Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray
When it comes to weight loss tips, one principle stands out among all the others: counting calories. For decades, you’ve been told that the only way to lose weight is to make sure you count all …
Continue Reading about 243. Why Counting Calories Doesn’t Work →
When it comes to changing your diet in order to lose weight or just be healthier, most people feel like whatever they do is too restrictive. They feel like you should be able to eat anything you …
Continue Reading about 238. Should You Restrict Certain Foods? →
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 238, of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today, should you restrict certain foods when it comes to changing your diet in order to lose weight or maybe just feel healthier? Most people feel like whatever they do is too restrictive. So they feel like you should be able to eat anything you want, as long as you don’t overdo it. And most people also feel that restricting any amount of food is really not sustainable long term.
So what’s the answer here? Should you restrict certain foods or not? That’s the big question I’m going to answer today in this episode of the running lean podcast. But first, if you want to get leaner, if you want to get stronger, if you want to run faster longer, you need to change some things. Doing the same things is not going to get you different results. Nothing changes if nothing changes, I think we all understand this, right? But the real secret here is doing these new things, making these changes and making them doing them consistently.
If you decide you want to get stronger, you can’t just go to the gym once a month. If you want to get faster, you can’t do speed training one time. You need to adopt new behaviors, and you need to do them consistently. And this is where coaching comes into play, because with coaching, it really helps you to stay on track. It helps you to have somebody there that’s kind of guiding you, yes, that’s giving you the information that you need, that’s telling you what to do, that’s guiding you forward, that’s walking you through things step by step, but also to make sure that you’re staying on track. This was my problem.
I could never make much progress because I couldn’t stay on track for very long. But once I got a coach, everything changed for me. I had somebody that was holding me accountable, calling me out when I started slipping back into old behaviors, and somebody that’s really never, ever letting me quit, that was an awesome part of having a coach. So if you’re ready to start doing some things differently, if you’re ready to start doing some different things consistently, and you want to make sure that you never, ever quit, let’s get you there. Just go to my website, runningleancoach.com, click on work with me, and I will show you how to stay on track, how to be consistent, and how to become the most badass version of yourself yet.
Cool. Yeah, let’s do this. Okay. So what are we talking about today? Should you restrict certain foods? So the reason that I want to talk about this today is because this is kind of a big hot topic in the field of nutrition management, weight management, diets, diet culture, whatever. And there are basically two camps out there with two main ideas.
So there’s one camp who says you need to stick to a certain diet. And it’s usually whatever one they adhere to, and a lot of times it has to do with a book that they wrote that they want to sell you, okay? But basically it’s like you need to stick to a certain diet, Mediterranean, keto, vegan, carnivore. It doesn’t really matter what it is. There’s just some diet. This is the way to do it. This is it. This is the healthiest way to go. And you have to stick to this. And then that’s their whole thing. Like you cannot deviate from this diet. You have to do this.
Then there’s the other camp who says you should never restrict any foods. You should be able to eat all the foods that you want. Don’t ever deny yourself the foods that you love. Just make sure you do all these foods in moderation, right? And I’m going to get into both of these approaches.
I’m going to tell you kind of what I think is good and bad about each one, and I’m also, today, I’m also going to share my approach, which is a little bit different, but this is the approach that I live my life by, and the one that I recommend to all of my coaching clients as well. But while you’re listening to this episode, I want you to be thinking about yourself and thinking about your own life, and think about how these different approaches that I’m going to be talking about, how do they sit with you? How do you feel about them? How do they make you feel and then think about which of these approaches might be something that you could do long term.
Okay, again, when we talk about making changes like this, it can’t be something you do temporarily. Be something you do every now and then. It has to be something that you can commit to for life. So what can you commit to for life? So just be thinking about those things like, what, what are these different approaches mean to you? How do they make you feel? How do they sit with you? And which feels like it’s sustainable for you? Okay? So just be thinking about that.
Okay. So, first approach I want to talk about is that you have to stick to this certain diet no matter what. And so that’s like the people who are like, all carnivore, you know, like, all you have to do is just eat meat and eggs, and that’s it. Just don’t eat anything else. Or vegan, like, you just have to never eat any animal products. You just stick with plant based stuff. And that’s the way to go, or vegetarian, or the Mediterranean diet, or the south peach diet, or the, I don’t know, the all cabbage diet, whatever it is.
What I like about these approaches is that a lot of times there is some good data, some good studies that they’ve done, some science based studies that support some of the data here. Now what’s interesting is that a lot of the science based studies will contradict each other.
So people will say, Oh, you know, all these people lost a ton of weight and got much healthier and are at lower risk of all these diseases when they went to a totally plant based diet, so no animal products whatsoever. Then there’ll be all these other studies that say, oh, all these other people, they lost weight, they feel better, they’re much healthier. All their markers have improved. They’re at lower risk of all these illnesses, and they went to the all meat diet. That’s like, which of these is right, you know, are they both right? Are they both wrong? I don’t know, but, but a lot of times we can look at data and science and say that, you know, for the most part, for most people anyway, that some of these approaches have some good data behind them.
So I like that. One thing I really like about adhering to some sort of a diet is that you have very clear guidelines to follow. You know, it makes it very simple for you, because you don’t have to make all these decisions yourself. You can just say, like, look at a list online, or something that says, here’s the foods you can eat and here’s the foods you need to avoid. You know, if you want to do paleo, just stay away from sugar and grains and dairy or whatever it is, you know, and you’d be like, Okay, that’s easy to follow, you know, if you do go online, another thing I like about adhering to a diet is that there are, there are tons of information about each of these diets available online.
So you can get into groups where you can chat with other people about this stuff. You can look up all kinds of different articles, listen to podcasts. So there’s tons of information out there about all these different diets, and there’s lots of success stories about all these diets. A lot of people do really well when they eat, you know, this diet or that one? And you know what? Some people just like being told what to do, and they like not having to make decisions. And they just want somebody to tell them, just do this, and that’ll work for you, and they feel good, and that works for them. Okay? So that’s kind of what I like about the sticking to a certain diet approach.
Okay, what I don’t like is that these diets are all pretty restrictive, or at least most of them are pretty restrictive. For example, we look at, you know, vegan, and I was vegan for 10 years, so I’m not slamming veganism, I’m just saying that it’s kind of extreme, because you’re avoiding all animal products, including things like honey. So no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no honey, you know, and that can be tough for some people because it is very restrictive, and some people don’t like this. Some people just don’t want to live their life that way. Some people like it. They like the restrictive quality, and they do really well with that. But some people do not like that restrictive quality.
Another reason why I don’t like completely restricting certain foods is that it can lead to, in some people, it can lead to disordered eating. And this is one thing you’ll see out there when you start looking up different diets and their effectiveness and stuff like that, you’ll see that this one topic keeps coming up over and over again, and it’s that any type of restricted eating can lead to eating disorders or disordered eating. And I just have to say that that is not true for everyone.
Okay, so I don’t want you to think that if you are following some kind of diet, like paleo or something like that, that you’re doing some sort of disordered eating. You’re not but some people that are more susceptible to that kind of thing, or have had eating disorders in the past, or things like that, you got to be careful with how you’re restricting food. So that’s just something that I don’t really like the restrictive nature of. Some of these approaches, especially when they’re like, you can never eat sugar again in your life.
You know, is that really? Is that really, you know, is that really going to happen? Are you really going to adhere to that? Like, I don’t know, also, each one of these diets, like I was saying, there’s studies that’ll show, like, oh, this, this will help cure cancer, and this one, you know, I don’t know, I’m making that up, but they give you all these claims, right? But not one of these diets works for everyone, right? They’re all different, like, not everybody responds the same way to eating certain foods, right? So you just have to accept this as part of the deal here. And so if there’s a certain diet that you’re, you know, following, and it’s not working for you, try a different one. Maybe that’ll work better for you.
But all these food influencers out there, or people that are selling their books or whatever it is, they’re claiming that their diet, this one way of doing things, is superior to all the other ways of doing things. And of course, the other person that’s on the other end of that is saying the exact same thing. So who’s right? Like, I don’t know, different people respond differently to different diets. We just have to accept that this is part of it. Okay?
So these, these diet approaches, you know, there are some things I like about it. You know, they’re pretty clear, pretty simple to follow a lot of times. There’s some good science behind it, a lot of information out there, but at the same time, they can be very restrictive, and a lot of people do not respond well to that. Okay.
The second approach is this approach that a lot of dietitians out there, almost every dietician, especially if they are A and D certified dietitians. So that means that they’ve been certified through the American the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. So A and D, they recommend this approach, which is, you should never restrict any foods, right? All foods in moderation. That is their mantra. All foods in moderation. And you have to understand that dietitians, they are funded by the big food industry, even brands like PepsiCo and Mars, right Pepsi and then Mars, who makes all the candy bars and stuff like that their advice is biased, in my opinion. You know, just because they have, they are, they’re funded by big food industry, and they have a certain agenda that they’re taught to pass on. And one of them is this, all foods in moderation.
And I think this approach does have its benefits, like for most people, they do consider this approach sustainable, right? Because it’s not restrictive at all, like you can eat anything you want, just be, you know, moderate your food intake. You know, be mindful about what you’re eating. People who don’t restrict foods, they’re less likely to develop like disordered eating, right?
And again, this is not to say that everyone who restricts Foods has some sort of eating disorder, right, but for some people that are more prone to it, you know, just allowing whatever foods. You know it’s fine. You don’t have to think about what you’re doing here. You can just eat whatever you like. Doesn’t matter. You’re not following any guidelines at all. You just get to eat whatever you want.
What I don’t like about this approach is that, again, it doesn’t work for everyone for a lot of reasons, like all foods in moderation. Let’s talk about that for a minute. This idea is great in theory, but for a lot of people, and I’m one of these people, certain foods I have a really hard time moderating, especially when we start talking about hyper palatable foods.
So these are foods that are designed to make you feel really good. They taste amazing. They light up your pleasure centers like crazy, and they make you crave more of those foods. They’re very addictive in nature. They’re very hard to moderate. So hyper palatable foods, and usually these are foods that are loaded with sugar, that are a lot of times Ultra processed foods. These foods hijack your hunger signals. They make you more hungry for more of those types of foods. They make you crave more of those types of foods, very, very difficult to moderate, hyper palatable foods. So to say all foods in moderation, it’s a great theory, but it doesn’t work for a lot of people, and for some people, they eat these foods, and it leads to binging behavior, which is also a disordered type of eating, right?
So the idea behind all foods in moderation is good, the execution of it is typically pretty, pretty poor, because they’re not teaching people how to moderate their food intake. They’re not teaching people how to change their thinking. Most of us have very well developed thought patterns, thought feeling, action patterns around food. And in order to moderate our food intake, you have to learn how to change these patterns. And no one is teaching you how to do this. They’re just saying moderation. Just moderate your food. Eat in moderation. Eat whatever you want, but eat it in moderation.
So I’ve got a big problem with that part of it. And if moderating food was that simple, we wouldn’t have this obesity epidemic in this country. So I think all that advice of like all foods in moderation doesn’t work for everybody, and I think it is one of those things where it’s a little bit irresponsible because we’re not helping people deal with the thoughts and feelings they have around food, or how to deal with their own own emotions and things like that.
You know, another thing that I don’t really like about this approach is that there are some foods that affect people profoundly, you know, like sugar, for example. For some people, sugar can really dramatically affect people and put them into this place where they’re pre diabetic or diabetic, you know, high blood sugar can be a real problem. And I think saying, like, oh, even though you’re diabetic, you can still eat a bunch of sugar. I don’t think that’s responsible either.
Okay, so I have a few problems with this approach. Okay, so I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about my approach. So we’ve talked about restricting foods, you know, forever, like, here’s the diet you’re going to stick to be a vegan, or whatever it is, forever, or just eat whatever you want. Here’s my approach. I think this is something that we can all sort of relate to, which is, you need to figure out what works best for you. You know, I’ve talked about this before, right? I do suggest at the beginning of the process here, especially if you’re somebody who is trying to change your relationship with food, you’re trying to lose weight, I do suggest that we practice some food restriction for a period of time, let’s say 30 days or so, to get your body off of the sugar and the and the highly processed foods.
We got to give your body some time, your body and your brain, some time to detox and to get out of this addictive tendencies, you know, around food, you got to get you starting to get used to eating real food, not just food that hijacks your hunger signals that makes you super hungry all the time. We need to get your body burning fat, so there’s a period, yeah, of a little bit of restriction at the beginning. So we kind of lower the carbohydrate intake. You know, with this may be 30 or 60 days, depending on where you are with things or what your goals are.
But what’s different here is that this restriction is temporary, like, we’re trying to reset your body back to normal, and then we can reintroduce some of these foods later, we can even, like, you know, I also suggest taking a break from alcohol too, because it’s it’s also very addictive and has a tendency to keep you from burning fat and makes it hard to lose weight if you’re trying to lose weight. So maybe we take a break from alcohol as well, but after some period of time, we can even reintroduce alcohol back into the mix, right? If that’s something that you want for yourself, right?
So where, where I’m different though, from these other approaches is that I want you to learn how to be more mindful about the foods that you eat. So it’s not about total restriction forever, and it’s not about, you know, all foods in moderation either, it’s, you know, it’s not about eating whatever you want whenever you want, either, okay, but it’s about learning how to manage your mind around food.
So for most of us, we’ve, like, taught ourselves all these lessons around food for the last 30, 40, 50 years. Like we can use food as a great emotional management tool, you know, if I’m stressed, if I’m tired, if I’m bored, we use food and it works for us, you know. Or we use food as a reward, like I did something good this week. I had a really hard day at work. I turn in that presentation, or had a really long run, and I’m going to reward myself with a bunch of junk food. Or, you know, I can’t have fun unless I’m eating X, Y and Z, like, I’m going to go out with my friends, and I have to order the burger with the glazed donuts, because that’s the thing they have at this restaurant, the glazed donuts, or the buns for the burger, whatever it is, right?
I just heard about a burger here locally that has glazed donuts as buns. So hilarious. But we have these well conceived and well established lessons that we’ve taught ourselves around food. We use it as an emotional management tools reward or, you know, we have to eat junk food in order to have fun.
But we need to take a different approach. We want to be mindful about what we’re eating. And being mindful about what we’re eating is something where it sounds, you know, it sounds easy. It’s not easy, right? Especially if you’re eating highly palatable foods that are loaded with sugar, like these foods make you crave more of those foods. It really requires a shift in your thinking.
So this is where we have to really dig into the mindset, and we have to change our thinking. And this is something that neither one of these other approaches are really talking about. You know, if you want to, if you want to moderate your food intake, especially the hyper palatable foods, you got to learn how to deal with your emotions if you want to stop the, like, emotional eating. You know, if you want to stop eating as a reward, you got to learn other ways of rewarding yourself that don’t involve eating a bunch of junk food, right?
So what I’m talking about here is a more sensible approach. We need to learn how to take back control of our eating. We never want to feel like we’re on autopilot, like we’re out of control. We want to be intentional about and mindful about the foods that we eat, foods they affect us profoundly. You know, they can fuel our athletic endeavors. Food can provide sustenance and all the nutrition that we need, but food can be harmful to us. Can’t forget that not all foods are awesome, you know? And there’s issues out there, especially when we’re talking about these highly palatable foods, hyper palatable foods, highly processed foods.
The problem with these foods is that it’s all about the marketing. They’re just trying to sell more of this food. So they market this stuff to make it seem like it’s amazing. A lot of these foods are void of actual nutrients. So they’re actually not good for you. They’re bad for you. They’re loaded with artificial ingredients, artificial flavorings, artificial sweeteners. A lot of these foods have been proven to cause long term health issues. They’re designed to make you crave more and more of the foods, so that you become addicted to them, so that you buy more because the food companies don’t care about your health. They don’t care if you’re healthy and happy and feeling good. They don’t care if you’re overweight. They just want to make more money. They want to sell you more food.
High profits drive cheap ingredients, poor quality, addiction and repeat customers, not health. We are the sickest society to ever live in the history of the world, right here, right now, in 2024 and all the stuff we’re doing is clearly not working. I recently came across this fascinating study in the journal Lancet, and it says that the number one killer of human beings on Earth right now is no longer heart disease or cancer, but the foods that we are eating mainly because the foods that we’re eating are causing all of these other killer diseases, you know.
So what we eat, it really does matter, but we have to find a balance, like you have to do what feels right for you. You don’t have to listen to anyone else. You need to kind of trust your own instincts. And what I’m trying to tell you to do here is get off the highly palatable foods, eat mostly whole foods, real food, food that still looks like food, food that our ancestors would recognize as food. And then you got to learn how to manage your mind.
You have to adopt a mindset that is intentional and mindful about the foods that you eat. And yes, you do have to do this for life. This is not a short term thing. This requires a shift in your identity, to someone who eats healthy like 90% of the time, and someone who can indulge a little bit here and there, but this is the approach that I take.
This is what I see as the most sustainable. This is the approach that I work on with all of my clients. I want to get them into this place where they eat real food most of the time. We can occasionally have that little indulgence here there, eat the pizza, eat the ice cream, fine, whatever. But then we’re back on track again. But that is what’s sustainable. What’s not sustainable is the all or nothing approach.
You know, all foods all the time and are super restrictive all the time. So what I do, like 90% of the time I’m eating whole foods. I’m eating meat, eggs, fruit, vegetables, dairy, nuts, seeds, that’s it. There’s no sugar, there’s no junk food, there’s no fried food, like, 90% of the time I’m eating super clean food. 10% of the time, 10% by the way, works out to, like, maybe a meal per week, or something like that. I might eat some pizza or some ice cream or some bread, but I probably don’t do all those things at once, you know, like, I try to pick one thing that I’ll do.
You know, if I go out, going to go, you know, play some trivia or something, one night, I might have some pizza. And that’s the one time I do that for the week. And I really limit the amount of grains that I eat, the amount of sugar that I eat, I really do. And then occasionally, I will do a 30 day stint or so where I take a reset, where I might avoid all sugar, all grains for 30 days. I just won’t do any of that stuff. I won’t eat any pizza, no ice cream, nothing like that. And this is if I’m feeling like I’m gaining some fat weight, or feeling a little puffy, or just not feeling as good as I know that I can feel, then I’ll just take a reset.
So I’ve developed a way of eating, for me, that works beautifully. It’s not all or nothing. It’s not super restrictive, but it’s not eat all the foods all the time, either. And you know what? It changes sometimes, and this is important too, like sometimes I do that stint where I’ll cut out all dairy, or cut out all sugar, or all grains or whatever. And I think one of the big mistakes that most people make when they set out to change their diet, their lifestyle, they want to lose weight, whatever it is that they think that they have to do the same thing forever. You know, all I committed to, you know, being a vegan, so I got to do this forever.
You got to figure out what works for you, and then you have to allow yourself to change things up if it stops working for you, or if you want to work differently. You know that’s what sustainability really looks like. Find something that works for you, stick with it pretty much. And then if you need to change something, change something. You got to do what works for you, right? Don’t hold on to some methodology forever, no matter what. I did this when I was plant based, I was plant based for like, 10 years, and I was doing great for a while, but then I really started feeling like crap. I was gaining a lot of weight, and I kind of felt stuck because I wouldn’t change anything, because I was like, this is who I am. This is what I do. I’m this vegan guy, you know, and you know what? That’s dumb, like, I know that now that I could change at any time, but I wasn’t willing to let go of this ideology around the foods I was eating, because it had become such a part of my identity. I had to let go of that if I wanted to feel better and get healthier and lose weight and all that other stuff, right?
So what sustainability looks like is finding something that feels good for you, that you feel in integrity with. And you know what? Some people like sticking to that plant based diet, or to the, you know, all meat diet or or doing all foods in moderation, whatever. And if that works for you, beautiful, do that. That feels good for you, and that is a long term solution for you. Do that. The real answer here is that there isn’t an answer that is the same for everybody. You got to sort of figure this out.
That’s why I do coaching, and I don’t write a book and say, here’s how you’re gonna you know, here’s the foods you’re gonna eat, because it doesn’t work that way. We all have different ways of approaching this stuff, and it’s fine. It’s completely fine that we do. The important thing is, is that what you’re doing feels good for you. It’s healthy for you, it works for you, and it is sustainable for you.
Cool, okay, you guys got this, I know you do. Love you all. Keep on Running Lean and I will talk to you soon.
One of the most powerful things you can do to improve your health and fitness is to regularly push past your comfort zone. This might seem obvious to you and pretty basic, but it’s an area where …
Continue Reading about 225. Pushing Past Your Comfort Zone →
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 225 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners and today, Pushing Past Your Comfort Zone.
So one of the most powerful things you can do to improve your health and fitness is to regularly push past your comfort zone. Now, this might seem obvious to you and pretty basic. But it’s an area where most people really struggle, the idea of getting uncomfortable is easy to understand.
Most people are like, sure, Patrick, I’m totally willing to get uncomfortable. But when they come face to face with their own discomfort, all those good intentions kind of go out the window, most people end up running back to the safety and security of their well-constructed comfort zones.
So today here on the podcast, it’s all about pushing past your comfort zone so that you can grow so that you can evolve. And so that you can become the most badass version of yourself yet. Cool.
Okay, but first, if you’re listening to this podcast right now, it means that your health and your fitness, those things are important to you. You want to feel better, you want to get leaner run faster. And I’m here to tell you that all of that is possible for you. It really is. And I can help you get there.
You know, I listen to lots of podcasts, I listen to lots of books, and I know a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff. But when it comes to applying all the stuff that I know, nothing has really helped me more than having a coach there for me, somebody that could guide me and mentor me and show me the way, like every step of the way I had somebody there with me.
I’ve had several amazing coaches in my life, I had a business coach, I had a strength coach, I had a nutrition coach, and those areas of my life have never been better. So the coaches that I’ve had have helped me become the person that I am today.
They inspired me so much that they kind of this is why I became a coach myself, because I saw what they were doing and I was like I want to do that too. I want to have that kind of impact on people as well. So if you’re listening to the podcast, right now, keep listening, keep learning, like that stuff is all good.
But when you’re ready to get down to business, when you’re ready to do the work, consider working with a coach and it doesn’t even have to be me. It’s okay if it’s somebody else, but find someone that can show you the way that can help you apply all of this knowledge that you’re taking in, okay, somebody that can hold you accountable, and somebody that can help you stay on track.
The only way you make progress with anything like this is to take consistent aligned action. And the best way to stay consistent with all this is to have somebody there holding you accountable and helping you stay on track. Cool.
So if you’re interested in working with me, awesome, just go to my website runningleancoaching.com and click on Work With Me. You’ll fill out a quick little application you and I’ll get on a call. We can have a conversation about coaching. I’ll tell you all about it, how it works. And we’ll see if this is a good fit for you. If it is, cool. If it isn’t, no big deal. All right.
But I want to help you to become the most badass version of yourself. You get yourself a coach, okay? It’s it’s a game-changer. I promise you Okay, runningleanoaching.com and click on Work With Me.
Okay, let’s talk about your comfort zone. What is your comfort zone? Well, your comfort zone is everything that you already have. Because when it comes to what is comfortable for you, it’s always going to be the things that you’ve already done. Those things are comfortable for you.
It’s everything that you continually do. It’s all of your current habits. It’s all your current behaviors. It’s how you think it’s how you feel, it’s all your beliefs. It’s it’s everything that is that is within your like zone of comfort. You know, that’s what your comfort zone is, you built this comfort zone.
You build your comfort zone around your psyche, like your, your model of the world, helps to shape your comfort zone and your psyche that’s just a fancy word that means your spirit your soul yourself. Like it’s the totality of your mind, your conscious mind, your unconscious mind, it’s everything that influences your thoughts, your behavior, it’s your personality, all of that is what your psyche is essentially, okay?
And you have this very unique psyche. And all of that is what feels comfortable to you. Okay, so if there is something that you want for yourself that you don’t already have, you’re going to have to leave your comfort zone in order to get it.
Because remember, everything that you already have is in your comfort zone. If you don’t have it, that means it’s outside your comfort zone, everything you want, but don’t already have lies outside your comfort zone.
Which means that in order to get that thing, you’re going to have to get uncomfortable. And I talk to people about this all the time, and they say, I get it, Patrick, I’m so willing to get uncomfortable. You know, I say you’re gonna have to embrace the suck, and people are like, I’m ready to embrace the suck. Patrick, I can do that, you know.
And this could be with your diet, let’s say you’re you want to change your diet, you want to stop eating sugar, let’s say you want to stop drinking alcohol, because you’re trying to improve your health, you were trying to prove your fitness trying to lose some weight. sugar and alcohol are our throttles, if you’re trying to lose weight, those things are going to keep you stuck, right, they’re going to throttle your progress.
So my suggestion, my, my gentle suggestion would be if you want to lose weight, stop eating sugar, and stop drinking alcohol. Okay? Those two things, though, tend to feel really good, they’re really comfortable. It’s really comfortable to eat sugar, it’s really it feels really good to drink alcohol, you know.
So when I say oh, you’re gonna have to get uncomfortable, you’re gonna have to stop doing those things. People are like, I got it, I can do that. I’m really ready to embrace the suck, I’m ready to get uncomfortable. Like, okay, cool.
But then when you know, the rubber meets the road, when you actually do stop drinking or stop eating sugar. And you’re freaking out a little bit because people around you are drinking or people around, you’re eating sugar, or you walk into the break room and there’s doughnuts, or you walk into the kitchen, and your wife or husband or kids or someone has just made a bunch of chocolate chip cookies.
And the whole house smells amazing, like chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven. They’re all gooey, that chocolate chips are melty, oh my gosh, who wouldn’t want to eat that up? That’s discomfort. That’s when you’re like, I don’t think I can do this. This is too hard.
So when I talk about getting out of your comfort zone, it’s being in that moment you’re standing in the kitchen, you can smell the chocolate chip cookies, you can see them you see the chocolate just melty as they break apart, and you’re not eating them. That’s what I mean by discomfort. That does not feel good.
That’s you getting out of your comfort zone, right? Because you’re not eating those things. But they’re sitting there. And that’s the feeling I’m talking about. So people will say this when they’re having a call with me. And we’re just you know, it’s a Monday morning and we’re, you know, just having this one-on-one conversation. And they’re like, all fired up.
But as soon as those cookies come out of the oven, like all bets are off, you know. So if you want to lose the weight, you got to maybe take a break from eating those cookies for a while. And that’s what I mean by getting out of your comfort zone. All right.
So let me tell you a little bit of a story. So I had this dog. And we had this dog at our house. And this dog was kind of crazy. Her name was Daisy, she was a yellow lab. Cutest dog in the world so smart, like so ridiculously smart. And we had gotten one of those electric fences, you know, what do you call like an invisible fence, you know, it’s wires buried underground, she had the collar on, and we would train her so that she would go outside and not cross the line where the where the wires were under the ground.
So you put up flags and you train the dog that once they get near the flags, they have to back off because they get that little buzz in their neck or whatever and then it shocks them if they get too close. Well, this dog was a little bit crazy. And she figured out that she could get up against that line and start to feel that buzz or that shock and then she would just bolt through the line she would bolt through the line of the wire and get shocked and she was okay with that.
Most dogs would not do that. But she was I don’t know brave, courageous, crazy. I don’t know what you want to call it but she saw that there was a whole wide world out there. And the only way that she was going to get to that wide world out there was to experience the discomfort of, you know, going through that fence. Okay.
So this is a pretty good analogy, because that fence, that invisible fence is like our comfort zone, you know, and when we get close to it, we feel the pain. So discomfort is just our brain telling us that, you know, there’s something uncomfortable out there that we want for ourselves. And that discomfort that we feel means that in order to get that thing, we have to cross a threshold, you know, we have to cross this invisible line, from comfort to discomfort.
And our brain sees that as painful. Our brain’s job is to keep us safe to avoid pain, and seek pleasure to avoid discomfort and seek comfort, to avoid the unfamiliar and seek the familiar. So when we want something like I want to lose 40 pounds, or I want to run an ultra marathon, or I want to have a different relationship with alcohol, all those things are outside our comfort zone, the cost of achieving those things is discomfort.
And so it’s like that dog getting close to the fence and just sitting there and dealing with that buzzing and that shocking that’s going on and just bolting through it anyway. Because they know that dog knew that on the other side of that she could run that whole neighborhood.
And she did and our neighbors would always be bringing her back like, hey, your dog got out again. And I’m like, I don’t get it. You know, this is an invisible fence, she’s getting shocked here. She didn’t care. She was crazy. I loved her, but she was a handful I’m going to tell you.
So you see that that’s a good analogy, because it kind of puts your comfort zone into the 3D world here, you know, so you can actually kind of visualize what that looks like for you. So you stop drinking, or you stop eating sugar, or maybe you got to really increase your mileage to you know, go go after that ultra-marathon or something, and the discomfort is going to show up, the resistance to that thing is going to show up.
And you’ve got to just embrace it and go through that. That’s how you achieve those things. Like the cost of achieving those things is discomfort, right? So embracing the suck. That just means leaning into that discomfort standing there, at the edge of that invisible fence, feeling the shocks and then going after that thing anyway.
This is the real work that we do together, you know, with my clients, this is the real work that we do. You know, it’s it’s less about, oh, here’s the foods you should eat. And here’s the kind of workouts you should do. It’s more about how do I deal with the discomfort and the challenges of not doing the things that are comfortable for me? Okay.
So you know, in, like I said, this can relate to your running, this can relate to getting stronger to changing your body composition, whatever it can relate to your relationships, it can really to your work, whatever that thing is that you want for yourself.
Whatever area of life we’re talking about here that you don’t already have, the cost of getting that thing is going to be discomfort. And listen, there’s nothing inherently wrong with having a comfort zone like this is your safe place. This is something you’ve created for yourself. It’s everything that you know, it’s everything that you’ve done. It’s everything that you have accomplished already. And this is a good place to be.
But you know what? Growth doesn’t happen in your comfort zone. Change doesn’t happen in your comfort zone. The only way you can grow and evolve and become more is to get out of your comfort zone.
Here’s an example from my life lately. My running workouts lately have been pretty amazing. And the reason is because I have been consistently pushing myself out of my comfort zone. So last year, I was doing a lot of very slow running because I was preparing for a 12 hour running event. And I did a whole podcast and kind of talked about that you can look that one up.
But this year, I am focusing on a running a faster half marathon. And this is going to be in like three weeks or so it’s going to be early. The Flying Pig Half and I’m actually running the 5k and the 10k the day before the half just because I like to torture myself.
I like running nine miles the day before a half marathon, who doesn’t do that? But my point is that my running has been amazing lately because I have been regularly pushing myself to run faster. I’ve been doing tons of speed work, tempo runs. And my running is felt better than ever.
And the last few workouts I’ve done have been so good. Tuesday, I did three one-mile repeats. So this is, you know, this was yesterday, this was my, what do you call it, like my speed day, my speed work day. And I chose to do one-mile repeats, which is something I don’t do too often, because it’s hard and uncomfortable.
But I gotta tell you, I felt so amazing doing those. And I wasn’t running super fast, I think 8:38-40s something like that per mile. But, you know, felt amazing. On this past Saturday, I did a 12 mile run, and ran with some faster people to kind of pull me along.
And I ended up having a really amazing 12 miles it was kind of like I was my goal was to run six miles fast, and then kind of jog it back. But I ended up running with some other faster people on the way back. So both out and back, were fast.
So I did a 12-mile tempo run instead of a 6-mile tempo run that day. But I was feeling so good. I wanted to see what I was capable of. And I wanted to push myself a little bit. So the reason I’m talking about this is because in order to get faster, in order to improve my fitness and my running, I’ve had to really push myself and get out of my comfort zone.
The work that I’ve been doing lately has been uncomfortable. Running 12 miles at like a tempo pace is not comfortable. Doing three one-mile repeats in a row that is now uncomfortable. But you know what, my fitness is improving, my running is feeling better than ever. And I’m hoping that I have a really good half marathon. That’s the goal anyway. Okay.
So that’s the kind of work that we have to do in order to get out of our comfort zone and achieve those things that we want for ourselves, we have to be willing to be uncomfortable, that’s the price we pay to improve, right?
So people are super keen to this idea. You know, but once they get into it, everything in your being your whole psyche is telling you go back to safety. You know, whether you’re trying to run faster, quit sugar, quit alcohol, whatever it is, you’re gonna get to this place where it’s going to feel uncomfortable, and you’re going to want to run back to the safety of your comfort zone.
And I hear people talk about this all the time, when they’re like, oh, you know, I was doing really great with my food plan. And then this thing happened at work. And I got really stressed and I just you know, there were doughnuts in the break room. So I just ate the doughnuts. You know, that’s you running back to the safety of your comfort zone when you do that.
My suggestion for you is to notice when your psyche is telling you to run back to the safety of your comfort zone, when the donut sounds good to you. And it sounds like a good idea, even though you don’t eat that stuff anymore.
If that sounds like a good idea, that’s your comfort zone trying to pull you back. And you have to fight against that. You have to just say no, I’m not doing that. I’m gonna stay uncomfortable here. In this moment, I’m going to stay uncomfortable. Because everything when we get out of our comfort zone, everything out there that’s out of our comfort zone feels painful to your brain, your brain is trying to avoid pain.
So why the heck would you want to do something that to your brain seems painful? When you do that your brain is going to resist that your program is going to resist that we avoid pain, Patrick, remember, you know, and so that’s your brain telling you like go back to the safety and comfort of your comfort zone get get away from this pain, okay?
But you have to like fight against that you just have to ignore it and you have to move on. Just like my dog Daisy, who just ignored the stupid shock that she got. Every time she ran through that fence. She didn’t care because what was on the other side of that was amazing. She would run through the whole neighborhood check out all the other dogs, go wander up to people’s porches, run in the street. Like she was nuts. And she loved it.
She was living her best life and all it required was, you know, some temporary discomfort and like not eating the chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen is the same thing. It’s like just can you deal with a little temporary discomfort. It’s not gonna last that long.
It might be 10 minutes, it might be 15 minutes, give yourself 15 minutes just say okay, you know what? Those cookies look amazing, but I’m just going to wait 15 minutes and if in 15 minutes, you still want the cookies you can reevaluate at that point. Okay, chances are, that’s going to kind of go away.
So the discomfort, it’s not like, it’s days and weeks of this stuff, a lot of times, it’s just a few minutes here and there. Or if you’re running a, you know, an ultra marathon or something like that there may be several hours of discomfort that you have to endure, to get to that goal.
And it could be, you know, a lot of a lot of uncomfortable runs, you know, uncomfortable training regimen, you know, whatever, whatever it is, it’s, it’s not a forever thing, right? But it is one of those things that, I want to encourage you to regularly step out of your comfort zone, because when you do this stuff regularly, it gets easier, your comfort zone gets bigger, the more you do it.
So things don’t end just because you got out of your comfort zone, once you get out of your comfort zone, you do something you accomplish something you never have before, guess what your comfort zone just got a little bigger. Oh, that’s kind of goal, right?
But your goal as a human being is to continue to grow, to continue to evolve to continue to become more, which means you have to regularly expand your comfort zone, you have to regularly do things that are uncomfortable, so that your comfort zone can continue to expand with your growth with your personal growth. So does your comfort zone grow.
So you got to be willing to bet against your comfort zone every day, all the time, like forever. This is just something you have to do. If this sounds terrible to you, it’s because it is it’s kind of it’s uncomfortable to do this. I’m not saying it’s comfortable. I’m not saying it’s easy. It’s not. But this is the work that we do.
You don’t grow, evolve and become more and just like say, Well, I did that once and now I’m done. You don’t do that once and then go sit on the couch for the rest of your life. No, that’s not how we approach life. There’s no finish line. It’s not a destination we’re trying to get to it’s a way of living, we regularly leave our comfort zone to become more. And then we continue doing that.
Honestly, I wouldn’t want to live my life any other way. So all these hard things that you want to do in your life, and they’re hard, I get it. But I want you to approach these things with courage and with consistency. Consistently show up for yourself, have the courage to keep going even when things are hard, have the courage to feel uncomfortable. Sometimes things are hard, they take a long time. They don’t work, right? It doesn’t matter.
We don’t stop, we don’t quit. We don’t give up. We keep moving forward, we keep butting up against the edge of our comfort zone and keep making that bigger, keep expanding that comfort zone. That should be your goal. So your work becomes pushing yourself to the edge of that comfort zone daily. feeling that pain, right?
Deal with the discomfort and then move through it. And I hear people say this all the time, like oh, it’s such a struggle. I’m struggling with sugar. I’m struggling with alcohol. I’m struggling with my workouts, you’re not struggling. You’re just not willing to be uncomfortable for long enough.
Chances are your only struggle is your brain is telling you don’t do this. Go back to the safety of your comfort zone. So, you know they say the struggle is real. The struggle is actually not real. It’s just a story. You keep telling yourself the struggle is in your mind. Okay, it’s not easy doing this stuff. And it is uncomfortable. That’s the nature of it. But it’s not a struggle. Okay. That’s all I got for you today. Love you all, keep on Running Lean. And I will talk to you soon.
If you’ve ever trained for a marathon then you know that sacrifices have to be made in order to achieve that goal. You have to put in a lot of hours on the weekends running in the cold. You have …
Continue Reading about 221. What Are You Willing to Sacrifice to Lose Weight? →
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 221 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners and today, What Are You Willing to Sacrifice to Lose Weight?
So if you’ve ever trained for a marathon, then you know that sacrifices have to be made in order to achieve that goal. You have to put in lots of hours on the weekends running in the cold and the dark, you have to give up time with your friends and your family. You endure sore legs for days, you’re tired all the time, you are more than willing to sacrifice these things in order to finish that marathon.
Okay, so how about when it comes to losing weight? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to hit your weight loss goals? So in this episode, I’m going to take a deep dive into the kinds of sacrifices we all have to make in order to lose weight and keep it off.
But first, I know I talk a lot about nutrition, weight loss, improving your running, and getting stronger here on this podcast. If you’re new, welcome I’m glad you’re here. But you might be a little confused or overwhelmed by all this information.
I get it if that’s you, no worries, I’ve got you covered. I created a free hour-long training that you can check out at any time. It’s called Five Simple Steps to Becoming A Leaner, Stronger Runner.
I teach you the basics of nutrition and strength and endurance and mindset all geared towards you the long-distance runner. So if you’re ready to get leaner, ready to get stronger and become the healthiest, most badass version of yourself yet, this free training is exactly what you need. Just go to runningleancoaching.com click on Free Training and get started on your weight loss journey today.
Alright, so what are you willing to sacrifice to lose weight, there’s a lot of confusion around the weight loss world. And I’ve seen a lot of people who think or assume that you really don’t have to give up anything or make any sacrifices in order to lose weight.
Like you can just kind of keep doing what you’re doing, maybe run more, you know, maybe skip the ice cream every now and then or something like that, but you really don’t have to give anything up.
I’ve even heard, you know, dieticians and certain people touting these diets where you just can eat anything that you want. Just eat it in moderation. You don’t really have to sacrifice anything, just eat a little bit less of everything and all your problems will be solved. Does this really work?
I have to tell you that I know that didn’t work for me. I’ve tried that. I know a lot of people that have tried that it hasn’t worked for them. There’s a lot more going on than just like, you know everything in moderation.
Everything in moderation is a great idea. I wish it worked. If it worked, it would be amazing. But I don’t think it works for most people, especially when we’re talking about some types of foods like sugar, which are very difficult to moderate.
Have you ever tried to moderate your sugar intake? Have you tried to just eat a little bit of sugar? It’s hard to do. One of the reasons is is it brings you so much pleasure it lights up the pleasure centers in your brain every time you eat sugar. And it lights up those pleasure centers even more than certain drugs like cocaine do, you know, it’s crazy, how much it lights up the pleasure centers in your brain.
So just eating some sugar in moderation causes you this abnormal craving for more sugar, right? So if you’re somebody that’s trying to moderate what you’re eating, and you’re trying to moderate your sugar intake, and every time you eat it, you have this huge craving for more sugar, this is going to be very difficult for you, you’re gonna go crazy.
And what ends up happening is you eat a lot more sugar, because you’re trying to moderate. Okay, so that’s just one of the reasons why moderation doesn’t work. And I think that there’s a lot more going on in the human physiology when it comes to blood sugar when it comes to insulin when it comes to how our bodies store fat or release fat from fat cells.
You know, we’ve got to make sure that our insulin levels are low, that our blood sugar is pretty chill most of the time. And if you’re spiking your blood sugar and insulin is constantly high, it’s going to be very difficult for you to lose weight, even if you are eating in moderation, okay?
So the reality here is that we do have to make some sacrifices, and even eating whatever you want in moderation, you are still making some sacrifices there, because you’re not eating as much as you’re used to eating, if that’s the route you want to take, you know, people that do Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, calorie counting, you know, all that stuff.
I personally don’t think those methods are very effective long term, they’re effective short term, but not long term. You know, just for reasons like, you know, your, you know, restricting calories will kind of make your metabolism slowed down a little bit.
So, those types of diets, you know, why they tout just saying, like, oh, you know, we’re gonna, you know, eat everything, we’re just gonna moderate and really watch the number of calories you’re eating, you still have to make sacrifices there, you still have to watch the number of calories you’re eating. All right.
So just know that it doesn’t matter, the method of trying to lose weight, there is going to be some sacrifices that have to be made in order for you to reach that goal. Okay. And I want to say this, you know, I’ve said this a couple times before on the podcast here, but when we talk about losing weight, of course, we’re talking about losing fat, not just weight, we’re not talking about losing muscle or bone mass or anything like that. We want to improve our body composition, we just all understand that weight loss means fat loss, right?
Can we just all agree to that? Cool, okay. So when it comes to your body weight, and the amount of fat that you’re carrying around, or muscle, even in this case, there are three different approaches.
You can choose to maintain your weight, which means you’re just gonna keep doing what you’re doing and maintain your weight easily. You can gain weight, you know, you might be somebody that wants to actively get bigger, you know, maybe from a muscular standpoint, or you can try to lose weight.
So if your goal is to maintain your weight, and your weight is kind of where you want it to be, and you’re okay with where your weight is, then probably what you’re doing is fine, and you just can keep doing whatever it is you’re doing.
You know, you might be eating a certain way, you might be exercising a certain amount each week. And if you can easily maintain your body composition, meaning you’re not gaining fat, you’re not losing muscle, you really don’t need to change anything.
So this is what we call maintenance mode. And eventually, we all want to get into maintenance mode. And the end goal of any weight loss journey should be this place where you can just easily and kind of effortlessly maintain your weight, like that should be the goal.
And that’s the goal with everybody that I work with is like the end goal should be that when you and I are done working together, you know exactly what to do to easily and pretty effortlessly maintain your weight, right? So if you just want to maintain, that’s pretty easy to do. Just keep doing what you’re doing, you don’t really have to change anything. All right.
Now, the second approach is, let’s say you’re somebody that wants to gain weight. And you might be thinking, I’m sort of crazy for talking about this, who would want to gain weight? But lots of people do. Bodybuilders want to gain weight, I’m trying to gain weight, I’ve been trying to gain weight for some time now. And when I talk about gaining weight, what we’re talking about typically is gaining muscle.
So I’ve been actively trying to gain muscle. And it is hard to do because one thing you have to understand is that you have to be very diligent about eating more food, you got to increase your calorie intake, you got to eat more protein, then you have to do a significant amount of weight training.
And that could be training for hypertrophy training for strength, but you have to be actively working towards building bigger muscles, you can’t just expect to eat a lot more calories, and then expect to gain a bunch of muscle, it doesn’t really work that way. Again, that would be awesome if it did, but it doesn’t.
So we want to combine a good healthy diet and I’m not talking about eating a bunch of junk. But a good healthy diet, you just have to increase the calorie intake and then the right amount of weight training and we have to do this stuff consistently for a pretty long period of time, especially as you get older.
You know if I was doing this in my 20s or 30s, I’d probably be gaining weight from muscle weight pretty quickly and pretty easily. But now I’m in my late 50s you know, and putting on muscle and getting bigger in that way is a little bit harder, but I’ve been pretty successful with it you know and I’ll share more about about on a future podcast, I’m not quite where I want to be yet. So when I do get there, I’m going to share my journey with you guys there.
Okay, so that would be the approach of gaining weight. All right. So if you want to maintain, just keep doing whatever it is you’re doing, if you want to, if you want to gain weight, or even if you want to lose weight, then we have to change something, right?
So that brings us to the third approach, which is the one that most people, I would assume one, which is to lose weight, you want to lose that fat weight, okay? So if you want to lose, then we have to change something, if you want to maintain your weight, just keep doing whatever you’re doing, right?
But if you want to lose, what you’re doing is not getting you there, right? So we have to change something. If you have 20, 30, 40 pounds to lose, then whatever you’re doing right now is not going to get you there.
Maybe what you’re doing right now would be a good maintenance plan for you. So think about that. Like what if you’re not gaining weight, you’re just maintaining your weight pretty easily. But you want to lose, think about this. This what you’re doing now could be a good maintenance plan for you long term after you hit your goal weight, of course, right?
So common sense says that if you want to lose the weight, then we have to change something. And when I say change something, that means we have to sacrifice something or some things in order to start getting the weight to move, in order to get you to that goal weight.
Okay, so whenever people are told that they need to make a sacrifice, they figure Oh, my God, it’s like torture, you know, but it doesn’t have to be torture. I looked up the definition of sacrifice. And I like these words that are associated with it.
So the definition is to suffer loss of something to give up something to renounce something, or to destroy something, I like that one, we got to destroy the pizza cravings, you know, especially for an ideal a belief or an end. Right.
So the end, in this case, is your ideal weight. It’s your weight loss goal. And the sacrifices are the things that you need to give up that you need to renounce the things that you need to destroy, in order to achieve that.
And okay, another way of saying this is every goal requires a sacrifice. And the sacrifice could be something you love, like pizza, or ice cream. And, you know, it could be money or time or effort.
You know, if you’re training for that marathon, you know, you have to make sacrifices, months of training in the cold weather, long, long runs on sore, tired legs, you sacrifice time with your family, you sacrifice your social life, because you can’t go out on Friday night, you got to get up early to run 18 miles tomorrow. And then you can’t go out tomorrow night because you’re so tired from running the 18 miles.
You know, most people I talk to are like, oh my gosh, I am so willing to make those sacrifices in order to you know, hit my marathon goal. And so many people are so quick to make that decision. They’re like, cool, I’m definitely going to sacrifice to hit that marathon goal. In fact, I’m going to do this twice a year or three times a year, I run like two or three marathons every year.
So you’re making the sacrifices pretty much year-round. Because if you’re running two or three marathons a year, you’re kind of always in training. So you’re always giving up things. You’re always sacrificing some things for your training. So you know, that training for a marathon requires a lot of sacrifices and you do it gladly. You do it with a smile on your face. Okay.
So what about those sacrifices that you might have to make in order to reach a weight loss goal? You know, you may want to stop eating sugar and you may want to stop drinking alcohol and you may want to cut out the junk food that you’ve been scarfing down happily while you’re doing all that marathon training.
Maybe you cut out snacking or you just go down to eating a couple times a day. Maybe you stop eating all the pizza and the french fries and the ice cream. So all these things are real sacrifices that you might have to make if you want to hit that goal. But the bigger question here is this. Are you willing?
Are you willing to make those sacrifices are you willing to give up the foods that you love that tastes so amazing that light up the pleasure center in your brain like crazy, but they keep making you fatter?
Are you willing to give up those foods, because the cold hard truth is this losing weight requires sacrifices, becoming the healthiest and most badass version of yourself requires sacrifice. If it didn’t require sacrifice, you already would have achieved it. The fact that it requires a sacrifice means you have not achieved it yet.
So you have to give up something in order to get there, what you want is outside your comfort zone mean, meaning that, you know, if it was in your comfort zone, you’d already have it because it’d be something that you’re comfortable with, you know, but it’s not, it’s outside your comfort zone.
And so just by definition, one of the things you’re going to have to sacrifice is comfort in order to reach that weight loss goal. So sometimes I talk to my clients and they’ll say something like, you know, I’m a little frustrated because my weight has stalled a little bit. And by the way, this is totally normal happens all the time, weight loss can stall for 2, 3, 4 weeks sometimes.
And then it just picks up again, sometimes we don’t change anything. But it’s really not a stall if it’s you know, been four days or six days or something like that, it’s really not. If it’s three, four weeks, yeah, then we got to, you know, look at you know, something, and maybe make a change. And this is totally normal. Everybody goes through this at some point, okay?
So they’ll tell me, my weight is not changing at all, but it’s not going down, it’s staying the same. And when we really dig into what’s going on, almost always, it’s like, well, you know, I’ve had the occasional cookies here and there, I’ve had the occasional piece of cake, I only had one slice of pizza the other night, and I did have a glass of wine too, you know?
Okay, so first of all, all that stuff is fine to do if you want to maintain your weight, because you’re maintaining your way pretty easily here, you know, you can have the occasional cookie, you can have the piece of pizza here and there, you’re gonna have the occasional glass of wine.
And if you do it the right way, and you can do it in moderation. Again, it’s hard to do sometimes with some of this stuff. But if you can do it in moderation, then you’re good from a maintenance standpoint. So if your goal is to maintain your weight, you’re fine. Okay.
But since your goal is not to maintain, it’s to lose your weight, then you’re going to have to be a little bit more disciplined, right, you have to make these sacrifices, at least until you reach your goal weight, then you can go back to the occasional cookie, the slice of pizza, or the glass of wine here and there.
And maybe we practice doing that here and there, as you’re getting closer to that goal weight, so that you understand the mental and emotional aspects of drinking alcohol and eating sugar, because those things can really mess you up. And they’ll they’ll cause more cravings. And it’ll be really hard to stop once you start for some people anyway.
And so we got to be careful with that. So maybe we practice that and we can walk through it slowly. You know, I’m not just going to cut you loose and go Good luck, you know, we’re going to practice doing some of that stuff together. Okay.
So what I’m saying here is like we do have to make sacrifices, but we don’t necessarily have to make these sacrifices for life. Okay. I always talk about how we want to commit to a lifestyle, and commit to a lifestyle of eating healthy, that does not mean we commit to a lifestyle of never having another piece of pizza again, in our lives. That’s not what we’re talking about here.
So losing weight requires these lifestyle changes, you have to change the core of how you approach food, like your mental and emotional approach to food has to be different, right? You can’t keep doing the things you were doing before that doesn’t work, you already know that we and if you want to lose, you got to tighten things up a little bit.
You have to make some sacrifices. And then you have to learn how to do maintenance the right way. And maintenance doesn’t mean you just go back to doing things the way you did before. It’s about sticking to your healthy eating plan most of the time, like let’s say 90% of the time, it means learning that you can eat the occasional slice of pizza, and not the entire large pizza.
That was always my problem. I would be like I’m gonna get some pizza and I would eat like a whole medium or large pizza to myself. Depending on how like thick the crust was, you can only eat so much crust, you know, it means learning how to have a glass of wine once a week, not a bottle of wine every night. Like there’s a big difference there. Okay.
And this learning is how to do things differently. This learning how to moderate amazingly delicious foods that make us feel so good that that’s where the real work comes into play. Right? So if you’re somebody that’s like, you know, the thing that’s going to really be sustainable for me is if I can occasionally have that glass of wine, if I can occasionally have a piece of cake or cookie, but I can occasionally have pizza. I have learned how to do this.
And I have learned that I can eat pizza like couple times a year, I pretty much don’t eat sugar, I’ll have the occasional piece of dark chocolate. So it might be at 5% dark. So it’s there’s not much sugar in there. But I, when I eat that stuff, when I’m eating chocolate, when I’m eating some pizza, I want more of that stuff.
You know, I’ll start thinking about it ahead of time, because I usually plan it out. I’ll be like, oh, yeah, next month on the 14th I’m gonna have a pizza, you know, or eat some pizza. And then I’ll be thinking about, I can’t wait to have that pizza that I haven’t. I’m like, yeah, it was fine.
But then afterwards, I’m like, that was really good. I want more of that, you know, and I’ll and I’ll have to be really cognizant of my mental and emotional state around those types of foods that light up my pleasure centers, okay, and you’re gonna have to do the same thing for you. Okay.
So learning how to moderate some of these foods is really where the work kicks in. Okay, but you can do it. And the cool thing is, is that when you make these sacrifices, so you gotta be willing to make some sacrifices.
And when you make these sacrifices, and sometimes it’s for months on end, you might have to sacrifice some of these things for three months, six months, something like that, when you give them up, when you destroy them, they no longer have the power over you that they once had.
And after some time, you realize that not eating these things is really, you’re really not sacrificing anything at all. You know, it’s just not a big deal anymore. Okay.
So here’s your work for this week. Think about this. What do you need to sacrifice in order to reach your weight loss goals? Right? And then what are you willing to sacrifice? Are you willing to sacrifice all those things? And it has to be like a yes or no, you have to be committed.
You have to be absolutely committed to cutting these things out of your life, at least for a while. Okay? Every goal requires sacrifice. Losing weight requires sacrifice. What are you willing to cut out of your life to reach your weight loss goal? Okay, think about that. That’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on Running Lean, and I will talk to you soon.
If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you probably already know that you have to change your diet. This is obvious and we all know this, but that’s where most people stop. They change …
Continue Reading about 218. You Have to Change How You Think →
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 218 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners today, you have to change how you think. So if you’re somebody who wants to lose weight and keep it off, you probably already know that you have to change your diet, right?
This is obvious, we all know this. But that’s where most people stop, they change their diet, they get some results. But it rarely lasts. Because they’ve only changed the behavior, not the thinking that’s driving the behavior. They keep slipping back into old eating patterns because they haven’t changed the thoughts that create those patterns in the first place.
So if you think you can change your diet, but not your thinking, you’re always going to struggle. So today on the podcast, if you want to change behavior and make it last, then you have to change how you think.
But first, I know I talk a lot about nutrition, weight loss, running strength training, all that stuff here on the podcast. And if you’re new to the podcast, welcome. And also this all might seem a little overwhelming to you. And you might just want to know where to get started with all this stuff.
If that sounds like you, awesome, I’ve got you covered, I created a free training, it’s about an hour long, it’s a video that you can watch, you can check it out anytime it’s called Five Simple Steps To Becoming A Leaner Stronger Runner, you’re gonna learn all the basics, nutrition, strength, endurance mindset, all geared towards you, the runner who’s interested in becoming fitter, stronger, faster, and the most badass version of yourself yet.
If this sounds like you, check out this free training, just go to runningleancoaching.com and click on free training. I know it’s pretty obvious, right? And you can get started on your weight loss journey today. Cool. Awesome.
Okay, let’s get into this topic today, you have to change how you think. So one of the things that prompted me to talk about this today is that I talk to people every single day. And they just want some of these people just want me to talk to tell them like what to do, like, just tell me what to do. You know, give me a plan and I’ll follow the plan.
They just want to know what’s, the when’s, the how’s, like what should I eat? When should I lift weights? How often should I run? Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it. And I jokingly say, half-jokingly I say, yeah, knowing what to do is easy. If it were that easy, though, all I would do is write a book and hand it over to you right?
But knowing what to do is only a small part of the equation. All right? How often have you known what to do and you still haven’t done it anyway, like, you probably know that you shouldn’t be eating some things like Dunkin Donuts, right? But you do it anyway.
And you’re not doing it and you’re not like doing the things that you want to be doing consistently. So that’s where, you know, we see this behavior that we’re engaging in, we want to change the behavior, but we stop there, we just stop it like, well, I just need to stop doing that I need to do things differently. I need to take different actions, okay?
The problem with this is that you’re not changing the thing that is actually driving the behavior that’s actually creating the thoughts, the feelings that are actually driving the behavior. Okay, you can’t just change a behavior, you have to change the thinking behind the behavior, okay?
But when it comes to, you know, things like, okay, I shouldn’t be eating Dunkin Donuts every day. I get that. But they find themselves they just keep eating the Dunkin Donuts every day. And they’re like, how come I can’t do that? Because they haven’t changed the thinking that’s driving the behavior.
So if you’re somebody who struggles with sticking to a plan, like sticking to a food plan, you know, you might have experienced this in the past, and lots of people I’ve talked to have experienced this where they’re like, yeah, I did that.
For a while I was able to change the behavior, I started to eat real food, and I started to do pretty well with that. But they never did like the deeper work of changing the thinking that drives the behavior. And so they just slip back into those old patterns that keep slipping back into those old eating patterns.
You know, slipping back into, you know, binging on stuff and in, you know, eating the junk food, and they can’t understand why because they know what to do. But they’ve never done the deeper work. The deeper work is changing. The thinking changes the doing, the thinking that actually drives the behavior.
Okay, so I’ve said this a couple of times now, your thinking drives your behavior, how does all this work? So, you know, here’s, here’s what, what I want to talk about next, this is how your thinking actually drives your actions. Okay?
So when we want to change something complicated, like eating patterns, this can be kind of challenging, okay? And for most people, they just look at the action itself, I’m either eating broccoli, or I’m eating potato chips, I’m eating, you know, the chicken that I put out, or a meeting the Dunkin Donuts, you know.
And when it’s when you think about the action like that, it is, it is very surface level, when you just try to change the action, you are going to get minuscule results, I’m just telling you right now, if that’s what you’ve been working on, then you are going to get very short term results, and you’re never going to make lasting change.
What you want to do is get down to the thinking this is the deeper work, you get down to the thinking that’s driving the behavior because this is where you can actually start making real lasting change.
So most people believe that whatever they’re doing is some sort of automatic behavior. Like they’re some sort of a robot, they have no control over their actions, you know, the Dunkin Donuts just sitting there and I eat them. I just find myself eating them, I find myself eating them. Like I am an automaton, I see doughnuts and I eat them.
This is not really going on. This is really not what’s happening. You are not a robot, you are a human being you have free will, you have agency, you have the power to make decisions and you are making decisions, you are not out of control. You can choose something different in that circumstance.
But in that circumstance, you’re making a choice, you’re choosing this over that you’re choosing, typically, you’re choosing what feels good right now, you’re choosing immediate gratification, you’re choosing immediate pleasure over your long-term goals, over long-lasting gratification and pleasure, a fit body, a long and healthy life and all the good stuff that you actually want for yourself.
Most people think behavior works like this, they see the Dunkin Donuts saying eat them, period, right? Here’s how your thinking actually drives your behavior, though. So you see the Dunkin Donuts sitting there. And then you have a thought about the Dunkin Donuts.
So it’s not the donuts themselves that are driving the behavior, but it’s your thoughts. So you have a thought about the donuts, oh, man, those look so good. You know what, I’ve been good all week, I just ran 10 miles, I deserve a little treat. You know, I’ve been pretty consistent with all this, it’s not gonna hurt that much. It’s going to feel really good to eat, though.
So you have all these thoughts that go through your mind. You know, a lot of times you don’t even know you’re having those thoughts. It just goes, it happens really fast. Really, it’s very, very quick. It’s just in an instant, where you have these thoughts, but you do have these thoughts.
And those thoughts are very powerful. Because those thoughts create a feeling inside of you. Immediately, they create a in this case, they create something like desire. And the feeling could be anything really it could be a feeling like you can have a thought that creates a feeling of stress or anxiety or anger.
But in the case of you know, looking at some Dunkin Donuts and you just ran 10 miles, it could just be an intense desire, which is just a feeling it’s an emotion, a desire. You have this intense desire that wells up inside you that desire to eat a Dunkin donut.
What is actually driving the action of eating the doughnut? If the desire wasn’t there, you wouldn’t eat the doughnut. So the desire to eat the donut is not created by the donut in the box. That’s not creating the desire. The desire is created by your thoughts about the donut sitting in the box.
Oh, this is gonna taste so good. This sugar is gonna make me feel really good because it does that sugar lights up those pleasure centers in your brain. Oh, I’m gonna get a nice sugar rush for the next 20 minutes or so.
All these thoughts that you have create that desire and they really ramp up that desire. It’s like turning up the volume on that desire. And the reason we know this is true is because some people they just don’t have that. They don’t like Dunkin Donuts and they don’t have it. The desire to eat the doughnuts, the doughnuts are not causing the desire because some people can see them sitting there and just be like, not so great. I don’t really like those things, you know, they have no thoughts about, oh my God, these are gonna be so amazing.
They have no thoughts about oh, I just deserve this, you know, just ran 10 miles, they don’t have any of those thoughts. And so they have no desire to eat the doughnut, and so they don’t eat the doughnut.
So not eating the doughnut is not hard for those people because their thinking is different. They are not thinking all these thoughts about how amazing this is going to feel. And so the desire is not there to eat the doughnut, and so they don’t eat the doughnut.
So this is what is called a thought-feeling-action pattern. Your thoughts create feelings and your feelings drive your behavior. And I just call this for simplicity, a thought pattern, right? Thought patterns are things that we have learned over the years and years and years of our lives. And we have thought patterns about all kinds of stuff in our life. Some are good, some are not so good. Right? You’ve been practicing certain thought patterns for your whole life, decades.
Like, Dunkin Donuts are amazing. To be honest with you. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a Dunkin donut, just a little sidebar here. I know people love their coffee, they talk about how good the coffee is. I just can’t imagine that it would be that good.
Because I’m sort of a coffee snob. I love really good, you know, single-origin coffees that I grind the beans myself, and I just don’t think that it would be that good. But in no way I don’t know, maybe I’m missing out on something. But I don’t have the desire to eat the Dunkin Donuts. I’m just using this as an example.
So you’ve had these, you’ve been practicing these types of thought patterns for decades. Like if you’ve always loved Dunkin Donuts, and you’ve probably thought, oh my God, these are just so amazing all the time. So you’ve created a thought pattern. And you’ve done this so many times, it just creates a habit. The habit is when you see the donuts, you eat them.
And you think it’s an automatic thing. But it really isn’t. It’s a thought-feeling-action pattern that you’ve been practicing over and over and over and over again. This is the same as practicing any other behavior. Behavior that’s become a habit for you, like running.
So when you first started running, you have all these thoughts about running, like, running as hard. I don’t feel like running today. I’m not getting any faster. Running is really hard. Why is running so hard? I hate running. It’s really hard. It’s stupid. Those are my thoughts about running when I first started doing it, and it took me so long before I got better, you know, running, running takes a long, it takes a long time to get better at, right?
And these thoughts that I was having would keep me in bed, most mornings, you know, because they would, when I started thinking these feelings about running being so hard, and I’m not getting better. And I you know, I’m not getting faster, and running is stupid. It’s not working for me.
All those thoughts that I had about running, were causing feelings of demotivation inside me, a lack of enthusiasm. I’m not good enough, feelings of frustration and anger, like those feelings of demotivation, frustration, anger, and lack of enthusiasm, these feelings will drive a certain type of behavior, which is to stay in bed and don’t go run. Because running is stupid. Okay?
That is a thought-feeling-action pattern at play right there. So you don’t feel like running and you don’t run. But over time, over time, you do squeak out a few good runs here and there. And you do eventually get a little bit faster. And running becomes a little bit easier. And you kind of surprise yourself that oh I actually ran like five miles and it actually felt okay.
Like you start to see that this might actually be working, you start to enjoy it. You start to feel good after you run, you start to look forward to it. And so then you have all these new thoughts about running that start to change the way you feel about running to the point where now you never miss a run no matter what even if it’s really crappy outside.
Even if it’s cold and snowy and rainy. Even if you’re sick, you’ve got the flu, even if you’re on vacation, you’re gonna go out there and run because it feels so good for you. So you’ve created for yourself without even knowing it a whole different set of thought patterns around running.
And so the behavior, you think, you know, the behavior just changes by itself. No, you have changed that behavior over time. I hope this is an example that you can relate to. Because this is a really good example of the amazing power of your thought patterns.
Running can be a hard thing, but you can get through it. And you can get over that and you can become a person who loves to run. The very same thing can happen with any other thought patterns in your life. Running just didn’t naturally come easily to you and be handed to you all of a sudden, you know, running just got easier. No, you had to like, work through it.
And you had to learn thought patterns, it took a while you had to practice it for a long time before it became something that was easier, and it was a habit. So thought patterns can be learned thought patterns can be unlearned, too, right?
If you want to train yourself to hate running, just go back to all the crappy thinking about running, how hard it is how you don’t like it, how you’re not getting any faster, why so hard. All that stuff, just keep thinking those kinds of thoughts, and it’ll be super demotivating. And you’ll not feel like running ever again. Okay?
If you have a thought pattern, like mindlessly eating the Dunkin Donuts every time you see them, even though you know it’s not what you want, it’s not good for you, it’s not going to help you lose weight, it’s not healthy, it’s not in alignment with your long term goals, then you can unlearn that thought pattern, okay?
And it starts with changing the way you think you have to change the thoughts that are creating those feelings of desire within you. So how do you change your thinking? So changing your thinking is not as easy as it sounds, you just can’t be like, well, I’m just going to think differently.
Especially if you’ve been practicing the same thought patterns your whole life, it takes time. And it takes some effort, it takes a little bit of work. And when I say work, that’s where most people like tune out. They’re like, oh, please, I don’t want to do any work.
But listen, if you want to change, you have to do some work, right? And I promise you that if you’re willing to work on this particular area, when you’re starting to talk about changing thought patterns, this can be an absolute game changer for you. And it applies to any thought patterns in your life, whether it’s Dunkin Donuts, running, whatever it is that you want for yourself, you can change this.
And I’ve got a three step little process here that I’m going to go through with you that I think is really powerful. And it’s the three R’s. And the three R’s are to recognize, record, and reframe.
So the first R, if we’re talking about changing thought patterns here, the first R, the very first step is to recognize you got to recognize that something is going on here. You know, you have to see that you’re engaging in a behavior or a thought pattern that you want to change.
You have to recognize that what you’re doing may not be in alignment with your long-term goals. So this is self-awareness, understanding that you’re not a robot, this is not automatic behavior. You’re just practicing an old thought pattern. So you have to recognize that something is going on here.
That is the critical first step. And you have to be honest with yourself that oh, yeah, I’m doing something that you know, I am eating the Dunkin Donuts mindlessly what’s happening here, like what’s going on? So recognize that something is happening here. Okay, step number one.
Step number two, the second R is to record, record the thought pattern in as much detail as possible. So as soon as you can, once you recognize what’s happening, or that there’s something happening here, stop and record some thoughts and feelings about the behavior.
Ask yourself some questions like, what just happened there? Like why did I do that? What was the thought that I had right before I did that? What was the feeling that I had right before I did that?
This doesn’t have to be complicated, you can just grab a notebook and write it down, use a pen and a piece of paper, use your journal, write it on a note on your phone, you can even record a voice memo and just record it into your phone. I like doing that because sometimes I can’t write as fast as my brain is, you know, can think and I can talk so I just talk it’s a lot easier for me.
But the more you record, the more you can start to see that yeah, these are the types of thought patterns that I’m engaging in. These are the types of thoughts I’m thinking these are the types of feelings that are being created within me that are actually driving the behavior.
And then the next step is to and the third R is to reframe. Reframing means you change the thought to create different feelings, which drive a different behavior. This simply means you need to start to choose different thoughts in those moments, and this is a practice this is not something you’re going to do you know, you, you know, and then you’re going to do one time, you’re gonna be like, oh, I got it. No, it takes time.
Reframing is a powerful tool. It’s used in a lot of psychological practices like CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy. And they have a similar like three steps sort of process that is similar to this. But I think this one applies to us very profoundly. Okay.
So you have a thought, like, you know, I’ve been good all week, I deserve this donut, I just ran 10 miles, it’s not that big a deal. All those kinds of thoughts, right? Those thoughts are creating a desire inside you. And then you just use that desire to drive you to eat the doughnut.
But a reframing, reframing thought might be something like, oh, that donut looks really good. But my health is more important to me than how good that donut might taste in the moment. My weight loss goal is bigger than the tiny amount of pleasure that this stupid little donut is going to give me. Or I’m not the kind of person that eats that crap anymore.
Right, these thoughts, these reframed thoughts, start to create feelings of motivation, you start to feel more confident, you have a different desire not to eat the doughnut, but to stay consistent and reach those health and fitness goals that are so important to you.
And so in that moment, the desire to stay committed to your goals is much more powerful than the stupid donut sitting there. And so you make the choice tonight the donut. That’s a reframe.
Okay, so the whole thing, this whole process, recognize, record, reframe, only takes a couple of minutes to do, it only takes a few minutes, but you want to practice this, you want to practice this every day.
Recognize there’s a thought pattern you want to change. Record your thoughts and feelings about it. Reframe those thoughts and feelings to produce a better outcome next time.
It’s a very simple process. Simple, but not easy. This is the work that we have to do. This is the work that most people don’t want to do or not willing to do. Most people would rather stay stuck and just blame everything around them for why they’re stuck.
Like, oh, if those donuts weren’t sitting there, I’d be fine. Actually, no, because the donuts are not the problem. It’s your thoughts about the donuts. That’s the real problem. Okay. So get out there, start seeing all the thought patterns in your life, and start recognizing that these things are happening and that you are creating them.
Alright, so there’s some good thought patterns that are happening in your life and there’s some that are not so good, but recognize all of them and start to see them for what they really are, okay?
There’s going to be some that you want to continue doing. There are going to be some thought patterns that you want to change. And that’s when we put the three R’s into practice. Recognize, record, and reframe. Cool. Okay, that’s all I got for you today. I love you all. Keep on Running Lean, and I will talk to you soon.
Recently I spent a week on vacation and decided to change my diet a bit. I made the decision to eat more freely, to enjoy some of the amazing local food, to eat dessert, bread, pastries, and …
Continue Reading about 215. Lessons Learned from Vacation Eating →
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 215 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners and today, Lessons Learned From Vacation Eating.
So recently, I spent a week on vacation, and I decided ahead of time that I was going to change my diet a bit. I made a conscious decision to eat more freely, to enjoy some of the amazing local food, to eat dessert, eat the bread, eat the pastries, and generally be a little less strict about my diet.
It was definitely an interesting experience. And I learned some very valuable lessons along the way. And I want to pass these along to you here today. So in this episode, it’s all the lessons learned from quote-unquote, vacation eating for a week, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
But first, I know I share a lot of information here on the podcast about nutrition, weight loss, improving your running and improving your strength. And if you’re new to the podcast, all this might feel a little bit overwhelming and confusing. And if it does, that’s okay, I’ve got you covered.
I’ve created a free hour-long training that you can go through, you can check it out anytime. It’s called 5 Simple Steps To Becoming A Leaner Stronger Runner. You’re going to learn all the basics of the nutrition, strength, endurance and mindset side of things, all geared towards you, the runner.
So if you’re ready to get leaner and stronger and become the most badass version of yourself, then this free training exactly what you need to get started, just go to runningleancoaching.com and click on Free Training to get started on your weight loss journey today.
Okay, so recently, I took a trip I went to Hawaii, my girlfriend and I decided we wanted to take a tropical vacation for her birthday, her birthday is in July, actually. But she was like I don’t want to go to Hawaii in July I want to go when it’s really cold and miserable here in the Midwest. So we decided that the end of January/beginning of February was a great time to do that.
So we plan this trip. And man, we’ve been really looking forward to it. It has been very cold here in Cincinnati over the last several weeks. So you know this, this trip came at a perfect time. But I made this decision going into this that I was going to be a little bit freer with my diet and I wanted to kind of do a little bit of an experiment, see how it would feel and how it worked out if I just ate kind of whatever.
Now I’m not the kind of person who eats a ton of I don’t eat much sugar, I almost never eat sugar. I don’t eat bread, and almost never eat bread. I love pastries. I love baked goods, you know, muffins and donuts and, and bars, you know, and all this all the good stuff that’s made with like with sugar and flour and more sugar and put on top like that’s my jam typically. And I know, but I don’t eat that stuff, you know, like in general, but I decided that going on this trip, I was going to be a little bit freer with this stuff. And that I was going to indulge a little bit.
I was going to eat the pizza and the fries and the burgers and the desserts and things like that. And so I made this conscious decision ahead of time. And I knew that going into it. I wasn’t going to feel amazing and I knew that I was probably going to gain a few pounds in the process and I was okay with that.
Alright, so I was very intentional about this, okay, so I just want you to know that, that when you go on vacation or you know a trip a business trip or when you’re traveling or anything like that, I want you to be very intentional about what your goal is for that trip.
And if your goal is to maintain your weight and maintain healthy eating patterns throughout, then make that your goal, set that intention, and then do that. If your goal is to indulge a little bit, enjoy the desserts have some you know donuts, eat the burgers with the bong I mean, oh my gosh, eat the french fries, whatever, then do that.
Be intentional about it, plan it ahead of time and do that. Know that you’re gonna gain a couple of pounds, that’s okay. It’s okay to do that. So that was my plan going into it. I was going to be a little bit looser with the diet. I was going to eat some sugar, you know we’re going to a place that has some amazing food. And so I was like you know, we’re just going to enjoy ourselves or I’m going to enjoy myself.
My girlfriend is a pretty good eater and she’s pretty small as she doesn’t gain weight, she’s always been pretty tiny. So like, she’s fine, like, whatever she does is going to be fine, you know, but for me, you know, I look at sugar and I gain weight, you know, essentially. So I have to be a little bit more mindful of these things.
So she was going to just do whatever anyway, and I was going to indulge a little bit here. Okay, so what did I do? So the first night we get there, we get to Hawaii. And she’s not feeling well. So she had a rough night. She had a drink at the bar at the pool, like we went to the pool as we got to our resort, beautiful Hilton resort in Waikoloa Village on the Big Island of Hawaii.
And we get there and she has a drink from the from the pool bar. And we get back to our room after hanging out at the pool for a while and she did not feel well. Could have been the traveling could have been the rum drink that she had. I don’t drink alcohol, but she does.
She had this weird drink and did not feel well. We had plans to go out to sushi that night. And she just was like, I can’t leave this room. All that sounds good to me is like cheese pizza right now. And I’m like, cool. I’m down with some pizza. And there was a cool pizza place on our resort, just a two-minute walk from our place.
I’m like, okay, I’ll go get us a pizza and I’ll come back and you know, we’ll just eat some pizza in the room. Wow, and that pizza? Good. So, so good. So I ate some pizza the first night I was there and I was like, this is going well so far. This is going really well. And I really enjoyed it.
And then throughout the week I had things like for lunches I would just do like a burger with fries and just get the bun. I never do that. I always get a bunless burger. I don’t eat fries typically. So I was like, I’m just gonna eat the burger and the fries. Who cares? It’s gonna be great.
We’re eating desserts, pretty much with every meal because they have all these amazing things they make with coconut and macadamia and pineapple. I had this amazing Kona coffee gelato. Oh my gosh. We had lava cake. Because you know, we’re in the land of volcanoes and they probably invented lava cake in in Hawaii, you know, so I’m like, Okay, we’re gonna need some lava cake.
We had pastries and muffins. And we went to this little town called Javi. And we had there’s a little coffee place there and we had some good Kona coffee. And like a breakfast burrito type of thing that we had as like our lunch that was really delicious.
But then they had this lilikoi bar so it looked like a lemon bar if you’ve ever seen like a lemon bar with like the crust on the bottom, the flaky crust on the bottom and then it has like a lemony middle and then they put a little bit of like sugar on top or whatever. But it was made with lilikoi which is Hawaiian passionfruit.
Okay, so I have to tell you, this is one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten in my life. It did not taste like lemon. It did not taste like anything I’ve ever tasted before; it was decadent and delicious. It wasn’t overly sweet either. I expected it to be super sugary, and sweet, but it was oh my gosh, it was so good. I regret not going back there and getting a bunch more of that stuff. Bring it home, whatever. Anyway, delicious.
Okay, I really enjoyed that. Another thing that’s interesting, we’re in this area around these volcanoes, one of them being Mauna Loa and there’s all these macadamia nut orchards all over the place. So we got some local macadamia nuts they make they sell macadamia nuts that are covered in chocolate like this is a thing there you know? So of course we’re eating chocolate covered macadamia nuts, like nobody’s business. Okay.
This is not the way I eat normally at all but I was really enjoying myself. We went to a coffee plantation, a Kona coffee plantation. We went down to Kona and had the most amazing experience touring the coffee plantation. Got to pick some coffee berries off the bushes, you know, got to chop down a banana tree and take all the bananas off the banana tree.
We drank some amazing coffee and had lovely steak dinners. We stayed at this beautiful hotel where they had this nice restaurant that was like on the water and overlooking the sunset so it was oh my gosh, it was so beautiful. And with that beautiful steak dinner, they had this purple bread and it was this bread that was made with something called a Molokai sweet potato which is a like a sweet potato but it’s purple. And so the bread was like this deep purple color. And they served it with butter that was dipped with or whipped with local honey.
Okay, that was amazing that purple sweet potato bread with a local whipped local honey, honey butter was amazing. I don’t eat a lot of bread, but I ate my weight in bread that night. Okay, so good.
And just a side side note here, I don’t drink alcohol. But if I did, this would have been a very different conversation because I would have probably drank a lot, because that’s what I used to do when I went on vacation.
Okay, so I’m just giving you a little bit of a breakdown of kind of what I did while I was on this vacation, we had a wonderful time we did a lot of walking, a lot of driving too. We drove all around the island drove up and down the coast many many times. Did a lot of walking, some hiking, we checked out the volcanoes and some little towns and went to Hilo like it was really, really cool. Such a cool vacation.
I was expecting this to be more like a lay on the beach under a palm tree on a white sandy beach. There’s not a lot of white sandy beaches on the Big Island of Hawaii, interestingly enough, because it’s a newer island, you know, when it comes to the age of these islands, and so it’s very rocky. And so the coasts are very, very rocky tons of lava rock.
And if you just look some volcanoes just come all the way from the, from the sky, I mean, you’re just looking up at this massive volcano, and it just sloped slowly all the way down to the ocean. And you can just see the trails of lava, and then the deposits of lava that are that make up most of the coast of this island.
So there’s not a lot of just laying around on the white sandy beaches, we did find a cool black sand beach, which was amazing. And that’s like the volcanic rock that’s been broken down into sand. So super cool place just a wild, you know, violent, you can see the violent history of this place everywhere you look.
But it wasn’t one of these places where you just lay on the beach all day because there’s not a whole lot of beach to lay on, you know. So instead, we did a lot of walking a lot of exploring a lot of hiking, so exercising was okay. You know, I’ll tell you more about that in just a second.
But from an eating standpoint, I did go a little bit off the plan. And I did everything I just said I did and probably more. But you get the idea, right? I was eating differently than I normally would. Okay. So here are some of the lessons that I learned. And this was, this was a big eye opener for me, all of this stuff.
So number one, I realized that the more sugar and bread that I ate, the more that I craved sugar and bread, like sugar and refined carbs make you crave that stuff like crazy. So the more I ate it ate of that stuff, the more I wanted that stuff. I just wanted to eat more pizza. After that first night of having pizza, I was like when can we get that pizza again, and we did get it again another night.
And when I had that dessert the first night, I was like when I’m just gonna eat dessert at every meal pretty much you know. And so the more I eat of that stuff, the more I crave that stuff. And what’s interesting is that when I’m in my normal day-to-day life, I don’t crave any of that kind of stuff. I crave the foods that I eat, so you tend to crave the foods that you eat consistently.
So if you’re eating you know chicken and broccoli a lot, you’re going to crave that more often. I know it sounds weird. Like you’re like who craves chicken and broccoli. It’s not the same type of craving. You don’t have that intense desire and craving for chicken and broccoli but you tend to be more satisfied from those foods if you eat those foods.
When you’re eating more sugar and carbohydrates and breads, you crave more and more of that stuff and the other food just doesn’t seem very appealing because this other stuff is amazing. Why would you want to eat chicken and broccoli when you can eat? You know, lilikoi bars and pizza, you know? Okay, so the more at that stuff, the more I crave that stuff. That was a big eye-opener right there.
Another lesson I learned once I started eating this stuff, especially sugar, I found that I could not stop. I could not stop. I would start eating some chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, and I could eat a whole bag of that stuff in one sitting. I could just sit there and my girlfriend was like, hey, you’re gonna save a few of those for me and I was like, okay, there’s like one left. She’s like, seriously, and I have a problem.
Like I start eating that stuff and I can’t stop you know, she bought this little bag of sour pineapple candy so it’s like sour patch kids, I don’t know what they call these things SOUR Gummies you know, sour things that are gummy whatever. She just likes to have one or two here or there. I eat like the whole bag and like 10 minutes and she’s like, what happened to all these pineapple candies? I was like, I don’t know.
So anyway, once I start eating sugar, especially sugar and the bread too I can’t stop, you know, I just start eating that stuff and I can’t stop eating. Okay, lesson learned.
Third lesson learned is that it’s so easy for me to go back to eating junk food all the time. Like, I’m so sensitive to the effect of eating these hyper-palatable foods, it really affects me, especially the baked goods, you know, all the muffins and the bars and the and the breads and things like that. I love that stuff, you know.
So I have to be very careful with those things, I found a great way of eating for me on a daily basis. throughout the whole year, it works really well for me as a lifestyle, I feel much better doing that. And it’s just too easy for me to slip back into those old eating patterns. So it’s better for me not to do that too often. Okay. That’s number three.
Number four, I do not feel good when I eat this way. I was bloated, I was lethargic, I had brain fog. Like I couldn’t think clearly. I had zero energy for exercise. Despite all the energy that I was consuming, like I was eating a ton of calories, a ton of sugar, you’d think I would have tons of energy for exercise, I was so tired all the time.
And we were doing a lot of walking and stuff. And I was staying pretty active. But I was just so not myself, I just did not feel good. And was not myself, especially the bloating, I could just tell I was gaining weight. And I thought I gained a lot more. But I had gained about six pounds in the week.
Okay, that was another big lesson learned that I gained a lot of weight, you know, six pounds is a lot and some of that’s water weight when you eat a bunch of sugar and whatnot. But some of that is fat, some of that is the body storing fat because you got too much carbohydrate, too much sugar coming in, probably too many calories coming in, in general, your body can’t metabolize it, some of that gets stored as fat, okay, so gained about six pounds, almost a pound a day, okay of like water weight and fat weight. That’s not good, I did not enjoy that part of it at all. That’s lesson number five that I learned.
Number six, I was hungry all the time. When you eat more often, you’re going to be hungry more often. This is why people say like, oh, you need to eat six times a day to keep your metabolism going. I disagree.
When you eat six times a day, you’re gonna be hungry six times a day, every single day. And you’re just always going to be hungry. And you’re always going to be eating and it’s really hard to control your appetite and control your eating when you’re eating constantly.
So for me, when you’re eating more often you’re going to be more hungry more often. Also the sugar, the carbs, the bread, the refined carbohydrates, they hijack your hunger sensors, they make you feel more hungry, even though you’re really not.
You may have just eaten something but they make you crave more carbohydrates, they make you more hungry, you know, they turn off your hunger signals, or they ramp up your hunger signals, and they turn off your fullness signals. So you know leptin is the fullness hormone. And it kind of suppresses leptin when you’re eating a lot of sugar and carbohydrates so you don’t feel full when you eat it.
So we that is one of those things where you’re going to be more hungry. And you’re going to not feel full when you actually maybe are full. You know the ghrelin is the hunger hormone. And it kind of suppresses ghrelin when you eat a lot of sugar and carbs. And so you feel more hungry constantly, even after a huge meal.
Like I was like, oh, I still need some dessert, I need more carbs, I need some, you know, I found myself going back to my hotel room. And normally I just go to bed, or you know, maybe watch some TV or something like that go to bed. But I was still hungry. I wanted some more of those chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. I never eat late, I never eat while I’m sitting in bed or anything like that. But I just found myself eating constantly and being constantly hungry all the time. So that was number six.
Number seven, I did not sleep well. I slept terribly every night. Now big time change then that messed us both up like so that’s Hawaii is five hours ahead of us here and we’re in the Eastern time zone here in Cincinnati. So five hours ahead of us.
So we were going to bed we’re trying to stay awake until like 9 or 10 o’clock. We didn’t really make it to 10 o’clock, I don’t think any night, but even staying up till nine. That’s like two o’clock in the morning here. You know and so we were like so tired by eight o’clock, nine o’clock at night.
And then we were wide awake at like three or four in the morning. Because that’s like, you know, eight or 9am here. So didn’t sleep well from the time change but the food played a huge role. So when you’re eating a lot more sugar and carbs, you have higher blood glucose, higher insulin levels, higher cortisol levels, means more stress on the system.
Your sleep really suffers from that. And then you put your body into even more stress, it’s sort of a vicious cycle to get into, you know, so the poor choices from eating really affected my sleep as well. And then that was number seven.
Number eight. And this is the last kind of lesson learned is that running was really, really hard. I did do one run, I made a conscious decision that I wasn’t going to run much because we did tons of walking, and I thought, I’m just gonna run maybe once or twice while I’m there no big deal. I’m only running about three times a week right now anyway, so it wasn’t that different.
But I ran one time, it was so hard. I ran this really flat route, just from our hotel out to this big road and back. So it was an out and back. It was hot, you know, it’s probably 75 degrees in the morning, and I just was like struggling the whole time. And looking back over the Garmin data, my heart rate wasn’t that high. And it wasn’t and I wasn’t like going as slow as I thought I was. But it just felt I felt terrible. You know?
So my running really suffered from all of this that I’m talking about here. Okay, so those little lessons I learned where I’m at today with all of this. So I’ve been home about a week. And as soon as I got back home, I was like back on track. I was like, okay, I’m done with all that. I’ve worked out every day weight lifted every day, I’ve run a couple of times this week already running already feels like so much better.
Just after about five days of good eating and a couple of easy runs, running feels so much better. I’m eating like I was pre-vacation. With a few exceptions, we did bring home some of those chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, which are finished now. So we had one or two here or there. But I was really very mindful about having like, one after my dinner or something like that or two. So not a big deal there.
I am thinking more clearly I can the brain fog is gone already. And I can just think more clearly, I’ve lost four of the pounds that I gained. So I know that that’s just water weight. And there’s a little bit of fat there, which will come off here in a few days a week or something like that. So I’m not too concerned about that.
But I have tons more energy throughout the day, I’m sleeping way better. Oh my gosh, I’m waking up feeling rested. The first few days were a little wonky. Because again, now we’re coming back to this time zone and got to do that whole change. That was a little wonky for a few days.
But now I’m feeling really good had a great night’s sleep last few days here. So all of that is to say that all that is working really well. I’m not hungry all the time anymore. Like I’m back to eating a couple times a day, the sugar cravings are gone, the bread cravings are gone. Pretty much. I mean, maybe diminished greatly.
But I’ve just learned so many interesting things about myself through this whole process. You know, some of the biggest takeaways for me is like, I enjoyed this experiment I did I mean it was it was fun eating that way. It really was. I felt like I was kind of cheating a little bit. You know, some people call it oh, I had it, you had a cheat week or a cheat meal or whatever.
I don’t like that word, you know, because I was very intentional about what I was doing. I really wasn’t cheating anything. I was like I had made a decision ahead of time that I was going to eat this way. And I did it. And I felt good about that. So I enjoyed the experiment.
I mean, obviously eating those foods makes you feel really good and lights up the pleasure centers in your brain and you’re like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. But also I hated it too. Feels good in the moment when you’re eating that way. But, you know, it’s just in the moment. And that’s it,
Like afterward, there’s like all these negative consequences, the bloating, the brain fog, the lethargy, the weight gain, the sleeplessness, I don’t want that. I really don’t want that I’d much rather just enjoy my eating pretty much the way that I do all the time. I rather enjoy my eating just a little bit less and feel way better all the time. Right.
And honestly, the way that I eat all year long, I love it. I love the way I eat. I eat high protein, low carb, I pretty much don’t eat any sugar. It’s very satisfying. It’s very satiating, keeps me fit keeps me healthy. keeps me happy. I sleep well, I can think clearly I have tons of energy. Why wouldn’t I want that all the time? Even when I was on vacation?
You know, it doesn’t matter where you are. Wouldn’t you want to feel good all the time? Yeah, I think so. So, that experiment was interesting. Okay, but I’m much happier eating the way that I normally do. Now, I think that we’ve been tricked into thinking that vacation means that it’s okay to eat all the junk food because you’re on vacation. Just enjoy yourself. Right?
That’s what it means, go have fun. But is it really fun? Because all that stuff I just mentioned the brain fog the lethargy, The weight gain, the bloating, all that stuff. Is that really fun? Or do we just think it’s more fun, because of the way the food we’re eating is lighting up those pleasure centers in our brains like Christmas trees, you know?
So, go on vacation, eat the pizza, have a dessert here or there. But for me, I gotta keep things real. I gotta like, be very cautious about how I approach something like this. I can’t give myself permission to go down that hole of just eating whatever for a whole week like that, because I just feel like crap, you know?
So anyway, interesting experiment. I’m glad I did it. Lots of great lessons learned. And it made me realize that I really do love the way I eat and exercise every day. Okay, and I’m gonna keep doing that. I’m going to keep doing that.
Alright, that’s all I got for you today. Hope you got something out of this episode. Love you all. Keep on Running Lean. I’ll talk to you soon.
