Nutrition for building strength, with Lisa Franz

In this episode of the Heallist Podcast, we're talking about muscle, what it takes to build it, why nutrition is a critical part of the equation, and what people often misunderstand when they're focused only on losing weight. Joining us is Lisa Franz, who holds a master's degree in exercise science, health promotion, and nutrition. As the owner of Nutrition Coaching and Life and a coach who has worked with more than 250 clients, Lisa shares a practical, evidence-informed approach to building strength and supporting long-term health.

Drawing from her experience coaching women of all ages, Lisa explores why maintaining muscle mass is important for metabolism, mobility, and healthy aging. We discuss common myths around protein intake and resistance training, how beginners can build sustainable exercise habits, and why consistency often matters more than finding the "perfect" workout or nutrition plan. Get actionable insights on how strength training and nutrition can support overall well-being throughout life.

This conversation is shared for educational and reflective purposes, offering perspectives on longevity and wellness that integrate traditional practices with contemporary scientific inquiry.

Key takeaways include:

•  Resistance training plays an important role in supporting long-term health and muscle mass 
•  Protein and overall nutrition help support muscle maintenance and recovery 
•  Sustainable habits often matter more than pursuing optimal or intensive routines 
•  Strength training can benefit people across different ages and fitness levels 
•  Building muscle supports more than appearance—it contributes to overall health, mobility, and longevity

Find out more about Lisa and her work in exercise science. 

Visit Heallist.com - your portal to holistic healing, connecting seekers and thousands of practitioners across the globe.

Follow @heal_list on Instagram.

Watch video episodes on Spotify & Youtube.

Transcript

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Yuli 0:00

Welcome to the Heallist Podcast, where we unpack the many layers of holistic health. I'm Yuli, founder of Heallist, your portal to holistic healers worldwide. Now let's go deep. Hello, dear friends, and welcome to the Heallist Podcast. If this content resonates, please hit subscribe or follow to support its independent and advertising-free content. Today we're talking about muscle, what it takes to build it, why food is most of that equation, and what people tend to get wrong when they're focused on losing weight instead. Our wonderful guest is Lisa Franz, that has masters in exercise science, health promotion, and nutrition, and is the owner and head coach at nutrition, coaching and life. She coached full-time for over seven years, working with more than 250 clients, and she also hosts the Nutrition and Life podcast. Originally from Germany, she coaches now from the road and is currently based in Bolivia. So excited to have you. Thanks for joining us.

Lisa 1:01

Thank you for having me, Yuli. I'm really excited for this conversation. I think this is a topic that is super hot at the moment, nonetheless, quite misunderstood. So I'm excited to hopefully provide some nice guidelines for it.

Yuli 1:15

Amazing. And I love it. And it's also one of those episodes that's actually self-serving. So I'm very curious to learn as I approach kind of my middle age or in my middle age, this conversation, especially for women, right? It's really hot conversation right now. I think we're finally learning about the connection between strength building and muscle building and nutrition. And for so long, it was a conversation that is entirely centered around men. And suddenly muscle and women, it's it's becoming not just cool and trendy and tone and, of course, all the you know vanity reasons, but it's actually what drives our a lot of our metabolism health. And I'm really excited to unpack all of that with you.

Lisa 1:59

Yeah, really. And I think you're already starting us off on such a great note. I do want to catch the people that might be listening who are like, I don't want to look specifically muscular. I don't want to look big and bulky. This is still an episode for you because it should be in literally everybody's interest to at least maintain the current amount of muscle mass that you have. And unfortunately, as you were saying, as we're aging, you know, sort of past the ages of 35 or into our 40s and so on, we actually need to work on keeping the muscle that we have, even if it's just the postural muscle, the muscles that help you carry the groceries, the muscles that allow you to play with your grandchildren, the muscles that will keep you alive for longer. Because many of the studies show that people don't actually, you know, yes, okay, there are a lot of diseases, but many people die because they fell and then they go to the hospital and they either never come out of it because they suddenly have grown too fragile to handle their own lives and so on, or for other muscle deficit reasons, so to speak. So literally everybody listening, even if it's not for aesthetic reasons or because you want to be stronger, it should be in your interest to maintain muscle. And the other reason why I think especially women should be listening to this as well, is most people say they want to lose weight. But most people actually mean is I want to lose body fat. We don't necessarily just want to become a smaller, less strong version of ourselves. And that's exactly what happens if we just only focus on the nutritional aspect and we don't work with some resistance training, or like many people used to do back in the day when you just do cardio, and I will include myself in that. I always thought if I want to lose weight, all I need to do is sweat it off, you know, like do a good amount of cardio and eat less. And there is so much more to the equation. So I guess if you want, I can go right into what we should be doing instead.

Yuli 3:56

Absolutely. And just before we do that, you touched like a very interesting point, like the entire weight loss system. I mean, look at the name, right? How it was framed. It was about losing weight, and it was never kind of broken down to like, wait a second, what weight are we actually losing? And I think this is what's happened, not to get too much into like peptides and that whole conversation, but this is what's happening today with this like bulking everything into weight loss. So many people are losing this very important muscle mass.

Lisa 4:28

Yeah, and I think I want to also catch another person that might be listening. So, not just the person who's thinking, I don't want to look big and bulky. I also want to catch the person who's thinking, I don't actually want to lose weight. Because still, even if you're already happy with your current amount of body weight, I would say that the majority of us would actually not mind increasing their definition, their body definition, or what we call now body composition. So by that we mean, you know, you might stay at the same exact weight, but your body fat percentage goes down and your muscle percentage or your lean body mass, as we call it, goes up. So even if you stay at the same weight and you improve the body fat percentage, you will become a healthier version of yourself. And most of the time it also means we look more toned, we look more defined. And often when people describe kind of like their goal when I start working with them, thankfully they're not as focused on a specific number on the scale anymore, and much more they say, Oh, I want to look like X, or here's a picture of someone I would like to get to. And quite often it's a woman who is looking strong in the sense of capable, not necessarily strong in the sense of super-muscular, but you know, she has nice and defined shoulders and arms. Maybe you can see the ab definition a little bit. She has nicely shaped glutes and legs, and it's not just that sort of skinny fat. So that's really what I'm helping people to achieve. I'm not just working towards weight loss and just a specific number on the scale. I really want to help people improve their body composition, which is also associated with so many positive health outcomes. Because again, like we don't just want to have a lot of fat around our organs that's associated with several health risks, or overall, people don't want to have flabby arms. You know, you want to have nice arm definitions, you want to have a nice glute, you want to feel confident in a swimsuit if you go on vacation, all these kinds of things.

Resistance Training That Actually Sticks

Lisa 6:22

So the first thing I do want to highlight is exactly what we were saying about the building muscle. We need to do a couple of things in order to actually build muscle or at least maintain muscle. And the first one is resistance training. And I'm specifically saying resistance training, because I don't mean everybody has to go to the gym and lift a ton of weights. For the person who's starting out, this could literally be body weight training. This could be even if you're 60 or if you're 70, if you're 80, if you're starting off with this, sometimes it is as simple as doing some quote-unquote squats when you squat down on a chair and you get back up. I have worked with senior citizens and it was literally that. And then, you know, somebody who used to need a cane and who used to need someone's help in order to get up from their chair or from the toilet, they can now do that. So if you're just starting out, body weight exercise is completely fine. Or if you're traveling a lot, like myself, sometimes included, can also be a Pilates session or with resistance bands with a TRX. Of course, if you're a little bit more advanced and you want to push it, you're no longer feel super challenged with bodyweight things. Yes, a gym is perfect, or it can also be exercise classes where you use some equipment. But I want to always encourage people to do something that's number one, sustainable to them, and number two that they also enjoy. Of course, initially, when we're starting something new, often we don't enjoy the new things. We don't enjoy feeling like we suck at something. But I'm not ever gonna prescribe to someone just starting off, hey, you need to work out six times per week for an hour each session. That is absolutely ridiculous. That would probably lead to injuries, and they would never stick with that. So again, just think of where you're at. Maybe you're already somewhat active, but you're let's say you're running twice a week and you're going to yoga once. In that case, I mean that's awesome. You're already doing great things for your cardiovascular health and for many other positive things. But I would in that case say maybe you can include one pure resistance training into that, or maybe you can switch one of your runs for a Pilates class or something that builds a bit more of the core strength as well. So think of where you're at and then maybe how you can build on that, and then how where you want to be in five years' time and 10 years' time, because my goal for you would be that you're still working out and active and working on that strength when you're 70, when you're 80, or maybe until your very last day here on this earth. So we need to actually use our muscles, the muscles in order to maintain them. There is a lot of truth or full truth to that whole motto of use it or lose it, unfortunately. So that would be the first part. And Yuli, I would be interested. Do you believe most of your listeners are somewhat active? Are we more sedentary in general, or what kind of audience do you usually have?

Yuli 9:15

Yeah, I think we kind of ran the gamut. I know we have a lot of female listeners as well. So this episode is for them. And, you know, we also have a lot of holistic practitioners in our audience and our network, which I think is a kind of great audience to also spread this message of uh health to their clients. And I think we all kind of constantly learning, right, on our journey. I think more and more clients come to practitioners with all kinds of conditions that are sometimes could be related to simply to strength of their body. And I completely agree with you. I think that um the strength training and resistance training and body weights is completely underrated. I think there's like we this um, I don't know, again, this perception that, okay, to build a muscle, you have to go to the gym and lift weights and you know, do all those things. And I think this for a lot of people kind of fail at that, right? Because it's a big effort and it's scary. And, you know, as women, this is not what we do. I'm not a fan of the regular gym environment from like lighting to the colors. There's so many excuses, right? But I found for myself, like just body weight, simple. I actually do it daily before bed. Funny enough, we can talk about that. I found like my routine. And the most, the best thing about it that, like you said, if I travel, like there's no excuses. Like I literally need nothing to do my little routine that keeps me in in shape and also provides like a great deep sleep. That's one of the benefits I discovered when I started measuring uh my biomarkers. But it's is completely underrated. And I actually myself, I didn't start it until recently, until I was doing a lot of different little experiments to see what works for my body and what is also manageable for me as a mother and a business owner to maintain on a daily basis, and that was it.

Lisa 11:01

And that's really the most important and often overlooked things because we literally often think just about what's optimal, or you hear about this new training and this is even better, and so on, and we forget about adherence and how we would well we would be able to stick with that. So, in my opinion, adherence always comes before what's optimal. You already kind of mentioned in there some of the lesser talked-about benefits of strength training.

Hormones Mood And Confidence Benefits

Lisa 11:26

So I can tell you from a couple of clients, one of them, for example, this was when I was still also working with men, and he had really low testosterone levels and was on the verge of simply jumping to TRT testosterone replacement, which there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, and often it is absolutely required. But in his case, we simply just focused on lifestyle factors first, as you know, that is so important. We improved his sleep, he cut out more alcohol, and he started strength training three times per week. And honestly, his testosterone came back to like really good levels. He was at this was in his late 40s, and this was like we got them to be better than in his late 20s and without any testosterone replacement or whatever. So, just one example, and it also applies to women like women's hormone profile can really improve if we add the resistance training. Another client of mine, she was on antidepressants, and we started, of course, working on lifestyle things, also improving sleep, cutting out alcohol, all of those good things, and of course, address nutrition. And she started resistance training, and she gained not only did she from time to time, of course, under supervision from her therapist, she came off of the medication, but she gained so much confidence, she gained so much self-belief from simply proving to herself week in, week out, that she was able to stick with this routine, that she was able to, you know, start lifting certain weights and so on. And so there's really so many beautiful benefits aside from the aesthetic aspect to resistance training. I do want to make sure I'm also addressing the second part that I wanted to get into when it comes to what it takes to actually build

Protein Basics And Food Tracking Clarity

Lisa 13:08

muscle. And as you already alluded to in my introduction, that is the nutritional aspect. We do need both. We do need to set the stimulus of like, hey, muscles, you're supposed to grow, or at least you're supposed to stay here. And that is the resistance training. But then, of course, through the training, we often hear like we're breaking the muscle down in the training, and there's a lot more nuance to that, but let's stick with that analogy for the simplicity's sake. And so after the training, we need to repair that tissue and actually give our body the building blocks in order to do that. And what are the building blocks of our body? Literally, including um building blocks would be for hair, for skin, for nails, everything, not just for the muscles, and that is protein. Protein is another thing that is super popular nowadays, talked about everywhere in social media, and just always higher and always more is not better. I'm not definitely not in that camp, but I do think from what I have seen of working with over 350 people, and the majority of people that come to me, and I can confidently say like 90% or more of the people that come to me, they do not consume enough protein on a consistent basis. So unfortunately, it is a message that needs to be like pounded over and over and over again. Now, if you're listening to this, uh I can share with you that when I started recording my food or when I started my own kind of nutritional journey, I was convinced I was eating enough protein. You know, I had a couple of eggs in my breakfast, I was eating a small, maybe half a handful of chicken in my lunch, and then in my dinner, I might have had some fish or a little bit of cottage cheese, and I was like, that is plenty. And I started recording my food intake, and I was like, oh, this is really not enough. And I also noticed that I was actually not consuming as little food as I thought. So I'll get into the benefits of tracking your food at least for a month or two later on. I'm certainly not of the opinion that everybody needs to track their macros and count calories for the rest of their lives. Again, I don't want to portray that message, but I simply believe in the educational purpose of at least for an extended period of time recording your food intake. Number one, it really creates awareness. I often hear from clients, I hardly ate anything all day. Why am I always so hungry? Or why am I not losing weight? And then they start recording their food, and it's like, oh okay, they have the creamer and their coffee, and then they eat half of their kids' leftover sandwich, and then they hear half a muffin, and then the mocha with some whipped cream and blah blah blah. And we come to like 2000 whatever calories, like, well, no surprise you're not losing weight or you're not losing fat here. So number one, awareness. Number two, it really also educates you on what's in your food. Again, I personally, before this, I used to believe sort of some of the things that you hear, like, oh, peanut butter is a great source of protein, or if you're looking for just plant-based protein sources, you know, just include a couple of beans or legumes in your meals. And yes, they are great contributing protein sources, but they on their own, without really putting specific attention to quantity, are likely not going to be enough in order for you to maintain your muscle mass or to even build muscle. So I would really recommend anybody who's listening who is struggling with weight loss, who wants to retain some muscle or build some muscle, to at least for you know four weeks or so commit to recording your food. And you can do that in various food tracking apps for free. I'm not associated or affiliated with any of them. You can use my fitness panel, my macros, lose it, chronometer, whatever. They're almost all free to begin with anyway. And just saying, okay, even when I'm eating out, I'm gonna record it. I'm gonna record how much alcohol I'm drinking, what kind of coffee or sugary beverages I might be drinking. And it might be eye-opening for you because it certainly was for me and it is for most of my clients as well. So once we do that, we can also set a specific target for our protein. And there are a lot of numbers floating around, most of which kind of get a bit too much into the details, in my opinion. I think if you are listening to this and you have a kind of a healthy weight or a goal weight for yourself in mind, take that number in pounds and set it as your target for protein. So let's just say if you're currently a female at 170 pounds and you would like to be 145, use 145 as your daily target for protein. If you only get to 120, that's great too. Unfortunately, many of the women that I started working with, they naturally only get to maybe like 60 or 80 grams, which is unfortunately too low. So, of course, quality also matters. I am not just in the camp of only calories and protein matters, and the rest is benign. Absolutely not. I truly believe we should be eating 80-90% whole foods, so minimally processed or non-processed foods, so vegetables, fruits, fish. You can also achieve these goals again on a plant-based diet if you choose to, but otherwise you can include lean chicken or red meat, all these kind of good foods which are not super processed, and keeping still, you know, 10-20% for some flexible wiggle room to also nourish your soul, to go on date night with your husband without too much guilt, or to have a slice of birthday cake if you're invited somewhere. So certainly we want to practice flexibility. But to kind of round off that point, so in order to build muscle or maintain muscle mass, we need the stimulus, which is the resistance training, and then we need to provide our body with the building blocks. It's actually the amino acids in the proteins that are the building blocks in our body. And that should be like time, it's specific timing or meal frequency. Really don't major in the minor that is secondary if you are hitting your overall daily protein goal consistently.

Hitting Protein Goals Without Powders

Yuli 19:04

Wow, that was an incredible overview. Thank you. And a few follow-up questions. So it sounds like, I mean, the number that is thrown out there, like you mentioned, it's it seems so high that it is really hard to imagine to achieve it on Whole Foods and you know, without like overeating, maybe. And it seems like the recipes always or the medicine is always like just drink a protein shake or protein powders are everywhere and protein bars. And I got to tell you personally, and maybe it's just me. So with somebody who eats, like try to eat the Whole Foods diet and and organic, and you know, less like I I think I eliminated most of my ultra-processed, thankfully, and minimally processed. It just doesn't fit into my idea of healthy nutrition. Let's just throw powder and into something and all of a sudden it's gonna be this magic solution for my muscle. I just it doesn't seem right for me. I tried it, it doesn't work for my body rejects it altogether. So, what is the solution to get to those high numbers?

Lisa 20:07

Yeah, that's a great, uh great point. So, I mean, if you are listening to this and you're really like struggling with protein intake in general, or you're not a big protein food lover, like some people they really just naturally crave steak or could almost eat half a chicken. I'm certainly not saying that, but there is absolutely a way to train yourself to or to get to that level. So I don't want anybody to force feed. But let me just give you an example day. I think often also when we're starting this, many of the women that come to me, they actually have a little bit of a slowed-down metabolism from either many years of not eating enough or simply being too stressed and not practicing these stress techniques in order to actually get their body into a rest and digest state. So if we're constantly stressed and just running around, running on caffeine, lack of sleep and whatever, no wonder your body's not actually gonna want to digest too much. And fortunately, protein is the macronutrient that is hardest to digest between protein, carbs, and fats. And I'm saying fortunately because um that is exactly why it's also more metabolically active. What I mean by that is if you eat 400 calories from protein versus 400 calories from carbs or fats, it's a lot less likely that that protein is gonna be stored as body fat. And it also means that your body needs more calories to burn the protein or to process the protein because it is harder to break down than it does when processing carbs or fats. And of course, that is helpful for weight loss because who doesn't want to eat more or at least the same while burning more calories? So just to preface that. And what I have noticed when we increase protein intake slowly and gradually, we can actually kind of teach the metabolism to rear back up. And of course, if we do that hand in hand with some techniques of like, okay, I'm no longer gonna eat on the go. I'm actually gonna sit down and eat my food, or I'm gonna take a few deep breaths before I eat in order to allow my body to get into a rest and digest mode, as opposed to staying in this fight or flight or activity or work mode kind of thing. So that can also help us digest better, not just digest better, but actually also absorb the nutrients better, which of course is also the goal. But in saying that, I'll give you an example. So let's say, do you are are you an omnivore other than not enjoying protein powder? Or are you vegan or anything?

Yuli 22:32

I eat everything but the protein powder.

Lisa 22:35

Okay. Yes. So I would say let's just start with breakfast because I do encourage not, you know, point blank, everybody to eat breakfast. But again, most of the women I have worked with, I have noticed hormonally they function better if we do break our fast, at least let's just say at 10 o'clock at the latest, kind of thing. This is very generic, but not in all cases, or not often a fan of intermittent fasting for too long of a period. Not saying it doesn't work. But okay, let's assume you're having a lovely omelette for breakfast. It can also be a scramble. So maybe a couple of whole eggs and then adding half a cup of egg whites to that, some wonderful vegetables, sauteing that for a little bit. You could have a slice of sourdough with that, or maybe some sweet potatoes, uh, maybe some berries for healthy fiber and fruit as well. And then so in that you would probably already kind of, you know, reach 25 or 30 grams of protein. In your lunch, the issue that most people have is if we're looking at sort of a normal restaurant meal, the carb portion is usually really big, or the fat portion is usually really big, and the protein portion is quite small. So, just in order to create more space in your stomach or or to help you eat enough protein, it is often beneficial to just reduce the carbs and the fats a bit and just increase the protein. So you could have, let's say, six or eight ounces of chicken breast, having a little some beans in there, again, having some nice starchy carbs or quinoa or something, then of course your greens and other whatever vegetables. So, in that, if we are doing it right, you'd probably already get kind of 40, maybe yeah, 40 grams of protein, let's say. So you can still digest it well, maybe 400, 500 calories in that meal. And then quite often the afternoon snack is sort of where people fall short because they're experiencing a crash or they're super, super busy. So all they do is they grab a coffee, or maybe even worse, like a coffee and a muffin, something sugary, because they want to get through that afternoon lump and we have like no protein in there. And of course, because we just have the coffee and we battled through, or maybe we had the sugary thing, in the evening, our cravings are even higher. So if we have a snack with protein in our afternoon, um it can actually often help us prevent some of the cravings later on in the evening, or at least prevent us from being super ravenous when we get home and want to just ever eat everything that's in our fridge. So this could be your, you know, a kind of like low-fat Greek yogurt, or it can also be full-fat Greek yogurt if it fits into your calorie budget. It could be low-fat cottage cheese or cottage cheese with some berries or some nut butter or some seeds in there. Something like that could be a wonderful snack, or if you're on the go, you know, boiling up a couple of eggs or so, that's better than nothing still. And in that, you might also again have 20, 25 grams of protein. And then in your dinner can be similar to your lunch, or it could be some fish, it could be some salmon, for example, again, some nice carbs to help you sleep, help you relax, help you deal with the carb, deal with your stress rather. Um, so again, another sort of 30 grams here. So if we're looking at 25 in breakfast or 30 in your breakfast, 25 in the afternoon, that's already 50. We have the 40 in your lunch, and then sort of a 30 for dinner, you would get to 120 grams or so even without powder. And sort of the research kind of says uh, you know, 1.6 grams per kg or 0.8 grams per pound is also like a good kind of aim, but we always say one gram in case our clients don't quite get there, or at least so they have something to to reach towards. But I totally get you, and I'm certainly not of the opinion that we have to have powders. For me personally, when I'm traveling, it comes in quite handy because often at the airports or so, you know, carbs and fats are easy to get by, protein not as much, or when I'm driving around a lot or so, so it's a convenient option, certainly not required though.

Yuli 26:33

Well, thank you. You made it uh sound a little easier than before and more achievable for me and for I think most of our listeners. But it's really um, I think just to kind of tie everything back into, you know, the strength training, the nutrition. And I think a lot of times, again, they're looked separately, right? Into like as a separate issue. And I think in humans, maybe we can focus on one thing at a time, but we either focus on one or another. It's really hard to do it all. Do you have any like advice or any, again, maybe some client stories, how to kind of work on both holistically? Because I obviously we're a holistic health podcast, and I really believe unfortunately you do have to work on all those things and combine to really truly have serious outcomes and transformation. But what do you see kind of from your side when it comes to focus on one area or another and combining both?

Lisa 27:31

For sure. I'll love to get into that.

Body Recomposition Calories And Consistency

Lisa 27:33

I do want to um add one thing to the conversation because we were talking about body re-composition earlier, right? When I was saying about improving the body fat percentage. So it's not just as easy as add more protein and train. Of course, in order to reduce the body fat, we also should not be in a calorie surplus or not be eating more energy or more calories than what our body needs. Yes, we can sometimes achieve body re-composition at calorie maintenance. If we're completely new to training or completely new to a higher protein diet, that is possible. The more we are experienced with training or higher protein diet, the more we probably need a little bit of a calorie deficit in order to achieve a better body fat percentage or drop body fat and increase muscle. So just wanted to add that so people don't think it just comes down to that. But what will help in order to help someone understand how to do that is also the piece that I mentioned earlier with regards to recording your food, because then you actually know how much you eat on average, how much your body needs on average in order to just maintain the weight. And then you can drop that down a little bit if nothing happens, going into kind of a calorie deficit, or you can just see what happens with consistent training, with consistent enough protein intake, add your calorie maintenance. So I did want to add that. But yeah, really, really many clients, and one specific one comes to mind and her name, I'm gonna call her Rebecca. She had already been quite active when we started working together, but she was never really consistent. So sometimes when I take on new clients and I say, you know, how many times a week do you go to the gym? I often hear like something like three times, and then we kind of go through the last three to four months, and then she's like, Oh, not in this week because I was traveling. And then actually the following week, the kids were on school holidays, so we were there, and then in this week I actually got sick. So on average, three times quite often comes more to like one or two times. And so I want people to think of more consistency and being honest with themselves and rather than setting the goals too high. So, you know, if you know exactly like I'm traveling once a month for work, maybe you can also create one routine that you can take on the road, just like you do, Yuli, like something body weight related. And so, really with Rebecca, we started working on consistency, and she'd send me every time she's in the gym, kind of like a gym picture just for accountability, because accountability is so, so big when it comes to sticking with something or changing habits. So that was really part number one, just getting ridiculously consistent with her training. So if she knew she was going to be traveling, she kind of shifted her routine around, or sometimes it meant she would have to do her workout later. I have found that the people that are most consistent, they're not, they're the least rigid people that I know. I think often when we think of consistency, it's like it sounds like that person always goes to the gym every single day at 6 a.m. at this gym and does this and that routine. And that's absolutely not not the case. I think people that are most consistent, they're most adaptable and most flexible with what they're doing. And same applies for nutrition. So Rebecca, for example, she was a master at planning ahead for that goes so so far. And once again, I'm not saying you need to do a two-hour meal prep every Sunday and then eat exactly the same thing from Monday to Friday until you can't see it anymore. For me, that sounds horrible. I do think food really is also there to be enjoyed, to be, you know, something to add joy to your life and not just frustration and grief. But we can do a few things to make the foods throughout the week a little bit more simple. So for instance, you know, something like overnight oats or so where we put in some high protein and Greek yogurt or so. That's a nice thing to take to work with you if you are busy in the mornings. You can prepare that quite ahead of time and you can mix up the flavors. You know, one time you put cinnamon in there and apples, and another time you put berries and vanilla in there, and it changes up things a lot. And then maybe keeping something a bit more elaborate, like an omelet for the weekend or so. So I think during the week, having a few staple meals that you can think of over the top of your head without too much preparation or too much effort is really, really helpful. The same goes for lunch. I don't think we need to be overly elaborate. So maybe you can prep some chicken and you can, you know, roast up some vegetables, and then throughout the week you can play mix and match. One time you're gonna have the chicken in a wrap, another time you're gonna have it in a bowl with some other vegetables, another time you're gonna have it as a taco. Like you can get creative simply by having done that prep ahead of time. So that's really what she did. Like planning ahead of time, and then also thinking about how I can incorporate social things into my plan, but without it derailing me. So kind of moving away from that whole mindset of, oh, whatever, it's the weekend, I'm gonna start back over on Monday. And instead thinking, well, I'm going out with my family to eat. I used to just get the burger and fries. What's a bit of a better choice? Well, I could, if I really want the burger, I could share that with my husband and get a salad as well. Or I could simply order the steak and the potato to have a bit of a better choice. And so kind of thinking, what choices is the me from tomorrow or the me in three days gonna be happier with, as opposed to just thinking about what do I want in the moment, or choosing what you've always chosen. And she really was a pro at that. And we've been working together since April only. But she's honestly, again, like this really, if you continuously prove to yourself that you can be consistent. For me, it's almost more the mindset aspect that brings me just as much joy as the aesthetic aspect. So when I hear people say, Oh, I didn't think I could stick with this and look at me go, or I'm so self-confident, also give me the power to quit my job or get a promotion or whatever else. So, yeah, that's really what brings me joy.

Coaching Value Food Mindset Final Push

Yuli 33:27

Absolutely. I love that. And as you were talking, I was thinking about also the benefits of having uh a health coach, a nutrition coach. And this is what we're all about at Healers, we're a platform for holistic practitioners. And I just think it's often a little bit underrated, right? So many people try to do all of this on their own. And I know it's possible, and you know, there's a lot of great, willful people out there, but I also know the value of someone like yourself who would be there. And, you know, let's talk a little bit about those benefits, except, you know, outside of accountability, which is huge, like you mentioned. What does someone like yourself bring to that process?

Lisa 34:06

Well, I think it's uh kind of funny because let's say when we have a certain financial thoughts or so, we have no problem hiring an accountant, or if we have an injury, we have no problem going to a physiotherapist or so. But somehow we think when it comes to losing weight or training, I can do it myself. And I mean, yeah, you can. There, like, especially now with you know AI, you can find a very great training program and even a nice meal plan. But as you mentioned, there is so much more to that quite often. So, for example, when it comes to food, food is not just energy in, energy out. It's cultural. It is nurturing, it is like, how did you grow up with food? What thoughts do you have around food? Are you someone who emotionally eats, who stress eats, who rewards themselves with food? And so all these things I think we're often not even aware of. Yeah, sure, sometimes with the stress eating, maybe, but what kind of food thoughts and beliefs did you pick up from often it's your mom for us women. We watch our moms, and you know, which mom didn't do some kind of diet throughout your childhood. I'm sure almost every mom kind of did at some point, or made a weird comment about her body where she was hating her body for something, or oh, I can't wear that because blah blah blah blah blah what is whatever it is. And so I, as a coach, have kind of an outside perspective, and it's not that I see everything. I think a good coach really just asks the right question to bring certain things that everybody, the person herself already has within her, suddenly sees or comes up with like, oh, I never saw it that way. Oh, I never realized on a Thursday when my husband is traveling, all I want to do is binge. Why is this? Or when I have a big deadline, all I want is, I don't know. So we all have weird eating habits that that we really often need to address, just like other, you know, childhood wounds or so we might have on a psychological level. And that's really a big part, of course. Like really the numbers of the exact calories and protein, that is certainly one aspect, but it does go much, much deeper. And I see my job much more in the journey as opposed to someone giving someone a starting plan.

Yuli 36:14

Amazing. I love that. Well, thank you for sharing all your wisdom. And I would love to kind of give you an opportunity to share. I know we talked a lot, and I think we tied it all together, hopefully, for people, all the benefits and shed some light and new perspective. Any kind of last words of wisdom or anything you would like to share with our listeners?

Lisa 36:34

I always just want to encourage people, if you currently don't feel like you're living your best life in your best body, do something about it. I would want to actively discourage people from accepting mediocrity or just thinking, oh, because it's quote unquote normal, you also have to follow in that category. Unfortunately, nowadays it's normal to eat junk food, it's normal to drink a ton of alcohol, it's normal to be overweight, it's normal to have diabetes. That is unfortunately the fact. But if you feel like you can do better, you deserve better, and I truly believe that everybody listening deserves the very best, then do something about it. And I would love to help in any way. If my content is helping, my podcast, this podcast is helping, that already means a lot to me. So thank you truly for the opportunity, Yuri. It was a pleasure of speaking with you.

Yuli 37:25

Amazing and what a great message. Thank you, Lisa.

Lisa 37:29

Thank you.