How To Set Fitness Goals That Stick

Your Q2 plan doesn’t need more hype, it needs a reset that’s honest enough to work. We sit down with our clients and do the thing most people skip: a real check-in on Q1, what slipped, what improved, and what the next 90 days should look like if you actually want fat loss, better body composition, and a calmer relationship with food.

We walk through SMART goals in plain English and explain why flexibility is not “lowering the bar” but the difference between progress and quitting. You’ll hear how we use a simple Q2 worksheet to score yourself, pull out patterns, and build a theme you can come back to when motivation dips. Then we get practical: five things you need to do each week, five things you don’t need, and how planning April, May, and June removes surprises like meals out, holidays, and stressful weekends.

The Q&A goes deep on nutrition basics that drive results: macros equal calories, alcohol as the sneaky fourth macro, why you can’t out-train a bad diet, and when extra cardio is a distraction from meal planning. We also cover menstrual cycle cravings, keeping fiber high while eating high protein, and how to time carbs around workouts for better energy, recovery, and performance. If nighttime snacking keeps calling your name, we talk about how to tell true hunger from boredom and conditioning.

If you found this helpful, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s resetting their goals, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s your Q2 theme?

Transcript

Why Q2 Check-Ins Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Alright guys, welcome to Q2 goals. Um, we did beginning of the year goals, we did 2026 goals, but now we're into Q2. Um, so it's always key that we just have a little recap um on goals. Some of you will be setting goals maybe for the first time, but it's always it's good, no matter what your goals were, whether fitness, finances, love life, whatever. Whatever your goals were, it's always key that you check in every quarter, um, maybe monthly but quarterly, because goals can get forgotten, number one. Um, but also goals need to be a little bit flexible. So you have to be flexible with goals. So sometimes we need to kind of mold goals as we go along, but it's always key to check back in. What we don't want to do is be like, oh, I want to lose 2026, 10 kilos, and run a marathon, and then you break your legs in January, and you're you're like, well, if you're not flexible with your goals, it's a fucking nightmare of a year, you know, you just end up giving up. So there has to be a little bit of bend, but we also need to keep reminding ourselves of what the goal was because as we go through the year, sometimes you forget your goals, and you you know, summer comes and you think, well, maybe I don't need to lose weight anymore. And then winter comes and you go, Oh, yeah, I remember I didn't want to lose weight. I just wanted to have some uh some cocktails and forget about it. Right, I'm gonna share my screen, Jasmine. I can see your face, so you're gonna be my coordinator. You don't have to do anything, you're just gonna put a thumbs up if you can see my um my presentation. That's all you need to do. Um, can you see Q2 and the lovely lady?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah, we can see it. We can see it.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

That's all I needed. Okay, Q2 goals. Um, remember, guys, as you go through this shoot, uh these slides, everyone that you see on here is a client or was a client um and did the photo shoot, which is quite nice to remember Whitney being number two here. You're number one in my ears, Whitney, but you're number

Vision Beats Wishful Thinking

SPEAKER_00 2:16

two in the the uh the slides. So why do we set goals? Um, it's a key reminder goals are like the best thing ever in my life. I honestly I think like I never used to set goals, but now I really am mad for goals. Um, goals are the best thing ever, but not only goals like visualization. I literally just put a post up about me and my wife. When I met my wife about five years ago, I sent her a message saying that you know my dream was to have a house with a long table and have friends and family around and be able to host. And yesterday yesterday we literally had that and we we set that goal. We sent that message on the 5th of April 2021. Yesterday, by chance, or maybe not by chance, was the 5th of April 2026. And that's what we did. We hosted with a long table, literally didn't look at that message until we set the date, and it was like it's it's it's good to sometimes get the reminder of like manifestation, goal setting, visualization. It is a thing. Now, I'm not big on like the secret, like you know, manifest it and it will happen. You have to take certain actions, you know, manifestation is great, but we do have to do some work. Um, so it's you know, there is setting goals, there's visualization, there's manifestation, there's where I want to be, what I want to become. You have to have that vision because if you don't have that vision, it's very hard for you to get there. You know, if you don't believe you're gonna get there, if you don't believe you're gonna be in the best shape of your life, if you don't believe you're gonna be successful, it's quite hard to get there because you can't imagine it. So you've got to be relentlessly um, you know, you've got to really back yourself. That's one thing I've done all my life. I'm from, I'm from nothing. Council of the state, no formal education, built every business on my own. But what I was, I was blindly, blindly confident in backing myself that I visualize exactly where I wanted to be and what I wanted to become. And I'm just always reminding myself of that. And I think that's why goals are so good. And some of you smashed Q1, some of you did well but didn't quite get to your goals. That's absolutely fine. But we've got plenty of time to catch up. But it's key we know where we're going. If you don't know where you're going, if you don't have a goal, I promise you it's a very dangerous place. Even when you've got to your goal, it's key that you understand the next destination. Whether the next destination is maintenance, obviously, we've got the three phases. We've got fat loss, we've got maintenance, we've got rebuild. Whatever your next goal is, you need to have a vision and need to have an understanding of where it goes. Because the work on your body for sure never stops. And I don't want to give you the high hopes that it ever stops where you get the body you want and you go back to a life where you can eat cake, drink cocktails, and have fun. It doesn't work like that because as soon as you stop the work, you get the body that is basically the work that you put in, you get the body for. So work stops, body changes. So we always have to have some vision, even maintenance. You always need to be in the back of your mind. I need to maintain this, and there's work that you have to do to maintain it. Okay.

SMART Goals That Actually Work

SPEAKER_00 5:42

This is not a client, this is me. Goals have to be smart, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and there has to be a timeline. Um, some we've been through this a thousand times, but quick examples, specific, you need to be able to be like, what that goal has to be something like I want to do this or I want to get this. It doesn't want to be airy, fairy. It doesn't want to be like, um, I want to be good looking. It's like it's not specific enough. Like, what does good looking entail? Like, is it measurable? How do you measure good looks? How do you measure even confidence? I want to feel confident. Like that is a goal to a certain level, but how is confidence measurable? It might be like, I know when I'm gonna wear a bikini on holiday. That's measurable because you can measure the fact that I'm wearing a bikini on holiday. Is it achievable? Wearing a bikini on holiday is very achievable, you know, and actually very measurable and actually specific, but is different for every person, which is even better because what I look like in the bikini, what someone else is like in the bikini, is down to your judgment of how you feel within that. Relevant, it has to be relevant for your life. Don't set stupid goals. It's another post that I just did literally now. And if you've not seen it, because you don't follow me on Instagram or you don't watch my content instantly when it goes up. Um, I said, imagine 100 people at the bottom of a hill, and at the top of the hill is the lean, the higher you get, the leaner you get, the stronger you get, the the better your body gets, the higher up the hill. Now, everyone starts from the bottom of the hill. Some people have a great metabolism, so they get walking sticks, they got an advantage. Some people have kids, so the time that they can climb that hill is compromised because they have priorities elsewhere. Some people are getting older, so they need more recovery. The time they spend climbing the hill again is compromised. Every goal needs to be relevant for yourself. Being sub-10%, running high roxes, marathons, um, and having a six-pack, and you're seven weeks postpartum, not relevant to your life. And I'll tell you that straight away. It is not relevant. So get just avoid that goal whatsoever. Being like ridiculously lean while trying to get pregnant. Again, not quite relevant. You know, you so you the goal has to be relevant for your life and for your situation. Never look at someone on social media and go, oh, I think I want what they've got. You don't know their life, you don't know what they're doing to get there, you don't know what they're taking to get there, and you don't know how happy they are in that position. Don't think happiness comes with a certain look. Happiness is subjective to yourself. Timeline. This is key. You don't want an empty timeline. Timelines can go on forever. How long is a piece of string? What we don't want to be doing is in a fat loss zone forever. There needs to be a timeline. If you don't understand your timeline, we work on a real simple metric that is tested on data points. We can average around about four pounds, which is two kilos a month. If you're doing any more, you're slightly above average, which is not always the best. We probably want to slow that down. If you're doing less, you're below average in regards to weight loss. And there is also things that we need to kind of caveat there. If you've got 20 kilos to lose, it will it potentially would be average or above average. If you've got three kilos to lose, it might be below average. Few reasons why 20 kilos, you've got a bit more work to do, you're a bit more motivated to get it done. One to two kilos, you're quite close to your goal. So you start to have a cocktail at the weekend, pizza, too many Easter eggs because you're in a bit more of a uh unprivileged spot. So it's you know, your your willingness to do it. You know, people that are the best on this program are the people that have are sick to death of where they are at the dead body. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of feeling like this, I'm sick of not feeling confident, I'm sick of not feeling good. They're in a great position to do some good work because they're sick of fucking feeling like shit. So they want it more, they'll push more. People that have a decent body and want to lose two kilos, you don't want it as much. That's that tends to be what happens. So they get stuck in good or like I'm just okay. And they the people that can go from just okay to great are the people that remember where their original goal was. So remember, they need to be smart, very smart.

Honest Q1 Review And Scoring

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Okay, let's look back on Q1. Now, if you wasn't with me on Q1, you can um do this yourself, like just on you know how the beginning of the year went. And remember, this is the worksheet. If you don't have the worksheet, go into the group right now. It's in the group. You can download it, you can print it, you can write it on paper and take the picture. Um, but this is the worksheet that we're basically working towards. Now, this is your health and physique. You can do this for financial planning, family. Um, what was the other one? Was it love or work? I can't remember which one it was. But here we are here. Q1 feedback. So score yourself. Now, let's do it a one out of ten, yeah. One being I was shit. Or it was shit. Um, but I'd prefer you scored yourself. Ten being I was the bollocks. I hit all the macros, I did all the work, I I really smashed it. Um, give yourself a one out of ten and put that, write that down um of what that was in that cue, but also Q1, but also like what would be good for you, and like I say, you don't have to do this now. You can be writing while I'm speaking, or you can do this after the call and sit down with a bit more time, is what went well, what didn't go well. What were you what you know, what came up, what were you doing, what where were you going wrong? These are all good things that you can just just kind of like journal down. You might need a bit more space to in there, that's absolutely fine. Just jot it down. But where are you going wrong? And the reason the score is really good is you know, I just have the same conversation with Elizabeth, yeah. And Elizabeth is so close to her goal and she's pushing hard. And I'm when I say hard, she's pushing hard. Her nine out of ten is most people's 110, I would say. Um, she's pushing very, very hard. And the reason I say that is because it's the amount of period that she has been pushing for it. So, but I said to even her, who's I reckon is it a nine out of ten uh regarding effort, and she said, I really want my goal. And I said, Okay, if you really want your goal, what is why can't you do 10 out of 10? Because that would be the argument of I really want it. Do you know what I mean? Like the difference between someone who wins a gold medal and someone that wins fifth place, a bit of natural talent, but when it comes to that work rate, is they are willing to go to the 100%. Now, you've got this is where you you know we go back to being a smart goal and it needs to be relevant. Like, if you're telling me, Louis, I really want to feel my best, look my best, and be in the best shape ever. Yeah, let's take Surfing, for example, who's smashing her goals at the minute, yeah, and you're telling him and you score on yourself with Q1 at six or seven out of ten. The argument is there's another gear. Some of you another five gears, yeah. And we've got to figure out why we are missing, why are we a six out of ten when you're telling yourself you want it so much? Because my argument is a real simple argument. You don't want it enough if you're six out of ten. Now we can come with we can come with some excuses, and you know my point on excuses. Excuses are excuses because everyone's life is, you know, we do have things that come up, we do have things that are genuine excuses. But and I'm okay with excuses and I'm okay with reasons why. But what I look at is let's say I had a wedding on Saturday and I couldn't choose the food. Of course, what can you do? You can't do anything. But how was Monday to Friday? Oh, well, Wednesday I I I missed my macros because I forgot this, and oh, I had a prep lunch and it was low on protein, I didn't plan my food. So there was an excuse that week, and there was a reason, and it was valid because there's a wedding, but there's other work that could have been done to help that. And that's where a lot of people go wrong is they use them little days off as the big things, and they're not the big things. It's the majority of the work, it's the work that you're doing on a day-to-day, a normal Monday to Friday, like Easter, for example. It's Easter once a year. If you had an Easter egg yesterday, so be it. You're not gonna get fucking slandered for having an Easter egg or a bit of dessert or extra food. It it don't, it's not your regular day-to-day. What I'm worried about is the day-to-day stuff, because the day-to-day stuff is where we can always do better. And as long as we're doing the day-to-day stuff, I promise you the weddings, the birthdays, the little holidays and bits and bobs, they do not matter whatsoever. I promise you, they don't. So score yourself, be honest, be really honest. The more honest you can be, the better it is for me and you, because then we can work better on getting you to that nine to ten out of ten, basically. Okay.

Five Things You Need And Avoid

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Five things. What I want you to write here five things you need, five things you don't need. Now, what I mean by five things you need, I've got my goal. So I'm gonna just take myself as an example. My goal this year for 2026 with my body was to maintain under 100 kg. I'm currently 101, yeah? So I've got a little bit of work to push myself back into 100 kg, and I'd like to get a little bit leaner, stronger in a few different places. So my body goals for Q2 is to just knit back under that 101 so I can maintain that throughout the year because we know maintenance is a little bit up and down. Um number two, I need to get some get a bit heavier, but my lifts need to get a bit better in the gym. Therefore, my um they're my two main goals, yeah. So things I need, I really need to track my food better. Like, even me, I don't track my food the best all the time because I know macros so much. I kind of know where my day is in my head. I can calculate it, but even me, I'm not good enough to calculate it to the full extent. So that's where I go. I need to track my food. I need to track my workouts, I need to train heavier, I need to get my cardio in. I'm not getting my cardio in, and I need to get my steps in. They're the five things I really need to pay attention to. This this thing, and that them five things need to be on my fridge, my computer, everywhere. And then I need five things that I don't need. Yeah, five things I don't need. For me, this is me personally and not anyone else, I do not need alcohol in Q2. I really don't need it. Like the last in Q1, I had about five drinks, and after every one of them five drinks, I felt like I just was not worth it for me. I just don't like it. Um I don't need any junk slash heavily processed sugar food. It does nothing for me. Um it really I just don't feel good after it, don't make me happy, don't make me feel satisfied. It's a spur-the-moment thing, don't need it. I don't need to sleep till eight o'clock. For me personally, I just don't need to. I can get out of bed at half five, six o'clock, and it makes my day a hell of a lot better. Being so busy, it makes my head a day ahead of a lot better. There's a few other things I need to work on, what I don't need, but then I've got them five things I don't need. I've got five things I do need. My whole week is based off them things. Some of you might be like, some of you need planning. You need to plan your meals better. Some of you need um you need to actually track before you eat it. Because some of you are going, oh, let me eat this, eat it, and then, oh, what was the macros on that? Oh, it didn't have enough protein. Too late, fucking ate it. Some of you need to stay away from junk food when you're when you're going out because you're telling yourself a narrative that you need it, or this you are this person, and you should have it, and it's it's ruining your progress and it's doing nothing for you. You keep doing the same thing, hoping for a better result, and it just doesn't happen. So these 10 things, five and five, are really crucial. Really, really, really crucial because these are gonna keep you in line. Where you can check every week on these five things and go, Am I doing these? No. Am I doing these? No. Why? Why am I not? And the worst answer you can give is I don't know. When I say to people, how come we didn't track this week? I don't know. That's a terrible answer. Because one, it's showing a lack of just uh awareness, and two, it's showing a lack of even thought around how you're actually feeling and what's what's coming up for you, basically. You know, if I say, Why did you get tracked this week? You know what, Louis? I'm fucking sick of tracking and I was overwhelmed this week, and I just felt like I couldn't find the time. Beautiful. I've got something to work with. Let's talk about that, let's figure it out, let's work out what's going to work for you. Might not be tracking. Boom. Why did you eat that burger when you're zapped with your friends? Why did you drink two pints? I felt socially awkward. I felt like I had to eat because everyone around me was eating the same thing, and it made me feel a certain way. Beautiful. Let's talk about it, let's work on it. I can help you with them things. But just like a therapist, how did it make you feel? Don't know. Not much to work with. So I don't know is a terrible thing. But when you ask yourself why you can't do five things. These five things would be great for me because I can always bring them back to you in your check-ins. Planning.

Plan The Quarter With No Surprises

SPEAKER_00 20:25

We know it's key. We know it's crucial. Plan, plan, plan. What's going on in the months? What's going on in the weeks? What's going on in the weekends? What do we, what are we eating this week? What are me and my partner doing? You know, we've got these months here: April, May, June. I know April, I've got two outings, one Sir Farmhouse. I've got another one on the 25th. My mom's coming down, so me and Caitlin are going to go out, two meals out. May, not much on. June, moving house. So June's probably not going to be a month for me to push. I need to push harder in April and May. Map out the months to know what you're doing because then you've got no surprises. And lastly, questions, which I'm going to open up, but I'm going to stop this recording first. So just before we go to questions, I'm just going to recap. What I need from you is I need this form. You can print it, pen, send me a picture. You can somehow mark it up as a PDF. How you do that? I don't know. You work out. You can put it in ChatGPT and fill it in through Chat GPT. It'll do it do the work for you. But what I need is your name, the theme for this quarter. Sorry, one thing I didn't go on. What's your theme for this quarter? I like theme. Um get sexy, get fit, get confident, be a bad bitch, be strong, be a super mum. Fucking make my ex jealous. Whatever it needs to be. Make a theme because we can always come back to that. How was Q1? Feedback. Body goals. Performance goals. What if you've got heavily heavy body goals, your performance goals should be empty. If you're coming into maintenance and you haven't got many body goals, your performance goals should be a little bit heavier. Body goals, don't chase both rabbits. I don't want to see, I want to run a marathon and I want to lose 10 kg. Worst thing you could do. Two rabbits in two different directions, you'll catch none. You'll run a shit marathon and you'll definitely put on weight. And anyone who thinks otherwise, promise you, it won't be the case. So body goals, you have to have goals. If you're in a bus, if you're saying to yourself right now, I don't, I don't need, I don't think I need a goal. I think I've lost, I think I'm gonna lose the weight and I'm gonna be okay. I honestly, from 20, 20 years of experience with people. Is 20 years? Yeah, 20 years. Fucking hell, it's long time but in fitness. 20 years of experience with people. If you don't have a vision and a goal, stop weighing yourself, stop looking, you'll be slowly climbing back to a place where you don't like. It's you've got to check in with yourself. It's the same when people have a breakdown because they're not emotionally available. You've got to have some emotion, you've got to let things out every now and again. You've got to check your progress. Five things you need, five things you don't need, things that we can come back to on a weekly basis. What are we doing wrong? What are we doing right? And the why behind it. And then April, May, June, a few little dates in here, map out what we've got coming up, where we need to be good, where we've got birthdays, weddings, holidays, where we just need to do some work around and do some chatting around. Um so everything's planned out. Okay. Thank you guys for listening to that. Let's go be a bad bitch. Any questions? If you feel unconfident to unmute yourself or camera yourself, feel free to write in the chat. Um, if you feel confident enough to unmute yourself, go for it. If you've got zero questions, stay silent. Um yeah, I'll give you 10 seconds like countdown. Any questions from anyone? If Haya, Whitney, Mariam, Laura, Bridget, Bridgetton, Elizabeth, Julie, Steffi, Jasmine. If all you are not A students, this Q2, with no questions, we're gonna have problems. Do

Themes And Avoiding Two Rabbits

SPEAKER_00 24:34

macros equal calories? Yes. So you can't have a calorie without macros, yeah? So it's either protein, it's either fats, or it's either carbohydrates. Or the fourth macro is alcohol. So if I look at someone's tracking and it's like, oh, the protein carbs and fats were low, but the calories were high, it's the alcohols there. Um, it's the fourth macro that does nothing for the body, basically. Do you have a few examples of what might go in the five things you need? Um I mean, yeah, I mean, all depends on your goal. If your goal is weight loss, you need to be tracking your food, you need to be checking in. Two two key um, two key map, two key measurements for success in this in this is are you checking in weekly and are you tracking your food? If you do both of them things, you have success in this program. That are the two things that I track success on. Someone doesn't check in for like three weeks, then they're normally gonna leave for me. They're just like they're they're gonna go, they're not getting results, they're gonna leave, and they're not

Macros Equal Calories Plus Alcohol

SPEAKER_00 25:46

getting results because they're not checking in. I don't know if they're getting results, you know. That normally happens for someone that's just like falling out of love with wanting to lose weight, or they just rarely, rarely, rarely happens, but I can normally see a pattern. Or what I'll see a pattern of like if someone's not checked in for three weeks, they're in trouble, but they don't want to talk about it. And I'll reach out and fuck basically get it out of them. So checking in weekly and tracking your food, whichever way you use tracking food, are the two key metrics for success. Um, calories low, but macro is high. It doesn't exist. Um, so carbohydrates per gram is four calories. Carbohydrates per gram for protein per gram is four calories. Fats per gram is nine calories. That's why your fat number is lower than your others, yeah? Because there's more calories in it. So nine for fat, four for carbs, four for protein. So whatever your calories are, they have to be from your macros. If your calories are high and your macros are not the calculate quite low, it'll be from the fourth macro alcohol, because it won't register on your MyFitnessPal. If you feel you have let yourself down in a week hormonally, not tracking correctly, not doing macros right, what's a good way to bring yourself up and push to those goals? Let it go. Move on. Move on, figure out what went wrong, why that happened, and move on. Um, what you don't want to do is like mop around about what happened because then it's like, oh I fucked up. So what shall I do? Shall I eat this now? It's like, no, just fucking everyone fucks up. You're never gonna be perfect. How quick can you get back on the horse? Now, also ask yourself certain things. Why did that happen? What happened? Um, you know, this one thing that I wish I fucking would have recorded. Um, I'm gonna record it just as an extra. Oh no, I'm not. I need to use special treatment. This is one thing women do um a lot. Women are mums, and it's their biggest downfall. Downfall, downfall

Bounce Back Fast After A Slip

SPEAKER_00 28:00

is you identify as something, and because you identify as something, you become it. Men do the same but in a different way, because men's categories are not, they're just men's men's, you know, we have a there's a few different uh angles, but like moms will identify as moms. A lot of moms identify as pregnant because they are pregnant, but the things that come along with that pregnancy, because I they identify as pregnant, they'll do things that they think it's okay because you're pregnant, because a lot of people say when you're pregnant you can do. So, like, I don't know, fucking order five guys' milkshake at 11 at night, and people go, you're pregnant and it's fine. It's like, well, let's just go off science, it's not fine. You shoot some blood sugars up, the baby doesn't get no good food, it's fucking not fine. Like, but because we ident because we would identify certain things, keep saying we, not me. I don't identify as a woman. Um, you identify certain things as well as around your cycle that are on my cycle, so I should do this or I should be able to do these things. It allows you to do it. And then what happens is when you're out of that situation and you're out of the cycle, or you're not pregnant anymore, you have to deal with the things that happened in that moment, and then you go, oh fuck, I did that thing again, or oh, now I do care about my body, or I do care about my health because of these things. And so the best thing you can do is is don't identify as yes, you might be a mom, yes, you are hormonal, yes, you are these things, and they are they are true, but always identify as your the yourself and that driven goal, wants this goal, wants this version. That highly motivated person that reached out to me initially that wanted certain things has to be the first identity before anything. Because if it is, it doesn't matter what situation you're in, you'll always come back to that identity. But if you identify as something else, it'll give you a reason why you should do something, why I should have extra calories, why I should eat more, why I should have sugar and stuff around my cycle. It's because you'll say I should, I should be allowed to, or other people do it, so I should do it. It's like always identify as the person that is driven, wants the goals, wants all these things, and then identify as this the other thing separately because you are that first, and you should never forget about you, you as an individual. Yes, you are a mom, you are a partner, you're a wife, you know, you're you're many, many of the things, but you are also you, and you are the one that is living your emotions, and you wake up and look at your body in the mirror. You know, people always say to you, Oh, you look great, or you look good. It's like, thank you, I appreciate it. But how do you feel? And that's what's always key to come back to. Um, got to go, that's fine. She's probably gone now. Um, any other questions, guys? Any other questions? Okay. Do

Cycle Cravings And Lowering Output

SPEAKER_00 31:05

we need to consider where we are in our cycles in regard to nutrition? No. No. Now, what you do need to consider is, and listen, there is experts that would argue this, but here's what I'll go off. I'll go off what I see and who I work with. Yeah, so I'll go off the masses of like X amount of women I've worked with. This is what I see. If you're around your cycle and you're finding the cravings are higher, I would lower your output rather than add input. Yeah. And that is a bit annoying. Like, it's like, oh, there's only 10 calories in this grape and there's 50 calories in this chocolate bar. It's like, well, if I want a chocolate bar, I'll fuck a chocolate bar. And it's the same with the cycle, if I want to eat, I'll eat. But if you can lower your output, your hunger will be less. Yeah? So that's what I would work on rather than you needing more around your cycle. Because as soon as you tell yourself more, how long is a piece of string? More to, you know, how many of us have a good relationship with one more? Not many of us, you know, especially when the hormones in that moment are telling you a reality. Your reality is I need this or I want this. Everything is harder, everything is more emotional. That is your reality. How well are you going to be at going, oh, you can only have 25 extra grams of carbohydrates? It's rarely going to happen. If you lower your output, therefore your hunger will be less. That's what I see. Now, some experts, if you watch the Andrew Huberman one with I can't remember her name, hormonal exercise expert, they will say you can train just as hard on your cycle as you can off. I'm not a woman, I don't know how it feels. I'm just going off what I see and what makes sense to me most logically. But there is no there's no logic or no evidence or no science behind you need chocolate on a rally cycle. No. Um, we'll get our feedback on our goals in this week's check-in, if we share with you this evening. Yes, you will, if you share with you this evening. Is adding two to three cardio a week okay? Um, I would take the time of them two to three cardio and work on planning your food. If your food

Cardio Versus Food Planning Priorities

SPEAKER_00 33:29

is perfect, you don't need any extra cardio. Or if your food is perfect and then you need extra cardio, you can. But if you're spending an extra two hours a week on cardio or two, even 20, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, I'd use that time to plan your food. You more training more doesn't equal more fat loss. You could run a marathon to take you four hours. I can eat a McDonald's in about four minutes. Yeah, you cannot out train a bad diet. So training is nothing to you gotta take training and put it over here when it comes to weight loss. Your weight loss is these two things, and these are the most important things. And if these are not in order, you can do whatever you want training-wise, and your body will not change your nutrition and your daily activity. If you look at the pyramid of results, nutrition will be at the bottom, daily activity near the top will be strength training and cardio. You can train four hours a day, you could out-eat that diet in 20 minutes. So it's always about nutrition. So any extras, oh, should I train extra? Sit your ass down with a pen and paper and plan your food. If your food is perfect, don't do extra cardio. But don't be doing extracardio if your food isn't perfect. Makes no sense. How

Fiber Choices And Carb Timing

SPEAKER_00 34:48

do we keep fiber up whilst high protein and calorie control? Well, your carbohydrates, you've got enough carbohydrates to have about 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day. It's the choice of carbohydrates: brown rice, brown bread, pears, dates, avocados have fiber as well. So, like it'll be your choice of carbohydrates. Um, and if the fiber will normally be in a good place if you're getting good calves, and if you're finding your fiber is low, just change your carbohydrate source. If you're finding it's a digestion issue, it's most likely going to be water over fiber. Um, because if you've got whole foods in, your fiber should be okay. But you can check that in my fitness pal, where your fiber is. Um, but just be careful because in my fitness pal, some foods don't track fiber. So you might be like, oh my god, my fiber's really low. But then if you look at like brown rice, like because they've not couldn't be asked to program it, they won't have put their fiber in. Does that make sense? Um, any other questions from anyone?

SPEAKER_02 35:55

Louis, can I just ask about um when you say focus your carbs around your workouts? Is it ideal to kind of like front load them then? So, say I do the workout in the morning. Would you advise having say less rice for dinner and like focusing around like lunch and breakfast? Is that what you mean?

SPEAKER_00 36:14

1000%. Yeah, okay, cool. So three macros, protein, recovery, hormones, muscle growth. Yeah. This this needs to be spread across the day because we can't eat 50 grams of protein in one sitting. But we can, but it's it's just pointless. 50, 60 grams is pointless. Fats spread across equally. One for digestion, two for hormone hormones. So them two macros need to be spread across evenly, and we need them out of the macros, protein and fats. You've got essential proteins, you'd heard, essential fats, you would have heard. There is no essential carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are for energy only. So we want them really around the most energetic parts of our day. Now, I'm not saying you cannot you can't eat rice before we go into bed. You can. I'm back to go out in the in the kitchen in a second and smash loads of carbs. But what I will do is get as much around your food as your training as possible, taking digestion into consideration. But for a woman, really, you would like to have a good amount before and a good amount within an hour after, would help recovery and also boost your training sessions. Now, if you in the morning, if you're struggling to get carbohydrates in, march on workout fuel, 30 grams of carbohydrates in liquid form, take it to your workouts, drink it for the workout, best source of carbohydrates. Eating three bagels before going to train can sometimes spark non-recovery, like not non-recovery, spark recovery. You know when you eat a big meal and you get tired, that can sometimes happen. Okay, I need to anyone else?

Breakfast Fuel And Nighttime Snacking

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Can I just ask what you have for breakfast, Louie? Asking for a friend.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

What's in your fridge? Um, I will have this for breakfast. I have two dates and I train at 6 a.m. Well, I get out of bed at 6 a.m. I train about half six. Two dates. I have uh coffee with plenish oat milk because it's around about 15 grams of carbs or something around that. Um, and then I'll either have a march-on workout fuel. If I'm feeling hungry, which at the minute in the mornings, for some reason I'm not feeling that hungry, but if I'm feeling hungry, I'll normally have a bagel. So I'll probably I can get around about 100 grams of carbohydrates before my workout. I used to be able to get more. I used to have a big appetite in the morning. I could I used to be able to do two bagels with jam and eight, but for some reason at the minute I've become a little bit of a with my fucking um food intake in the morning. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:13

And then you have a fill breakfast when you get home.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Then when I get home, I'll have a protein shake. Not the protein shake is needed straight after workouts, but it's easiest for me. I have a protein shake with a banana, 50 grams of oats, and then I put some almond butter in that as well.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Interesting. On that, so normally I'm exactly the same. I'm not that hungry in the morning, but if I normally train in the morning, and then by the time I'm at night, I'm like, God, I want a Terry's chocolate orange. So, like, what's the best way to balance that, especially given we should be eating within an hour of training?

SPEAKER_00 39:47

You're talking about hunger in the evening?

SPEAKER_01 39:49

Um, more just like how to pace food, because I'm definitely hungrier at night than I am in the morning, but I'll always train in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

So have have some light carbohydrates in the morning. So the what a woman actually needs scientifically before workout is 15 grams of protein and about 15 grams of carbohydrates to allow you to be in a good enough place hormonally to have a good workout, yeah? To stop you from being fasted. So you can be, you could have a banana and a collagen supplement in the morning and you're gonna be good. Afterwards, you just have your normal breakfast and then you probably take the carbohydrates from your stack. Be careful in the evening when wanting chocolate or something after, be careful thinking about it as hunger. You'll be surprised how much it's not hunger. When you've had your dinner and you've sat there, you go, I'm still hungry. That's not hunger. That is, I've got nothing else to do today, and I'm not okay with how I feel within this moment.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

Yeah, that stacks up. That stacks up.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

Yeah, and therefore I need more stimulation. So, what normally people do is scroll on their phones, watch TV, whatever. I'd sit in that moment and go, why can't I sit here without having a fucking stack every night? Figure that shit out. Because hunger is I've not had a meal for X amount of time. You've just had a meal, you're not hungry after. But we tell ourselves, I'm still hungry. It's like that's from being a kid when you tell your mom, Mom, I'm still hungry, so you can get a chocolate. That's just conditioning. It's not still hunger.

SPEAKER_02 41:26

Yeah, I do that every single day.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

It's it's it's why people pick their phone up a hundred times a day. It's why people have to listen to music when they're running and gym and always stimulated, is because when you can sit here in a quiet room, you don't know how it makes you feel.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

Can I just ask the last one then on breakfast? I basically eat a few bites of my overnight oats before I go, but obviously that has chia seeds in it. Is it like bad to have something with fats in it before you go, or does it not really matter?

SPEAKER_00 41:56

You're getting technical here. Um technically, yes. It's not the best to have fats.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

Interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

Because that slowed down the digestion of carbohydrates. Yeah. What we don't want it in the morning is brown bread. Because that's a slow digesting carbohydrate, yeah. So slow digesting carbohydrate, we've not got available, available um energy straight away. Yeah. Why do you think people have like jelly beans or stuff before a marathon race? It's fascinating carbohydrates. Now, if you wanted to have any kind of sugar in your diet, pre-workout is the best time. Take that very lightly because sugar on its own is not the same as like a cookie. Cookie carries fat, slow digestion. Yeah. So realistically, like someone could go, I had a bagel with jam this morning, pre-workout, perfect. Because your body's going to have available energy. What happens is sugar goes in, blood sugars rise up, body releases insulin to bring that down. But when you go, blood sugars go up, you train, your body doesn't need the insulin, therefore it's a healthy release of glucose.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

So is it better to have like is it better to have like an egg and a banana in the morning rather than an egg on brown bread before you train?

SPEAKER_00 43:19

An egg not so much, egg is fat. Oh right. Okay, okay, okay, okay. An egg would be slow digesting. Egg might, you're a protein, but don't look at eggs as protein, look at eggs as fat. That's what I always say. Is march on pure carbs? Pure carbs, pure to the purest form. You can get there's other ones you can get. Um you can get this carb X. There is um I can't remember the name. Buck. Yeah, I can't remember the name. Um Sustain is the is the one trained by JP. Um, but Martin is probably the best tasting one, I would say. Um Carb X is a bit powdery. Gives you the shits as well.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

But basically, to push in the morning workout, the only thing you actually need is carbs. You don't need protein necessarily.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

You don't need protein. If carbohydrates are there, you don't need as much protein. If carbohydrates aren't there, you need protein because then the body will the the body will go for protein if it if there's not available energy. That's why you need more protein when you're lean than when you are when you're a bit bitter more body fat on your body.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

That's very helpful. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 44:29

Got sciencey

Final Questions And Wrap

SPEAKER_00 44:30

there.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

Yeah, whoa, okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

Anyone else last before I go? Mrs. is gonna kill me. She's probably thinking, where the f is dinner? Right. See you later. I'm going. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

Thank you, bag.