In the throes of the holiday season, it’s easy to push your nutrition goals to the side and tell yourself you’ll gear up to tackle those big goals in the New Year. But in the spirit of flexible nutrition, we find that this is the perfect time to work on building important skills around eating and making food choices as well as improving your relationship with food.

The holidays are a time of twinkling lights, cheerful gatherings, and copious amounts of joy-- and sometimes, stress. Consequently, you've probably found yourself frazzled amidst the festivities, wishing things were as simple as a Hallmark Christmas movie. Despite the hustle, bustle, and festivities muscle, there are a few ways you can help avoid the typical holiday burnout and still prioritize yourself.

We are in the midst of what is typically the busiest, most travel-prone, food-centric time of the year. So for my frequent flier clients AND the majority of the population at this time, most of our normal “controls” aren’t quite able to happen. Food choices look different, we may not have access to a gym, and we may be enjoying more meals out or savoring more of the foods that only come around this time of year. These higher variable times don’t have to add stress to our lives! One of my favorite parts of coaching is helping clients see that there is no “on or off track,” no matter where they are or how many variables are at work in their lives. 

Batch prepping refers to cooking large quantities of food ahead of time so that you can easily throw together a meal when it’s time to pack your lunch for the day or feed your family for dinner. When batch prepping, we can think less about the specific meals we are going to eat for the week, and more about creating the building blocks of those meals. This also makes grocery shopping and any meal planning you may do much easier!

As we say goodbye to warmer months and head into seasons of shorter days and colder temperatures, it is common for those shifts to translate into some seasonal gloom. We feel the impacts of less perceived time in the day and less sunlight, and we may initially feel a bit less motivated in the way of our normal health habits. During these colder months when we may find ourselves with a less zeal for prioritizing our nutrition, getting those workouts in or staying mindful of our sleep and stress management, we can meet our bodies and brains where they are at and create winter action plans that still support us feeling our best and in flexible ways.

Tracking calories has been largely utilized for various health and physique-related goals, and it is a tool we use often with our clients to help bring awareness to our eating habits. When it comes to tracking our macronutrients or calories, one of the first (and often overwhelming) steps is finding a tracking app that suits your needs. There are many apps out there that track the calories, macronutrients, and micronutrients in the foods we eat. Today we’re going to talk about the two most popular, MyFitnessPal and Cronometer.

The goal of this post is to share with you some of our favorites but, more importantly, give you some ideas of how you can use these pre-made, ready to go foods to simplify the process of feeding your body and, ideally, save some time while you’re at it.

“I just hate eating vegetables” tends to be the most common sentence I read when I get a new client intake form. It usually comes straight after reading that said client’s main goal is to “lose fat and gain muscle.” If that gives you any consolation for not being a fan of veggies, GREAT. But in years of coaching, I’ve learned it’s not so much about hating vegetables as much as not knowing how to prepare them or make them enjoyable.

Whether you’re off to the beach for a summer vacation or heading out for some international adventures, traveling is great but can also be a bit stressful. We believe that eating the foods you enjoy should not require restricting, rationalizing, or guilt. This post will help you find strategies that will keep you on track as you travel and navigate situations that are not totally in your control. 

We think smoothies are awesome! They can be a great addition to your day, regardless of your goals, and are also a really great way to get in extra protein as well as lots of nutrients. So, this week, instead of sharing more recipes with you, we’re going to share a little more about why we think smoothies are beneficial and, more importantly, how to make the best one for your needs and preferences.

Protein is one of the harder macronutrients to incorporate into our diet because it generally requires storage and prep time and therefore it can be less convenient. However, protein powder is super convenient! There are A LOT of different types and brands of protein powder out there, and it can be confusing to know which protein powder you should buy. Here is how to choose the right protein powder for you and a list of some of our favorites!

One part of our nutrition that I think can be really empowering is learning to address appetite through the typical ebbs and flows of life. This means when we’re sick, hot, busy, etc. and appetite is low (or gone completely); and when we’re more active or a little munchy and appetite is higher than normal. In either of these situations, knowledge of our nutrition allows us to tailor our food choices to how we’re feeling, so we can still honor our hunger and fullness cues and continue to fuel ourselves well.

Becoming knowledgeable and proficient in providing our bodies with the macronutrients they need to work most optimally is an incredible place to start when digging into personal nutrition. When that sound foundation with those major nutrients is met, or while working to become more confident in consistently meeting those macronutrient needs, we can also begin to dig in a little deeper and work to understand our micronutrients needs as well.

Recognizing our hunger cues and the impact our environment can have on those cues is especially important for goals related to our nutrition. Establishing a difference between physical and psychological hunger is the first line of defense against any feelings of guilt, shame, or regret surrounding our food choices.

I once loved cooking, but a shift happened when I found myself unmarried with a toddler. Suddenly the bigger priority came to ensure my toddler was well-fed while I was balancing a lot on my own. Then, cooking turned into something I loathed. Over the past year, I’ve learned some new tools and methods to help manage this shift, while finding some significant overlap with ensuring my toddler has options she likes.

While we want our clients to have specific goals they’re after, as coaches, our goal is to also ensure that clients walk away with tools that ensure their results are sustainable and that they feel confident in navigating their nutrition on their own.  In today’s post, I’m sharing more about some of those tools we aim to develop in our work as online nutrition coaches working one-on-one with clients, no matter what their goals are.

Goal setting can seem cliché, but setting yourself up with the right type of goals can be the difference between getting frustrated and giving up, and actually achieving the big goals you have set for yourself. This post is here to help you along in the process of making new goals that will best serve you in this coming year.

If you want to reduce your body fat percentage, build muscle mass, reach a goal weight, or improve strength in the gym, tailoring your nutrition to your goals is absolutely essential to achieving those goals.