a role here. But listen, genetics alone does not mean that you’re going to gain weight, or that you can’t increase your metabolism. So you might be predisposed to a slower metabolism or to obesity.

But if you maintain healthy eating habits, and healthy exercise habits, and you know, have a good, you know, quality of life, good lifestyle, good sleeping habits, things like that, you won’t become obese, you know, it’s kind of like saying, you have a genetic predisposition for alcoholism.

But if you don’t drink alcohol, you’re not going to become an alcoholic. So what I’m saying here, lifestyle matters. It really, really matters, okay. And one of the big myths I wanted to talk about here is age and how getting older affects metabolism, because I think that most people I’ve talked to have told me they’re just like, well, as, as you get older, you know, your metabolism just slows down. And as you age, you’re just gonna start gaining more weight. And it’s really hard to lose weight, because you’re getting older.

And they did a study back about a year ago, so this is a pretty new study in August of 2021. And this was in the Journal Science. And that suggests something very different. So thinking that your metabolism will decline, as you reach middle age and beyond. They’ve done this very intensive study. And I think this is pretty interesting. So they looked at over 6000 people, like 6400 people, ranging in age from eight days old, I know, pretty young to 95 years old. And they looked at their height, their weight, their body fat percentage, their average metabolic rates for when men, women and people in different age groups, like they looked at all these different people in all these different age ranges, okay.

And they put together a pretty clear picture of how our metabolism changes during our lifetime. Okay. And here’s what they came up with. I think this is really interesting. from infancy to one year old, your metabolic rate surges, right? It’s about 50%, higher than at any other time during your life. Okay, so from zero to one, it’s the highest right, then from one to 20 years old, your metabolism decreases by almost 3% a year.

So this is the biggest drop in your metabolism actually between one and 20 years old. From age 20 to 60, your metabolism doesn’t really change. That’s interesting, right? Most people think that between, you know, you know, 20 to 60 years when your metabolism really slows down. And it doesn’t really change at all. This is good news, right?

And then after age 60, the average metabolism decreases by 0.7% annually, which is not much that is not much. So just know that if you’ve been using, oh, I’m getting older as an excuse up to this point. We can’t use that as an excuse anymore. Okay. I just want you to think about that. Okay.

So these studies are showing us that your metabolism doesn’t have to slow down as you get older, and that it’s much more likely that changes in our behavior. Changes in our lifestyle are responsible for our metabolism, you know, increasing or slowing down. And this includes pre menopausal women and postmenopausal women. These same principles apply.

Just because you’re going through menopause does not mean that you will automatically gain weight. This is really good news. So whether you are male or female, whether you’re going through menopause or not, as you get older, stay active, get good sleep, maintain muscle mass, do some, you know, hit workouts, practice healthy eating habits, make sure you’re getting plenty of protein, and drink lots of water.

And you should be able to keep your metabolism burning nice and hot, nice and strong for the rest of your life. Okay, so this is all good news. I hope you guys got something out of this episode today. It was really fun. Putting this together. I think increasing our metabolism is really an interesting and really achievable goal for us. Okay.

And if you ever want help with this, if you want me to help you put together a personalized plan, reach out, I’d love to help you with that. We’ll put together a plan that’s based on you and your goals and your lifestyle and what we think will work for you. And then as we go through the process of change as we go through the process of changing your lifestyle and changing some of the eating habits and exercise habits. We’ll see what’s working and what’s not.

And we just continue to make progress, we continue to course correct as we go. That’s the power of coaching. It’s designed specifically for you and if you want a little help, just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply Apply for coaching and you and I will have a conversation we’ll see if this is a good fit for you. Cool. Right on you guys love you all keep on Running Lean, and I will talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.

140. You Have to Do More to Become More

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I know you’ve heard the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. But so many runners keep doing the same workouts over and over …

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Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to Episode 140, of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today, you have to do more, to become more. I know, you’ve heard that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things over and over again, and expect different results, right. But so many runners I talk to, they keep doing the same workouts over and over and over and somehow they expect that they’re just gonna get faster.

Or people that lift the same amount of weights all the time and expect to get stronger or build more muscle, or you just keep eating the same food over and over again expecting to magically lose weight. I don’t know how this is supposed to happen.

But whatever, from an external perspective, these problems, they’re pretty obvious, right? You have to do things differently in order to get different results. But from an internal perspective, like from the inside, looking out where this lesson is often missed, it’s just, it’s a blind spot that a lot of us have, we all have had this at some point a lot of us have right now.

So today, I’m gonna get into what it looks like to stop doing the same things over and over again, and start doing things differently because you have to do more in order to become more. And one of the things that I love about what I do about being a weight loss coach is that I get to help runners, people who are already pretty focused on their own health and fitness, I get to help them take things to the next level.

So a lot of the runners I work with have been running consistently for a long time, or maybe a short period of time, but for some time, they really are into running, they get it, they love running. They’re also doing other kinds of workouts pretty consistently. Sometimes it’s cross training, cycling, yoga, strength training, whatever it is.

But when it comes to nutrition, there’s this blind spot there, okay, they’re at a loss, they get confused by all the conflicting information that’s out there. And they’ve tried all kinds of diets that don’t work. They even get told by some dietitians or coaches to stop running altogether. Which is really just not an option for people like us, am I right? So what’s the answer?

How do you lose weight while you keep running? How do you keep running without all the gross gels and stuff, you know the stuff that makes you gain weight? Well, that’s exactly what I do. As your coach, I put together a personalized plan for you that you feel good about to get your nutrition in line with your weight loss goals and your running goals.

Because you know what? You can do both, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. And I see this every single day: people who are learning how to fuel their bodies to promote good health, to lose weight, and to promote their athletic performance to improve their running. And this topic I’m talking about here today is all about doing more, so that you can become more. And if you’re finally ready to do more to take your health and fitness to the next level to lose weight for good to improve your running performance to really become the most badass version of yourself then you’re ready for the Running Lean coaching project.

This is my unique weight loss coaching program designed specifically for runners to help you crush those weight loss goals and crush those running goals too. Okay? To learn more, just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply and get started. I would love to have you in the Running Lean coaching project where the project is you.

Alright, let’s get into this topic here today, you have to do more to become more so that old saying that I mentioned at the top of the episode here where the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results. We’ve all heard this before. We all know it but still so many people are on willing to change anything at all. They just keep doing the same things over and over and over and expect somehow that things are going to be different and something is going to change.

For example, a lot of people come to me because they want to lose weight and they want to improve their running and these are amazing goals and they truly want these things for themselves. They have been overweight for some time, you know, the more they run, the more they tend to put on pounds. I know, it’s counterintuitive, but I see it all the time.

And when I talk to these people, I can really feel it, I really feel that they want these things for themselves, they are important to them, they really want to change. But there’s something that comes up, it’s a resistance, it’s a resistance to change.

Anytime we think about changing, anytime we think about embarking on some sort of process of change. When we want to become more we want to get out of our comfort zone, there’s this resistance that comes up, even thinking about changing how you eat, is going to create a resistance from within you.

And Steven Pressfield, in the War of Art calls resistance the enemy within. So it’s not something that is out there. It’s not resistance from outside of you, it’s resistance that’s within you. And you will experience this resistance every time you get outside your comfort zone, or even think about getting outside your comfort zone. When you think about how, you know what, I really want to improve my marathon time, I really want to PR my next marathon, I really want to qualify for Boston. But that’s going to require me to shave 15 or 20, or 30 minutes off of my already, you know, challenging marathon time.

When you even think about that your brain starts coming up with all sorts of stories, and excuses and reasons and justifications. And you start telling yourself that you know what, there’s just going to be too hard, I can’t do it. Right there. That’s the resistance.

And you have to understand something: the resistance is normal, it’s perfectly normal to have this, we all have this kind of resistance that shows up for us. Anytime we want to embark on a journey of change, and the bigger the change, the bigger the resistance. And so the real work that we have to do is really battling that resistance. And what it looks like to bow the resistance is in a nutshell is to suit up, show up and do the deal. Whatever it is you need to do.

If you want to become more, you got to do more. So you got to show up and do what you need to do. Even though you’re experiencing the resistance, even though you’re experiencing all these excuses and reasons. And these obstacles that are seemingly in your path. If you want to run faster, you can’t keep doing the same workouts right, you need to practice running faster, you got to do the speed work, you got to do intervals, you’ve got to do tempo runs, you got to do fartleks, I just love saying fartleks.

If you want to lose weight, you can’t keep eating the same foods that you’ve been eating that helped you to gain all the weight, you’re going to have to change up your nutrition game, your nutrition game is going to have to get on point. If you want to build muscle, if you want to get stronger, you can’t keep lifting the same amount of weight, you’ve got to increase the amount of weight that you’re lifting because your body adapts to the weight.

So if you want to build muscle, if you want to get stronger, you’ve got to keep increasing the weights, or reps or both. So you keep creating that adaptive response and your muscles will grow. And this goes for anything that you want to change in your life. And again, like I said, the bigger the change, the more resistance is going to come up. But this is how it works.

You want to change something you do a little bit more, you’ve got to get outside of your comfort zone a little bit, even just a little. You stick with that until that kind of becomes your new normal. Your Comfort Zone grows, you grow, you become more and then you repeat, rinse and repeat this cycle over and over again until you reach your goal. And then you keep going because we always have some goal out there it doesn’t we don’t stop growing. We don’t stop learning. We don’t stop evolving. We don’t stop becoming more.

But that cycle I just described none of that happens without the doing bit you got to do more to become more but this is where most people get stuck or most people stop or most people quit because doing more is hard work. Doing more is uncomfortable. Doing more is getting into unfamiliar territory. And sometimes you know what? It just feels terrible.

Getting outside your comfort zone does not feel good. That’s why we call it outside your comfort zone. It is not something that is comfortable, it feels terrible. So fear is an example of what I’m talking about. Right now I’m working on getting stronger legs, my legs have always been kind of a weak point, I just have these skinny little bird legs, whatever.

And so I’ve been focusing on doing more leg workouts and being more intentional about doing leg workouts. You know how many people love to do leg workouts? Zero. Zero people, nobody likes to do leg workouts, right? In particular, one of my worst exercises is lunges.

And the way my trainer has me doing lunges is it’s a type of lunge called a Bulgarian split. But it’s a type of lunge called a Bulgarian split squat. And we use kettlebells. And your back leg is elevated on a bench and your forward leg is the leg that you’re squatting on. So you really are using just that forward leg and that back leg, you know, you really don’t have any sort of leverage from that back leg. It’s just there to kind of balance you.

And I hate doing these. They’re terrible. They’re super hard. And I was talking to my trainer about it the other day, and I was telling him how much I hate doing these things. And he’s like, Well, that looks like where you need to focus your attention here. And I was like, oh, I hate that. I hate that. I have to focus my attention on the things that are hard and uncomfortable. And the things I don’t like to do. But I did it.

And four days later, I did this on Monday, today’s Thursday, four days later, my legs are still sore. But here’s the thing, I want more, I want to become more in this case, I want stronger legs. So I know that I’m going to have to do more than what I’ve been doing. And for me, doing more means doing the things that I don’t want to do. Doing the things that are uncomfortable, doing the things that I’m weakest at.

Because honestly, if it’s easy, it’s too comfortable. It doesn’t change you at all. Right? It just helps you stay where you are. So for me, I’m focusing on doing these lunges and other leg workouts to build stronger legs so that I can become the runner that I want to be and improve my running and some other things.

And so just you know, in order to make this change that I want for myself, I’m doing the hard work, and I’m just embracing it and I don’t like it, but I’m doing it anyway. And then here’s an example from a nutrition standpoint. For years, I was eating the same diet, basically the typical runner’s diet, which is you know, carbs, right, all carbs, literally all carbs.

And over the years, I was steadily gaining weight. And I was running a ton of miles. Every week, I was training for marathons, I was training for ultra marathons, and I just kept steadily gaining weight. And I wanted so badly for things to change. I wanted to lose the weight, I wanted to feel better. I wondered if running was ever going to be easier. I wanted to have more energy. I was feeling rundown a lot, I was really inflamed and bloated. And I use the word puffy, because I just felt very puffy. And I wanted to become more.

But I knew that in order to become more, I had to do more. And I knew all about ditching the carbs and getting fat adapted, and I knew it was going to work. But I wasn’t willing to put in the work. I wasn’t willing to get uncomfortable. I wasn’t willing to change what I was doing, because it’s an uncomfortable process. So I avoided it, I just put it off and put it off and put it off. Because I told myself, this is going to be too hard.

I gotta wait until I’m really ready for this maybe when I’m not training for something. And and I just kept telling myself all these stories, and I had all these reasons and all these excuses. But what it really was was that resistance, that resistance kept coming up. And I was giving into it. I was just letting it control me.

Until finally I was just fed up with that I had gained like 40 pounds, I was overweight, I was miserable. Running was just becoming so hard. I felt terrible all the time. And I eventually just made the decision to do it: to ditch the carbs, embrace the suck for a short period of time, you know, I got outside of my comfort zone.

And it took work. It took months of me really kind of learning what to do, what to eat, what not to eat, how to learn how to run without all the carbs. I started weight training in a different way. You know, getting getting my strength training on in a very different way. And all of these things combined helped me to get through this period and become the healthier, fitter, leaner, stronger, faster version of me that I always wanted to become, that I knew I could become.

And then I just, I kept thinking it was going to be too hard. I kept thinking about all the stories and excuses and reasons why I didn’t want to do this, because it was an uncomfortable thing to change. But I wanted it so badly for so long. And I finally was ready to do it. And looking back on it, I’m like, why did I wait so long to do that?

If I had just done this a few years prior to that, I wouldn’t have had to suffer for such a long period of time, I wouldn’t have to struggle with my weight and with running, and with the way I felt every day in my energy levels. And I wish I had done it sooner, but everything happens for a reason. So I’m like, okay, it’s perfect timing, whatever, it’s all good.

But I say this all the time, I say, nothing changes, if nothing changes, right? And it’s not just a pithy saying it is the absolute truth. It has to be something that we embrace change has to be something that we embrace. Because if where you are right now, is not where you ultimately want to be, then you’re going to have to do more, you only get different results by taking different actions, right, you don’t get results by thinking differently. Although that’s part of it.

You’ve got to think differently. But you also have to take actions, actions produce results, thoughts don’t produce results, right? You can think about losing weight, you can think about changing your diet, you can think about running faster. But unless you actually do things and get out of your comfort zone and push yourself and get uncomfortable, nothing’s going to change for you.

You don’t lose weight by thinking about changing your diet, you don’t get stronger by thinking about going to the gym, right? Actions produce results. And the same actions, if you just keep doing the same things over and over again, will just continue to produce the same results. So just keep doing what you’ve already been doing, you’ll just keep getting more and more of what you’ve already got. Right? In order to be more, you have to do more.

So here’s some action steps for you this week. Here’s what I want you to watch. Here’s what I want you to work on this week, I want you to think about who it is you want to become. Get very, very clear on this, create a vision for your future self. What does the future you look like? What does the future you feel like? What has the future you accomplished? And spend some time every day thinking about this, this is a very powerful tool called this visualization.

This is what elite athletes do, they create a vision of who they want to be, sometimes they envision the race they’re about to run. And they visualize it every single day. It’s a very, very powerful to tool to help you achieve these big goals that you want for yourself. And it doesn’t matter what it is, if you want to get stronger, if you want to lose weight, if you want to get fitter. If you want to get healthier, if you want to improve your running, or you want to qualify for Boston, whatever it is, imagine yourself crossing that finish line and looking up at the clock and seeing that PR time on the clock. And do this every single day. That’s a very, very powerful first step. So you have to know who it is you want to become and you have to spend some time thinking about that. Okay.

Next, I want you to think about what you need to do in order to get there. And you don’t have to have every step, like mapped out because it’s kind of impossible to do that anyway, like, just focus on what is the next step? What is the next action you can take? What can you do today or this week? What’s one thing that you can change today or this week, to get you a little bit closer to that goal? If you want to become that future self, you’ve got to do things differently. So what is one thing you can do differently today?

And then step number three is to do that thing. It’s not going to feel good. That resistance is going to come up and you got to do it anyway. Remember, the results come from taking action, no action, no results. No doing equals no becoming. So what is it that you can do and then do that thing, okay? And then just rinse and repeat this process. Keep thinking about who it is you want to be,every day, every week, come up with an action step or two that you can take and then do that thing even though you’re going to experience that resistance.

Okay, that’s how we become more. If you want to become more, you have to do more. And I want to encourage you to do more this week, okay? And if you’re looking to become more, if you’re ready to do the work to get there, I’m here to help get you there. Okay? Love you all. Keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.

139. Eating Healthy Is So Boring!

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I’ll bet you’ve thought about eating healthy at one point or another in your life and then thought, nah…that’s going to be way too boring. If this sounds like something you’ve thought (or even said …

Continue Reading about 139. Eating Healthy Is So Boring! →

Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 139 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today, eating healthy is so boring. I bet that you’ve thought about eating healthy at some point in your life. And then you’ve thought, man, that’s going to be way too boring.

If this sounds like something you’ve thought or even maybe said out loud, then you are definitely not alone. People tell me all the time that they can’t stick to their food plan, or they don’t even want to start in the first place. Because it’s all going to be so boring. And I used to think this way too, but definitely not anymore. I’ve embraced the idea that food can be a little bit boring. If it means I get to live a long, healthy, happy life.

So today, I’m going to be talking about this big lie, this lie that eating healthy is boring. And how you might be able to radically improve your health by rethinking this by rethinking how exciting your meals really need to be. And as a licensed sports nutritionist, my focus is on food, it’s on nutrition, that’s like my number one focus, I want to help you make good choices I want you to I want to help you change your eating habits, I want to help you to change your body composition, to lose weight to gain muscle.

But really, what I want to help you with is to become the healthiest version of yourself to become healthy, fit and strong. So my main focus is on nutrition. This is the main driver of good health in my opinion. And I understand that you also want to crush your running goals. So this is where I’m a little bit different from other coaches.

So you might be training for a half marathon or a full marathon, or your first 5k. You know, maybe you’re just getting started with running. And lots of coaches out there will tell you that you cannot lose weight while you’re training for some race or while you’re running. You should stop running to lose weight. And I think this is ridiculous.

Okay, so for us, we, the people in my coaching program, we change our eating habits while we’re training for a marathon, lose weight feel better, running gets improved, our health is improved. And we do it all in a way that feels good for you. It’s not about severe caloric restriction, because we can’t do that when we’re training for a marathon. Right?

We’re not focused on counting calories and doing all this math about how many calories you should be eating because you ran this many miles, which means you burn this many calories and all that stuff, right? That’s just that’s too much. It’s ridiculous. That’s not how we do this, right? I do things differently.

I focus on helping you simplify nutrition, we don’t want to make it more complicated. And I want to help you change habits around food, simplify change habits, and make healthy eating just a way of life. It’s like it has to be part of who you are and what you do. Right. It has to be something you can do without a coach without me.

So the goal is to help you develop new habits, develop a new mindset. So that how you eat just becomes effortless. And it’s just what you do from here on out. So if you want help simplifying your nutrition, you know, maybe you’re ready to embrace the boring. I’ll talk about that more in a minute here.

And if you want a plan that also supports your love of running, then I want to encourage you to apply for my coaching program, you can just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply fill out a short application and we’ll talk about coaching. We’ll see if this is a good fit for you. Sounds good. I would love to have you in the Running Lean coaching project. That’s where the project is you.

Alright, let’s talk about how eating healthy is so boring. The reason I’m talking about this today is because I’ve had a lot of people say this to me recently. I’ve had clients, potential clients, I’ve had friends and family all tell me that they don’t want their food to be boring, and that some people haven’t even engaged in any type of, you know, change of their nutrition regimen, and they’re just thinking about it. And they’re just thinking about like, oh, I could never do that because it would be so boring.

Here’s the thing that is really just a thought. It’s a thought that you have in your head. And it’s a thought that stops you from making any kind of changes. And if you want something different for yourself, then you have to, like drop that thought that eating healthy is going to be boring, okay?

Eating healthy, can be fun, and can be sort of exciting. But if you think that it’s going to be boring, then you’re, that’s what’s going to be reality for you. If you think eating healthy, nutritious food on a regular basis is going to be boring, then that is your reality.

So I just want you to like embrace this idea that this idea of food being boring, is just a thought, okay, but it definitely is something that comes from somewhere. Right? So there’s this idea that food has to be exciting. Food has to be amazing. Every time we sit down to eat a meal, it has to be an experience to remember forever.

And really, this is all just marketing, right? This is all just marketing. It’s the big food companies that are coming together to market an idea to us. And the idea is this. The idea is that if you want to have an amazing, fulfilling, happy life, then every time you sit down to eat a meal, it has to be amazing. It has to be an entertainment experience.

Everything you eat has to be so delicious that you are compelled to post about it on social media. And there’s a term for these photos of food that make you drool and make you crave whatever food is in the picture. And they call it food porn, like porn. But for food, that’s kind of weird, if you think about it, okay. But this is what this is the term I didn’t make it up to this is the term that a lot of people use for this idea of posting all these pictures that make you drool and make you say, oh my gosh, I have to have that.

Another term for this feeling that you get is called euphoric recall. So you see a picture. And you remember how amazing the food was, and you remember an experience similar to that. So you may have eaten that exact thing, but it reminds you of something else that you’ve had. Or you can just be sitting around talking to friends and you can, you know, recall, this amazing meal that you had, or this amazing dessert that you had.

And it brings back all these thoughts and feelings of euphoria, like you start to feel amazing, your mouth will start to water and all you’re doing is just thinking about food. Right. And so this idea of euphoric recall, really, it’s a, it’s a mechanism that’s happening in our brains, where we are driven to remember very deeply and very vividly an experience.

And it’s a good evolutionary thing, because in the past, we may have, you know, encountered some berries or some honey as hunter gatherers, and we would, you know, eat that particular food. And we would want to remember that because it will be like, hey, this is a really good source of calories, or this is something that we can, you know, that is that tastes good. It’s delicious, it feels good. We want to remember that.

So your brain sort of locks that into your memory. But now we’re doing it about everything that we eat, and it’s becoming a problem. It’s becoming a problem, because people can’t even imagine switching their diet and eating a more healthy diet because they’re like, Well, what’s going to happen to all this amazing food that I remember, this is all just stuff that’s happening in your brain, by the way.

And food never used to be like this. Like this is a relatively new phenomenon. This idea of like food being so amazing, and there’s a meta or a scientific term for this. It’s called hyper palatable food. Hyper palatable means it’s uber uber palatable, like, like I mentioned, some berries, like you know, we’d find some wild blackberries, you know, as, you know, ancient hunter gatherers, and we’d be like, oh my god, this is so amazing, or fruits that we would find back in the day.

Now, those things have been engineered to become hyper palatable. And then there’s all these scientists that are actually creating hyper palatable foods in the lab, you know, and they really light up our pleasure centers in our brain, these foods light up our pleasure centers, just like alcohol, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines. And they know what they’re doing. They know that it’s going to give us a rush of dopamine, they know, it’s going to give us a high.

And we’re just buying into this whole idea. I’m gonna sound a little crazy here. But that, to me, this is very much like what drug dealers do, they want to get you hooked on their product. Because once they get you hooked on your product, you can’t stop thinking about it, you want to get that feeling again. You know, and they know what they’re doing, they put it right on the label, like once you pop, you can’t stop.

They know that we’re addicted to these hyper palatable, processed foods, and we can’t get enough of them. So the scientists that are creating these things are creating something that really, really lights up our pleasure centers. A lot of times even more so than those drugs I mentioned.

They did this experiment with rats, I think poor little rats, right? They’re always like experimenting on them. But they gave them a choice between sugar and cocaine. And over time, the rats preferred the high that they got from the sugar, so they would go for the sugar or the cocaine.

So when you talk about something that’s addictive, I mean, is sugar addictive? I mean, we crave it like a drug. We get hooked on it, like it’s a drug, we can’t stop thinking about it, and how amazing it is, like a drug. But they say it’s not a drug. And that’s okay. I mean, they can say that, but we sure act like it is. We sure buy more and more and more of this stuff, because we can’t stop eating it and are hooked on the product. We’re hooked on the quote unquote, drug. Okay?

If we stop, we’re gonna have withdrawal symptoms. I see this all the time, I help people get off sugar all the time, by the way. And when we stop eating sugar, our brains start to freak out. And we have withdrawal symptoms, we have headaches, and we feel nauseous, and we’re grumpy. And it’s just like coming off of other drugs like cocaine or alcohol. Right.

And if we stop just the idea, just thinking about stopping makes us feel like we’re gonna be missing out on all that good stuff. All that amazing stuff. Everyone else is having all these amazing experiences, how come I can’t. So just the idea of like, not eating sugar, kind of freaks us out. You know, food can’t be boring. I can’t live a boring life. Everybody else is having an amazing life. They’re living their best life. Thank you, Cheesecake Factory.

So they’ve created this product that really gets us hooked on their product. And when we think about not using the product, we feel bad. So we don’t want to give it up. And we were being sold this idea that food has to be amazing. And it has to be an experience. And if you’re the kind of person that’s like, hey, I just want to eat healthy food. I just want to live a long, healthy life, healthy life, right?

But we can’t even do that. Because we have sort of convinced ourselves or we’ve been programmed to think that it’s just going to be too boring. Eating healthy food and living a long happy life can’t do it. It’s going to be too boring. It’s going to be too boring. So we have this. We have a physical addiction to food. We have a mental and emotional addiction to food, or obsessing over food just like an addict obsesses over their particular drug of choice.

And we’re certainly acting much more like this as a drug than a food. So I just want you to know that if you’re feeling like you cannot make a change like this in your life, like you can’t stop eating, you know the junk food and you can’t stop going to Cheesecake Factory or whatever it is that you’d like to do. Because this idea of like, oh my life is going to be boring. I’m never going to be happy again.

I just want you to rethink that. Because you know food did not used to be like this. This is a recent thing in the last 50 years especially really the last probably 20 years since the Internet, this has really become this has exploded, right? This idea that food has to be amazing or whatever. But really in the last few 100 years, let’s just say, that’s really no time at all in this, you know, in the life span of humans.

So we hunted and gathered, we came together to celebrate with food. And we came together with our tribe and with our families, we socialized, we connected we bonded over food. It was nourishment, it was fuel as a source of life. It was something to be set to celebrate, you know, it was important. And nobody would ever say like, oh, God, this is so boring.

You guys, woolly mammoth again, geez, this is so boring. I know, it sounds kind of ridiculous. But that’s kind of where we are today with all of this, right. But again, this is all just a big lie. And you don’t have to believe it. You don’t have to buy into this idea that food has to be super exciting and that it has to be a source of entertainment. And every meal has to be amazing.

Food was pretty boring for like 2 million years of human evolution. Why all of a sudden does it have to be some amazing experience? Now, every meal doesn’t have to be an entertainment experience, it could just be a meal. And listen, would you rather experience a little tiny bit of short term pleasure now, or a lifetime of health and happiness in the future?

Because here’s what we’re doing, we’re choosing one over the other. When we choose short term pleasure, we’re choosing to feel good momentarily, we’re choosing the effect that the drug has on us. We’re choosing the dopamine hit that we’re going to get. And we’re choosing that. We’re forgoing our health or forgoing what makes us healthy human beings and what really is going to drive our fitness, our health, improve our running, all those things that we want for ourselves.

So we’re programming ourselves to choose short term pleasure over long term health and happiness. What if you just delayed that pleasure? Like, what if you just said, you know what, I’m not going to give in to the idea that I have to have something amazing right now, in this moment? What if we just forego the immediate pleasure, for feeling amazing for the rest of your life? Like, what if you did that?

And runners are kind of bad at this in general, I’m just going to say that because the typical runner’s diet is just bad, like lots of refined carbs, lots of sugar, lots of alcohol, really kind of the worst things you can do for your health. But they think that, hey, I’m a runner, so I get to eat and drink whatever I want. You know, I’m gonna drink like crazy. Like, if there’s anybody else, it’d be like, Hey, I think you might have a little problem with drinking. But no, it’s like, I’m a runner.

So it’s okay. And if this is working for you, you get to eat and drink whatever you want, as often as you want, as much as you want. Donuts, you know, all the refined carbs, tons of sugar, alcohol, whatever. Like, that’s all good. If this is working for you, more power to you. But I’m gonna tell you right now, it’s probably not gonna work for long. It’s probably not sustainable. If it is, and you’re that rare person that can just do that for your whole life, and you can stay super healthy. That’s amazing.

I don’t see that happening, especially as you get a little bit older. You know, once you get into your 40s, things start to change, things get a little bit different. And I’ve found myself running with friends on Saturday mornings, and we talk about food. And we’re talking about what we’re going to be eating when we’re done running and people will be like, oh, yeah, I can’t wait.

I’m gonna have this huge stack of pancakes and waffles and doughnuts and croissants and drink some beer. And I’m like, really, beer on a Saturday morning? And they’re like, yeah, what are you going to be eating Patrick? I’m like, bacon, eggs, yogurt, fruit, and they’re like, boring. And I’m like, Hey, listen, I’ve been there. I’ve done all that. I’m done with that now, though. I’m 55. And then the best shape of my life. I’m fine with my food being boring. You call it whatever you want. I enjoy it.

Can we just embrace boring, though? Can we just drop the idea that food has to be amazing? Can we just accept that our food can be a little boring? I teach my clients how to simplify their meals. Meaning that every meal doesn’t have to be different. Every meal doesn’t have to involve recipes, and shopping, and tons of ingredients and lots of time and effort to prepare.

And I really think we do ourselves no good by holding on to the notion that every meal has to be an experience for the ages. One of my favorite meals that I love to eat and I eat this a lot, is a grilled ribeye steak with sea salt. Here are the two ingredients. It’s a ribeye steak and sea salt. And I put some salt on the steak and I cook it on the grill, and then I eat it. And that’s my meal.

Sometimes I’ll do like some steamed broccoli on the side with some sea salt and lots of grass fed butter melted on there. Simple, delicious, effortless, two ingredients, almost no time to prepare. It’s simple. You can call that boring if you want to. I love it. And it’s so delicious. Boring does not mean it has to taste bad or it can’t be delicious. I love the simplicity of food these days.

Because when I eat food now I can really taste the flavors. Because I’m not making everything into this big ordeal, right? You can change your palate, your tastes will change over time. When you start to simplify, and you get off the hyper palatable foods and you start eating real foods, foods will start to taste much better than they ever have before.

So you could eat something like a plain chicken breast with salt and pepper on it. You’re like, oh my god, this is like the best thing I’ve ever had. And I never realized this until I stopped eating all the junk food. And when I stopped eating all the junk food, all that stuff that’s been designed to be like super, hyper delicious or whatever. All of a sudden, the simpler things just taste so, so good.

I think you know, we should still enjoy food. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying food should not taste good. And I’ve heard people say that food is fuel and it should just be fuel and you shouldn’t even enjoy it. And I’m like, no, we should enjoy food. We’ve been programmed to enjoy food, it’s what’s kept us alive for millions of years, if we didn’t enjoy food, we wouldn’t go back to it, we wouldn’t seek out nourishment when we need it. You know.

So I think food can be both simple, and delicious. I think food can be kind of boring, and still tastes amazing. So this isn’t about not enjoying ourselves or not enjoying food. I just think we have to get away from this idea that every food experience has to be amazing. Now I went out to dinner last night, and I had a steak and it had this kind of like South American sauce on it. And it was really delicious. It was really good. I really enjoyed it.

And every now and then I will go out to dinner. And I will do something that is a little bit more of an experience around food. And, you know, I might go out with friends or my girlfriend or something like that, and we come together and we can enjoy food. And we like I mentioned, you know, our ancestors would come and celebrate around food and it’s how we bonded and connected and how we grew closer together. And I still think we should do that.

But I think we can also simplify things. And that every food experience doesn’t have to be, you know, something amazing, right? Because when we have this idea when we have this thought in our head that every food experience has to be amazing, then, just the idea of changing our our nutrition plan, changing our diet is gonna seem just undoable, it’s just gonna seem too hard. It’s gonna seem too hard.

So, the idea that food has to be an experience, we just have to squash that idea. Start by simplifying food, make it simple. What can you do to simplify a meal? Stick with real food food that still looks like food. Try to stay away from anything that has a marketing message behind it right? So don’t be eating that stuff that’s been concocted in a lab to get you hooked on the food like an addict is hooked on the drug. Gotta get away from that.

Start to make better choices and start to simplify your food. And yes, it can be boring. Eating healthy can be boring, and it can be delicious. And it can improve your health and it can improve your fitness and it can help you improve your running all those things.

And remember, if you want help with this, if you want help simplifying your nutrition, you know maybe you’re ready now to embrace the boring and you want to be able to support your running performance reach out. I’m always always here for you. Cool, love you all. Keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.

135. The Benefits of Becoming Metabolically Flexible

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As a runner, you’ve probably been told that if you want to avoid hitting the wall, you need to consume a whole lot of one main fuel source - sugar. This approach does work for some, but for others …

Continue Reading about 135. The Benefits of Becoming Metabolically Flexible →

Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 135 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today, the benefits of becoming metabolically flexible. As a runner, you’ve probably been told that if you want to avoid hitting the wall, you need to consume a whole lot of one type of fuel: sugar basically, right?

And this approach does work for some, but for others, it spells metabolic disaster leading to incessant weight gain, insulin resistance and a host of other health issues. If you fall into this latter category, you may want to consider becoming metabolically flexible. Metabolic flexibility means you’re able to use multiple fuel sources effectively, this approach will help you lose weight, run longer and run faster.

So in this episode of the podcast, you’ll learn exactly what metabolic flexibility is, you’ll learn all about the benefits of metabolic flexibility. And I’ll show you how to get started with it. And you have to understand something: metabolic flexibility is not a one size fits all type of solution.

Okay, this does not work the same for everyone. Everyone’s a little bit different. We all have our own goals, we all have our own metabolisms, we all have our own likes and dislikes. You know, we all have our certain food preferences, body types, genetics, all these things factor into how we approach nutrition from an athletic performance standpoint, and metabolic flexibility, you know, choosing different sources of fuel for different types of activities is going to be the same it’s going to, it’s going to be different for every individual.

Okay, this is one of the reasons why I created the Running Lean coaching project. This is my immersive coaching program. And in my program we work together. So I work with you as an individual to help you come up with a personalized plan that works for you. You want to become metabolically flexible, you want to become more efficient at burning fat, you want to, you know, lose weight, you want to get faster, you want to be able to run longer than you ever have before.

All these things require some level of metabolic flexibility is what we’re talking about on the podcast here today. But also, if you want to take things a step further, and you want a little help with this, then consider joining the Running Lean coaching project. And what we do together is that we will put together a plan that works for you. And that will help you to get to your individualized goals, whatever those are for yourself.

So it’s really about you becoming the best possible version of yourself, the healthiest version of yourself, the most badass version of yourself and making it last. This is about long term, sustainable results, not about quick fixes, okay.

So if you’re ready to lose weight, get stronger, run faster, run longer, then you’re ready for the Running Lean coaching project. Just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply. You’ll fill out a short application, you and I will jump on a quick zoom call. We’ll talk about your goals. We’ll see if this is a good fit for you. I would love to have you join me in the Running Lean coaching project. Just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply. Put in your application and we’ll see you soon. All right on to the topic.

So what is metabolic flexibility? At its simplest, metabolic flexibility is your body’s ability to use whatever fuel is available to it at the time. It means that your body’s metabolism is flexible, the ability of your body to metabolize different substrates, meaning different types of fuel. So different types of fuel could be food that you just ate could be used as fuel. It could be fuel that is stored in your muscles like glycogen.

It could be fuel that is stored in your fat stores could be stored body fat that you use as fuel. And so for most people, and I’ll get into this in just a minute for most people, though, they are only using like one source of fuel, mostly that stored glycogen, okay? And we want to change that we want to be able to tap into multiple sources of fuel, the two main sources of fuel we’re going to be talking about.

And the two main sort of preferred fuel sources that your body prefers to use, especially for exercise, like running, are going to be carbohydrates stored in your body. So sugar is stored in your body as glycogen in your muscles, and fat that’s stored in your body’s fat cells. Okay, so these are the two preferred fuel sources that we love to use it we’re very well adapted at using.

So the science calls this glucose oxidation and fat oxidation, okay. And something you have to understand about, you know, fat burning or a sugar burning is that we are always burning both at the same time. So it’s never just one or the other. Or very, you’re always burning a little bit of one or the other, okay? But what we’re talking about here is, is maximizing the amount of fat or, or glycogen that you’re burning, okay, so it’s never an all or nothing when it comes to fat and glucose oxidation, you’re always burning both.

But for example, the longer you’re out there running, the more fat that you’re actually burning, your body will, you know, if you’re running at a lower intensity, you will start out burning more carbohydrate, but that fat oxidation will continue to go up. And so what’s nice about you know, being really well fat adapted, is that you can burn much more fat much more efficiently.

And you can run for longer and longer distances without having to, you know, refuel, because you’ve got plenty of fuel on board at all times. And if you are a fat adapted athlete, so if you’re a low carb athlete, and you’ve become fat adapted, then you can even run at higher intensities, and still be very efficient at using fat as your main source of fuel. This is one of the reasons why we get into fat adaptation.

It’s because we want to be able to burn fat very, very effectively for long distance running. But also we can get into some pretty intense running as well. So they did a study a while back, it’s called the faster study and you can look it up. And one of the things they did was that they found that for the most part, most athletes that are, you know, the carb adapted athletes, so just your standard athletes, not fat adapted athletes, that once they get over 65% of VO2 Max, that they they tend to stop burning fat and start burning, mostly carbohydrate. Okay. So this is the majority of people out there.

Once you get over 65% VO2 max, you’re burning mostly carbohydrates up to 65%. And you’re burning mostly fat. And this goes across the board for most people. With the faster study, they found that the fat adapted athletes could burn much more fat than the carb adapted athletes. So their peak fat oxidation was 2.3 times higher in the fat adapted group.

So over twice as much fat they were able to burn. And they found that they could increase their intensity and still be burning mostly fat so they could get up to 76% of their VO2 max and still be burning more fat than carbohydrate and really didn’t need the carbohydrates in order to the carbohydrates in the form of fuel in order to achieve those kinds of numbers.

So just understand that one thing I think people get into this idea of becoming fat adapted, and they think that they’re just burning fat, you know, and that’s it. That’s the end of the story. Or if you’re not fat adapted, you’re only burning sugar, you’re only burning carbohydrates.

And really, it’s not the case, you’re always burning both, okay? Just understand that. But as a fat adapted athlete, you can take advantage of your levels of fat oxidation, which are going to be much higher than the standard of carb adapted athlete. And it’ll give you a bit of an edge.

So why am I even talking about this? Well, I’ve been really on this kick this whole month about talking about ancestral living, you know, and what we’ve done as human beings for millions of years. And really, for since like 2.5 million years ago, to about 10,000 years ago, humans have been very metabolically flexible, we’ve been able to, to burn fat very, very efficiently, we’re able to take advantage of other types of foods when they were available to us, you know, think about, you know, times when certain types of foods would have been scarce, we had to have different types of fuel, and we had to be able to metabolize those different types of fuel.

So for example, when we would hunt and you know, eat meat, or we are eating things like fish and eggs, very dense, nutrient dense types of foods, we could eat, we could hunt and eat a lot of meat, you know, and share that with the group. And then we might go for days without food. So in that case, we are consuming fuel in the form of, you know, meat and animal protein. But then we would go days, without food, where we would be basically using our own stored body fat as fuel, right?

This is the way we are designed to operate as human beings. We are very efficient fat burning machines, we always have been. What has happened in the last 50-60 years is that we’ve gotten away from that? And we’ve gotten more into just relying on very quick sources of energy, like carbohydrate, like sugar, like grains, like really concentrated refined carbohydrates, refined grains, that kind of stuff.

And the problem with that approach is that we really well, there’s all kinds of problems with that approach. But from an athletic standpoint, we’re only using one source of fuel when we do that, we’re not able to take advantage of the fact that we are really efficient fat burning machines. Okay, so back in the day humans would eat sporadically, we would take advantage of the fact that we could find things like tubers and nuts and seeds and fruit and things like that. And we would be able to use those things as fuel as well.

So we became really good, really efficient at being metabolically flexible. It’s one of the reasons we’ve survived. Whereas a lot of other hominid type species did not, you know, because we were able to have that flexibility. Okay. And all I’m proposing here is that we get that back. That’s it. That’s all I’m saying.

And especially if you’re a runner, then you are absolutely leaving a lot on the table. If you’re not taking advantage of metabolic flexibility, you absolutely are leaving a lot on the table. Our bodies are well adapted to feast and famine. Our bodies are well adapted to a variety of fuel sources, especially using stored body fat as a fuel source. Most people do not do that. Most people, most people are good at storing fat, but not actually using it as a source of fuel.

But we humans, we are really good at burning fat. We’ve been doing it for millions of years, I just want us to get back to being really efficient at burning fat, okay. And as a runner, you absolutely want to be taking advantage of this virtually unlimited source of fuel that you have on your body. stored body fat is an amazing source of fuel. And I talk to runners every single day and I coach runners on how to become fat adapted every single day.

And I get a lot of skeptical runners out there. They’re like I just don’t see how this is possible. I don’t see how, you know, not taking in all these gels and stuff and sports drinks that I’ve been doing forever. I don’t see how I can possibly run without all that stuff. And then they do it. And then they’re pretty surprised at how amazing they feel, okay?

But it’s not about just doing just using that one source of fuel. This is the thing I want to kind of drill home here today is that metabolic flexibility means you can use multiple fuel sources. So yes, that does mean that you can use carbohydrates as a fuel source as well as fat. But most runners don’t take advantage of the fat side of things. They’re only interested in the carbohydrate side of things.

But why would you leave a tool on the table, so to speak, you know, why not become fat adapted and get really, really good at burning fat? And also, you can use carbohydrates strategically, in order to have that flexibility for different types of activities, different intensities of running different distances, all right.

The problem is that most people are just metabolically inflexible. So most people, especially here in the United States are eating the standard American diet. It’s interesting that the acronym for that is SAD because it’s a sad diet. It’s so sad, it’s making us sad, it’s making us unhealthy, or it’s creating a nation of sick, weak, unhealthy, overweight people.

And one of the issues with this is that it’s a very, very high carbohydrate diet. And it means that you have to rely on just one fuel source for energy. So if you’re a runner, and you’re eating the standard American diet, you are relying on one source of fuel carbohydrates for energy for running, and you’re not taking advantage of being fat adapted.

So that standard American diet with all the carbs, you might be eating six, seven times a day, you know, you are relying on one source of fuel and you need it, you need it every couple of hours, or else you’re going to crash and burn.

Not to mention you’ve got to carb load before running the night before you got to carb load before you get out there and run you got to carb up during runs. You’ve got to carb up after runs or else you’re going to crash and burn. And this might work okay for you for running like it might help to fuel your runs. And you might be okay with that.

But eating that much carbohydrate, especially eating every few hours, it does a few things. Not good things by the way. For example, It ramps up your cravings for more carbs. So you just want more and more and more of that same stuff, same sugary goodness, you know, it causes your body to keep storing a lot of that excess energy as fat in your fat cells.

And because you’re not fat adapted, you can’t really tap into that fat for energy. So you just keep storing more and more fat in those fat cells. It causes massive spikes and dips in your blood sugar, and therefore your energy levels throughout the day.

And you end up being hungry all the time you feel fatigued, you have these massive cravings for more sugary foods, more carbohydrates, you get what people call hangry because you’re hungry and angry at the same time. And really, it just causes a host of issues not just weight gain, but it can lead to things like insulin resistance, which means your body is producing so much insulin that your body has become accustomed to that much insulin and so it’s no longer bringing your blood sugar down the way it’s supposed to.

Which means your body just keeps storing more and more fat in your fat cells. And insulin resistance is something that causes type two diabetes, and it leads to gaining a lot of weight and obesity and things like that.

And not to mention that eating that standard American diet with all the carbs and you know, eating just a ton of carbs, especially for running means you’re going to be hitting the wall at some point during a long run because you’re going to crash and burn unless you keep the sugar intake coming in.

But even that can have all kinds of digestive issues, it can cause digestive stress, and a lot of people cannot handle that much sugar while they’re out there running. And so they end up just sort of like either having to find a portapotty or they end up just crashing and burning. And you’re hitting the wall.

So that’s kind of the problem with the way that most people do this thing, right? They’re not metabolically flexible. So they have to rely on one source of fuel only for running. And you end up running out of fuel, you end up with insulin resistance with weight gain, and with a host of other metabolic issues, right. So that is the way that most people do it.

And I’m just saying here, listen, there’s another approach that you can take and you can become more metabolically flexible, you can actually train your body to use fat and carbohydrate as your two main fuel sources. very effectively, you can do this very effectively. So here are some of the benefits of metabolic flexibility.

So first of all, you can tap into different fuels and use different fuels for different types of activities, more intense activities, you can increase your carbohydrate intake, you can use different types of carbohydrates, you can use, you know, very concentrated forms of carbohydrates. So you can use slow burning types of carbohydrates. And you can use carbs for long distance activities, or for higher intensity activities. But one of the benefits is that you have this flexibility, and you have the ability to use different fuels.

So as you get into that higher, you know, intensity exercise closer to 65-70-80% of your VO2 max, when your fat oxidation starts to go down, you can actually increase your carbohydrate intake. And in preparation for that, you’ve got to do it ahead of time. But you can increase your carbohydrate intake, and maintain high intensity levels, without as much carb intake as you would need if you were not fat adapted.

Okay, so that’s one amazing benefit, obviously, you’re gonna burn more fat. One of the biggest benefits here is that you burn fat very efficiently. And when you burn fat, you know you’re losing weight, it’s much easier to lose weight. If you become fat adapted, if you actually train your body to be a really efficient fat burning machine, right. And you use fat as a source of fuel for running, then you’re going to lose weight much easier, and you’re no longer going to be storing so much body fat, you’ll be burning that body fat. Okay, so losing weight becomes much much easier when you’re fat adapted.

You know, one of the other benefits is that you can improve your athletic performance not only running longer, but running faster again, because you can tap into different types of fuel, you’re not relying on just fat, or just carbohydrate as a fuel source.

One of the other things is that you become more insulin sensitive. So instead of becoming insulin resistant, your body becomes more sensitive to the effects of insulin, meaning your blood sugar’s will normalize, you won’t have those spikes, and crashes and blood sugars, you’re going to have more all day energy. So you’re going to have more steady energy throughout the day, which is amazing.

You’re going to be able to think more clearly because your brain uses fat as a source of fuel. So your cognitive function will be improved. You will sleep better at night, you will feel more rested when you wake up in the morning. And going forward with your weight management or weight maintenance. That becomes much much easier if you are metabolically flexible. It’s much harder if you’re relying on just carbohydrate as a fuel source, because it just it makes managing your weight much more of a challenge because then you have all these other things the insulin resistance and the weight, you know the storing body, storing of more body fat, and incessant weight gain and hunger levels and things like that.

So being metabolically flexible means that you have the ability to tap into multiple sources of fuel, and you have the ability to improve your athletic performance and just become this amazing fat burning machine as well as having the ability to use carbohydrates as fuel.

One thing a lot of people one mistake a lot of people make when they become fat adapted is they don’t regularly use carbohydrates as a fuel source for certain athletic endeavors. And you got to kind of train yourself to use carbs as well as you know, your stored body fat as fuel, you don’t want to just become fat adapted and wait six months, and then, you know, try carbs for a race, because your body at that point is so used to using fat as fuel. It’s not really used to having that carbohydrate glycogen stored as fuel the way that it used to when you were carb adapted.

So you have to actually train yourself to become more carb adapted as you get into some of the more intense running and things like that. So that’s just something to keep in mind. So how do you do this? How do you become more metabolically flexible?

There’s a couple things you can do to get started, number one, is getting fat adapted, this is really important. So you gotta get your body burning fat more efficiently. And most runners just don’t do this. Right. So you got to get off the sugar, you got to get off the refined grains and things like that, and start training your body. To use fat as a fuel source, one of the easiest ways you can do this is just train in the fasted state.

Don’t eat anything before you run, like let’s say you run in the morning, don’t eat anything after dinner the night before, you know, just get out there and start running in that fasted state. And that will force your body to start using stored body fat as fuel. And of course, you have to lay off the carbs too, that’s going to kind of hinder this process.

But getting fat adapted is one of the best things you can do to become more metabolically flexible, because now you’ve taken advantage of this fuel source that most runners are not using. Okay. The other thing you can do to become more metabolically flexible, is to exercise regularly. And you gotta do it the right way, you have to be doing both aerobic type exercises. So long distance running would fall into that category beautifully, right.

But also you have to include some form of high intensity exercising, so something like weightlifting or HIIT training, or sprinting, all those things are going to help increase that intensity that you’re putting on your, your systems, you know, your muscles, your aerobic system, you’re, you’re gonna help to increase your lactate threshold and things like that. All those things will help you to become more efficient at burning fat and help you to become more metabolically flexible. Okay.

So getting fat adapted, and then doing both aerobic type of exercise and higher intensity, shorter duration, but higher intensity exercises, is going to kind of kick things into gear for you there. Okay? So think about this this week, I want you to think about becoming more metabolically flexible. There’s so many reasons why you want to do this. You don’t want to be doing things the way that most people are doing things. Because the way most people are doing things does not work. It does not work for the majority of us, okay?

And if you’re one of those people, and you find yourself wanting to lose some weight, and you find yourself wanting to improve your running performance, and you find yourself not wanting to rely on all the carbs and having all the negative things that go along with that thing, consider becoming fat adapted, and taking advantage of that metabolic flexibility that we as humans have developed over millions of years. Let’s just get back to that. Cool. All right, that’s all I got for you this week. Love you all, keep on Running Lean, and I will talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.

134. The Art of Living in Integrity

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I coach a lot of runners who honestly want to change. They are ready to dial in their nutrition, lose the extra weight (permanently), get stronger, run faster, and become the healthiest version of …

Continue Reading about 134. The Art of Living in Integrity →

Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 134 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today, the art of living in integrity. So I coach a lot of runners who honestly want to change. They say they’re ready to dial in their nutrition, they’re ready to lose the extra weight and do it permanently. They want to get stronger, they want to run faster, they’re ready to become the healthiest version of themselves.

But oftentimes, there’s this big disconnect between what they want for themselves and what they actually do. And the problem isn’t a lack of desire, because they want it. I know they want it bad for themselves. It’s not an absence of willpower. They’re just not living in integrity. So in this episode of the podcast, I’m going to explore what it means to live in integrity, the art of living in integrity, what it looks like to live in integrity, and how it can absolutely change your life.

I’m also going to share some practical tips to help you get started living a life of integrity. And listen, hitting your goals is all about living a life of integrity. Yes, it takes discipline, it takes consistency, it takes time. But it also requires that you live a life of integrity. And this is one of the reasons why I created the Running Lean coaching project.

This is my immersive coaching program that delivers all the knowledge, the support and the accountability that you need to improve your health to become the healthiest and most badass version of yourself. And to make it last permanently. It’s not about quick fixes. This is about longevity. Okay?

So if you’re ready to lose weight, if you’re ready to get stronger, if you’re ready to run faster, run longer than you’re ready for the Running Lean coaching project. Just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply. To get started, you have to fill out a short application schedule call with me, we’re gonna have a brief conversation, we’ll talk about your goals. And we’ll see if coaching is a good fit for you. It’s not for everybody.

But if this is something that you’re interested in, if you want to live a life of integrity, and you want help hitting your goals, join me in the Running Lean coaching project. All right, let’s get into this topic.

So I coach a lot of people who honestly want to change, they are ready to finally figure out this whole nutrition thing, right, they’re ready to lose the weight permanently, to get leaner to get stronger, maybe to run their fastest marathon, just to get back to being the healthiest version of themselves or to become the healthiest version of themselves.

But oftentimes, there’s this huge disconnect between what they want and what they do. There’s a disconnect between their goals, and their behavior, their behavior, their behaviors are not necessarily in alignment with their goals. So they’re doing things that don’t really help them to move closer to their goals. They’re doing things that actually move them further away from their goals. I don’t know if you can relate to this.

Maybe you’ve tried cleaning up your diet in the past maybe you’ve tried you know sticking to a plan, but you constantly find yourself self-sabotaging. If you find yourself like eating all the cookies or like just going out for pizza or eating ice cream every night. I don’t know, this was me.

Anyway, I don’t know if you can relate to this. But this is what I used to do. And for me, I had this idea in my head that I wanted to lose weight. I was pretty overweight at the time. And I remember thinking man, I need to lose about 40 pounds here. And eating this junk food and eating all the sugar and eating all this ice cream and eating all this pizza is probably not going to get me there. And yet I find myself doing it anyway. Can you relate?

So for me eating the junk food was not in alignment with my goals of losing weight, but I was doing it anyway. And if you have a goal in mind for yourself, whatever that looks like for you whether it’s to lose weight or just become healthier, stronger, to run faster, whatever it is for you.

If your behaviors are not in alignment with that goal, if the things you do on a daily basis aren’t moving you closer to that goal, if they’re moving you further away from that goal, then you are not living in integrity. Oh, there’s all kinds of reasons why you can’t stick to your plan or why you ate the pizza, or why you’re going to eat ice cream. There’s reasons you’ve got stories, you’ve got justifications. You could justify this stuff all day long.

But the thing is, you’re not being in integrity with yourself. And this is one of the main takeaways that I want you to have from this podcast today is being in integrity with yourself. And it doesn’t matter what other people think, or what you’re putting out there for the outside world to see what you’re posting on Instagram. None of that stuff matters. It’s like yes or no, are you in integrity with yourself.

And like I said, at the beginning, this isn’t a problem of willpower. It’s not a, it’s not a problem of desire. It’s not that you don’t want this for yourself. I honestly wanted to lose weight, I honestly knew that what I was doing was not moving me closer to that goal that was actually causing me to probably gain more weight, but I was doing it anyway, I wasn’t in integrity with myself.

And it didn’t matter what I showed the outside world, or what I told people I was doing. And it didn’t matter how much I wanted it for myself. I simply wasn’t in integrity with myself. So what is integrity? I looked up a couple of different definitions. And one definition says: A firm adherence to a code of moral or artistic values, I think that’s kind of interesting that they use the word artistic values. So it’s like incorruptible, that’s kind of cool.

Another definition says: The quality or state of being complete, or undivided. When you are undivided in your actions, when you’re on when your actions are undivided, from your goals, then you are in integrity. So living in integrity means that you are adhering to a code of values of principles. Right?

It means having a strong inner compass, which is just a powerful set of guiding values and principles. And when you have this, when you have this inner compass, you are more likely to stay on track, you’re more likely to be in integrity. Most people don’t do this, though they don’t have any type of inner compass, they never do the work of creating a set of guiding principles for themselves, right.

Another way of saying this, and this is something that I use all the time with my coaching clients is that it’s you know, being in integrity means that you make a plan. And then you stick to the plan no matter what. You make a plan and stick to the plan no matter what. And it’s the “no matter what” part that’s important.

Again, everybody can make a plan. It’s sticking to the plan that’s the important part, because that’s the part that’s actually going to move you closer to your goals. No matter what you want for yourself, you want a better career, you want a better marriage, you want to better, you want better health, you want to be able to run faster, you want running to be easier for you, whatever it is you want for yourself. You’ve got to have a plan for getting there, and then you have to stick to that plan. That’s it. It’s that simple.

Why do we make this so complicated? Why do we have all these reasons and stories and excuses and justifications for why we can’t do it? It’s interesting, isn’t it? But what if you did what if you stuck to your plan? No matter what that is, it’s hard to do that. This is why I have a coaching practice because I help people stick to their plan. Because so many things get in the way. And I get that I totally get that.

But I want you to think about this. I want you to think about what it would look like for you to be in integrity with yourself because that’s what this is all about. It’s about having your own back. And what I mean by that is like you say you’re going to do something and then you do that thing. If you do what you say you’re going to do, you make a plan, and then you stick to the plan.

And I coach people on how to do this, I even tell them, Okay, listen, if you want to make an exception to your plan, that’s totally fine. But like, make that part of your plan. You know, let’s say you’re going out with friends on Saturday night, and you want to have a glass of wine, totally fine, have a glass of wine, make that part of your plan.

You say to yourself, oh, I’m not going to drink this weekend. But then you go out and you have a few glasses of wine. And then you feel bad about yourself, you’re not being in integrity with yourself, you don’t have your own back. But if you decide, oh, we’re going out friends, I’m going to have a glass of wine, I’m gonna enjoy myself. Maybe I’ll even split a dessert with my husband.

And then you go out and you do that, you go out and you enjoy dinner, you have a glass of wine, you split dessert. That’s being in integrity with yourself, it doesn’t mean you never have a dessert again in your life doesn’t mean you never drink alcohol, again, what it means is that you have a plan and then you stick to your plan. That’s it. It means that if your friends are getting married, and you’re going to their wedding, and you decide you know what, ahead of time you decide, I’m going to have a piece of cake at this wedding. Because I mean, come on, it’s wedding cake. It’s amazing, right? Then you have a piece of cake at the wedding and you enjoy it, it’s part of your plan.

That’s what it means to live in integrity. What, what integrity does not look like is you go to the wedding, and you’re like, I’m not eating any cake. Because you know, I’m trying to stick to my plan here. And then you eat like six pieces of cake. Because it’s like, wedding cake. And it’s amazing. And it’s free. And you can’t let it go to waste, right? So you got to eat it all up.

That’s what I used to do. I would go back for seconds and thirds when it came to stuff like wedding cake, because it’s just sitting out there. What are they going to do with that? Right? They’re just gonna throw it away, give it to the staff or something, I don’t know. But we got to eat that stuff, right? That was just me.

So that’s not being an integrity, when you’re, when you’re doing things that go against what you want for yourself, or when you’re doing things that go against your plan. So make a plan and stick to your plan. If you want to have a piece of cake, put it on your plan. It’s no big deal. Right.

And listen, this is not something you do once, and you’re done. Living in integrity is like it’s an ongoing practice. It’s something that you have to do every day. It’s not like, you know, you, you decide you’re going to lose weight, and you change your diet and you do it for a couple of weeks. And then you kind of start doing other things, you start slipping back into old behaviors.

This isn’t about going out and running faster you want to you know, you want to PR a marathon, you don’t go out and do speed work once. Living in integrity means that you practice this on a daily basis. And I say practice because you’re not going to do it perfectly. Nobody does. Right. And being in integrity and living a life of integrity is not some, you know, level of enlightenment that you’re gonna get like, this is just something you do.

As part of your daily living, it’s part of your life, it’s part of who you are. It’s part of what you do. Like, like I say, all the time being healthy. It’s not a destination we’re trying to get to. It’s how you live your life. Living in integrity is how you live your life. It’s who you are and what you do. And you’re already doing this, I guarantee you that you are in integrity in some areas of your life.

Think about this, think about your relationship, maybe you’re married, maybe you have a significant other. Maybe it’s your relationship with your kids, whatever it is, I’m pretty sure that you are living in integrity in that area of your life. What about work, you know, you say you’re gonna show up on time for work and you do. You gotta get your work done by a certain day at a certain time or you know, your boss is gonna yell at you or whatever.

So you’re in integrity with that. Maybe it’s your workout schedule. Maybe you’re in integrity with how you, you know, schedule your runs, and then you go and you do those runs no matter what. These are all places in your life right now. Where you are, being in integrity. You’re already doing it.

But I’m going to challenge you to look at all other areas of your life. And I want to ask, I want you to ask yourself, honestly, are you in integrity in all areas of your life? You know, you’re practicing being in integrity right now in some places, but what about others? Think about that? Is there a place in your life right now where you could be more in integrity?

And can you take the way you approach your relationship, for example, that being in integrity, no matter what attitude that you have about your relationship? Can you kind of copy and paste that integrity into this other area of your life? Maybe it’s, it’s your diet?

How cool would it be if you just did that? What if you lived your life and integrity in all areas of your life? What would that look like for you? What do you think you could accomplish? That you don’t have right now. And I say that this is an art form. Because being in integrity, living a life of integrity, there’s an art to it.

There’s an art to living in integrity, because it’s different for everyone. It’s personal to you. It’s unique to how you live your life and the things that you want for yourself. And you know, what, only you know, when you’re doing it. Nobody else knows you can fool with the outside world, but you can never fool yourself, you know, when you’re in integrity, and when you’re not.

It’s an art because when you do it right, it’s a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful way to live your life. It’s a beautiful way to accomplish anything that you want for yourself. So you’re doing this in some areas of your life, you’re not doing this in some other areas of your life. Why not?

And what would it look like if you were to just take this idea of living a life of integrity across all areas of your life. And one of the ways you can start doing this is to create that set of guiding principles. So I call this a strong inner compass that’s guiding you. It’s like your North Star.

So the first step would be to create a set of values and principles to help guide you in the direction of your goals. And this is going to look different for everyone. But you’ve got to hold yourself to the principles that you create for yourself. That’s what it means to be in integrity. Like I said before, you can create these values and these principles for yourself. And that’s great. It’s like it’s great to have a set of guiding values and principles.

But if you’re not holding yourself to those, then what good is it? What good is it? I wouldn’t even encourage you to write them down, put them on a piece of paper, put them on some post it notes, stick them on your bathroom mirror, put them on a note on your phone, so that you can look at it all the time.

You need to see these things and be reminded of why you’re doing the things you’re doing. What are the principles that are guiding you? What are the principles and values that you find important for yourself, and then stick to those guiding principles. Allow them to guide you. Okay? Remember, this is about making a plan. And then sticking to the plan. And the sticking to the plan is the important part. And the sticking to the plan no matter what is the really important part.

Because anybody can have a plan. But very few people are that disciplined and that and have that much integrity to stick with their plan, no matter what happens around them. But this is what’s going to be the game changer for you. This is what’s going to get you to your goals. And if you find yourself living in integrity in some areas of your life, but not others, I want you to ask yourself, why? Get curious about that.

Why aren’t you living in integrity in all areas of your life right now? And where’s that one area that really needs some work? You know, maybe it’s your diet, maybe it’s one of those things where you’re just like, I just can’t seem to stick to this diet. Why is that? Get curious about that. Is it because it’s hard? Is it because you feel like you’re missing out on something good?

Because I’m going to tell you right now, most of the time, it’s just your brain telling you that it’s uncomfortable and you’d rather be doing something that feels good. Because this is the way our brains are designed, it’s the way our brains have evolved. We are always trying to seek pleasure and avoid pain. And sticking to a food plan that does not include pizza and cookies and ice cream can seem uncomfortable. It can seem, you know, like, oh, we’re not, we’re not enjoying ourselves.

Everybody else is eating all this amazing food. And we’re eating, you know, salmon and broccoli over here or whatever, which I find amazingly delicious, by the way. But ask yourself why do you think? Why do you think you find it hard to live in integrity? Why do you think that is? Get curious with yourself.

Oftentimes, you’re going to find that it’s just your brain doing what it likes to do, which is to keep you comfortable, and seek pleasure and avoid pain. But what if you just embraced some of that discomfort. And when I say embrace discomfort, it doesn’t mean like you’re gonna live your life in discomfort forever.

This is just like, certain moments, we’re talking about here, certain moments when you want to go back for that second or third piece of wedding cake, and instead not doing it. And that’s uncomfortable, because you want it and you’re like, well, I really want that thing. I have this strong desire to eat some more cake right now. And you’re not going to do that.

So if that desire is still gonna be there, but you’re not going to satisfy that desire. That’s what feels uncomfortable, right? But what if you just embrace that? What if you’re just like, you know what, for me, being integrity means that I’m not going to go back for that second piece of cake.

And we make it into some big thing like, oh, it’s like, oh, it’s like a big thing. And it stresses us out. But it’s just cake. All right. Let’s get over that. Let’s get over the feelings around it. And let’s get over the emotional part of it. And let’s just embrace the fact that what we’re doing here, this is not going to be moving us towards our goals. This is not in alignment with who we want to be. This is not living a life of integrity.

So look at different areas of your life. I want you to do that this week. And then consider whether or not you’re actually living a life of integrity in every area of your life. And if you’re not, get curious, ask yourself why? Because imagine what you could accomplish. If you practice the art of living in integrity in every area of your life every single day. What could you accomplish? Who could you be in three months and six months in a year? If you did that? I bet it’d be pretty amazing for you. We talked about becoming the healthiest and most badass version of yourself. This is what’s gonna get you there. Alright, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on Running Lean. Talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.

133. Being an Example to Those Around You

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Today I have a bit of a different podcast episode for you, it’s going to be more of a call to action. I believe that each and every one of us has the ability to make a positive impact on this …

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Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to Episode 133, of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today being an example to those around you. So today, I’ve got a bit of a different podcast episode for you. Today, I want this to be more of a call to action. So I believe that each and every one of us has the ability to make a positive impact on this world. And you don’t have to be a celebrity, or a social media influencer in order to do it.

Being an example of those around me is a big part of my mission. It’s how I make a positive impact in the world. And it drives me ever forward. So my hope today is that you listen to this episode and then take action. And I’m going to encourage you to do something today to start being an example to those around you. And then maybe just maybe some of those people will do the same.

And just imagine the ripple effect of positive changes we could make if we all lead by example. But first, I’m going to talk quickly about the Running Lean coaching project. This is my coaching program, my immersive coaching program. And something I want to mention today is that the way that I do coaching is a little bit different from other people, I don’t just hand over a plan and say, here’s what you’re going to do. And then you’re kind of on your own.

This is about creating new habits, it’s about creating a different lifestyle. Because what you’ve been doing up to this point, probably hasn’t been working for you. Or you’ve tried a bunch of things in the past, a bunch of other diets, maybe even had some other type of nutrition coaching, or dietary advice or dietary coaching, that really hasn’t worked for you.

And so I do things differently. What I teach in my programs is all about longevity, it’s all about sustainability. It’s all about maintaining good healthy eating habits and good exercise habits. For the rest of your life. It isn’t about the short term, it’s not about losing weight as fast as possible. It’s not about some quick fix. This is about the long term.

Remember, being healthy isn’t a destination we’re trying to get to, being healthy is how we live our life going forward. And I teach you exactly how to do all this in the Running Lean coaching project. Right. So this is my immersive coaching program, you get group coaching, IT support from the group, it has support and personalized guidance from me, the one on one coaching with me, they get tons of access to me.

And this, this whole program is designed to help you get results. It’s about results. It’s about you accomplishing your goals, whatever those look like for you. So it’s a personalized approach that helps you accomplish your goals, and is going to look different for you than it does for somebody else. And that’s cool, because there is no one size fits all when it comes to becoming the healthiest and most badass version of yourself. There just isn’t. That’s why I do what I do.

And if you want this for yourself, if you want to learn how to become the best version of yourself and how to maintain that forever, then just go to runningleancoaching.com/apply, fill out a short application, you and I will jump on a zoom call. I’ll talk to you all about the coaching program, I’ll explain exactly how it works. And we’ll just see if there’s a good fit for you. Sound good? runningleancoaching.com/apply, I would love to have you in the Running Lean coaching project. Okay, so on to this topic today, being an example to those around you.

And like I said at the beginning, this is a bit of a different episode, I’m going to share a little bit about how I ended up where I am today. And the power of being an example and what that means to me. And then I really want this to be something where you take the information I’m going to share with you today and then you do something with it.

So be sure to listen to the end of this because I’ve got a call to action for you towards the end of this episode. And I want you to actually do something starting today to move in that direction of being an example to those around you. Okay. So be sure to listen to the end.

So here’s how I got to kind of where I am today. So 20 years ago, I was a very, very different person. I was significantly overweight. probably pushing 235 or so, 240. At my heaviest, I was very much out of shape. I couldn’t run at all, if I tried to run, there’s just no way even if I had to save my life, I couldn’t run a lick.

I was constantly sick, I was using alcohol as an emotional management tool, because I had no emotional management tools other than food and alcohol. I mean, that’s how I dealt with everything. I just numbed out everything. I was pretty miserable all the time, never felt good, I had zero energy.

And to be honest with you, I really felt like a disappointment. I felt like I was a disappointment to people around me, to my kids, to my family, to my friends, and especially to myself. And at some point along the way, I made a decision that I was never going to be a disappointment to myself or to anybody else, again, that I wasn’t gonna live my life the way I had been up to this point.

And so I started doing things differently. I quit drinking, that was a tough thing for me to do. But I had to make that choice for myself, that that was a problem for me. And that was something that was getting in the way of who I wanted to be. And it was really causing me to feel terrible all the time.

And, and not allowing me to grow, you know, mentally, emotionally. Or to become the healthiest version of myself, there was no way I could get there if I kept drinking alcohol. Because for me, once I start drinking, I can’t stop and have that same relationship with food, especially sugar, carbohydrates, that once I start eating that stuff, I can’t stop.

And I’m the kind of person who would go and get, you know, massive amounts of food I was an overeater as well. Massive amounts of food, people would look at me like, dude, seriously, you’re eating that much food? It’s like, yeah, lay off me, I’m starving. And I ate and drank in a way that was very unhealthy. Right?

And those two things were really combined especially to create this like very unhealthy version of myself and things were not good in my life. You know, I was going through a divorce. And I made this decision to change all that and I cleaned up my diet and I quit drinking and then one thing I did that helped more than anything else was I started running.

And I ran a 10k. And then I signed up for my first marathon. And I did that. And then I was kind of hooked, I got that running bug. And that was sort of a catalyst for me to start doing things that challenged me that were hard that required me to step up my game from a bunch of different viewpoints.

You know, I had to step up my mental and emotional game, I had to step up my nutrition game, I had to step up my fitness game, if I was going to be like this marathon runner, right? So you know, I cleaned up my diet, started running, I got stronger, I started lifting weights. And I really began working on my mindset. A big part of my transformation was the mindset piece.

And listen, I made a lot of mistakes along the way, I would love to sit here and tell you that everything has been rainbows and unicorns, since I decided to kind of get healthy, but it really hasn’t been. And I don’t know if you guys can relate to this, but I’ve had some starts and stops.

You know, I’ve experienced tons of ups and downs, places in you know, times in the last 10, 12, 15 years where I’ve had lots of successes and lots of failures. I’ve had triumphs, and I’ve had tragedies I’ve experienced, being in the best shape of my life. And then, you know, getting out of shape again, during that period of time, you know, lost a bunch of weight, and then gained most of it back and then I had to lose it again.

I’ve been in the best shape of my life and then other times not so much. I dealt with all kinds of challenges of life. And I’ve dealt with these things with courage and determination and grace at times. And other times I’ve had challenges that I really struggled to deal with. But here’s the thing, honestly, today looking at my life the way it is today, I wouldn’t change a thing about my past, I wouldn’t change any stuff that I went through. Because all that hard stuff I went through all those challenges that I experienced have made me who I am today.

You know, it’s the challenges that really cause us to change and grow and evolve and become more, we don’t grow and evolve and become more by staying in our comfort zone, we have to get out of our comfort zone. And sometimes we are forced out of our comfort zone by things that happen to us, you know, death in the family, or another divorce, these things are very challenging. And they can really throw us off.

Or we can step up and face them with courage and determination and move through them. Because the only way to get through challenging stuff is to move through it can’t go around it. You can’t avoid it, a lot of times you have to go right through it. But those are the things that make us who we are. So all that stuff I’ve experienced in my past, I can look at those things and say, yeah, I’ve grown because of that, I’ve become a different person, I’ve become a better person because of that.

And looking back over my past and over all the stuff that I’ve been through, I can see that throughout all of it, throughout all of it, I was being an example to others. Now, I wasn’t always being a good example. A lot of times I can say with complete honesty, that a lot of times I was being an example of what not to do. Okay. Overdrinking, eating junk food, getting incredibly overweight, losing a bunch of weight, gaining it all back and losing it again, don’t do that. Okay, that was sort of like the message.

I think some people were saying they were like, dude, I don’t want to be like this guy. Right? But at some point along the way, I decided that I didn’t want to be the example of what not to do. That I wanted to be a good example to the people around me. You know, at some point, I decided to be an example of what is possible, a positive example of good health, and happiness.

Now, when I talk about being an example to those around you and making an impact in this world, I’m not talking about, you don’t have to be a celebrity in order to impact the world, you don’t have to have a you don’t have to be a social media influencer with millions of followers, right? I can still make an impact on my world, my sphere of influence. And so can you.

And my sphere of influence is quite small. I have my kids and my family, I have my friends. And I have my social media, friends and social media followers and my listeners you. But here’s the thing, even though my sphere of influence might be small, I can make an impact by helping one person at a time.

And when I help one person to become better to become the best version of themselves, and then people in their world see that they want to follow suit. They have then become an example to their sphere of influence to their world. And you can see how the ripple effect starts to take effect here.

And so my mission, my mission in life is to make a positive impact on this world, to transform as many people as possible, to help them to become healthier, happier humans, I want to help you to become the healthiest and most badass version of yourself. I say this all the time here on the podcast, why?

Because this is my mission. This is why I do what I do. This is my calling. This is what gets me up in the morning. This is why I show up for you here every week on his podcast. This is why I show up for myself too. And in order to fulfill this mission, I have to be an example. I can be an example. And I can help one person at a time. And I know this is a slow process. But that’s okay. I’m not in this to be you know, to be to do it fast.

So I want to help you become the healthiest and most badass version of yourself. And then I want you to be an example of what’s possible to the people in your world to your sphere of influence. And then each of those people become an example to their people in their world and so on and so forth. Right? This is the ripple effect. So we can change the world.

Me and you, we can do it. It just takes being an example, it takes living your life in such a way that the behaviors that you engage in on a daily basis, are in alignment with that best version of yourself. Because when the actions that you take and your behaviors are in alignment with your goals of becoming that badass version of yourself, that’s when the good stuff happens.

Now we all have, like, we all want to be our best selves, right? I mean, I think we do talk to people all the time, we want to become their best selves. But their actions, their behaviors don’t always line up with that. They’re doing things that are really the opposite of that. And that was me, and I get it.

You know, overdrinking for me, was not a behavior that was moving me towards the best version of myself. So I had to cut that out of my life. Eating sugar, for me, is not something that works for me. And it’s something that moves me away from becoming the healthiest version of myself. So I’d cut that out of my life. So what I do today is in alignment with who I want to be.

And so for me, it’s about becoming the best version of myself in every area of my life. And there are four key areas that I coach on in my program. And when you work with me, you’re going to improve in all of these areas. And they are nutrition, strength, endurance, and mindset.

Nutrition. Am I eating real food? Is the food that I’m eating? Does it still look like food? Or is it processed garbage? Is it full of chemicals and sugar and seed oils? Or does it still look like food our ancestors have been eating for thousands of years? Am I fueling my body like an athlete? Or am I just eating like a couch potato?

Am I using food as an emotional management tool? Because I used to do that a lot. You know, am I dealing with my emotions? Do I feel good about my food choices? Am I in control of my food choices? Or does my eating feel out of control? These are ways that I can kind of check myself and say, okay is my nutrition on point?

And then strength. So at 55 years old, I’m in the best shape of my life, I’m the strongest I’ve ever been, you know, I have changed my body composition. Over the last few years, I’ve gained like 20 pounds of muscle. And I’m down to about 12% body fat. And I’m getting stronger all the time. I keep improving this.

I’m actually in this phase right now where I’m trying to gain weight, I’m trying to gain muscle weight. And so I’m eating a little bit more protein, I’m eating more calories in general. And I’m not gaining fat or I’m not gaining body fat, I’m gaining muscle. And at 55, the fact that I can do this, should prove to you that you can do it too. So this is me being an example for you.

Endurance, I’m still running strong. I typically do one to two marathons a year, I have for the last 12 years and I’ve done countless ultra marathons during that time. My body’s holding up. I’m not injured, I don’t get injuries and strength. The fact that I have built so much strength over the last few years helps immensely with all of that.

In my mindset, this is one of the most powerful things that I’ve changed for the better for myself. Because mindset drives everything. So your mindset, this is your thoughts, your feelings, your attitudes, it’s your mental and emotional state at any given time. And a lot of the a lot of the behaviors that are engaged in the damaging behaviors that we engage in, like overeating or overdrinking is because we’re using those things, alcohol or food as an emotional management tool.

We don’t want to deal with our emotions. So instead we eat over them or we drink over them. But learning how to manage emotions without eating junk food or drinking alcohol, or smoking cigarettes or doing you know, heroin or whatever your drug of choice might be. This is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself. Because armed with the right mindset, there’s really nothing you can’t do.

So between my nutrition, strength, endurance and mindset, these four key areas I have become at this point in my life, I’m the best version of myself I am and I’ve got some goals. You know I’ve got goals I want to improve in all these areas still, and I will and I continue to move in the direction of my goals. I’m always working on myself, and you should be too.

And this isn’t about like ego or vanity, I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone else. I don’t need to prove my worth to anyone outside of myself, I stopped trying to do that years ago. It’s not about comparing myself to anyone else. I only care about comparing who I am today, to who I was yesterday, am I a better version of myself today? Yes or no.

And I’m not trying to impress anyone, either. My goal is to lead by example. And that’s it. Instead of trying to impress people by what I do, I want to inspire them by who I am. So here’s the call to action part. I want you to do something today, to move in the direction of you becoming the best version of yourself.

I want you to do something today to inspire somebody around you, you can make a positive impact on this world, you can help create healthier, happier humans around you. This could be your kids, your family, your friends, your followers, whatever. You can do this, you have that power. And you are takes, it just takes doing something yourself to move in the direction of you becoming the best version of yourself. When you do that, you will show people what is possible, you will be an example of what is possible to the people around you.

So what is one thing you can do today, to be a positive example. Maybe you could make a healthy meal for your family. Simple, right? Maybe you can go for a run. And then post about it, post about how good you feel. You know, I know people are like, geez, we need to see you posting on Facebook about your runs again. But listen, people tell me all the time. They’re like I’m so inspired by you.

And people were telling me this long before I was doing what I’m doing today years and years and years ago, I would post pictures of me running or post about running. And people say I’m so inspired. Just by sharing little vignettes of my day. Here’s what I did today, I got up early and I went for a run, people see that. Maybe you could skip dessert tonight. And instead, take a walk with your kids or your dog. Maybe you grab a friend and you head out to some trails and do some hiking or some trail running.

Maybe tomorrow morning, you get up early and you hit the gym, you lift some heavy weights, you could read a book on personal development, a couple of my favorites would be Atomic Habits by James Clear, or The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday.

Maybe you get a good night’s sleep tonight, that could be something very simple to do. But you can be an example to others. When you get a good night’s sleep and you feel more well rested. When you wake up in the morning, maybe you start your day with some meditation, or some journaling. Or take a yoga class.

There are countless ways that you can improve your own personal health and happiness. Whether it’s nutrition, strength, endurance or mindset. But what I want to encourage you to do is to do something, take action now do something today. And then tomorrow, I want you to do something else. Okay. Here’s where I’m going with this. So it doesn’t stop.

This isn’t a one and done. Right? Every day, we show up for ourselves to become the best version of ourselves. And when we do that, when we do that, you we can’t help but to be an example to the people around us. Because people will notice. People will notice what you’re doing.

And listen, I talked to clients all the time who start to feel really good. So we’ve cleaned up their diet, maybe they started lifting weights or something and they feel so good. And they want to tell everybody about what they’re doing. And they and they see friends and family and they’re like, oh, and they might make comments like you should really be doing what I’m doing.

But here’s the thing, nobody likes to be told what to do. I’m just going to tell you right now, even though, you know you feel good and you’re excited about it, you know how you feel and you want to share this with everybody. But nobody wants to be told what to do. Nobody wants to be told what to do.

But people will see what you’re doing. If it works for you, they will see you becoming healthier, maybe losing weight, feeling better, getting stronger, looking amazing. Rockin that bikini in the summer, whatever it is, they’ll see that. And they’ll want that. And they might ask you about it.

You know, for years, my son Colin was overweight, you know. And for years, even though I’m a weight loss coach, I never talked to him about I never told him what to do. I never pushed any kind of agenda on him. At some point, when he was ready to change, he just came to me because he saw what I was doing. He saw how I had lost the weight and kept it off. And he saw how I was helping countless other people to do the same.

And then one day finally came to me and asked if I would be willing to coach him. Of course, I said yes. And of course, it was like a huge, proud dad moment for me. But this is how it works. You see, we lead by example, not by proselytizing. We inspire others by who we are, by how we live our life, not by impressing them by the stuff we do.

We become the healthiest and most badass versions of ourselves. And then those people around us, they will see that they will see that and they will see who we’ve become. And some of them not all, but some of them will want to follow suit. So you have your marching orders. Get busy today doing something, just one thing today, to move toward that best and healthiest and most badass version of yourself. And then tomorrow. Do it again. Cool. All right. That’s all I got for you. I love you all. Keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.

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