Do NOT Do These Things Until Your Nutrition Is Dialed

In this episode, I’m breaking down why so many women jump to advanced solutions before fixing the foundation. And the truth is, if your nutrition is inconsistent, under-fueled, unbalanced, or not supporting your body, those other tools may not give you the results you’re hoping for.

We’ll talk about the things nutrition can often improve, why skipping the basics leads to frustration and wasted money, and how to know whether you’re actually ready to explore the bigger interventions.

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This episode might make you feel called out and it might upset you a little bit. But to be honest, all of this needs to be said, and I just need you to buckle up because I'm gonna be getting real blunt. Welcome back to the Embodiment Lab. My name is Addy, and today we are talking about the few things that you need to hold out on and not do until you've got your diet and your workouts squared away and down pat. Because I see way too often there are people that are jumping straight to these things when in reality, these are the things that do not need to be looked at first. They need to be looked at last, if at all, to be honest. Some of them you don't even need to even consider. But we're gonna go over all of these things because these are very, very important things that need to be talked about. And I have very strong opinions and beliefs and views on them. And we're gonna go over all of those things. So buckle up. We're just gonna go down the list. I literally have a sticky note in front of me of the things that are listed out, and we're just gonna talk about them one by one. It's gonna be super, super fun. So, or at least I think it's gonna be fun for me because well, I'm gonna get real sarcastic and real blunt and just address all the things. So, first things first, my job as an online fitness coach and nutrition coach is I help women fill in the gaps with their nutrition that lead to issues that can be very easily solved by nutrition but are completely overlooked, like energy, sleep, hormones, periods. The list goes on and on and on. When we get nutrition squared away with a client, that is when a lot of the symptoms they were experiencing beforehand actually start to go away because a lot of problems get solved when you solve your nutrition. And now the things that I'm looking for in my client's nutrition is food quality, making sure that they're eating enough food, macro balance, meal timing, all of these things, and filling in those gaps, and there's also some others as well, but filling in those gaps makes a world of a difference in the functionality of my clients' bodies, right? So a lot of my clients come to me experiencing low energy, indigestion, bloating. Some of them don't go to the bathroom for two or three days, maybe like once a week. Like a regular bowel movement is just not a thing, right? My clients experience sleep issues. Maybe it's lack of good quality sleep. Um, they're not able to fall asleep at a decent time. It takes them a long time to fall asleep. Some of my clients experience severe bloating from their periods and their luteal phases. Some of my clients experience chronic soreness and feel a lot of pain after workouts. And the list goes on and on and on. And all of these things get solved primarily through adjusting workouts and tailoring their nutrition to make sure that their nutrition is actually working for them and their bodies. And the thing is, a lot of these symptoms are stressors to your body, they are causing stress or they is they are symptoms of stress that is present in your body. And the thing about a body that is stressed out is it is a body that is not going to respond to a fat loss phase, which is going to make losing fat very difficult. It's going to make building muscle very difficult. And so if we are not able to lose fat because these symptoms are so stressful and so hard on the body, then that leads the client to train really, really hard and put more stress on their body because they think that they just need to do more, more, more. When in reality, we need to back up, we need to breathe, and we need to address these problems to lower the stress in their body to get their body to respond. And so I'm extremely passionate about the work that I do. First of all, because a lot of it is my personal journey. I was also somebody who was under-eating and I felt like I was putting in so much effort into my physique and I wasn't seeing the results that I wanted to from that effort. And when I solved these problems with my nutrition and making sure that I am eating enough, then it made changing my body significantly easier. And it made my life so much better. I was so much happier, and it just made me feel less restricted around food. And so I'm incredibly passionate about sharing all of this with as many women as I possibly can. And so that is the work that I do, and that is why it is so important because you could be going to the doctor for some of these symptoms and they'll prescribe you medications and they'll say to do this or do that. And really, that's just sending you on a wild goose chase because my personal belief is when you get on these medications, they may solve the issue. They may quiet the issue. Ashley, let me reframe that. They're not going to solve the issue. They basically put a band-aid on it and they quiet the symptom so that you no longer feel the issue, but the issue is still there. You never fixed the root of the issue. And in taking these medications, they're creating other symptoms in your body, which then you go back to the doctor and you get medications for those, and then they get more symptoms. And the cycle goes on and on to where you are heavily medicated, you are putting a lot of extra crap in your body that is not necessary, and you're causing more stress on your body. You've got a lot of extra chemicals in your body that's causing different reactions, and then you're just stuck. So when you don't have your nutrition dialed in, there are a lot of problems that can come up. And so my job is to fix that, fix the underlying issues that are the root of the problems that you are experiencing, and then from there we're able to lose fat, lean out, build muscle, and have the physique that you truly, truly want. So the first thing that you should not do until you have your nutrition dialed in is you should not do your research and go buy a bunch of supplements to solve your problem. Now, a lot of people think that supplements are going to be the thing that finally helps them lose fat and solve all of their problems. This is a very common question that I get from clients when they first join is what supplements do you recommend that I take? And I don't give any recommendations up front because, first of all, I know nothing about what you're eating and I need baseline data to be able to determine what you do need. Another thing is you could be wasting a lot of money when we could be filling in the gaps with your nutrition and anything that you are deficient in right now will automatically be solved by your diet. And so there's no point in going and spending a bunch of money on all of these supplements when you're eating 12, 15, 1600 calories, your body isn't even getting enough from food. What makes you think that supplementing with these things is automatically going to just solve your problem? It's not. So my focus is always on food first. Once we get food dialed in, your macros are nice and balanced, you're eating a nice, well-rounded, whole food, nutrient-dense diet, and you're eating enough food, you're eating at your maintenance, then we can go in and look and see at what you are still deficient in. With that being said, it is also still possible that you won't get everything from your nutrition. I will say that. But once we can get your nutrition maximized, then we can go in and fill in some gaps. But jumping to supplements before your diet is dialed, that's not worth it. Supplements are meant to supplement the things that you are deficient in, things that you are missing, not replace what food should be doing for you in your body and in your lifestyle. On kind of a similar note, I would hold off on getting blood work, labs, any kind of allergy test or any kind of test like that. I would hold off on that until we get your nutrition dialed in. A lot of people think that they have gluten issues or sensitivity issues to dairy or sugar or anything like that. When in reality, a lot of the bloating comes from you guessed it, your diet. When you're very inconsistent with when you're eating, how much you're eating, what you're eating, all of that will contribute to inflammation, bloating, digestion issues. And so what you think is a gluten intolerance or a dairy intolerance or whatever intolerance that you think that you have is really a response to your inconsistent diet, right? So you could get bloated eating a salad, you could get bloated eating pizza, you could get bloated eating a sandwich, you could get bloated eating an apple, you could get bloated from eating literally everything and you think that the issue is gluten when in reality it's your diet. So we gotta get that nailed down, dialed in before we go taking tests. Again, same thing with the supplements. Once your diet is dialed in, then if you're still experiencing these issues, that's when you can go spend money on test and labs and get that all run. Which leads me to my next point, which is kind of a twofer. So again, same thing as going and getting tests done and labs done and whatever, I would hold off on cutting out gluten, dairy, even people think that they have problems with animal products, like all of these things. I would hold off on cutting out those things. It's kind of in the same bucket, right? Once we get your food where it needs to be and your body is able to relax and function the way that it's supposed to, you would be surprised at how many problems that would solve before you would need to focus on any kind of severe restriction like cutting out gluten, dairy, meat, anything like that. Now, before I go into this next one, I just want to explain my view on this. So I am of the mindset of I believe that my body is functioning the way that it was created and intended to function. I believe that putting outside things into my body is not ideal and not the best thing for my body because I want my body to function exactly how it was created, right? And so I have never been someone who believes really in birth control from a fixing symptom standpoint, right? Birth control is great if you're using it to prevent getting pregnant. But in terms of, like I've heard people get on birth control for painful cramps, for bloating, for headaches, for symptoms of a period that have been maximized and so intense. And I sympathize with that because painful periods are no freaking joke. But immediately jumping to like you go to your doctor and say, I have this issue, this issue, this issue with my period, then them prescribing you a birth control without actually looking at everything else that's going on in your life, that to me is a problem because a lot of the symptoms that you are experiencing from your period are related to your diet. My body is uber sensitive to the food that I put into it. And I mean like my period. Like my period will straight up be late, like 10 days, if I make a change to my diet that is a little bit severe, right? Like there was one time last year where I increased my calories about three to 400 because I was like, sure, I can just go ahead and increase them like a whole lot because I can do that. I'm capable of it. My body was like, you're hilarious. No. And we're gonna delay your period by 10 days. That happened. So my body's very sensitive to how I eat and my period will react in that way. I also remember when I was a junior in high school, my mom and I took a trip at the time we were living in New Bromfels, which is a small little town north of San Antonio, Texas. And I did a convention in Dallas. And so both of us took a little road trip up to Dallas. And this is a three-day thing. So it's Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And this entire trip, usually I'm really good at conventions where like I'll pack my food, I'll have snacks, I'll have a good breakfast, all of these things. This trip, for whatever reason, we decided to buy. I remember I bought an entire bag of talkies and we ate out every single meal. Like I remember on the drive up there, I had Freebirds, which is like Chipotle, but better. I had, I remember Chinese food for dinner. I had like muffins for breakfast, and I had like takeout sushi for my little snack, or not my snack, my lunch during the convention. Like, I mean, every single meal was bought out and wasn't really Whole Foods. And I remember, I'm not even joking. This was my worst period of my whole entire life. So that was like in April. My next period was in May, or it was supposed to be. My period fully skipped a month. I was late like 68 days because my body responded to eating like crap and eating very out of my norm, and it delayed my period. Not only that, those were the most debilitating cramps of my whole entire life. Like I could not walk. I was bent over. I remember my mom and I took a trip to Home Depot like the next Monday morning or something. And I could not walk into Home Depot. My mom had to leave me in the car, and I like leaned the seat back and tried to take a nap because I was in that much pain. And then my mom came back and was so mad at me for falling or trying to fall asleep in the front seat of a parking lot. She's like, you could have gotten kidnapped. Don't ever do that again. I was like, okay, mom, I'm in pain. Leave me alone. But when I say that your body's very sensitive to the foods that you give it and how you fuel your body, I mean it. And I mean it from personal experience. And so I know that the way that you fuel your body will directly influence how your period is and the symptoms that you experience around your period. So I have several clients in Embody You right now that have come to me with painful periods and severe bloating before their periods, like in their luteal phases and cramping and pain and all of these things. And they have told me that their symptoms have been so much quieter. They've had easier periods since correcting these things in their diet and in their nutrition. So when I hear that these people are getting put on birth control without even looking at the root cause of why these symptoms are happening in their bodies in the first place, it makes me really angry because these things can be solved in a cheaper way, in a more natural way. And it could permanently solve the issue moving forward. Another thing that makes me a little angry about this, and this is a little side tangent, I'll say this, and then I will move on from the period talk. But it makes me really mad that we as women just accept the fact that our periods are shitty. We accept that our luteal phase, it's like seven to 10 days leading up to our period, is just awful. We're moody, we're in pain, we're bloated, and then we're on our period for anywhere between four to seven days. So that's like 14 days out of the month. You're telling me that we have to accept being in pain and feeling like shit for 14 days out of every single month. That's that's like half of the year. Why does it have to be that way? Get your nutrition squared away, get your workout squared away, make sure that you are genuinely taking care of your body. Your periods can be a lot easier and feel a lot better, and you'll actually have a lot more of your life back. Plus, all of these women that are being told to cycle sink and to not go to the gym on their periods or before their periods or just listen to your body and not go, like whatever. You are literally avoiding going to the gym because you're told to cycle sink. That's insane. Or on the flip side, you're avoiding going to the gym because you are in so much pain that you literally can't. Yeah, don't go to the gym. But also, like, let's fix that. I cannot tell you how many times I've gone to the gym on day one of my period. And I have PR'd hip thrust, RDLs, deadlifts. I've PR'd these things. It's insane. I feel stronger on my period. And if I were to listen to the world and cycle sync and not go to the gym on my period, I would not be where I am right now. I can guarantee you that. Another thing, luteal phase. You feel a little weaker the week leading up to your period. That's very, very normal. I experience this constantly, every single time. I'm like, oh, it's coming. I can feel it. But also, like, I don't take that and be like, I feel a little tired today. I just want to go to the gym. It's my luteal phase. You know, it's okay, give yourself grace. No, get your butt to the gym. Even if you can't lift as much as you can, usually, lift. Still challenge yourself. Okay, it still matters. But also accept the fact that you don't have to make crazy, insane progress while you feel like shit. At that point, you are just going to the gym, moving your body to move your body, and doing it for your mental health, for your physical health, not necessarily to progress. And that is okay. That is okay. Accept that. All right, enough period talk. Let's move on. All right, this one's gonna ruffle some feathers, and I'm okay with that. Let's freaking go. We're gonna talk about GLP ones. So I made a video a couple weeks ago, several weeks ago, where I was like, GLP ones are a cop-out. You're taking the easy way out. You don't like working hard if you take a GLP one. And I stand 10 toes down on this. And I want to preface unless you have a significant amount of weight, and I mean like maybe 100 to 150 pounds plus, and I'm I'm no doctor, so don't quote me on that. But unless you have a significant amount of weight to lose and you are being told by a doctor that you need to take it, I do not think that unless that is you, that you should be taking it. I also do not think that if you are using it as a way to avoid the hard work of changing your diet and going to the gym just to lose weight, if you're avoiding that hard work by taking a GLP one, that is a cop-out. What a GLP one does is it suppresses your appetite so that you eat less. It forces you into a calorie deficit, which we know in order to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit. So you're taking something to put you into a deficit. When you could learn where your maintenance calories are, learn how to fuel your body, and then go into a strategic deficit. When you are in an extreme deficit taking a GLP 1, and you're not aware of your nutrition, what you're feeding your body, where your protein is, where your fiber is, all of these things, and you're simultaneously not working out, what you're doing is a lot of damage to your body. You are not guaranteed when you are on a GLP 1, you are not guaranteed to just be losing fat. When you are losing weight that quickly from not eating enough food, you are also losing muscle tissue. You're also losing bone density. Two very, very important things. You need strength training and you need protein in order to keep your bones strong. You need food, you need protein, you need strength training in order to hold on to your muscle while you're losing weight. Because if you lose weight and you lose muscle, you are lowering your metabolism by a lot, which slows down the amount of calories that you're burning, which is going to make it very difficult when you do get off of the GLP1 to be able to maintain that fat loss. Another thing, if you take a shortcut and you take a GLP1 to lose weight without going through the effort of learning how to fuel your body properly, learning how to train your body properly, once you get off that GLP1, you have absolutely no idea how to maintain that body. You go right back to the habits that you had before getting on that GLP 1 and you gain all the weight back and then some. I've seen this happen with people in my real life, and I'm so dead serious about it. This is because it is such a massive issue. Learn your nutrition, put effort into educating yourself and learning how to fuel your body with enough food and the right kinds of food. Learn about maintenance. Learn about a smart deficit. Learn about strength training. And you will never need a GLP one because you will achieve the physique that you want. Sure, it will take longer, but it is so much more worth it because you are working hard for it. And you no longer have to stress about whether or not you can maintain that. And you will never have to start over again because it is just part of who you are. It is how you identify because you are the kind of person that nourishes your body properly and goes to the gym and works out. My thoughts are all over the place because I am so incredibly passionate about this topic. But I want to circle back to when you lose weight, you're not guaranteed to just lose fat. The same thing goes when you are severely restricting yourself or even in just a regular old calorie deficit. The same thing goes. So I was told by a really smart trainer that I used to work with at the gym. And this thing that he said to me has never left my mind. But it is impossible to gain and build muscle without gaining a little bit of body fat. It is impossible to lose weight, to lose fat without losing a little bit of muscle, right? So it doesn't matter which direction you go, you're always going to gain or lose a little bit of the thing that you don't want to gain or lose. So when we're in a strategic deficit with my clients, I make sure that we are not in a severe deficit. I also make sure that their macros are in the right spot so that they are eating enough protein so that we hang on to as much muscle as possible. I also make sure that their program and their workouts are strategically programmed to make sure that we are sustaining muscle mass throughout a deficit phase. So when you jump to an extreme of taking a GLP1 without considering these things, you need to be aware of the risk that you are taking. Because if you are not smart about it, or if you're not working with a coach who can tell you these things and who can guide you on that process, then it is very, very, very likely that you will be losing muscle and bone density alongside fat. All right. I am incredibly passionate about this topic, and I care so much about women working hard for their progress rather than jumping to a shortcut when all they need to do is put a little effort into tracking their food, knowing what those numbers mean, eating whole foods, all of these things that I've said 55 times in this episode, but putting in a little effort will take you so much further than jumping into a shortcut that will cause a lot of damage, but it will get you a very fast result. A fast result at what cost? All right. The last thing that you need to avoid until you get your food and workout squared away. And this is one that I think you should never touch. And that's surgery. I've had clients that have done a gastric bypass. I've had clients who have done the mummy makeover, a tummy tuck, a boob job. And that's kind of not super important, but a butt lift. All of these things, I've had clients who have surgically modified their bodies before getting their food and workout squared away. And I'm actually going to give you a very specific example. So when I first started training in person in Dallas, I had a client. She was, I want to say five, one, very short, came to me about 150 pounds, right? And so for her frame, she was definitely holding on to more body fat than what her body realistically needed. And her whole goal was she wanted to lose fat, she wanted to lose weight so that she could go do a tummy tuck to tighten up loose skin, which is a great plan. That's cool, whatever. But this client did not give it her all to really tighten her nutrition, dial it in, really give her all on her workouts before going into the surgery. She didn't track her food, she didn't really clean up what she was eating, she definitely didn't hit her maintenance, we didn't even go through a deficit. Like there was no real consistent effort, like hard effort in genuinely losing this weight, losing this fat, all of these things. She trained with me twice a week and did a bunch of cardio on her own. And listen, while I am a trainer, I am a coach, it is not my job to force a grown adult to do anything. It is up to you to decide the amount of effort that you want to put into it. And if you're not going to put in all the effort, you're not going to get the result. And she did not get the result. And in a few months, she went and she got the tummy tuck. Now, about three or four months went by after recovering from the tummy tuck and she came back to me 10 pounds heavier and she looked like she had put on extra body fat. Like she looked inflamed and she looked like she had gained weight. And my heart sank. So I'm like, damn. You spent I can't even imagine how much money on that surgery and you look worse. And that breaks my heart because again, you could get your nutrition dialed in and you can learn how to eat in a way that makes sure that you no longer have to yo-yo or restrict or start over or all of these things. You can learn to train in a way that changes the shape of your body. I've seen it with myself. I've seen it with my clients who have changed their lives, changed their bodies, changed their mindsets. And this woman decided to not do that and go get surgery instead, and it backfired. And that breaks my heart. So I am so serious about this. If you cannot get your nutrition where it needs to be, you should not be going and spending money and making permanent decisions. That will basically reverse what you did in the surgery or with the GLP one. Okay, that was the last one. I have had to pause this several times because I forget to breathe when I'm talking on these podcasts. But dude, I am so freaking passionate about this. I care so much and I have so much knowledge and so much value. And I truly believe and trust in the methods that I teach and embody you that gets my clients' results. I believe in them with my whole heart. And it makes me so sad when I see people on social media, I talk to people in real life that just can't get it figured out, and they're going to these other solutions, and it's basically like a rat race. But there is a way to learn how to fuel your body. Eat enough food, eat the right kinds of foods, still enjoy fun foods, still incorporate them into your life. Incorporate movement, drinking water, hitting your protein, getting your fiber, and genuinely taking care of your body from a health standpoint, but then also from a strategic standpoint to change your body composition. There is a way to do that without having to do these extremes. But people forget the basics or they overlook the basics because they want a quick result. They think that all of these other extravagant, pretty, shiny things are going to get them what they want without even considering the basics first. Or, or this is a really big one, they're doing these things. They're doing the right things, quote unquote, eating healthy, going to the gym, but simply doing these things and simply putting in a crap load of effort does not promise you body composition results. You can go to the gym and you can train six days a week, but how are you training? Are you stressing your body out by doing a bunch of cardio? Are you half-assed training where your first rep of your set looks looks exactly like the last rep of your set and you're not actually challenging yourself? Are you doing seven to eight exercises half-assed and you're not actually getting anything out of those seven to eight exercises? Or are you doing four to five exercises, implementing progressive overload with correct rep ranges, tempo, intention, intensity, range of motion, rest times, all of these things that are so, so, so, so important to your workouts actually changing the shape of your body. What about eating healthy? Okay. There's a whole podcast episode that I did about this. Eating healthy doesn't guarantee you that you're going to just have the body that you want, right? Because if you're just focused on eating, I'm going to eat clean, I'm going to eat whole foods, I'm going to eat naturally, all these things, you're missing another key piece where your body composition depends on how much you're eating. If you eat at maintenance, you will maintain. If you eat in a surplus, you will gain weight. If you eat in a deficit, you will lose weight. That is what matters way more than eating an apple or a salad or a piece of steak. Right? So you could be doing all these things. You could be doing all the right things. Going to the gym, you're going for walks, you're doing your workouts, you're eating healthy, you're doing all these things, but completely missing the mark. And that will lead you to think that I'm trying, I'm doing these things. I guess I'll try a supplement. I guess I'll try a GLP one. I guess I'll try surgery. I guess I'll try these things. No, because what you were doing wasn't actually enough to elicit the change that you needed. So before you try any of these, do your research. Consider hiring a coach. Get help. Get mentorship. Get something besides these quick fixes because they are not what you think. I hope this episode was insightful. I hope it gave you a ton of value and a different perspective on some of these things. I hope that this cleared up some questions that I know a lot of people have around some of these things. If you enjoyed today's episode, I would love to hear from you. DM me on Instagram. Tell me that you came from the podcast. Tell me that you listened to it and that you loved it. Tell me your thoughts. Yell at me. Do whatever you want. And if you want to work with me, you know how to find me. The links are all in the description of this episode. And other than that, that is all the yapping that I have for today. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and I will chat with you in the next one. Bye.