Episode #11 - Unlearning food rules + building lasting nutrition habits with Brittani DaSilva

Brittani DaSilva is a Registered Dietician Nutrition Coach who focuses on helping clients re-build their relationship with food and finally stop doing fad diets to get to their weight loss goals. We talk through her background, story, and how she helps clients!

Find Brittani on IG HERE!
Contact Brittani HERE! 

Transcript

0:38

Alrighty. So today I have my friend Brittany. She is a registered dietitian, nutrition coach, and we have been friends for a long time now. What has it been like four years? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. So I've known her for a very long time and I just knew I wanted to have her on the podcast because she's super knowledgeable and we've been through a lot of business and life things together. So welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. So why don't you start off by talking a little bit about your journey to becoming an RD and what made you want to do that? Cause you also used to be in the army. So talk more about your background. Yeah, so as you said, I was in the military. I served in the US Army for four years, and it was actually during my service that I started to fall in love with nutrition, not because of what the military was having me do, but I actually started working on my master's degree and exercise science. While I was serving, I went into the military. I had a kin kin a degree in kinesiology and health already. And so when I was serving, I decided to, you know, take advantage because they pay for your master's degree. They pay for partial credits. So I did, did what I could while I was in there and started working on that master's in exercise science. And I actually had to take a nutrition class. And during that nutrition class, I just started really like. Falling in love with like the subject and again, and I had taken nutrition for my bachelor's degree before, but I hated it at the time. So when I took it this time around, I just really had a different outlook with it. And I think it's because during that master's degree class, I actually deployed to Afghanistan. And so. In order for me to like, just keep on top of my game while I was over in Afghanistan, like I was working out every single morning. First thing I would do in the morning is get up at 5 a. m. and I would work out. And I just started noticing the effects and how much better I felt. When I was eating well, and then when I actually got back from deployment with some of the soldiers that were underneath me, I noticed they had really poor eating habits and I started pushing them to eat better and they started improving and their PT scores too. And I'm like, man, this really has something, you know, like there's something here. Yeah. So when, and during that time too, you know, in the military, you see a lot of men and women, and you think of our military, and you think, oh, like, they're strong and healthy, right? Is that, like, the perception you get? Well, what I started noticing is that there were a lot of a lot of soldiers that were actually overweight, and that were, Skipping PT tests, they'd get a profile from the doctor basically saying like they don't have to do this or they get out of the PT test for different reasons. And I started recognizing that so many of the men and women that are serving our country that were struggling with their weight, it was because of stress. stressors in their lives, whether it was burdens from being away from their families and not knowing how to cope with their emotions as well as well and turning to food as a coping mechanism or a lot of them were injured. And that's something, you know, like so many of these people would be injured and then they would go about, you know, like, yeah, there's physical therapy or whatever, but they just wouldn't take. take the steps they needed to to really rehabilitate themselves after getting injured. And then they're not able to match that in terms of being less active. They're eating the same amount of foods as they used to, but they're less active, and that's leading to that weight gain. And so I felt in my heart this poll that I really wanted to be able to help Military service members be able to eat better down the road. And I really did have this passion and want to be want to be able to work with military service members when I pursued going back to school. So. I ended up going back to school. I got out of the military in 2014, and I went to Rutgers, got my degree in nutrition and dietetics, and it actually took me down a path of working in sports nutrition. I was having a hard time finding an opportunity with my dietetic internship to work with the military. I was reaching out and nobody would ever return calls to me. So I was like, screw it. I saw this application for an opportunity to intern at the New York Jets and I filled out an application. I got called in for an interview and I ended up getting an internship. With the New York Jets, which was amazing. So that was a really incredible experience. So I just interned with them for a short time. It was like the spring training, their OTAs. And then after that, I got a job working as a sports dietician at Rutgers University. So I worked there and then, I started realizing that what I was doing there was just taking me away from my family, like my husband, we spent so much time apart serving in the military and we wanted to be together. And I was commuting over an hour each way to Rutgers each day and then working crazy hours with the athletes. And then there was travel involved and it was just. Not what I wanted for my family. I wanted to be home. I wanted to, you know, see and be around them. So that's when I decided to, instead of like continuing working at Rutgers, I decided to try to find a new opportunity. And that's when I saw an opportunity to work for Stronger You, which is how you and I ended up connecting eventually. And for Tony, of course. But, I got the job working at Stronger You, a big nutrition coaching company, and that's what brought me into nutrition coaching online in the virtual space. Okay. Gotcha. That's awesome. So many cool parts of your story that kind of brought you up to where you are now. I am curious about how you, did you manage your nutrition while being overseas? Cause you mentioned, like you noticed you felt a lot better when you were like paying attention to it and exercising, but I'm just curious. I have had several clients in the military and I know that it's super hard when you're deployed. So how did you manage that? Yeah, yeah, there was nothing like working 18 hour days and then turning around and getting right back up at like 5 a. m. Every day because that's what I did. I was working so many hours I drank more energy drinks over there than I had in my entire life It's not good. But I I did I really like Focused on eating well, eating balanced meals. And because of that, I noticed changes in my body too. Like I started feeling stronger and I will say like at that time, when I got back from my deployment, I, I was probably in one of the most fittest I'd say now I'm probably the most fittest I ever have been in my life, but at that time, like I was really fit and strong and healthy. When I got back from my deployment. Yeah, that's awesome. Really cool. So talk about your transition to like online nutrition coaching and kind of about what you learned and the changes, how it was different than like working with people in person and working with athletes, obviously. Yeah. So working with athletes, super fun. And I, there's obviously no doubt that nutrition has such a huge, important factor in our performance. You know, like you can be the strongest person out there, or you can be a really great athlete, have amazing talent, but if you're not nourishing your body well, and you can't be on the court for a full game? Like, what good is that? You know, you really have to be eating well. And so what I love so much about working with the athletes was more of the one on one opportunities that I had with the, the athletes was the, the people that worked with me. I was assigned like different sports. So for example, I had like the golf team and I had gymnastics and so like the girls that came to me and I got to coach them one on one, basically, that was such a fun opportunity to do that. And I started seeing like, How much it improves their, just like not only their performance in their sports, but also just their overall happiness, like, because they felt so much better and they felt more confident in their bodies and everything. But as far as like the work and everything, a lot of that working at those levels is feeding the athletes and you're running around, setting up tables, putting all the pre workout stuff out. And then it's. It's okay. What's next? Post practice like post workout fueling and catering events like football team. That's like a beast because football, you have to cater they at Rutgers, they'd get back on Sundays from a game away on Saturday and they travel and then we have catering for them on Sunday. We feed them and I have to set that up or be there. It was just a lot of work with that kind of stuff. And I didn't love that part of it, like just feeding and feeding and feeding them. Yeah. So with the virtual coaching, I really fell in love with that. And I think it's because, and I think you can attest to this, that when you're working with people one on one and you start that, seeing their goals through with them, like, As a coach, there's just nothing better than that feeling of seeing your clients feel so much better. You know, that's, I feel like we have this passion to when, when we get clients, it's like our goals, or I should say their goals become our goals and really want to see them through. And so I feel like it's just really fun when you get clients that take action and do put in the work and, and get. You know, the results that they desire. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So talk a little bit about some common patterns you see with people when you start working with them on nutrition. I know that we've like gone back and forth for years with like client cases and scenarios and stuff. There are definitely lots of common themes that we talk about. So just touch on that a little bit. Yeah. I think one of the biggest things that we probably have both both experience with our clients when it comes to the nutrition side of things is that so often it's not about the food. It's, it's so much more mindset when you end up working with clients food, it's a choice. And whether it's clients not having the right mindset because they've looked at foods. with a bunch of rules because of diet culture. There's foods that are good or foods that are bad, or, and then they end up feeling like if they're eating bad foods, then they're ruining things. And then they get into an all or nothing mindset. Like those are so, so many of the problems that I see or patterns that come out among clients that. It's kind of fun in a way because you get to unlearn like you're teaching your clients how to unlearn all of these rules and all this nutrition misinformation that they've taken in over the years from all of the different diets, the fats that they've tried, or, yeah, it's just. Nutrition's like the wild, wild west. And there's so much. Yeah, it really is. Wait, like it's so much about unlearning the rules, changing mindsets, because, you know, even though times are different now, there's still a lot of misinformation out there and people are still so confused. I'm like, I see things on social media all the time and I'm like, it's 2023, like why is this still like floating around, but people believe it and eat it up. They still eat it up. It's frustrating. It really is. And social media has made it so hard. I was actually thinking about this this morning. I was like, Man, you know what? I was like, all I want for Christmas is for Santa to, like, make this thing where everybody's phones have to shut off at, like, 9 o'clock at night and they can't go on social media anymore. Because, like, nothing comes out of social media past 9 o'clock. It's like, Yeah. They're taking in all this fear mongering BS. It's, it's so rampant now because of all these Influencers you know, saying like, don't eat oatmeal, oatmeal's bad, broccoli's bad, it's just constant. And it's, you get left with, okay, well, what are we supposed to eat? And I think those people are just doing more harm. And down the road, we'll see the effects of it because people are now fearing. Oatmeal. And not even Exactly! And like, the oatmeal thing, and then there's like, still some people that are saying like, fruit is bad because of the sugar, and all these things, and, where I think that really impacts people because then they're scared like, wow, like, these whole foods are still supposedly bad, so why should I even try, so I'm like, not even gonna pay attention. And I think that's what a lot of Gen Pop people fall into, would you agree? Yeah, I do. And, and they just get lost and then they're just so confused and then they don't even know what to do. And so they're like, well, yesterday this was bad and now today, or, and so I ate this and now today this is bad. So now what do I eat? And they just don't know what to do. And then what do you do? You turn to the easiest thing, which oftentimes is going to be like, Takeout or you know, just eating more hyper palatable foods because they're easy. Yeah, exactly. So kind of sitting on that same thread, what are common mistakes you see that people are come, that people are making when they first come to you with their nutrition? Yeah, I hear a lot of times, like something, before I get clients, like I get them on the phone with me for what I call a discovery call. And so often I'll hear people say, there's like two different things. One of them is like, I'm eating really healthy, but I'm not losing weight. I get them started and I have clients track to build awareness. I have them utilize the app, my fitness pal, and I'll like look at their food diaries and I'm like, man, they are eating like really good. I'm like, why did they don't need me? Like, cause they're eating healthy according to the app. But then as we start going, like weight starts going down and. I think like when people know that a dietitian or a nutrition coach is going to be on the other side looking at it, they automatically start changing their ways. There's just no way you're not. But, I think that so often people just lack awareness of how many calories they're truly taking in. And that is what's leading to Weight gain. It really is. It's people oftentimes say like, I'm not eating anything. I'm not eating because they, they don't feel like they're eating because they're not eating a balanced meal that leaves them feeling full and satisfied. They're just like mindlessly grazing on a little bit of this, a little bit of that all across the day. But It's usually what, hyperpalatable foods, which are foods that have more fat and more refined carbohydrates, sugar in them. And it's much easier to overeat those foods and not feel full on them. So you take more in and those calories add up quickly. Yep. It's so true. And a lot of times it's majorly under eating protein too, which is why they're feeling full. I would say like common thing that I see with working with nutrition people is not even eating a hundred grams of protein a day. That's the second thing I wrote down as, as when you presented the topics for this and it is, I get clients all the time. And even my male clients, like, I'm like, how are you not eating even a hundred grams of protein? And even my male clients sometimes are like that. I'm like, you have to be so hungry, but, but that's, they aren't because they're just filling that void with carbs and fats, you know, and so much of that, then they do feel somewhat satiated because they're getting those fats in which help you feel more satisfied, but at the end of the day, we know then you're just taking in excess calories, which over time just leads to that weight gain. So protein is huge. And then I would. Add the third thing to that list is just people being more sedentary. Like, I think, especially after 2020 with COVID and everything, people started working from home and I feel like more and more people are doing like delivery, grocery deliveries to their houses, Instacarts, Insta everything. right at your door. And so people are walking less and less and less. And if calories keep, you know, continuing, I think what most recently they said, like the average American takes in like 3, 500 calories a day. So if like calories keep going up and movement keeps going down, like it's just, what, what does that present for our future? Mm hmm. The, the awareness around being sedentary is also so huge too, because I think a lot of people don't realize it. Like a lot of people do have like Apple watches now and all of that, but with most people having a desk job and like sitting for eight hours a day, like a lot of times people aren't even getting 5, 000 steps a day. And when you're not moving that much, like Yeah, what people don't realize is that it's the movement when we are, the movement we do outside of exercise is more important than what we do in that maybe 45 minute workout or hour, hour and a half, you know? So like, you're just, your steps across the whole day are so much more important. And I completely agree with you. I get clients that get started and we start tracking their steps and they'll be getting like two, 3000 steps a day on average. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I'd say that. So when you have somebody like that, what's your like baby step to getting them moving a little bit more throughout the day? Yeah, you know, you always hear that 10, 000 steps per day is what we need to be doing. And I'm more along the lines of like 7, 500 steps per day is where I really want every client to be averaging. But if I get somebody new and they're just getting 2, 000 steps on average a day, we'll set the goal for like 500 steps more for the next couple of weeks until they become consistent with that. And then over time, once they're hitting that, then we'll raise it even more until they get to that 7, 500 on average. And then we're in a good place. Yeah, exactly. And people might hear that and be like, wow, that's so many more steps, but it's really like a 10 or 15 minute walk. So like, it's really like super small and easy to add in. Something that I didn't put on the list, but I thought about, I want to touch on is alcohol. We talk about that a lot with clients. So can you talk about how alcohol impacts fat loss? So many ways that it impacts fat loss. I think that it's not even the way that when your body, when you consume alcohol, your body goes into a process of trying to get alcohol out of your body because alcohol is what? It's a dog. Exactly. It's basically poison. And so when you're consuming alcohol, your body goes into a mode to try to get that alcohol out of the system as fast as possible. And because of that, now your body's prioritizing that. And what it's doing with carbs and fats and protein, your body's not taking the protein to rebuild and repair tissues like it should be. It's not taking carbohydrates and storing them as energy. It's actually just kicking them over to store them as fats. So your body's more likely to store the foods that you're eating as fats. But then there's also so much to be said about the poorer choices that are made while consuming alcohol. So when you're consuming alcohol, what's often around again, it's, it's salty foods or sugary food, usually salt. I think of like, you know, peanuts and popcorn and pizza and fried appetizers, greasy stuff. And people will be eating that stuff while consuming that alcohol a lot of times, or they're just consuming way too much alcohol, which is excess, so many excess calories. But then the effects that come after, you know, like it leads to such poor sleep quality. I have clients that don't drink a lot, but they'll like track their sleep activity. And like on the days they do have alcohol, they notice how much different their activity, like their sleep quality is on their watches and they feel it too. And if you're feeling, you wake up feeling like crap. How do you set yourself up for success for the new week? If you've got a hangover, you're probably not feeling like going out and getting groceries and meal prepping and setting yourself up Alcohol is one of the worst things like when it comes to getting healthier, I think that that's probably one of the biggest challenges in coaching that we have is getting people to stop consuming so much alcohol. Yeah, I would agree with you 100%. It's such a big. Such a big thing. And it's really hard for people to, I don't want to say to get it under control, but kind of because people get into habits of having a glass of wine every night with dinner, or always like going overboard with drinking on the weekends, or every time you go out, you're having a few beers or whatever. It can just become so habitual. It can be hard to cut back. So if you have somebody who is like, Let's say consuming like 10 drinks or more a week. What's your process as far as helping them cut back? Like, yeah, ideally they're not having any, but how do you kind of like help them reel that in a little bit to start moving in the right direction? Yeah, so I like to do like frequency of drinking and try to eliminate the days. Oftentimes when I have people that are consuming a lot on the weekend, they tend to be people that might have like one or two glasses, like on random nights of the week as well. So I'll try to bring down the, the frequency of drinking by eliminating and saying, okay, like, What did, what parties or what events this week are like, where do you feel it's more important for you where you really want to have a drink at and then those other days we like just hanging out, chilling at home, making dinner. You don't have to have a glass of wine for that, you know, even if you're a mom and your kids are stressing you out, you do not need a glass of wine. You're like, just making excuses, right? So I cut back on that, but then also I always use the approach of having clients set limits. It really is about setting a limit for yourself and saying like, all right, like I'm only going to have three. If you were like somebody that was having five cut back to three and, and stick to it and have these little conversations in your head of, okay, like once you've had your three, if somebody comes to you and is trying to push another glass on you, what are you going to say? How are you going to act? Say it in your head and have a plan in place because when you plan ahead, you, you can stand in your power and be like, no, I'm good. I've, I've had enough. I've, I've got this tomorrow. Just make up something. Say, I got to get up early, whatever. Like, no one cares. If people are pressuring you, like, I always say this too, like, are they really that good of a friend if they keep pressuring you to have alcohol, like, if you don't want more? Yeah, yeah, exactly. That plan and strategy before going into an event is so huge, like, the drink limit, I suggest that a lot too, and then even, like, having people drink water in between drinks, or, Like seltzer water in between drinks. So then you're less likely to go overboard. And then like, what's the plan? Like, once you hit your drink limit, like, what are you going to start drinking? And so that is really huge for people too. Yeah, definitely. So how long does it take for someone to see results when they start working with you? It depends. Yeah, always the answer, but it depends. It depends on a few different things. Sometimes you get clients that have pretty good foundations and that's what I think we like to talk about a lot is setting these healthy foundations. And sometimes I get people that have great foundations in place, but they just need some tweaking. Like they maybe are eating healthy already, but they're not paying attention to how much protein they're consuming or how many calories they're actually taking in. And once we start tracking and they can get that balance, then they may start seeing the results that they wanted, whether it's leaning out or recompositioning, seeing more muscle mass or So I'd say like those people tend to be able to change a little bit more quickly compared to people who have a lot more habits to start building and We can't go and change everything all at once. It's very hard To build a bunch of new habits all at one time. So you really do have to Look at it like a foundation where you're building like the basement with, you know, like getting enough water, getting enough steps, getting enough protein, getting in your fruits and veggies, and then you keep tweaking, you know, it's like, maybe you start off with getting enough protein and hitting calories, and then maybe over time, then you start paying attention to that fiber, you know, it's like, you can't do it all at once. And so with clients like that, they might start seeing if they're like hitting their calories. They may start seeing fat loss relatively quickly. But you know, then you get sometimes where people's bodies like start recompositioning and you're like, Like you don't want to bring calories down because they're losing inches or you're seeing like physical changes and progress photos, but the number on the scale isn't moving. And then they're like getting frustrated because they're like, the scale's not moving. They're feeling better. All signs are leading to them, like making progress. They are. But if that scale is not moving, it can be such a hard thing for people to like. Take, take hold of that. It is working. Yeah. So for, for people who are really hung up on the scale, what are some other markers of progress that you talk to them about the way you're like, Hey, the number's not moving yet, but we're seeing progress in these categories. Like we're moving in the right direction. Talk about that. Yeah. Energy levels. I just had a call earlier today with a client and she was saying how. Her husband, like he's working with me also. And she was saying how she notices that her husband is playing with their kids more in the evening time. He's she's like, it'd be nothing that she'd come home and she'd go downstairs and he'd be like, he'd have fallen asleep already. Cause she'd bring him a tea or something. He'd be asleep. And she's like, now he's up and he's playing with the girls and. because he's eating better. So like energy, feeling better not having so much bloating. I guess also I would say like. Even if you're doing measurements with clients, having them take measurements, they might start seeing that their inches are going down or clothes are fitting looser. I do have clients take progress photos so we can sometimes see like the physical changes from one progress photo to the next, like, which is like three weeks later. Bowel regularity, having more regular bowel movements, that's a big one. Yeah. Just can't underestimate the power of a good poop. I know so many people walking around constipated though. Fiber and I eating like whole foods and they just like, it's normal or I've just never been, but that's huge. It's how our body. toxins. Like we need to be, yeah. And then like just the habits themselves, like seeing people, like maybe they were eating out five, six times a week before they started with you. And now they're only eating out twice a week. Like that's a huge improvement. Not to mention they're probably winning, saving money. Like there's so many ways to look beyond the scale at progress. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Like those. New hat behavior changes are so big too. And that's like one of our big jobs as a coach is to help people see that. Cause like a lot of times people don't view that as progress, but Hey, like that's huge progress. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Talk a little bit about what is a balanced meal. Cause I know that that term like. I would say it's pretty mainstream nowadays, but like practically if someone's like, what even is a balanced meal? Like, what do you say? Yeah. So I always talk about the balanced plate method. Maybe you've heard that before if, if you've gotten other dietician stock, but balanced plate means that you're getting a balance of there's. like four different components, I would say when we're looking at a healthy plate and one is going to be protein. So you want a lean source of protein on your plate. And for women, I would say probably for most women around 25 grams of protein, 25 to 35 grams of protein is probably pretty darn good amount of protein for them to be getting in each meal, each meal. Not the full day And then, yeah, and then for males I would add at least another 10 grams to that, like 35 to 45. I mean, I've got some males doing more than that for sure. But. So lean protein is one of those components and then you want to have a starchy or whole grain carbohydrate on your plate. And as much as people will say carbs are evil, carbs are the devil, carbs are bad. No, like we need those nutrient dense carbohydrates that are filled with fiber and they, they're our body's best source of energy. When you eat those carbohydrates, you feel so much better. They give you that energy to just show up and be able to focus better across your day. If you're not getting in carbs, your blood sugars drop. And when your blood sugars drop, you don't feel as good. You're more groggy. Can't focus as well. You can't think as well. You make poor decisions. And oftentimes what I see is if you're not getting enough carbs in the day, You end up a lot of times I see people or among my clients that they end up overeating at the end of the day because they just don't nourish themselves enough earlier on. So second component is carbs. The third component is color and color. I would say fruits and vegetables, mostly vegetables. I like to do fruits more so as like a breakfast or snack type thing. But. That color is going to add bulk and fiber and a bunch of like micronutrients into your meal and together those all work synergistically, but there's like one more component that we got to add in there and that's the healthy fat. That healthy fat I think gets forgotten a lot and that could be whether you're cooking with a healthy fat like olive oil or avocado oil or you're adding nuts on top or. Maybe you have whole grain toast with peanut butter on there, like nuts and seeds, avocado, those healthy fats, because those add a level of satiety into the meal or even cheese, you know, being mindful of the amounts and, um, that, but that's a balanced plate. So, and I think like when you look at it more as a whole, if you just hear that word like a balanced lifestyle, like I would say more along the lines of like treating it as if it's not, I'm only eating healthy and I'm like on track or I'm eating like crap, you know, we want to find that balance and people say it, the 80, 20, 80% nutrient dense, 20 percent fun. And that's where we really want to live in is that space where you learn how to eat healthy, to nourish your body. And you can eat those less or those lower quality foods and amounts that leaves you still feeling good because you're supporting your body. So with nutrient dense foods, most of the time that when you eat those other things, you don't end up. Like crashing and caving to cravings or feeling like you need that food and can't stop eating it because you've nourished your body. Mm hmm. Yeah, I think with the cravings and a lot of times if somebody is having intense cravings and they feel like they can't stop eating like the special food or whatever, A lot of times it's because they haven't nourished themselves earlier in the day and then like their body's just hungry and it's like, Hey, this is like a quick source of energy and I need this food. It's not because of, you don't have enough willpower or whatever. It's literally because like we should have had more whole foods during the day so that you feel more satisfied. I see that most. Most common when clients overeat at the end of the day, it's because they did not eat enough earlier on. Absolutely. Yeah. So what are some characteristics of your most successful clients? Like the people who just crush it, they make huge changes. They're happy with their body composition. Like what are some commonalities? I would say that You mentioned the word willpower before and so often like people have a perception of people who are crushing it that they have more willpower. But it's not that. It's not that at all. It's that they actually have to, I feel, exert less willpower. And that's because they build healthy habits into their routine. You know, we've talked about this before. And like me, I'm a mom now. And when I had my son there were some shifts. I had to change up my whole routine. I work from home, but now he's in daycare and I have to have a plan in place and schedule my workouts. And like my work day, I have my hours I'm coaching, but then I have my time where I have to take him to daycare, drop him off, and then. My day's where he's home with me. So I literally schedule like before the school year started, I took out a piece of paper and I schedule out where I'm getting my workouts in and that's what I teach to clients, you know, to do as well. And that's what I see among those who are most successful is they, they make it part of their routine. Those who are successful every single week, they're getting groceries, they're setting their environments up for success. So the. don't have to exert as much willpower. They have those healthy foods at their ready. I will say they also get enough sleep. Sleep is a huge one. Because if you're not getting enough sleep, you don't have the energy to go to the gym. And you're also more likely to make poorer food choices. When you don't get enough sleep, it affects your hormones, leptin You actually end up craving more sugary foods because your body craves that quick source of energy. And so it's no wonder that if you're not getting enough sleep that you're having more cravings and eating more high sugar foods or high fat foods as well. So those would be some of the bigger things. But yeah, it's really about creating a lifestyle that you don't feel like you have to, I sound close cliche here, but that you don't have to escape from. Like it, you should really enjoy it and love it. And if you don't, then you need to change it up. If you're not loving your workouts and that's keeping you from staying consistent with it, then shift, find a way of moving that you love and that you can stay consistent with. Yep. What about strength training? I know that we've talked about like strength training and like results with nutrition clients there. Would you say that the clients who do strength train get better results? Yeah, I do. I really do think that they get better results, but Not just that they get results, but they're better at maintaining their results. And the reason for that being that once they lose the weight, if you're continuing to strength train, you, so often, like, if you paint the picture of dieting, right, people follow programs like keto or they'll do stupid crap like Octavia, and they lose the weight. But then what happens? They get tired of it and then they gain the weight back. Well, when you're eating a lifestyle where you don't have these rules and you're able to incorporate everything in, it's definitely much more sustainable. But staying in a calorie deficit forever is not sustainable. That's not where we want to be eating. Most of the time we want to be eating at maintenance, right? And so if you lose the weight and then you're continuing to strength train and you start bringing your calories back up to maintenance, you're going to utilize those nutrients and rebuild. muscle, you're going to get stronger. And what do we know about having more muscle on our body is that it actually helps us burn more calories at rest. So you're actually helping to improve your metabolism by, you know, adding, adding more muscle to your body. And so also the fact while you're losing weight, if you're strength training, you're preserving that muscle mass you're, you don't want to lose muscle while you're losing weight, you want to lose fat, right? So by strength training, it's going to help you and eating enough protein, you're going to prevent yourself from losing muscle in the process. Mm hmm. Yeah. And people who want to see body composition changes and people who want to look toned, you have muscle on your body. So also people are usually a lot happier with how their body looks body composition wise. when they have muscle on their body and strength training is a part of that. Yeah. I also think too, that when you're pushing yourself, like progressive overload, you're pushing yourself to make it harder, like lifting heavier weights, right. You're also like challenge it. Like you, you put yourself in a state that you're better equipped. To navigate other challenges in your life because you're constantly doing hard things like you're working hard in the gym and it's, it can be a little painful. Those last couple of reps, right? Yeah. You that you're stressing yourself, you're stressing your body, but you're also learning how to like, cope with that stress in a healthy way. And so when you get hit with other stress in your life, I do see that those who train consistently are better equipped at navigating stress in life. Yep. That's so true. Now what is your response to people when they say that coaching is expensive? So, I, I like to say it, it is, you know, working with a really great coach, I definitely feel like it can be, it can feel expensive, but I like to remind them of, well, what's the cost of staying the same? What's the cost of staying right where you are, because if you look at it more so instead of as an expense, but rather an investment. You can see that you're going to not only empower yourself with so much knowledge and skills that can help you get to where you want to be, but you're going to probably save yourself from so many aches and pains and save yourself from so many medical expenses down the road. It's, it's an investment in your health and your longevity and your happiness. So if you don't see the value in that, You know, then I don't know what to tell you, but you know, like If you want a good coach, I mean there's you can go and get cheaper You can get cheaper coaches probably at different places. I know i'm not a cheap coach i'm not And you can go and get cheaper coaches, but you're also going to get a cheaper service when you do that We, you and I both done that before we've worked at companies where it's a cheaper service, but we have to cater to the masses. Like it's had 80 plus clients on a roster. And I know you've had hundreds and the amount of people, then you don't get to know your clients from a coach. Stance, you don't get to know your clients on a deep level. And when you it's surface level, you don't get to help them really break through when they have like mindset challenges or issues that go more deep beyond just food, right? Like a coach just sending you macros or saying like eat more protein. Is that really helpful when you're not getting enough protein because you have a thousand things on your plate and you're so stressed and overwhelmed, you can't even take one step forward. But if you have a coach that has less clients and really can get to know you and understand, they can help meet you where you're at. So I think people need to recognize that too, like about the coaching space. Yep. It's so true. Like what we, you mentioned earlier that a lot of what we deal with with clients is mindset stuff and like all the unlearning and like, that's what a really good coaching is. And that takes. time and bandwidth. And so if you are somebody that wants to make those long term changes to your habits and your thoughts to make your results stick, you have to invest in the, you have to invest in the coaching. So talk about who is your ideal client? Like who do you like working with the most? Yeah, so my ideal client is really like women between the ages of I would say 35 to 45. I do get like some, you know, in the fifties, even up to 60, you know, but mostly like 35 to 45 year olds. And I would say like, I love so much working with a woman who has done every diet under the on and still just feels completely confused because I really like to help them wade through all of the nutrition misinformation and help them break down or break through all of the rules that they've put on themselves over the years from all the stuff that they've heard from diet culture. Like I find so much. Or I like just get really excited about helping people break through those types of barriers and really finding peace with food. It's, it's crazy when you see how much food is on the mind for people and to help them be able to create so much more space in their brain, like, because they're not constantly thinking about food anymore. And now they can think about like life and have fun. Yeah. That's so, so fun as a coach. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So what is coaching with you look like? Yeah. So looks like this, a zoom call. I get clients that do either like VIP coaching or as email based coaching. And so when you work with me, it's a really high touch coaching experience. I like how you said that about when you get people. working with you, it's so much more mindset work. And so when I work with my clans, I really do try to go deep with them and get to the root causes of their, their struggles with food. You know, is it because of their The way that they're thinking about food, their labels, they're calling foods good or bad from years of diet culture, or does it stem all the way back from childhood where their parents always forced them to clean their plates? You know, like some of that stuff all the way back. So I like to really help clients get to the root of those things. And we do that through those VIP coaching experiences, whether it's a zoom call or email based coaching which is where my clients will. Check in with me on a weekly basis, and then I send them video feedback. So both very personalized experiences, email, you know, seems to be nice for the person who's like on the go or has a bit more of a crazy schedule, but yeah, so it's. weekly calls. And then what I love is that clients have access to me in between. I love coaching. It seriously is a passion of mine and I really love seeing my clients see their goals through. So for me, like being able to be there and other, some people don't do this, like where. They, like, don't give their clients feedback in between. It's literally, you get, like, one check in in a week and that's it. Like, you don't hear from your coach. And a lot of dietician private practices are run like that. But for me, clients have access to an app where they can message me in between calls. And they can reach out and ask me for help navigating this. Or they can say they're feeling down and they need support. The scale is freaking them out and I can talk them off a ledge, you know, so that's what I love so much about the way that the one on one coaching is with, with me. So that's really what it looks like. And obviously just helping the clients set, you know, get better build better habits and a better lifestyle. So they feel, feel amazing again. Yeah, that's awesome. So tell people where to find you if they are interested in working with you or resonate with anything that you shared. Where can they find you? I would love for them to find me. I am on Instagram. It's nutrition underscore coach underscore Britney. And then on social over on Facebook. I have a free Facebook community which kind of took a step back from when I had my baby. I spent a lot more time with him. But I've recently gotten back in there and doing more live talks and stuff. So that space, you can just type in freedom, nutrition Academy, and you'll find the free Facebook group in there and you can join in there and that's pretty much what I am on. I'm on Tik TOK too, but not really kind of, not really. Okay. I will link it in the show notes too for people to find and also your website. But yeah. All right. Well, thank you very much. You're welcome.