Category: Daily

We now know from research that a plant-based diet is “associated with a significantly reduced risk of negative health outcomes“. That list includes heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer*.

We also know that “Phasing out animal agriculture represents ‘our best and most immediate chance to reverse the trajectory of climate change.”

But let’s be realistic here: we’re not going to phase out animal agriculture anytime soon.

I am not trying to convince you to take an oath with one hand on a block of tofu.

Yet any movement towards a more plant-based is a win for you, the environment and the animals on the factory farms. This shift can come in any form that feels the most reasonable for you:

1. Vegan diet: Excludes all animal products, including meat, dairy, and eggs, focusing entirely on plant-based foods.
2. Vegetarian diet: Omits meat but often includes dairy products and eggs.
3. Lacto-vegetarian diet: Includes dairy products but excludes meat, fish, eggs, and poultry.
4. Ovo-vegetarian diet: Includes eggs but excludes meat, fish, dairy products, and poultry.
5. Lacto-ovo vegetarian diet: Includes dairy products and eggs but excludes meat, fish, and poultry.
6. Pescatarian diet: Excludes meat and poultry but includes fish and seafood alongside plant-based foods.
7. Flexitarian diet: Primarily plant-based but occasionally includes meat, fish, or poultry, offering more flexibility than other vegetarian diets.

*Fine print about the reduced risk of cancer:

“Although many studies have been inconclusive as to whether or not vegetarian diets reduce risk of various specific cancers, some studies have suggested that eating processed meats such as ham, bacon, and salami pose an increased risk of developing cancer.”

“A cohort study in 2006 of French women concluded that women whose diets were rich in meats had a greater likelihood of developing colorectal cancer than those who did not consume large amounts of red meat.”

Here’s the study.

-J

Notice the “automatic” behaviours that have crept into your life over the months, years or even decades.

Having a glass of Pinot while watching Shameless.

Snacking potato chips just before dinner.

A gingerbread with coffee.

Scrolling Instagram when sitting on the toilet.

None of these are “bad” behaviours.

But noticing them as they’re about to happen puts you back in control.

And each time you can decide then and there whether you’ll follow through.

-J

Stress from exercise and your work/life might not seem to have much in common. But the body will treat them both as the same by activating the sympathetic nervous system.

This “fight or flight” response leads to a bunch of changes, including increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and release of glucose from energy stores, all of which prepare the body to respond to an acute challenge. Cortisol goes up. And so does the inflammation.

All of these reactions are important when navigating challenges in the short term. But when the stress response gets chronic: shit show.

Any sustainable fitness program promising results needs to balance the two.

When the work/life stress is low, exercise stress can be higher. You’re more likely to respond better to higher volume and higher intensity training, within reason. And you can actually recover from it.

When the work/life stress is high, your tolerance for exercise stress decreases.

In most cases, the body can still tolerate higher intensity. But the overall volume needs to come down.

This is especially true when you’re in your menopausal years when the body struggles to handle high-volume training regardless of the other stress sources.

-J

Besides staying in the breakdown state (vs rebuilding) after exercise, delaying the post-workout meal for just four days in a row will signal the body to downregulate thyroid function.

Even if you’re otherwise eating enough calories throughout the day.

This holds true for both strength training and any cardio work you do.

-J

Men’s metabolism can take anywhere between 3-18 hours to return to normal after exercise.

Women’s metabolism returns to normal in 90 minutes or less.

Men can get away with delaying the post-exercise meal for hours without it substantially impacting our progress. Women can’t.

As a woman, you need food before and after exercise to make the most out of your workout. Otherwise, your body will stay in a stressed, sympathetic state, focusing on survival instead of adapting to the training stimulus.

Plus, if you’re trying to lose fat, that post-workout meal will signal the body, “Hey, the bar’s open. You don’t have to hang on the stored energy for survival”.

What to eat?

Aim for a small snack with protein and carbohydrates 30-60 minutes before your workout.

After the workout, eat around 25-30 grams of protein and some carbs to kick your body off the stressed state.

-J

“For me home strength program was a game changer. I am very social, but this is an activity I like to do solo and I can fit it in whenever it fits in my week. Joonas also made it so I just pick the next one in the program, no matter how many days since the last one.

And even if I haven’t managed a set number of days per week, I can feel that I am stronger, and that is super cool. Plus handy when you get a new washing machine delivered “

– Current client

For context, all her training programs are full-body workouts with a flexible schedule that suits her. So she doesn’t have to worry about missing a “leg day” and then trying to figure out when to fit it in when the next plan says “arm day”.

Since all workouts are full-body, there’s no set weekly structure. All she has to focus on is the next workout on the list.

That, and unless you’re a professional bodybuilder, splitting the workouts by body parts is absolute nonsense.

-J

A recent study highlights the effect of lack of sleep on increased cravings and calories from snacking.

“Energy and carbohydrate intakes from snacks increased in association with sleep restriction”

If your goal is to lose fat and/or improve the quality of your diet, dial in your sleep.

Here’s the study.

-J

What are your current struggles with improving your health and fitness?

Hit reply to let me know.

I wish I could say I’ll reply with something you can act immediately. But it’ll likely be a follow-up question so I can better understand your situation.

-J

Why don’t people like working out? The most frequent reasons I hear are related to exercise being boring and repetitive.

I see two options around this.

1. Make the workouts more exciting. Try different styles, classes, equipment and whatnot.

The downside of making workouts more exciting is that the boring and repetitive part of workouts is what gets results.

And if we swap those three for excitement, there’s a chance we reduce the effectiveness of the actual workout.

2. Accept that workouts won’t be fun. You might never like it or look forward to it.

But if you put up with boredom and repetition for 30 minutes twice or thrice a week, you’ll get all the benefits you’re looking for.

The immediate boost in mood and the long-term physical and mental upsides that allow you to get more out of the things you enjoy.

-J

Start by answering these three questions:

1. Why do you want to start exercising? Aka, what’s your goal and the why behind it? The more meaningful your reasons for starting, the easier it is to stick with exercise once the novelty/excitement/whatever wears off.

2. What kind of exercise do you enjoy, if any? Ideally, you’d lean into this as much as possible. But sometimes, the exercise you enjoy isn’t possible right now, or the exercise you enjoy won’t get you to your goal.

3. What’s the most likely time in the day that you’re going to show up to workout? Knowing what you know about yourself, your lifestyle and your schedule. Make it as frictionless as possible.

And then, a few more tactical thoughts:

– ANYTHING is better than nothing. 10 minutes a day x 5 days a week x 48 weeks = 40 hours a year

– When I was pressed for time earlier this year, I did 5 minutes of kettlebells for every hour of sitting. One of my clients only does 15-20-minute workouts twice a week. It adds up

– Can you increase your exercise by combining it with other tasks? I.e. On most days, I cycle to get the kids from daycare vs driving

-J