Waffles and Weights Podcast

The hosts of the Weights and Waffles podcast discuss the topic of clean eating and why some people may not see the desired results despite eating well. They address the misconception that clean eating means restrictive eating and emphasize the importance of balance and enjoyment in one's diet. They suggest tracking food intake to gain awareness of eating habits and make necessary adjustments for progress. They also highlight the significance of including whole foods and vegetables in meals. What's up friends? Welcome to the Weights and Waffles podcast where you got two tricks you just like to lift weights and eat some waffles. I am your host, Claire. And I am your host, Astasia. We are super happy to have you listening in. So let's jump into things. Yeah, so how's your week been? Oh, yeah, it was good. It's been good. It's rainy here. So definitely not warm Texas weather. But yeah, it's we always have like a really cold snap up here in Montana. Right before Memorial Weekend Memorial Weekend, usually rainy, cold, miserable, and then like, like, boom, summer shows up. So now I'm holding out. And I have a question for you. I'm curious on your output because we've known each other for almost a year now. And you've met me in person, but we usually are online. And I had somebody tell me today, who have only met online that I'm a soft spoken person. Like, I don't feel like a lot of people would say that about me. I mean, it's like, I don't I mean, I definitely that's not if I was I made a list of things. That's not one I would have put on the list. Um, yeah, no. I mean, I think I think you're I don't know, maybe you match their inflection. Are they a soft spoken person? Well, I'm like, is it because I like have maybe a softer voice? Is that why? Yeah, like you're not glaringly like, in people's faces by any means. But I don't think you're soft spoken, necessarily. But I've also never been on like a coaching call with you as a client. Like it's always just you and I as friends, you know, and we laugh about stupid shit. And I don't know. That's funny. I can guarantee you though, that that sentence has never been spoken about me ever. I was I read it and I was like, huh. I don't I don't think that that's a quality that I have. But I guess I guess if it works in that instance. Yeah, maybe he told nurturing side of you. Yeah, he's like, you're very soft spoken. And I think it relates to a lot of people. And I'm like. Okay, I'm going to take it as a compliment. Definitely. Yeah. But if I told that to any of my friends, they would gut laugh like you did. I do remember early on, like you saying how you're a little bit more not a little bit more introvert until you really get to know people. So maybe that's that kind of side of you. And then if you're also communicating as a female, communicating with a male who isn't like someone who's super in your inner inner inner circle, that might also have something to do with it. I'm trying to speak maybe more from a professional, clean cut kind of place. Maybe that's what he's experiencing for me. I don't know. Yeah, I can. Yeah. What's what's on tap for today? What are we talking about today? So one of the things I have been like hearing so much about is cleaning, cleaning, I'm eating. Why am I not seeing results? I'm eating so clean. Yeah. You hear that? Yeah. Yeah. Like, I know. I mean, I'm eating. I eat good. Like me. I eat pretty clean. I guess I eat pretty good. I eat pretty good. Why am I not seeing results? Also, like, I would love to know, I would ask people the definition, well, what do you define eating pretty good? Like, what does that mean? Right. And then we go down this rabbit hole of, well, you know, like, I don't eat a lot of sweets. Like I don't I don't have, you know, dessert or I don't drink on the weekend or I won't have pizza or something. And it's like, oh, so you're restricting like your your definition of clean eating is restrictive eating. Is that that what you usually find? Yeah. And I think also a lot of times it's they they cherry pick their good weeks or they cherry pick their good days to like pull out. And and because those days tend to be the hardest or those weeks or months tend to be the hardest. That's what's forefront in their mind. Like, well, I mean, kind of feeling of like, I'm you know, I didn't drink all week or like a whole month. I only had drinks on Saturday night only. And, you know, I didn't I had salad when everyone had pizza and, you know, we went to a kid's birthday party and I didn't have the sweets. They cherry pick those moments of like struggle in life. And it's like such a tiny snapshot of the big picture of their cyclical some binging and purging. Not actually that awesome, but or cyclical of restrict, restrict, restrict. They screw it. They go on vacation and then everything's undone for the next six, eight, twelve, eighteen months or whatever. And so I think they just cherry pick a lot of times like like sections of their life that feel hard. And that's what they tend to like. I mean, you know, I do the things. But yeah, I agree, too, that a lot of times they're restricting themselves and not there's not a balance. It's like an all or nothing. Mentality. Yeah, no, I agree. And also, too, you know, it's like, OK, we want to eat good quality, whole nutritious foods the majority of the time. So when you have somebody going, I eat fairly well, but I didn't have, you know, cake at the bridal shower, I went to. Well, those are the times when you should enjoy doing that stuff, right? Like you should create space to do those things so you can do it and not feel guilty about it because of the healthy alternative options that you're having 80 percent of the time. And so I feel like people are so frustrated with the results and then like, OK, I'm eating clean. Well, what do you do? Well, I have a shake for breakfast and I have one of those, you know, have you heard of those protein bars with all it's all clean ingredients to have one of those. We have a salad at dinner and it's like, well, that's not even eating, you know, you are a rabbit. Yeah. And it's like, gosh, that's that's not clean eating either. And I just it's super frustrating to me because here I'm like, eat more food, eat more food. And they're just like, but I already eat pretty decent. So that's not the issue. Yeah, I think sometimes awareness, like when we, you know, I give the example sometimes of like if you're in a chemistry lab of some kind, you're making, you know, whatever, putting some chemicals together to create whatever. If you are just guessing and, you know, you say, well, you know, I think if you put baking soda and, you know, hydrogen peroxide together, I think I think this is what's going to happen. But until you actually do it and see it, data, right, how do you really know? And so sometimes it's just bringing their awareness back to like have when was the last time you like just track what you're eating? Like no judgment around it, whatever it is, don't care about the calories, don't care about the macros. But when was the last time you just like wrote down or tracked in a tracker what you are eating over the course of a week or two weeks to see, like don't change any of your habits. And sometimes that alone is a really, really, I mean, not sometimes, every time. And that alone is a good mirror to hold up in front of them to be like, oh, like, I mean, I think I'm doing pretty well, but holy mackerel, I'm eating under a thousand calories every single day. Then as coaches, from that one perspective, we can say, OK, here's why that that's not helping you, right? Like you're eating under your BMR, like your body's like not even thinking about fat loss or weight loss or muscle gain, because right now I'm just trying to survive with the number of calories and the energy you're giving it, right? Or maybe they see it and they're like, oh, OK, like maybe I do drink one more one, one too many tequilas throughout the week, but I'm eating clean. OK, maybe that's a focus that we can look at. But I think sometimes I think really having the awareness and letting them see it data wise and then helping them recognize here are maybe some shifts or changes or let's just add in like we don't want to take away anything else. Let's add in. I think this one add in is going to help you actually get a lot stronger in the gym, you know, but sometimes they just need to see it because we think about it. What is I mean, I can't remember what I had for breakfast today, like, you know. Yeah. And I mean, too, just to go along with that, like we might have an idea of what we think is what we're doing, like you said, and then we track it. And I mean, it makes us you can't deny the information is in there. It's like when you go to the doctor and they're like, how many beers do you drink a week? Well, I, you know, I have two or three and it's really not two or three. It's you know, it's like three a day in our in our mind. Logically, those are the things we're doing. But if it's if we're not tracking it and paying attention to it and a lot of the time we want to see progress and then we're like, OK, I'm going to track my food. I'm going to see what I'm doing. Holy moly. I have one hundred and fifty grams of fat a day and ten grams of protein a day. OK, now what does this stuff mean? Well, now we know what we can just adjust slowly to start seeing results. And but yeah, it's like this whole like I eat clean. I just I just I'm not I'm all for eating a whole food balanced diet, but let's make sure that we're enjoying what we eat, too, because that just sounds miserable. Yeah, yeah. I couldn't agree more. And I think even just the simplicity of looking at the balancing of the types of foods in one diet when we say we're eating clean, like I, I personally, I feel like I eat clean. I would say eighty five, eighty to eighty five percent of the time. I define what clean means to you. Right. OK. Yeah. I'm a circle back. OK, I like it. So I would say whole foods for each meal. I only use like like bars and shakes type of things for in between meals. I don't like to replace an entire meal with something from a box or can, you know, whatever. And I aim for at least a serving of veggies. I know it should be more than that in a day. But when I look at like my just kind of on the average, whatever, it's making sure before I go to bed that night, I have at least a serving at one of my meals. It could be two to three cups of veggies, but at least one on purpose intentional serving of vegetables in a day. And then I have protein at every single meal. Whole from a whole foods, you know, resource of some kind. So the thing that I was going to say that I do trip up on is I don't vary my nutrients very often kind of go to like green beans or broccoli or, you know, whatever. And there are so many amazing veggies and fruits and stuff out there that I don't when I am when I do consciously and intentionally go and get those and have them in my diet. I genuinely feel the difference because you're getting different micronutrients. Your body is receiving new input and you're like, oh, and it like, I mean, it wants that. But I do get stuck in my my kind of like normal ways of like the same things over and over. And I have to catch myself on that, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And I do the same thing as you. I get into my like broccoli peppers routine. And so I actually have been working on being having having more variables. But I do want to say I like you. I believe that that's the definition of clean eating in a way that's realistic. Also, I know that you like to have your cocktails. Yeah, I like to have my dessert. I love Oreos. And so I can feel confident saying that I still 80 to 85 percent of the time eat a clean, well-balanced diet. But it's not perfect. And I think that that is where I like and enjoy. Exactly. Like, yeah. And this mindset around like I eat pretty clean, but so it negates everything that we just, you know, we say like right before it or whatever. And it's kind of like I'm sure you have clients that say this is like, you know, I like I had, you know, I had a salad, you know, for lunch today. But, you know, I'm like, OK, great. Do you like salad? Do you enjoy them? Yeah. Love them. I'm like, OK, awesome. But, you know, I had a few of my kids French fries. I'm like, and you got a few of your kids French fries. Cool. Did you enjoy them? Yeah. Great. Like, why are we wronging that? Why are we shaming that? Like, you know, now, if it's something every single day, you're finishing your kid's plate and you're also eating your entire dinner and you do that for multiple meals a day or multiple meals a week, that could definitely add up very, very quickly for good work. Again, tracking it to know. Exactly. That's what I was going to say. You don't know until you are documenting that and then going back and getting the metrics. But but yeah, I mean, you can't I just this whole ideology behind having this clean lifestyle and you totally caught me in in the normal thing when people say, you know, but but I honestly just do enjoy those things. And that's why I choose to have those in my diet. And and there's a balance. I had a guy I was he's not a one on one client, but we're just visiting. And he told me he was anesthesia. How can I get stronger? He's like, I want to he's getting older. I want to keep my strength. He does resistance training, very active. He's like, I just want to know how I can keep the strength. He's like, I'm getting older. I don't want to lose it. I don't want to slow down. I want to keep up with my son. And I told him, well, track your food for me for a week and we'll talk. I talked to him a week later. Like, how much food are you eating? Oh, you know, probably about 1200 calories. I'm like, and we're talking like very lean, built, strong guy. Oh, five, nine, six foot. And I'm like, you're eating what? Wow. And then I look at his food loss and he has like a macro bar, a shake and then like a steak and vegetables for dinner. And he's like, I eat pretty clean. And I'm like, huh, you're not eating enough food. And so he's been slowly starting to increase it. And he's like, my strength in the gym is going insane. And I'm like, that's because you're fueling your body. So, yeah. And I want to touch on the point too, where you were like, I aim for a serving of vegetables or veggies a day. I know I should be doing better, but that's, that's realistic for you. Right. So that's the thing. And it's like, yes, I'm going to catch you in your little thing too. Like, I know I should be doing better. But at the same time, like, if that is what's realistic for you right now, then don't think about what you should be doing, focus on what you can do, do that. And then go from there. And if that means having a handful of your kids' French fries with your salad, so that you don't order the super large one for yourself and eat them all, then do that. That's awesome. Nobody's going to discredit your effort. Right. Right. Yeah. We are our own worst critics for sure. A hundred percent, a hundred percent. But I just, I, it cracks me up because, so I am, I am three weeks out from my powerlifting competition in June, so like it's go time. I am, it's like two rep maxes, one rep maxes next week. I'm cutting, which is not a great combo, but I did this to myself and I'm dealing with the consequences of it, but you know, I only have, I have like four pounds to go and I, my thing when I am cutting is Coke Zero and I will drink one to two of those bad boys because it helps me keep in my deficit and focus on the nutrition food that helps, and it helps with my cravings. Cravings are a real thing that can happen when we're in a deficit. And, you know, I get people saying, Oh my gosh, that Coke is so bad for you. It's so full of artificial sweeteners, you know, while they're, you know, eating McDonald's twice a day or, you know, drinking every single night. And it's like, starving themselves all the time too. Yeah. Or just not eating because yeah, they are too busy or they're not making time for it. It's like, let's, let's be realistic, you know? Well, and to that point, cause I was actually going to make this point and it ties right in is your, it's a very shortened timeframe that you're doing this, right? It's a very short, you said your competition's in three weeks. It's three weeks over the course of, it's not like you do a competition like every six weeks or every even three months. Right. So it's a, it's a small timeframe, a snapshot, so to say, in the big picture. Right. And chances are, my guess is post this, you've come out of that deficit, your shifting into a different phase of your training, of your nutrition. And it probably doesn't entail two cozy roads in a day, right? Not even close. It shifts and changes. And so for people to recognize, like the big picture is eat whole foods as often as possible, more often than not, ideally. Incorporate those things that are things you enjoy in a, in the same kind of balanced way that you would, you know, let your kids play on video games, whatever. Like you're not letting them play on video games eight hours a day, like it's done in little, little chunks. Right. And it's for a short amount of time. If your kid is in school, they're not playing a video game every single day, all day, all week and all the weekend. No. So when we're in a deficit, we're in a fat loss phase or we're in a strength building, muscle building phase, it's a, it's a specific period of time. It has a starting and an ending date. Most people who get frustrated in the diet culture and in the, you know, that world is because they feel like they've been dieting for years, right? And there is no start or end to it. They just feel like they never get to the finish line because they're not doing it in a systematic way. And I think that's why coaches are so incredibly helpful to have, to guide you. I mean, on that, you know, to guide clients on that journey. So there is a delineated starting and ending time so they can actually see the results in, you know, in a shorter time. And you don't, you shouldn't have to track for forever. Like that's not, that's not reasonable. It's not doable, but you got to start somewhere and know where you are to be able to know where you want to go. Yep, exactly. And too, you know, you have to start with that and learning how to eat in a structured way that your body feels well in. So like you said, when I come out of this comp, I'm going to do something called a race feed. I'm going to get back up to my maintenance calories. I don't crave things like Coke Zero at all when I'm eating maintenance because I'm feeling my body appropriately. And then it's back to just, you know, life is normal. And that, that's where, like you said, people just live in diet culture. And instead we want to live in maintenance culture and go take short little vacations into diet culture and get the heck out of there as quickly as possible. And it is like total opposite of what the normalcy of people are. And I know that your phase one is very similar to mine and the one-on-one coaching programs. Like we first work on building those healthier lifestyles, eating appropriately, eating to feel our bodies, eating to feel better, getting you into that ideology and that world of maintenance and health and energy and feeling better. So then we can vacation to fat loss and it's so much more realistic. It's so much more sustainable and doable. And, and then it's like, this is, this is how you keep results for life. You continue to live in dieting phases. That's why you keep gaining your weight back. Yeah, I'm so frustrated all the time. I'll, I'll, I'll finish with one more thing. I know we're getting close on time, but I had a client I was on a call with today and that she is down like, so I think almost five, six pounds, I think, I think six pounds from when we started. And she's literally only been with me for like two months. And we are, we're doing a lot of healing and a lot of recovering from a lot of like life trauma that has shifted her to this place. I'm not doing the counseling side of it, obviously, but we're just, it's a very slow and steady, you know, place that we're working in and really just getting her back to a place of eating, getting to maintenance. We're not even to maintenance yet. We're still working to get up to maintenance and she's already down like five, six pounds. And just communicating with her, you know, she's from that mindset of like, you can't eat late at night. She's a full time drummer. That's her livelihood. So she plays gigs still sometimes two in the morning, you know, and she's like, well, you know, I've always been told I can't eat late at night. I can't eat after, you know, 7 p.m. or whatever. But her, her day is like more like 11 to 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. You know, it's a, she has a different shift in her, her, a different work life, right? And she has a lot of allergens. And so she's like, I eat really clean because I have to X, Y, Z. And sure, absolutely. However, she wasn't eating nearly enough. And now her body is starting to feel safe. It's feeling it's actually being fueled. Right. And so even though she's eating more, she's actually losing weight. And it is blowing her mind that that's an even possibility. So it's just kind of a testament to like, you can, you can eat clean, but also and also you should be eating enough, like the right amount for yourself and consistently. And that's really been eye opening for her to recognize that and feel like, oh, hey, like I can, I can actually eat something after I'm done playing. Like, yeah, please do. Because you're severely under eating at this point, you know. Anyways, it's just it's a reminder that clean eating isn't the end all be all, right? Also having adequate nutrients, adequate amount of energy in so that we can have the energy to live our life. If you have any topics, any questions you want to submit, we would love to answer those questions live on the podcast. So drop us a question. Link is in the show notes. Good job.