We’re Moving! + Better Ideas Than Your Summer Fad Diet
WE’RE MOVING!
First and foremost, we are very excited to announce that we are moving to a new location!
We will be hopping just a few doors down into a new location that is a bit bigger (and we think better) that will allow us to serve you in ways we have always wanted. While we will miss the old studio space, we look forward to turning the page and seeing all of your faces in the new studio. As mentioned, we are literally moving 3 suites down and will have the same address and even some similar parking as before with even more available around the side and back of our building.
In this bigger space, we will likely soon be able to announce some new class offerings and would love to know what you all are looking for in a small group fitness environment as well as restorative classes. Max class size for a more hands-on small group experience? Even smaller group private sessions with your friends to keep your workout buddies and have the attention of a private session? Strength specific training? Dad’s class? Time efficient athletic programming that gets you in and out in less than an hour? Dad’s class? We are super excited about expanding our classes! While we’ve got a couple in mind we are also open to feedback from you on what kind of classes you are seeking. Feel free to reach out directly and be on the lookout for a survey to follow.
We also will maintain our offices and be running some specials through spring and early summer on manual therapy treatments. Whether you are a new client or would like to refer someone you know, we will include special discounts on several services to keep you feeling tip-top in all your summer activities.
Lastly, we will also be opening some slots for our nutriton program which is a 1:1 holisitic health coaching service we offer and open up only a few times a year to new clients. Please reach out directly if you are interested in getting personally tailored health and nutrition coaching for your specific needs and goals. And on that note we would like to suggest…
Better Ideas Than
Your Summer Fad Diet
It’s spring and as the weather warms up and we approach summer we often take note of the surge in crash dieting as we try to look good in our swim suits. While we don’t really subscribe to seasonal transformations and the unneccessary and sometimes harmful pressure they create, there are some lessons to be learned from them. We don’t believe all popular diets can really be considered true ‘fad” diets since many ways of eating can help people achieve their goals along with better health. However, we do see many people around this time of year pick up a specific way of eating like it is a fad bound to eventually go out of style for them. We would like to help you reframe some of your thoughts around “dieting”, food challenges, and specific diets to help you see how some of the basic commonalities they all share may indeed be the secret sauce, so to speak, that will help you find the nutritional practices that may be best tailored to you and your needs. In fact, a lot can be learned from trying specific diets and perhaps you have tried one or two yourself like paleo or keto, intermittent fasting, or maybe something else. Whether it has been a lasting way of eating for you or allowed you to learn a little bit more about what foods and ways of nourishing your body do and don’t work for you, these can all be valuable.
One of the key ingredients that diets like keto, paleo, carnivore, vegan, etc. all share is restriction. Fasting practices like intermittent 16:8, day and multi day share this as well. Many people who try these diets are usually looking for a way to lose weight (typically body fat only), get healthier, improve physique, improve performance etc. Indeed, restriction of calories is the main way to get to a lot of these improvements if your weight or eating habits are creating health issues for you. However, another piece of this that many people don’t realize is that most of the diets listed above with the exception of fasting tend to eliminate many common food intolerances people have or happen to eliminate a specific one that may have been creating issues. Combine this with the fact that you are now in a caloric deficit because you have cut out the amount or types of food you can be eating that may be higher in calories themselves or due to eating more food overall; and you are now in a pretty sweet spot for weight loss and possibly feeling better from getting not so great foods for you out of your repertoire. This may indeed be the unifying secret sauce of most popular diets, but what about simply distilling some of the best practices out of them instead?
We like to use this method of distillation as well as use another practice for you to try this time around though. Eat MORE! Hear us out. Include more of the common good stuff most diets share in common and make it into your own. Forget the deprivation that often times leads to the desire to binge when you can suddenly not take the restriction any more or lose it all on a “cheat day”. We aren’t talking a free for all; and there are also specific instances where an elimination type diet may be a good route to identifying food items that may not be working for you. What we are saying is that most of the time when you include more nutrient dense and minimally processed food items in the right quantity for your body, you end up displacing the ones that weren’t doing so much for you. This does require being in touch with your appetite and understanding true physical hunger from a sugar craving; but if you can slow things down enough to get in touch with those signals and start to slowly include more quality items, the other stuff takes care of itself in a lot of ways.
Here are some examples:
Healthy(er) Substitutes
Instead of trying to cut down on labeled “bad” or “junk” food, simply find a healthier substitute to start. Afterall, restriction for long periods and feelings of deprivation can often lead to an uncontrollable urge to later binge on certain foods that may simply be okay to instead include in moderation. You can also find great substitutions! Maybe this is a cream-sicle you make at home from real fruit instead of going out for ice cream. Maybe it’s some fibrous satiating popcorn instead of cookies. Maybe it’s just adding in some sweet watermelon or other summer fruits. The key is to add or swap something in that you love because it’s also okay to have food that just tastes good and you enjoy! Just get more good! You may end up dishabituating yourself from the original “junk food” item over time.
More Whole Food
This is a big one! Maybe the biggest. More nutrient density occurs in food often times when less intensive processing is involved. Most foods we eat have some amount of processing to get to us, but that is not what we are referring to. Anything that is close (or closest relatively) to it’s natural state.
A great example of a type/category of whole food carbohydrates that can really help give a lot of bang for the buck are resistant starches. In fact, these can not only help feed good bacteria in the gut and improve overall GI health, but they also can have half the calories of regular starches (2 cal/gram vs 4). Think cooked and cooled potatoes, oats, beans, green bananas, even pasta! etc.
“Eat more protein!”, said every trainer ever
Eating more protein is not just for muscle and it can have a profound effect on overall health. It can also be a very satiating food that will help promote fat loss since eating protein itself is more energetically costly for your body than carbs or fat. It actually can help you burn fat! It’s incredibly hard to store as fat (your body doesn’t want to do it), as mentioned it helps promote fat loss by increasing metabolic rate, and helps you hold on to your lean mass (think muscle) when you are in a calorie deficit (think dieting).
Drink More Water
Most people we work with start off not drinking enough of the stuff when we first meet. While a diet high in whole food like most popular diets promote can contribute to hydration, we still see many folks not getting at least half their body weight in ounces of water. What’s more is that some folks need quite a bit more especially when active since the 1/2 ounce/lb. number does not include hydration loss during exercise. For that you typically want to try and replenish 125% or so of what you have lost in sweat as a good rule of thumb. Sometimes electrolytes in proper balance can help in certain situations. To start, see if you can simply drink more water or keep water with you.
We don’t expect you to take on all of these at once and quite frankly we wouldn’t want you to because you likely wouldn’t be able to track and do it all at once. Try just one of the above practices and see if that helps you feel better or get closer to your goals after a few weeks. Ideally pick the practice that you need and will help you the most, but more importantly that you will be able to do consistently.
If we can help you with any of your summer and beyond health and nutrition goals and habits, or you want to find out more about our new space, please send us an email at info@resilient-body.com.