Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray
A lot of runners are told not to lose weight while training for a race. There are many reasons why they are given this advice (which I cover in today’s episode), but I don’t necessarily agree with …
Continue Reading about 220. Should You Lose Weight While Training for a Race? →
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 220 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners, and today, Should You Lose Weight While Training For A Race.
So a lot of runners are told not to lose weight while training for an event. And there are many reasons why they are given this advice, which I’m going to cover in today’s episode, rest assured, but I don’t necessarily agree with all of it.
I believe that there’s a right way and a wrong way to lose weight as a runner, even when you’re training for an event like a half or a full marathon. So in this episode, can you and should you lose weight while training for a race?
But first, I know I share a lot of information here about nutrition, weight loss, improving your running, and building strength. And if you’re new to the podcast, welcome. But all this stuff might seem a little overwhelming to you and might be a little confusing, and you may not know where to even begin with all of this stuff.
So if that sounds like you, no worries, I’ve got you covered, I created a free training to help you get started with all this stuff. It’s called Five Simple Steps To Becoming A Leaner Stronger Runner.
You’re going to learn the basics of nutrition, strength, endurance and mindset, all geared towards you the long-distance runner. So if you’re ready to get leaner and stronger and become the 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.
Okay, so why I’m talking about this today, should you lose weight while training for a race? I have heard from a lot of people that I talk to out there in the running community that they’ve been told that they should not try to lose weight while they are training for some event, like a marathon half marathon, even for a 5k.
Like you don’t want to, to you know, try to lose weight, just focus on running. Don’t worry about the weight loss. And it could even be bad for you, it could hurt your running. And there are a few things that I want you guys to consider when we talk about this subject today.
So, the first thing before I get into some of the reasons why we’re told not to try to lose weight while training for some event, the first thing to think about is what most runners think the answer is to weight loss.
So most runners believe, and even most coaches that I talk to, that the way you’re going to lose weight is to run more. So pick a race, pick a marathon, and start training for the marathon up to your weekly mileage, you’re going to be running more than ever, and you’re going to lose weight like crazy.
And I don’t know about you guys, but that was not always the case for me. In fact, I went through periods where I was running a lot and gaining weight. And I talked to people all the time who told me the same thing.
They’re like, yeah, you’re the first person that’s ever actually said out loud. What happened to me, was I was training for a marathon and I was gaining weight. And I don’t understand what’s going on there. All the experts tell me I should be losing weight, because I’m doing all this running. But this is the exact opposite of what’s happening to me.
And so I had that same experience, you know, I think there was a period there over the length of two or three years where I was running a couple of marathons a year, I was training for a bunch of ultra marathons.
And in that process, and it was just a couple of years, I gained like 40 pounds, that’s a lot of weight gain over the course of a few years. So for me, I had that experience of trying to, you know, run more and trying to lose weight, but it wasn’t working.
I was actually gaining weight in the process. Okay. So let’s start with why most runners gain weight while they’re training for a marathon. So one of the reasons why is that increased activity levels can lead to increased appetite. This happens for most people.
So you start training more, you’re running a lot more miles and you’re exerting a lot more energy, you’re using a lot more energy. And so your body’s natural response is to want to replace that energy that you’re expending. So you are going to be more hungry and so you end up eating more.
And especially if you’re eating the wrong kinds of foods, you end up overeating. And that’s a really hard way to lose weight. If you’re constantly overeating, then you know, your weight loss is going to be very challenging for you. Okay?
Another reason why a lot of runners gain weight while training for some events is they’re eating the typical runner’s diet. So they’re eating not only more food, but they’re eating that typical runner’s diet of all the carbs all the time.
And so when you increase your carb and your sugar intake, you are going to be holding on to body fat, you won’t be able to burn that body fat, it’s very hard to burn fat when you’re consuming a high, high carb diet, you know, the more carbs you eat, the more you crave carbs, and that makes it very hard to moderate.
And people are like, well just eat sugar. It’s fine, everything’s fine in moderation, you know, but I gotta tell you, I don’t know about you guys. But for me, eating sugar in moderation is very hard for me. Because the more you eat that stuff, the more you crave that stuff, and then you can’t get enough.
Your brain, and your body just want more and more and more. And it’s really difficult to moderate that stuff. And if you are a runner who is eating that typical carbohydrate-laden diet, so I call this being a carb-adapted runner, you’re you’ve adapted to using carbs as fuel, you will naturally need to consume more carbs to maintain high mileage, which leads to even more intense cravings, and an even harder time burning fat.
So your weight is mostly affected by your diet, not by the amount of exercise you’re doing. And nutrition has a much bigger impact on your body composition, the amount of fat that you’re carrying the amount of muscle that you’re carrying, versus exercise, exercise can help you to put on muscle, obviously, it can help you to lose some fat, but nutrition is a much bigger driver of body composition.
Okay, so we just have to understand that these are some of the reasons why you know, it’s why a lot of runners gain weight, even though they’re training for a marathon, okay? It’s not as simple as just calories in calories out. If it was that simple.
You know, you would always lose a ton of weight when you’re training for a marathon. But that is definitely not the case. And I talk to people every single day who tell me this, okay, so it’s not as simple as calories in calories out, increased activity levels lead to increased appetite.
Increased carb and sugar intake means your body’s going to be storing more body fat, it’s really hard to burn the fat. When you’re eating that high-carb diet, the more of that stuff you eat, the more you crave that stuff, the more you rely on that stuff for fuel for running, the more you want that stuff. So all of these things lead to it being very challenging to lose weight as a runner.
Another reason why runners are told not to attempt to lose weight while they’re training for an event is because just about every diet out there is going by this principle of calories in calories out, right?
So they want you to get into a calorie deficit and maintain it. And that’s how you lose weight. And that’s the principle that most diets follow when it comes to weight loss. And it works until it doesn’t work. So if you spend enough time in a calorie deficit, this is going to lead to a dramatically slowed metabolism.
So for example, if you’re eating 800 calories a day, you’re gonna lose weight doing that, okay, but eventually, your metabolism will slow down to match that 800-calorie energy intake that you’re getting.
Because your body’s like, listen, we’re only getting 800 calories a day, our energy output is, you know, at resting metabolic rate is 2000 calories a day, we need to lower that we need to keep lowering this until we can match the energy that’s coming in and over time, people that are in a calorie deficit for a long period of time, they find that their weight loss stalls for a long time and then they start to gain weight, because now their metabolism has slowed down to match the energy that’s coming in.
And it’s even worse if you’re training for something because then you’re exerting more energy and you’re not giving yourself the food that you need and the fuel that you need to repair and recover from all the training that you’re doing. You know, a lot of runners go into a calorie deficit while they’re training. And that’s a problem because your body needs the fuel.
You know most diets that are going by the calories in calories out principle is not recommended because you’re going to be lowering your calorie intake while you’re training. And your body can’t deal with that, like you need the fuel for running, you need the fuel for your running performance, you need the fuel for repair and recovery.
So being in a calorie deficit, while you’re training for a half marathon marathon is not recommended. And so that’s the main reason why most people are like, you know, don’t try to lose weight while you’re training for something, it’s really hard. And your running is going to suffer and it’s not good for you.
So this is why a lot of runners are told not to try to lose weight, while they are training for something, okay? The reason why a lot of runners gain weight, while training is you know, they are eating a diet that literally locks fat in their fat cells.
So when you’re eating a diet that’s high in sugar, and high in carbs, you are literally going to be holding on to fat and those fat cells. So their energy output goes up, right, because they’re training more, their energy intake goes up, because they’re eating more than ever. And they’re locking all the fat in their fat cells. This makes for a very tough combination if you’re trying to lose weight, right?
So runners who are trying to lose weight, and they’re training for an event, you know, they’re making a lot of these mistakes. So there is a better way to do things, okay? And this all focuses around this idea of burning fat, right?
If you want to lose weight, you have to burn fat, I think we can all agree on that, right? And if you’re eating the all-carb all the time typical runner’s diet, burning fat is going to be very difficult for you.
So imagine your body has a fuel tank, and there’s fat in that fuel tank, and then there’s carbs in that fuel tank, sugar, whatever you want to call it, it’s all the same thing. It’s all carbohydrates, essentially, the very top of that fuel tank, the most easily accessible fuel is the carbs as fuel. And your body has a very limited supply of that, but it is available pretty easily.
Okay, once that’s gone, you can start tapping into that larger amount of fuel that you have, which is your stored body fat, you can use stored body fat as fuel, which is amazing. But when you’re eating carbs all the time, you’re eating sugar all the time, you’re you know, training with all the carbs and the sugar and stuff like that, it’s very hard to get into that fat-burning zone, it’s very hard to get into that fat burning state, you’re not going to dip into the fat as fuel.
So when you’re eating that high-carb diet, this is what locks your fat in the fat cells. Insulin is the driver of this. So high-carb diet means high blood sugar means high insulin, high insulin, it locks fat into fat cells.
When you do the opposite, when you do kind of a lower carb diet, that means fat is available to be burned. So the low-carb diet means that your blood sugar is low, or you know normal, your insulin levels are normal and then fat burning can take place.
Okay, so high-carb diet equals storing fat, low-carb diet equals burning fat. Just keep that in mind. That’s a good principle to follow right there. So, if fat burning is the goal, which it should be, then everything you do should be to optimize fat burning.
So that means keeping the carbs low, getting into that fat-burning state and then maintaining it, you know, so switching from being a carb-adapted runner to a fat-adapted runner. So you’ve adapted your body to using your own stored body fat as a fuel source.
If you want to lose weight, you have to burn fat. And eating the typical runner’s diet of all carbs all the times means that you have effectively shut down fat burning and losing weight will be extremely difficult for you.
Okay, but what about running? Aren’t you going to crash and burn without all the carbs? Don’t you need carbs to run? And I think you know the answer to this already if you’ve been listening to this podcast at all, but I’m going to break this down a little bit for you.
So carbs, yes, they’re a great source of fuel for running. This has been pretty well established since the 1980s. You know runners have been using this all-carb approach to running since then. The problem with this is you’re relying on one fuel source, you’re relying on carbs for fuel and that’s it.
And it’s a finite amount of energy that you can store as you know blood glucose and glycogen that’s stored in your liver and your muscles. It’s like around 1800 to 2000 calories of fuel essentially. And this is going to run out in it’s different for each person. But let’s say around 90 minutes or so, and you’re gonna hit the wall and you’re gonna crash and burn.
This is like so many runners hit the wall in the later stages of a marathon, they literally run out of gas in the tank, you know. And for most people, that means that even if you’re running half marathon, you’re gonna be probably hitting the wall, three-quarters of the way into the race.
All right, you know, unless you’re super fast, and you get it done in less than 90 minutes. But for most of us, I think, you know, two hour-ish, you know, half, you know, somewhere around that range is pretty normal.
But if you’re relying on carbs for that, then it’s going to be tough for you. Okay. Another issue with relying solely on carbs as fuel, is that you have to keep ingesting carbs in order to sustain the running. And this can cause a lot of stomach distress with people, it can cause disaster pants, which is something you definitely don’t want to happen while you’re out there running a race.
Have you ever seen somebody sprint off to the Porta Potty, they’re like, oh, maybe a little too much sugar, I don’t know. But the other source of fuel that your body produces naturally is fat, stored body fat. This is an incredible fuel for endurance athletes.
And listen, the whole reason we store fat is to use it later for fuel, you know, eat some food, some of that energy gets used right away from the food that we eat. And some of that gets stored as fat. This is the natural order of things.
This goes back to our ancient ancestors, who went through periods of feasting and fasting, they were very well adapted to use their own stored body fat as fuel, you know, they would find food, meat, berries, honey, whatever some of that energy would be used right away, some would be stored as body fat, then they would have periods were fasting, where they were fasting. And food was kind of scarce, you know.
But it wasn’t a problem because they had all the fuel they needed on board. And they tapped into that stored body fat they were they were fat-adapted, essentially. And I think this is our natural state as human beings to be fat adapted. In order, it’s during these times of limited food availability, that we develop the ability to use our own stored body fat as fuel, and it’s very effective. And we use it very, very well.
Humans do it, animals do it. Think about a bear fattening up for the winter. And then they can live all winter long, hibernating, essentially using their own stored body fat as fuel. And you see those bears coming out of hibernation, they’re all skinny. It’s pretty funny looking, actually.
But they’ve essentially been using that stored body fat as fuel. And so we have that same mechanism built in basically, you know, I kind of feel like hibernating all winter, that would be amazing.
The problem with us as humans, though, is that we never stopped storing the fat we’re just constantly eating the kinds of foods and overeating and just always adding fat to the equation and never burning the fat, right?
So if you want to lose the weight, you have to burn the fat you have to get your body into that fat-burning state and maintain that fat-burning state. So you need to get fat-adapted, you need to adapt to using your own stored body fat as fuel.
So using your own body fat as fuel against the natural state of is humans, we’ve been doing it for millennia. It’s a very effective fuel for endurance activities like persistent hunting or running a marathon. You know, if you can only store 1800 to 2000 calories of glucose or glycogen, as you know for sugar.
Basically, as a carb-adapted athlete, you can easily store more than 100,000 calories as fat. Even the leanest runners have enough body fat to run for days and days nonstop without the need to refuel. That fat is an amazing source of fuel for endurance athletes, okay?
And again, this isn’t some weird fad. Using fat as fuel is something we’ve always done as human beings. Lots of endurance athletes, lots of the top endurance athletes in the world are actually using this approach this fat adaptation approach as a tool to improve their endurance and their racing performance.
So it’s not something they’re doing because it’s detrimental to running, they’re doing it because it’s really beneficial. And it actually gives them an edge it gives them a tool that most runners are not using. When you can get really good at burning fat you have a tool that most other people are not using.
And then fat-adapted doesn’t mean that you never use carbs for fuel. It means improving fat burning immensely. And also using some carbs as fuel so you can get the best of both worlds. So you can use both of these fuel sources very effectively. And you can kind of go back and forth between the two and use two at the same time.
And most runners don’t do this. They’re just using the one form of fuel they’re using the sugar as fuel and they’re trying to I just rely on that as the only source of fuel. So they’re leaving this whole other thing on the table. So don’t do that.
But when you’re using fat as fuel, what happens? You burn the fat, your you lose the weight, like this is an amazing way of not only improving your running performance but also losing weight. And yes, you can do this while you’re training for an event or a race. Okay.
So I think you know, the answer here is pretty clear, you can do both, you can train for a race without inhibiting your performance. And you can lose weight in the process. But you have to take a different approach, you can’t do the all-carb approach because for most people, that just doesn’t work.
For some people that works great, and that’s fine. If you don’t have a problem getting you know, gaining weight while you’re training and stuff like that, then you keep doing your thing. That’s awesome. But if you’re somebody who gains weight, well, whenever you even look at carbs, or when you’re training for something, and you’re like, why am I gaining weight while I’m training for this marathon?
If that sounds like you, then cutting down the carbs might be a way to get your body burning fat. And that might work really well for you. You know, don’t cut your calories. That approach probably isn’t going to work either. You know, you got to give your body the fuel that it needs, but cut out the carbs and the sugar and see if that helps.
Okay, get your body into the fat-burning state. It’ll help improve your weight loss. It’ll help improve your running performance. And I think it’s definitely something you should try. Cool. All right, 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 changed your eating habits or started exercising on the weekends instead of partying, and your friends have told you that you're boring then this episode is for you. Every day I talk …
Continue Reading about 219. Being Boring Can Actually Be Good for You →
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 219 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners today, being boring can actually be good for you. If you’ve ever changed your eating habits or started exercising on the weekends, instead of partying, and your friends have told you that you’re boring, then this episode is for you.
So every day I talked to people who want to lose weight, improve their health, improve their fitness, and improve their strength, improve their running. And one of the reasons they struggle with all this stuff is because it all seems so boring.
I don’t want to give up this exciting life that I have, you know, I’m afraid that everything’s just gonna be too boring, my life’s gonna be boring, the food’s gonna be boring. So in this episode, I’m going to share some unconventional ideas about how being boring can actually be good for you.
But first, I know I talk a lot here on the podcast about nutrition and weight loss, improving your running, and getting stronger. And if you’re new to the podcast, it probably seems a little bit overwhelming. I get it. But I’ve got you covered, I created a free hour-long training video that you can check out at any time, it’s called Five Simple Steps To Becoming A Leaner Stronger Runner.
You’re going to learn the basics of nutrition, strength, endurance, and mindset, all geared toward you, the long-distance runner. So if you’re ready to get leaner and get stronger and become the most badass version of yourself, then this free training is exactly what you need. To get it just go to runningleancoaching.com, click on free training and you can get started on your weight loss journey today.
Okay, how being boring can actually be good for you. So the reason I wanted to talk about this today is because I’ve been hearing from a lot of people lately who have had that sentiment of, you know, yeah, I want to get fit and healthy and everything, and I want to change my diet, but it’s just also boring.
You know, I don’t want my life to be boring. I want to eat food. It’s exciting. And I think that the reason for this is that we’ve been conditioned to believe that everything in our lives has to be some amazing entertaining over-the-top experience.
You know, we’re inundated with images and stories on social media and on TV and on the news and in movies about how amazing this one person was, or look at this incredible thing that this person did. Or there’s this unbelievable restaurant, you wouldn’t believe it, or this hotel, vacation destination, whatever. Or when it comes to food, there’s so much craziness out there.
There’s this out-of-the-world way to make a hamburger with 11 patties and 17 kinds of cheese and then you dip the whole thing and batter and you deep fry it and blah, blah, blah. Even someone like David Goggins, who I love and admire, he can kind of have this effect on people where it leads us to believe that you’re really not doing it right.
Unless you end up in the emergency room at the end of every run, you know, oh, my foot broke in the middle of this run. But I kept doing another 30 miles and I ended up in the emergency room like, and that’s kind of like what we’re trained to believe is like the epitome of living, you know?
So, here are some reasons why I think this is a problem because it makes us believe that everything we do has to be some amazing over-the-top experience or you know, we’re doing it wrong. And it makes us feel inferior if we’re not constantly reaching some amazing height, new height or accomplishing something amazingly huge, you know.
And what it does to us is it makes us chase the ideas of excitement and pleasure and feeling good, feeling amazing constantly. So we’re constantly chasing pleasure. We’re constantly chasing the next big, most exciting thing, and it leaves us pretty much always feeling inferior. Not feeling good enough. Like my life isn’t exciting enough. I’m not David Goggins.
You know, the food I eat is it’s boring. My life is boring. The food I eat is boring, though, the way I work out is boring. And basically, we kind of fester in this place of feeling inferior, never good enough. Like there’s always something wrong with us.
And so our lives end up feeling really dissatisfied. And we experience a lot of internal conflict around all this stuff, like you’re just not living up to your full potential, you know. And I’m all about, you know, having people like David Goggins, inspire us.
And I’m all about living up to your potential and doing things that that feel good, but at what cost, and how much of our lives have to be that exciting, the world expects us to be amazing. And we’re just not all like that we’re not all wired like David Goggins. And that’s okay.
That is perfectly okay. I’m glad there’s only one of him. That problem with chasing all of this excitement, and chasing all of this pleasure leads to a lot of unhealthy habits, you end up eating way too much, or eating way too much of the wrong types of foods like every meal has to be some fun entertainment experience, you end up getting out of shape because it’s way more fun to just sit around watching Netflix and partying than it is to, you know, go to the gym or go out for a run that stuff is boring.
Don’t you want to have an exciting life where you go and your party all the time, and you get super drunk and you eat a bunch of junk food? I mean, yeah, you’re gonna feel like crap the next day, but it’s worth it, right? Because it’s so exciting and so fun and so amazing. I think you understand where I’m going with all this.
But here’s the thing, what if the secret to a long healthy, happy life was being boring? What if a boring life not as super exciting, amazing life was actually our default? And I would argue that this is always been the case for us as human beings.
My interpretation of everything I’ve read about human evolution is that boring was a good thing. When we were living a pretty boring life, it meant that our food supply was pretty steady, and that we were living in a lot of peace and harmony.
You know, there wasn’t a lot of conflict happening in our lives, there was prosperity, we could build families and communities. We had a very simple life, but it was very consistent. We experienced a lot of consistency, a lot of consistent growth and a lot of consistent progress.
So boring for millions of years of human evolution was a good thing. You know, it was a bad thing for our human evolution was excitement. That was not good. Excitement was bad, imminent danger. It meant the saber-toothed tiger was invading tribes.
You know, excitement was a threat to our well-being. Lack of a steady food supply instability, like exciting, it was not something that we wanted in our lives, it was something that we avoided, we strove to live very simple, very kind of boring lives.
Boring is what we wanted, boring allowed us to evolve, to grow, and to thrive as human beings. So this idea that our lives have to be exciting all the time. This is a pretty new concept. It’s been drilled into our brains, though, over the last 50 years, 100 years, maybe, max.
But listen, that excitement is a lie. We don’t have to have super exciting meals at every meal, or we don’t have to party all the time. And we don’t have to be living some super exciting lives all the time. We don’t have to be chasing pleasure and dopamine constantly.
Because I think being boring is our natural state as human beings. And I think that even today, we can thrive and grow and become the amazing people that we want to become and have a very boring, quote-unquote, boring life. When I look at my life today, objectively, it is pretty boring.
You know, I go to bed at the same time every night I get you know, which is kind of early, you know, maybe 9:30, 10 o’clock, you know, you know, I watch some TV before I go to bed I get up at the pretty much the same time every day. I have the very same like morning routine, I sit and I drink my coffee.
You know, I go to the gym, Monday through Friday, every day at about the same time. I run a few times a week, on the same days. I pretty much eat the same things most days. You know, I do mix it up a little bit here and there and there’s some variety and I go to dinner every now and then. But for the most part, my diet is pretty simple.
I kind of buy the same foods at the grocery store and I might mix up the way I put them together but it’s pretty much the same things. I take a walk every day and I love my walks, I listen to podcasts and audiobooks while I’m walking. And I’m learning and I’m sort of growing, and learning some things and working on personal growth and self-development and things like that while I’m out, walking. And so that’s my boring life.
Like, that is what my life looks like most of the time. But here’s something interesting, you know, and if you asked me back in, like my 20s, you know that if I just painted that picture of what this life looks like, I’d be like, boring. Like, I don’t want to be a part of that. But now I love it.
I love it because I get so much out of it. So here’s why I believe that being boring is good for me. And here’s why I think it can actually be good for you too. Because just about everything I’m doing today has become a habit.
The things that I do on the regular are things that have become a habit, for me, they’re easy, they’re effortless, it’s not something I have to spend a lot of time, you know struggling to do, or anything like that all the things that I’ve established as habits in my life are easy for me to just continue doing.
So I’m very consistent with everything, with my diet, with my strength training, with my running, with my personal development. You know, lifting weights has been one of those things that I did for years, but not really consistently.
But now that I’m doing it very consistently, and it’s pretty boring, I go and do the same, I go to the same gym every day. And I do kind of the same workout. Not really I kind of mix it up a little bit. But I do the same types of workouts most days. This has led to massive gains in my lean muscle mass, I’m stronger than I’ve ever been before in my life.
I’m 57 years old, I’m carrying around more skeletal muscle today than I ever have in my life. And that’s only been in the last year or so that I’ve been able to develop that because of this boring consistency with my strength routine.
You know, running for me is getting much easier. Because I’m doing it consistently. I’m running three days a week only. But each run has a very specific goal and an intention, my endurance is improving. My heart rate is improving, my speed is improving. And it just feels good to run consistently. And I love doing that.
The way I eat is very consistent. And it’s allowed me to maintain my weight pretty effortlessly. You know, every meal is not some huge entertainment experience. For me, I really appreciate simple food, like I’m so excited and happy to have a steak or some burgers or something like that, and some broccoli for dinner.
Like this one of my favorite meals like steak and broccoli. I even order this when I go to restaurants sometimes because I love it so much. It’s boring. And most people would be like, oh my gosh, why don’t you go and eat some amazing thing that this one crazy restaurant has or whatever. It’s probably loaded with sugar and flour and probably had me feeling like crap afterwards. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything there. I don’t think I’m missing out on any of that junk food just because everybody says how amazing it is right?
I read a lot of books, and I listen to podcasts and audiobooks. And I’m always learning. So my personal growth is always improving and evolving. And so with my with my boring life, I actually love it. I love my boring life, I have a boring workout schedule and boring food, and boring personal growth habits.
But listen, this doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy some excitement here and there. I do enjoy some excitement here are there. But it’s not what I’m chasing constantly. You know, I love going out to a nice dinner, we’ll go to different restaurants and try something that’s different, something that I’d probably never make at home because that’s one of the reasons why I want to go to a restaurant.
Because if it’s just something I can eat at home, with the exception of the steaks, because I love eating steak out too, but I want to go somewhere where I can eat something that I normally wouldn’t get at home, you don’t have somebody make it for me, and I’ll just let the chef kind of you know, do their thing.
You know, I love exploring the world and taking trips and discovering new places and creating awesome memories. But even when I travel, like I don’t have to have all this excitement all the time. It’s not a big huge party for me, you know, I don’t have to spend all day at the buffet and at the bar and go ziplining and skydiving in order to have a fun, fulfilling vacation.
You know, I don’t have to eat myself sick at every meal in order to say oh, that was a great vacation. You know, I’m so happy to just sit by the pool or go for a run on the beach. Or check out some local cool coffee shops or something like that. Like to me that’s really fun. And yeah, it’s kind of boring. Boring by some people’s standards for sure. But for me, this is perfection. Okay.
So here’s what I want to charge you with this week, which is embrace the boring, you know, start creating good habits around food good habits around workouts good habits around running good habits around your personal growth go out there and be boring this week. Okay, that’s all I got for you today here. 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.
Whether you are just getting into running or have been at it a while, you should be actively working on improving your endurance. While there are many methods out there that are designed to help …
Continue Reading about 217. 5 Ways to Improve Your Endurance →
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 217 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners. Today, I’m talking about five ways to improve your endurance. So whether you are just getting into running, or maybe you’ve been at it for a while, you should be actively working on improving your endurance.
And there are many, many methods out there that are designed to help you improve your endurance. But there are a few key principles I think most runners overlook. So today, I’ve got five ways to improve your endurance to help you run longer, and make running easier in general, who doesn’t want that? I know I do.
But first, I know I share a lot of information here on the podcast about running and nutrition and weight loss and building strength and all these topics. And if you’re new to the podcast, this might all feel a little bit overwhelming and confusing to you. And you just don’t know where to start.
You’re like Patrick, where should I start? Well, funny, you should ask because I created a free hour-long training video that can get you started. It’s called 5 Simple Steps To Becoming A Leaner Stronger Runner.
You’re going to learn all the basics of nutrition and endurance and mindset and building strength. All for you the runner who is maybe interested in improving your body composition, losing some weight.
So if you’re ready to get leaner and stronger, and you’re ready to become the most badass version of yourself yet, which you are, I know you are, then this free training is exactly what you need.
Just go to runningleancoaching.com click on Free Training. I know it’s so logical, right? And get started on your weight loss journey today. Okay, so five ways to improve your endurance. Why am I talking about this today?
Well, lots of runners that I talked to don’t know where to begin with this, or they are not really working to improve their endurance, and they don’t understand why they’re not improving their endurance.
So if you’re a new runner, you might have no idea how to build your endurance, you might be just thinking that you’re just going to run and just keep running and just see if it pans out, you know, see if it works.
Somehow see if some magic happens, where you’re going to be, have more endurance, be able to run longer, and maybe run easier. Seasoned runners that I know, might not be feeling very good when they run and they’re like, I don’t understand what’s happening here. I’m running all the time, but I can’t seem to get faster, I can’t seem to run longer, running still feels really hard all the time.
So you know, whether you are a new runner, and just getting started with all this or you’re a more advanced runner or a seasoned runner, and you want to improve your endurance, then you should be actively doing a few things to help you improve that endurance.
Okay, so, and like I said at the beginning here, there’s a lot a lot of principles, if you just start Googling, you know how to improve your endurance as a runner, you’re going to find 20, 30, 40 different ways of doing that. I’m going to narrow it down to a few that I found, or that I that I tend to help people with more than others.
Because these are the things that kind of get overlooked a lot. Okay, so I’m going to talk about some things that may be overlooked. Okay. So why would you want to be actively improving your endurance as a runner?
Well, you might want to run longer distances. So maybe you’ve got a certain race distance that you’re training for, or that you would like to do someday. So maybe you’re a 5k runner, and you want to be able to run a 10k.
Or maybe you’re doing half marathons and you want to run a full marathon, or maybe you run full marathons and you’re ready to take on an ultra marathon. You know, so whether you want to run, you know, five miles or fifty miles, I think that building your endurance as a runner, or improving your endurance as a runner is key, it’s just going to make running feel easier. Okay?
So you might run a longer race, you might just want to run more miles every week. So you might love running, and you just want to be able to run more. So you just want to instead of running, you know, 10 or 15 miles a week you want to bump that up to like 15 or 30 miles a week.
So you don’t necessarily want to train for some ultra marathon, but you just want to be able to run more days or, you know, longer distances. For each typical training run that you do, you might want to run a faster race. So you might want to get faster for a particular distance.
So that could be whatever, whatever distance your jam is, but you may want to get faster and improve your endurance. Sounds kind of counterintuitive, but it can actually help you to get faster, I’m gonna talk about that here in just a minute.
And you might just want to improve your endurance for your heart health because improving your cardiovascular system is so good for your heart, right? The bottom line here is that you probably just want running to feel easier.
And I think most of us would agree that yeah, I want running to feel easier. Now I have to say this running is never going to feel easy, but it can feel easier. Running is hard. You know what I mean? Like, you get out there and you run. And it’s kind of hard, you know, but have you ever had one of those runs where you’re like, that just felt it felt easier, like that felt really good, you know, for a change?
That’s what we want, we want running to feel easier, it’s still going to be a workout, you know, just like swimming is a workout, cycling is a workout, but we want it to feel a little bit easier. Because when it feels easier, you’re going to want to do it more, and you can go longer if it’s feeling easier, right?
So I’m going to give you guys a couple of keys, here, I have five different ways that we can improve our endurance. And the first one is this, and this is going to come as no surprise to you, but it is to just run more so increase your volume.
So increasing your volume is the easiest way that you can build your endurance and build that aerobic system. So the aerobic system, you know, is the slow running system that you use, for most of your running, hopefully, something around like 80% of your running should be done in that aerobic zone.
Which means you’re not pushing it too hard, you’re going pretty easy. So the simplest way to run to increase your endurance is to run more, you know, it’s just like anything else, when you practice doing it more, it becomes easier.
You know, like, if you want to play the guitar, you got to practice playing the guitar and you’re gonna suck at it for a while, it’s gonna be hard, but the more you do it, the easier, it’s gonna get the same with running, you want to run longer than you have to practice running longer. If you want to run more, you gotta practice running more. Okay.
So why this works is because you are building an aerobic engine here, right? This is your endurance engine, this is probably the most important factor in long-distance running is building that strong aerobic engine.
Okay, so most training programs, they feature a lot of aerobic running, and some of them have some speed work built into them. But that that aerobic engine, your ability to run longer, at a slower pace is slower, you know.
Pace is the number one thing you can do to improve your endurance, okay? So if you want to improve your aerobic engine, increase the volume that you are running, and that will help you to build a stronger aerobic engine, it also helps to increase your running efficiency.
So when you can run more efficiently, you’re going to be able to run further, this is going to improve your endurance as well. And running, you know won’t use as much energy. You know, a lot of running, especially when you get into longer distance stuff is about energy conservation, right? We don’t want to be spending energy, flailing your arms around, or running all weird.
I’ve seen some people that run pretty weird. And I’m like, man, how do they do that? Like they, they can run long distances, and they have some strange gaits, you know. But when you run more, you can typically improve your gait. And one thing I’ll just say, a little sidebar about improving your gait or changing your gait as a runner.
As a running coach, we’re sort of taught that we shouldn’t really mess with people’s gaits too much like you should just run the way that you run because that is going to be the most natural way for you to run.
So don’t think that you’re running wrong. Just because you’re going to gradually when you increase your volume, your running volume, you are going to get more efficient running the way that you run naturally.
So I know it sounds kind of weird, but like don’t worry about if you have a weird gait or something like that or if you don’t think your running form is very good. Don’t worry about it seriously. Just run the way you run and over time, you’re going to be very efficient running that way.
Okay, for the most part now, there are some rare exceptions of people that have really weird flailing legs or arms or something like that, which we probably want to check out a little bit. But for the most part, your running gait is fine. So don’t don’t stress out about that too much.
Okay, so we want to improve our running efficiency, we want to be more efficient as a runner, and we want to use less energy as a runner, and increasing your volume will help with this. When you increase your volume, you also are preparing yourself for fatigue in races especially the longer runs right, when you increase your mileage, you’re going to be dealing with fatigue pretty often, and you’re going to get better at dealing with fatigue, fatigue is something that will happen.
It just happens, you know, it’s part of running. And so consistently dealing with fatigue and pushing yourself to that point of like, oh, I’m feeling pretty tight, this is really hard. That’s a good thing.
And that leads me to the last reason why increasing volume will help you improve your endurance is it helps you to build resilience and helps you to build mental toughness, you know, you’ve done all this hard work, you’ve you know, hit fatigue a bunch of times in your training, you’ve run longer distances, you’ve improved your volume immensely.
Now you have some resilience and mental toughness, some grit, okay, so when it’s time to dig deep in a race when you got to like really push it towards the end of a race in order to hit that PR or something like that, you’re going to have that mental toughness that’s going to be there. Okay?
Now, a little pro tip about increasing your mileage. Don’t feel like you can just do a huge increases in your mileage, you know, week to week, you don’t want to do too much too soon. This is what most new runners do. They’re like, oh, I can run. You know, I ran five miles last week, I’m gonna run 10 miles next week, don’t do that.
Try to stick to the 10% rule. That means that we never increase our mileage more than 10%. So for new runners, I would stick to this pretty hardcore. If you’re a pretty experienced runner, and you have been running for years and you’re not injured or anything like that you can be a little looser with the 10% rule. You can do 15%, you know, sometimes 20%, but don’t want to go too much too soon. This is a recipe for disaster, especially for most new runners.
Most new runners, they get injured because they do too much too soon. So increase your volume slowly. That means if you run 10 miles this week, next week, you’re gonna run 11 miles, and then you’re gonna just keep using that 10% rule. Okay, it takes time. So just give it the time that it needs, but increase your volume. That’s number one.
Number two, and this is one where I don’t see a lot of people talking about this, but you probably want to change your diet, you probably want to start training your body to use a fuel source that you have onboard already. That will help improve your endurance immensely. That is your own stored body fat.
And this is called getting fat-adapted, it means that you are basically switching your main fuel source from sugar to fat, from carbohydrates to your own stored body fat. If you want to take a deep dive into this, I talked about getting fat-adapted and using fat as fuel in the last episode of the podcast, number 216: An Alternatieve Way To Fuel Long Distance Running.
So definitely check that out. But here’s some little key takeaways here. Number one, think of your energy stores as a fuel tank. And at the very top of the fuel tank you have this tiny little sliver of sugar or carbohydrate that’s available as fuel.
And then below that sugar, you’ve got this massive storage tank of stored body fat as fuel. So most runners what they’re doing is they’re using the sugar at the top a little tiny bit of the fat. Yeah, we always are burning a little bit of both.
But most runners are burning primarily sugar and when that is available, that’s all they’re going to burn so they have to continually feed with carbohydrates in order to keep that sugar fuel tank that sugar part of the fuel tank topped off.
When you’re doing that you are just relying on sugar as a fuel source and it is a good fuel source for running it does work, but there are problems with that. Eating a lot of sugar causes a lot of people to gain weight and I’m one of those people.
Eating a lot of sugar, especially during running can really upset a lot of runners’ stomachs. And that is not something you want. You don’t want to have disaster pants while you’re out there running. I hear too many stories about that actually, and I don’t really need to know about what’s going on during the run when you’re eating too much sugar.
But people have really upset stomachs with trying to consume all that sugar. And most runners are not really fat-adapted, so they’re not using that stored body fat as fuel. So they hit the wall pretty often, like they just run out of fuel, because that that small little bit of fuel once it’s gone, they haven’t trained themselves to tap into that stored body fat.
So getting fat-adapted just means you’re primarily burning fat as fuel, and you’re not really relying on all the sugar, which is such a good way to go. Because then you don’t need to feel as much during these longer runs, you won’t get the stomach upset.
And you can basically, you’re going to feel like you can run forever like you’re going to feel like you can run long distances much longer. So this is a great way to improve your endurance that just not a lot of people are talking about out there. Okay.
That’s one principle that most runners overlook. But it is key if you want to improve your endurance as a runner, change your diet, get fat-adapted, ditch the sugar, and start you know, relying on your own stored body fat as a fuel source and your endurance is going to go through the roof. Again, check out the last episode number 216 on a deep dive into getting fat-adapted.
Okay, the third way to improve your endurance is to get stronger. So you want to be intentionally building strength as a runner. And this means like head to toe, actively building strength every single week, this has to be part of your training regimen.
You can’t just go well you know, I do strength training a couple of times a month or whatever, once a week, that’s just not enough. And again, I did a whole episode talking about how to build strength and the benefits of building strength in episode number 199. So check out that episode for sure I take a deep dive into how to do it and, and how to actively build strength.
But when we’re talking about building strength, we’re talking about building stronger muscles, you go to the gym, you lift something heavy, you overload the muscle group that you’re working, and then you have a positive adaptation, you build stronger muscles, okay?
Stronger muscles take longer to fatigue, this is a good thing as a runner, that means you can run much longer before you hit the wall because you have stronger muscles and you can go longer before your muscles are going to give out on you. Okay?
Building strength does not just mean stronger muscles, it also means you build stronger connective tissues like tendons and ligaments, and stronger bones as well, which is really important. But that tendons and ligaments, this is where most runners get injured.
Most running injuries are tendon injuries, like a tendinitis type of thing, which basically just means like you have a pulled or strained tendon of some sort, you know. And if you are a runner, and you’re ramping up your mileage and you want to build your endurance, you do not want to get injured through this process, right?
So actively building strength on a regular basis will help you to stave off injury, and help you to improve your endurance at the same time. So win-win.
Now running will help you develop stronger muscles, especially stronger leg muscles. And runners are like, well, I’m running and so that’s enough. That’s all I need to do. But it’s really not enough, okay, it’s not enough to just run.
First of all, you have to understand that running is a catabolic activity, meaning it breaks down muscle tissue, especially if you’re running a ton of mileage. So if you’re not actively doing some strength training to offset that and getting enough protein, you’re probably going to be losing muscle in the process.
Now it doesn’t mean you’re going to you know, waste away to nothing because running does help to develop muscle. But there’s a little bit of a breakdown that’s happening as well. So what you want to do is you want to hit the gym, and you want to be actively building stronger muscles, especially the stronger leg muscles in the gym.
Because when you do that, that’s going to help improve your running endurance, it’s going to help improve your speed as a runner, it’s going to help you become a more powerful runner. Strong runners are fast runners, strong runners are more powerful runners and strong runners can go longer.
So the third key really to improving your endurance is to get stronger because you’ll be able to go longer, you’ll stave off injury, and you’re going to be running is just going to feel easier for you.
Okay, number four is to run faster. I know this sounds counterintuitive if you want to improve your endurance you have to run faster. But speed work is one area that gets overlooked by runners who want to improve their endurance.
Most people have a love-hate relationship with speed work, they hate doing it. Maybe it’s a hate-hate relationship. They hate doing it. And it feels terrible. But the love part of it would be this: when you do speed work consistently, running will get easier.
You know, if you want to be a faster runner, you probably understand that you need to do your speed work, right? But doing the speed work. And doing it consistently will also help to improve your endurance as well. And most runners don’t realize this.
And when I talk about doing speed work, we’re talking about anything where you’re running and you’re pushing it, you start to feel like you’re pushing it a little or pushing it moderately hard, too hard.
So if you’re not pushing it, then that’s what we call the aerobic zone or easy running, this is a good thing. Just think of the cutoff as just being like, I don’t really feel like I’m pushing it at all. That’s when you’re in the aerobic zone.
But if you’re like, oh, I’m pushing it a little bit or I’m pushing a priority right now, that’s then you’re into the doing the speed work type of zones, okay. So really, I love HIIT training and I love tempo runs.
Tempo runs are where you’re running consistently, at a faster pace than your goal, half marathon or marathon pace, whatever your race pace is, let’s say your race pace is a 10-minute mile, then tempo runs need to be done 30 to 60 seconds faster.
So you might do a mile warm-up. And then you’re going to run 2, 3, 4 miles at that tempo pace. So that is like 30 to 60 seconds faster than your race pace. And then you’re going to do like a mile cooldown, okay, that’s a tempo run.
HIIT training is high-intensity interval training, this can be any kind of interval, it could be four hundred repeats, it can be thirty-second sprints, it can be hill repeats, it can be, I like to do longer repeats like 1/3 mile repeats, that you could do eight hundreds, like there are so many different ways of doing HIIT training, but it is so good for you.
So doing the speed work is key. If you want to run longer, then you need to improve your speed. So you want to do the speed work. Here’s why. When you do speed work, this will help to improve your VO2 max. This is the maximum amount of oxygen that you utilize while you’re running.
Higher VO2 max levels will indicate better aerobic capacity and improved endurance. Also, the speed work helps to improve your lactate threshold. So it can raise your lactate threshold doing the speed work will cause your body to produce lactate while you’re training.
Your body will then adapt and burn the lactate more efficiently the next time, so you have a positive adaptation from doing this kind of HIIT training especially. So this means that at higher intensities, you can go longer before fatigue or pain slows you down. So you got to improve that lactate threshold in you know, raise the lactate threshold speed work is how you do it.
The other reason why speed work will help you build endurance is because it helps to improve your body’s ability to deliver oxygen to working muscles. Oxygen delivery is key in endurance. And one really good way to improve your endurance is to do the speed work.
It also helps you with energy production. So your body has this ability to produce energy with oxygen and without oxygen. So when you’re without oxygen is like what we call the anaerobic zone, that’s when you’re doing like sprinting, you’re gonna just run out of gas at some point, you can only sprint for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, something like that.
And then you’re going to absolutely hit the wall. So when we practice that kind of interval training, you’re training your body to use oxygen more effectively. Another key to doing this speed work is that it helps to improve your ability to use both fat and carbohydrates as fuel sources, which is really a key right there, okay.
Because when you’re doing the speed work, you can bump up your body’s ability to burn fat. And a lot of people say well, you know I’m running faster, so I have to have the sugar. I need gels I need to fuel up I need to use sugar. You really don’t.
There have been a lot of athletes. One that comes to mind is Jeff Browning. He’s an ultra runner. And this guy’s been fat-adapted for years. He’s an elite ultra runner, he wins all kinds of stuff. Amazing guy. But he has been proven.
They’ve done some testing on him. And they’ve shown that he has the ability to burn fat, like more than just about anybody else out there. So most runners who are carb-adapted, they hit this switchover point around 65% of their VO2 max where they’re going from burning mostly sugar, or I’m sorry, burning mostly fat to burning mostly sugar.
So 65% is the traditional cutoff point or changeover point for most carb-adapted runners. But guys like Jeff Browning, he’s trained his body to use fat, mainly fat as fuel up to 90-95% of his VO2 max.
Even some people can go up to 100% of their VO2 max using just fat as fuel, it’s pretty awesome. You know, because that means that you can go much faster than previously thought possible. Right.
And then lastly, running faster helps to improve your cardiovascular fitness, it helps to improve your muscular endurance, and just helps you to improve as an athlete overall. So the speed work is key to improving your endurance for all these reasons.
And then lastly, number five. The fifth way to improve your endurance as a runner, and this is probably the biggest key to all of this is you have to be consistent, it takes time to build endurance as a runner. And consistency is going to be the key to doing this.
If you only do these things here and there, so if you do the speed work, you know, once a month or something like that, because you hate it. I talk to so many people are like I hate doing speed work. But I want to get faster, oh, I want to run longer. Okay, well, then you got to do the speed work.
But if you do these things inconsistently, you’re gonna get inconsistent results, right? You’re just not going to get there. You need to be consistent with your training volume, with your diet, with your strength training, and with your speed work. Consistency is key.
The way you accomplish anything in this world really is to take consistent aligned action, what are the actions that you need to take that are going to get you to this goal? Okay, make sure you know what to do. That’s key, right? But then practice doing those things consistently. That’s it. That is the key right there. Okay.
I mentioned like learning how to play the guitar earlier. If you want to learn how to play the guitar, you have to practice it and you have to be consistent with it. And it’s going to suck at the beginning and you’re going to be terrible. And everybody’s going to tell you to stop playing because it sounds awful. But you have to stick with it. And you got to keep doing it.
You have to take consistent aligned action if you want to accomplish anything in this world. Okay. Practice consistently improving your endurance and you’ll be running longer and easier before you know it. Cool. All right, that’s all I got for you today. I love you all, keep on Running Lean, and I will talk to you soon.
As runners, we’ve been told over the last 40 years or so that the only way to fuel for running is with carbohydrates. Loads and loads of carbs. Eat lots of carbs every day, carb load the day …
Continue Reading about 216. An Alternative Way To Fuel Long-Distance Running →
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 216 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, The Weight Loss Coach for Runners and today, an alternative way to fuel long-distance running. So as runners, we’ve been told over the last 40 years or so that the only way to fuel for running is with carbohydrates, carbs, loads and loads of carbs.
Eat lots of carbs every day, carbo-load the day before you run, carb up in the morning pre-run, consume ample carbs during your run. And then of course, you’re gonna want some carbs for recovery after your run.
This has been the standard approach since the 1980s. But it’s definitely not the only way to do things. The thing is, this approach just doesn’t work for everyone. Some people like me gain a lot of weight eating all those carbs regardless of how much we run. So in this episode, I offer an alternative way to fuel long-distance running one that doesn’t cause you to gain all that weight in the process.
But first, I know I share a lot of information here on the podcast about nutrition, weight loss, and improving your running. If you’re new to the podcast, it can probably feel a little overwhelming. And you’re like I don’t even know where to start with all this.
And if that sounds like you, totally cool, I 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 5 Simple Steps To Becoming A Leaner Stronge Runner.
In this video, you’re gonna learn the basics of nutrition, strength, endurance, and mindset, all these things that are geared towards you the long-distance runner. So if you’re ready to get leaner, and if you’re ready to get stronger, if you’re ready to become the most badass version of yourself that I know you are, then this free training is exactly what you need to get started. Just go to runningleancoaching.com and click on Free Training.
Okay, so let’s talk about an alternative way to fuel long-distance running. Why do I want to talk about this today? Because I keep hearing from runners and I keep reading articles online and social media posts for runners that talk about eating all the carbs.
And I’m like, gosh, are we still talking about this? Since the 1980s, the carb-loading approach has been the gold standard, so to speak for runners just eat all the carbs, and you’re going to find that most coaches teach this approach.
Most experts, quote-unquote experts, teach this approach. When I got my running, coaching certification, when I went through my coaching certification program, I was taught this approach. And this approach is fine. And it does work for some people. But it doesn’t work for everybody.
For some of us, like me, eating all those carbs caused us to gain a lot of weight in the process. You know, and I’m not against having carbohydrates. In fact, I think using carbohydrates strategically for running is a great tool.
It’s a really good tool that you have in your tool belt, why not use the carbohydrates as fuel, especially for the higher intensity stuff or races? But eating all the carbs all the time, is what we’ve been taught and it just doesn’t work for everybody.
You know, I’m one of those people that is very sensitive to carbohydrates. You know, I eat carbs and I gain weight. And so if I just take this standard approach to fueling for long-distance running, I ballooned up 40 more pounds, 50 more pounds, whatever.
You know, I’ve shared this before where I was training for ultra marathons, I was running all the time, I was doing a ton of mileage and gaining weight in the process. You can’t outrun the wrong diet, right?
So for me the all carbs all the time approach while I loved it. Who doesn’t love eating carbs all the time? Oh, pizza, sure. Ice cream. Yep, that’s going to, I mean, I’m a runner, so I gotta eat this stuff. Right? Spaghetti all the time. Like I was just I was eating tons of bread and pasta. And sugar, like this was my diet. You know, it was like a 90% carbohydrates, you know?
And I just kept gaining weight and gaining weight and I was like wow, even though I was running a ton, you know, I was training for ultra marathons and running ultra marathons regularly and then gaining weight in the process does not make sense, right?
You are supposed to lose weight when you start training. Well, the wrong diet won’t allow that to happen, right, so the wrong diet will cause the weight to continually stack up. So for me, this this all carbs all the time approach is one that I tried, and it just didn’t work for me.
You know, I also found that I would crash and burn during long-distance events. And I’m like, what’s going on here, because I’m using all the fuel. You know, I’m taking all the gels and I’m eating, I’m pre-loading with carbs and do all this stuff. But I keep crashing and burning and mile 18 to 22 of a marathon, you know.
And I was like this, this isn’t working, like there’s got to be a different approach here. Okay. And there is, there are, there is an alternative approach, there are probably multiple other approaches that you can take.
But there’s one specific that I want to talk about today, one that doesn’t require eating all the carbs all the time, and one that doesn’t require you to gain a bunch of weight in the process, if that’s you.
And listen, if you’re the kind of person that can eat all those carbs, and not gain any weight, and it works really well for you, then keep doing your thing. Keep doing that. My hat’s off to you. But if you’re somebody that’s like Patrick, that really doesn’t work for me, then listen up, because here’s the different approach you want to take.
You want to get yourself fat-adapted. So we’re talking about this concept of fat adaptation. Fat adaptation means that you train your body to burn your stored body fat as fuel for long-distance running.
When you stop eating all the sugar and all the carbs constantly, you give your body a chance to tap into your stored body fat as fuel. So the way this works, essentially, is think about your different fuel sources in your body as like a fuel tank, and the top layer of that fuel tank is what’s gets burned first.
And that top layer is going to be sugar, essentially glucose, glycogen, that kind of stuff. So that is going to be burned first. And as long as that’s available, that is what’s going to be constantly burned. Okay.
And so the concept, but behind all carbs all the time thing is like you want to keep that top layer of the tank filled at all times so that you’re constantly always burning that. The problem is that when you run out of that, maybe you get to mile 20 of the marathon and you just haven’t done a good job of keeping up with the amount of carbs that you need for that event, or you haven’t trained yourself to metabolize carbs that to that extent.
That top layer of the tank is going to run out and then you’re going to crash because you don’t, you don’t have access to that lower portion of the gas tank, which is the biggest portion, I’m going to say it’s probably like 90% of that gas tank is going to be your fat stores.
But you don’t have access to that because you haven’t trained your body to use that fat as fuel, like the pathways are not there. So what happens is that when you stop eating the sugar and the carbs all the time?
You start to train your body to use the alternative fuel source, the fat stores the stored body fat, you know, we all eat some, you know, we all eat food and some of that energy that we consume gets used towards working muscles, some of that energy gets stored as fat to be used later as fuel.
The problem is we’ve just gotten so far away from using our stored body fat as fuel, it’s kind of like we just constantly put wood on the woodpile, but we’re never burning the wood it just keeps stacking up that’s our fat stores just getting bigger and bigger.
So when you train yourself to tap into those stored to your stored body fat as a fuel, now you have this like almost unlimited fuel source for running. So that’s the concept of fat-adaptation, you’re removing the sugar and the carbs that that initial, like, let’s say 10%.
And I’m kind of making these numbers up but just think of it like you know, we only have the capacity to store like 2000 calories as of energy as glucose but we have our body fat can can store hundreds of thousands of calories of energy as stored body fat, so just know that yeah, it’s probably like 10% and 90%, something like that. It’s probably more like 99 and 1% or something okay.
Anyway, so we want to get ourselves fat-adapted we want to be able to adapt to using that stored body fat as fuel. Okay, now, people hear this and they’re like, oh, that’s crazy. That’s just some weird fringe thing, it’s probably a fad, and it’s gonna go away.
Listen, we’ve been doing this for millennia, as human beings, we’ve been doing it for more than millennia, for like millions of years. Fat Burning is our natural state as human beings. You know, we store some of that energy we consume as body fat, and we use it when we’re not eating.
This is the way the human body is designed, you know, there’s periods of feasting, and there’s periods of fasting during those periods of fasting, we should be tapping into our stored body fat as fuel. Humans are really good at this, we are naturally really good at using fat as fuel.
And we’re naturally good distance runners like we used to be hunter-gatherers, we used to be a persistence Hunter, so we would, we would chase down prey, and we would outrun them not from a speed perspective, but from a time perspective like we would, you know, cut an antelope out of the herd or whatever.
And they might be able to outrun us in the short distance, but over time, like over hours and days, we would run them down to where they just would die of exhaustion. You know, poor antelope. I know, but good for us, because now we have this nutrient-dense meal that would that would sustain us, you know.
So the human body is designed to use that stored body fat as fuel during those times when we didn’t have the other food coming in. Okay. So to say that, oh, you have to consume all the carbs, all the pasta, all the bread all the time, just to be able to run?
That’s actually the new thing. That’s actually the weird fad thing that we’ve only been doing for the last 40 years or so. Right? I mean, isn’t that interesting that people look at this fat-burning thing. And they’re like, oh, you know, that’s not the way you should do it.
And I’m like, well, listen, we’ve been amazing runners for millions of years as humans and we never had to eat all the pasta and bread and gels and stuff like that. Why now? Should we have to do that? Okay.
So not only is it not a fad thing, or some weird approach, like there are elite runners that have adopted this approach for years and years and years, and they’re at the top of their game, you know, I’m gonna mention a couple of them here.
And I’ve talked about these guys before on the podcast here. And there are countless others too, but these guys just are kind of like the top, you know, the top 1% or whatever. Jeff Browning. He’s an ultra runner. He’s finished nearly 200 ultra marathons in his career. He’s had over 40 career ultra marathon wins 29 of those at the 100 mile plus distance, making him second in the world for the most 100 mile wins in history.
Ranked seven times in the top 10 of ultra running magazines, North American Ultra Runner of the year, ranked third in Ultra running magazines, North American Ultra Runner of the decade. He builds multiple, multiple course records, including the Moab 240 course record, and he is a low carb, low carb, high-fat kind of he takes that approach to his training.
You know, he’s very vocal about his fat-burning approach, his fat-adapted approach to ultra running, you know, he doesn’t consume all the sugars and all the gels and all the pasta and all the carbs. All right.
And another one that comes to mind is Mike McKnight. He’s an ultra runner. He specializes in the 200 mile distance. And he posed several wins every year for different events. He’s kind of known because he ran 118 Miles while consuming zero calories, zero calories. He ran 118 miles. He was just relying on his own stored body fat for fuel and he’s a pretty, pretty lean guy. You know? He’s amazing.
And I actually tried this, I was like, hey, you know, I’m gonna I’m gonna give this a shot. I didn’t do 180 miles but I did two marathons and a 50k ultra marathon on zero calories just to say like, Oh, can I even do this? Yeah, I could do it and I was fine. Really no problems whatsoever.
And then of course, there’s Zach Bitter. He’s an American ultramarathon runner. He specializes in the 100 miler distance and he’s done like over 60 ultras. He’s known for his low-carb diet, which he uses for training and racing nutrition. He had the record for the 100 miler. One point of 11 hours, 19 minutes and 13 seconds. I’m gonna say that one more time because that is a crazy number, he ran 100 miles and 11 hours in 90 minutes. That’s insane.
He’s the holder of the 12-hour American record at 104.88 miles. He claims the 100-mile and 12-hour world records at the Six Days in the Dome event in Milwaukee in 2019. Competed for team USA world 100 Kilometer team three times.
So these are guys, these are just some of the guys who are benefiting and their, their elite athletes who are at the top of their game. And they’re taking this low-carb approach to distance running. They’re not consuming all the carbs all the time. Yeah, they do use some carbs for their events.
And they’ll tell you, you know, you can check them out, or their websites, check them out on social media, they have podcasts and stuff like that, you can totally listen to what these guys say. And they’ll tell you they do like maybe, you know, 30 to 50 grams of carbs per hour for these events, which is not a lot. But they’re not eating all the carbs all the time. They’re taking this fat adaptation approach to running and it’s working really, really well for them. Okay.
Another thing to consider here is that if your goal is to lose weight, then this is a great way to lose weight. Because listen, if you want to lose weight, what do you got to do? You have to burn a fat, right?
We’re not talking about weight loss, we’re talking about fat loss. So you have to burn the fat. If you are burning the fat, you are losing weight. And it’s really hard to burn the fat when you’re on that super high-carb runner’s type of diet, right?
Because of the whole fuel source prioritization, you know, you’re going to burn through the glucose first, then you’re going to tap into the fat but you gotta like, You got to eliminate that top 1% or whatever of your fuel tank.
So if fat burning is the key to weight loss, which it is, wouldn’t you want to do it? It that makes fat burning the priority? Yes, you would. When you eat for fat-burning, you’re running improves your endurance and improves and you lose weight in the process. Right?
So if you’re somebody who is interested in losing weight, this approach might work for you, it may be something you want to consider. Okay, and and listen, when we talk about a low-carb approach to fueling a low-carb diet, a low-carb, you know, nutrition approach; a lot of people think, you know, you’re talking about keto, or doing no carbs or carnivore or something like that.
No, it’s not about that. It’s about finding the right amount of carbs that keeps you burning fat, while also helping you’re running because carbs are helpful for running, right? You don’t have to be Mike McKnight and do the zero-calorie thing. But it’s cool that the human body can do that, you know.
That’s fat-adaptation. And it’s most impressive, like what that guy does, right? And by the way, this guy is not fat, right? You don’t need a ton of body fat, to be able to use your own stored body fat as fuel.
Even the leanest of athletes can benefit from fat adaptation as an approach. Okay, so this doesn’t mean that you’re never eating any carbs, you can still eat some carbs. I use carbs for fuel, and I encourage my clients to use carbs for fuel, but we prefer like whole food sources of carbs, you know, we might be talking about bananas or sweet potatoes or rice or something like that, right?
And obviously, everybody’s a little bit different. And you have to kind of experiment with what works for you. But there’s, there’s tons of great options just from the natural world like and sticking with whole food sources of carbohydrates is great.
Now I get it that when you’re in any event, like you can’t carry a bunch of sweet potatoes or bananas with you. I mean, it’s just really not that convenient. But what’s cool is that there are a bunch of brands out there that cater to the low-carb endurance athlete, and they have entire product lines that are geared towards helping you fuel for running while maintaining that fat-burning state.
So like Hammer Nutrition is one you can use. S-Fuels, Muir energy, and there are a bunch of other brands out there and new ones coming out all the time. So that’s a very encouraging thing that there are companies out there that are that are gearing their product lines towards the low carb endurance athlete. Okay.
Now, just like I said, at the beginning of this podcast that the high-carb approach isn’t for everyone, just like that, like the fat-adapted approach probably isn’t for everyone. So I’m not going to come out here and say that everybody should do this. And everybody will benefit from this.
Some people do really fine eating all the carbs and the sugar and the gels, and they never have to worry about gaining weight. And if that’s you, that is amazing. That’s definitely not me. But if you struggle with losing weight, and you love running, then this might be the approach that you want to try.
You know, the only way you can tell if it works through you, or if you enjoy it, or if you can do this as a lifestyle as to give it a shot, you might see the weight start to come off, you might experience running feeling easier than ever before.
You might see your energy levels are better all day long, no more afternoon crashes, you might begin to think more clearly be able to focus and concentrate better. And as always, if you want help with any of this, you can always reach out to me you can go to my website runningleancoaching.com.
Every day I help runners get fat-adapted, lose weight, improve their running performance and make all this a lifestyle. So whatever approach you take cool, but it has to be something that is sustainable for you. Because if it’s not sustainable for you, it’s not going to work because this stuff takes time.
You know, if you want to lose weight, and you want to improve your diet, improve your nutrition, improve your running and your nutrition for running specifically, then you’re gonna have to take a little bit of time to figure out what works for you. And it has to be something that you can do sustainably long term, right?
So I work with my clients, we work together to make sure whatever they’re doing is something that they can do on their own like for good, or it’s not about quick fixes, but lifestyle changes, right being fit and healthy isn’t a destination we’re trying to get to. It’s how we live our life. Okay. Consider the fat-adapted approach. I think it’s amazing. It works really well for me and countless people that I work with. Give it a shot. You never know. That’s all I got for you today. 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.
