The Magic of Maintenance

This week Bree is talking about the "magic of maintenance". If you're constantly in a deficit this is the episode for you.

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Are you looking for a space where you will learn to improve your mental strength, emotional health, and heal your insecurities from the inside out? Take the first step to living a more meaningful life with the Better Me with Body Fiber Podcast. I'm your host, Free. I'm a certified personal trainer, entrepreneur, and mother of three. I've helped empower thousands of women to take action through fitness, nutrition, meditation, personal development, and aligning thoughts with action. This podcast is for those who are ready to feel inspired and motivated to live a more purposeful life. Let's grow together. Have you ever felt guilty for wanting to take a break from the grind? Are you burnt out counting every calorie and macro? Are you sick of always restricting yourself? With the holidays just around the corner, I wanted to teach you something that changed my perspective on health and fitness. This life-changing key principle is all about the magic of maintenance. Now, there is a time and a season for everything, and when you learn how to tailor your goals to your season of life, it's so much more enjoyable and you're able to get the results a lot faster. Are you ready to learn? Let's get started. Alright, welcome to the podcast. I am so excited about this episode today because I'm very passionate about teaching women that they do not need to starve themselves to see results. And it's actually probably the reason why they aren't seeing results. So let's chat about why this is so important. First off, there is a time and a season for everything in life. And that's why you cannot compare yourself to others on the internet. Because maybe they don't have young kids at home, or maybe they aren't dealing with depression, or maybe they didn't just have a baby. And I'm not saying any of these things are excuses because if you really did want something, you can always achieve it, right? But it's just a matter of trying to make your goals work for your season of life so that you can set yourself up for success. So I'm here to help you learn how to create successful patterns with your health and fitness so that you can reach your goals while going with the season of life that you're in. So first let's chat about what happens when you stay in a deficit for too long. Now, if you've followed me for a while, you might have heard me say a few of these things, but most importantly, it will take your hormones out of balance and prevent further weight loss. So when you have hormones that are out of balance, you're going to produce a lot more cortisol, which is going to prevent fat loss. It's really annoying. It's super frustrating. It's happened to me before. It happened because I competed and then I got pregnant and then I went back to restriction and it just threw my body totally out of whack. And my hormones were off and it was not fun. So you don't want that to happen to you. Um, your body, the second reason is that your body is smart and it will adapt to those calories and your metabolism will slow down. So it's kind of like golden handcuffs. If you're at 1200 calories for too long, then your body will start to expect 1200 calories because it's starving. And it's like, okay, we have to now slow down so that we don't utilize all of this stored energy. Now, um, the third reason is when you don't eat enough and then you work out too hard, you can put a lot of stress on your adrenals, which can cause adrenal fatigue. And this puts your body in a constant state of fight or flight, and it will make you produce more cortisol. And you always feel tired, like you always just feel worn down and tired. I've also had adrenal fatigue. It's the worst thing ever, it's not fun. Um, the fourth reason is you are mentally tapped out, like you just hit a wall, and eventually you can't diet forever, and it could lead to binge tendencies because if you're always restricting, mentally you can snap and you just are like, oh, I just want the dang cookie. And then instead of eating one cookie, you eat 15 cookies, and then it does way more damage than if you were to just eat the one cookie. Um, so it leads to that, like, which brings me to my next point. It really leads to an unhealthy relationship with food because you're always restricting and it can lead to obsessive behavior around food. And um, I know this because like when I'm in prep or when I'm in a cut, I become super obsessive about food and what I'm going to eat next and how many macros are in each thing that I'm eating and if I'm seeing results fast enough. And, you know, because you're working so hard that you want it to be worth it, right? Um, the next reason is that your lifts can suffer because you're not as strong, because you're not fueling yourself like you should, which will then prevent um muscles or prevent muscle building. So you can't really build the muscle shape and sculpt your body if you're always starving or if you're constantly in a deficit. You're gonna actually lose muscle, which if you're going off of body fat percentage, that's not a good thing, right? Like you might weigh less, but if you're losing muscle and adding body fat, but you weigh less, that's not a good thing. You don't want that. So you always want to build more muscle. That's the key to losing weight. Sculpting, toning up is muscle. That's the golden, golden rule, right there. And the last reason is you teach yourself that you have to be good. And if you aren't following your plan or staying on those low calories, then you feel bad or guilty. And that is not healthy. Um, so how do you get out of this cycle of feeling like you're constantly dieting? Especially with the holidays around the corner, it's important that you have goals that will set you up for success success and help you be happy and that you enjoy your goals. You enjoy what you're doing. Now, I have to tell you, personal experience. One year I decided to do a fitness competition, and the competition was like January 1st. No, it was January 3rd. So it was like a week after Christmas, you guys. I was miserable. I had to do my prep during the holidays, and I'm not saying that it's impossible because I did it, but it was awful. Like I had to sit there at Thanksgiving dinner and watch everyone eat their dinner while I had a bag of boiled chicken and broccoli. Like, can you imagine? Christmas Eve, everyone's eating their hot chocolate and donuts and their big like Christmas dinner. I had a bag of boiled chicken and broccoli. New Year's Eve. I had my bag of boiled chicken and broccoli. It was awful. I was very dedicated and I did it. And I know that this is like an extreme example, but you get the point. Like, make your lifestyle work for you. It would have been way easier if I started January 3rd and then competed in the spring. Don't ask me why I did that. I don't know why I did that. Um, so for me, during the holidays, I move more into a maintenance phase and I allow myself to eat more. Um, and you have to give yourself permission to eat more. And how you give yourself permission without feeling guilty or scared because that can be an issue for some women, is you have to know that you're doing it for a purpose, a very specific purpose, and that will help you with your goals. Um, and the purpose is that maybe you are um fixing your hormones, or maybe you're fixing your relationship with your food, or maybe you're just mentally tapped out and you want to enjoy life and um be able to do that in a healthy way without losing all of your progress. So I will say that getting a coach is extremely helpful if you don't know where to start, because a lot of times when you start doubting yourself, which happens with some clients, is they'll start in a maintenance and they'll second guess themselves. And they're like, no, I can't do it. And they'll start cutting back. And I have to tell them, just stay strong. You can do this. Remember, your ultimate goal is to be able to eat more food while keeping the lean body. That's the goal, right? And you have to stick with it for months, okay? Not a few weeks, months. And a coach can help you do that. But if you can't get a coach, I'll teach you some basic principles so that you don't gain weight when you go into a maintenance or even maybe reverse up a little more than maintenance. Um, but first let's talk about the benefits of moving into maintenance, or what I like to say the magic of maintenance. You are a lot stronger because you can fuel your body when you move into maintenance. So, like all my lifts go up. And when all of your lifts go up, then you're able to build more muscle, which is, like I said, the key to sculpting your body and getting a leaner, tighter shape. That is the goal. You also burn more calories at rest when you have more muscle. So you're way more stronger. Like all of my lifts are like twice as strong. You have a better relationship with food because you aren't constantly restricting. Like I, when I'm in maintenance, I don't even think about food. I don't like, and I love food, but I really don't think about it because it's readily available. I can eat what I want when I want, because I have so many calories to work with that um, I really don't feel that like obsessiveness when I'm in maintenance. It's amazing. Um, you also can speed up your metabolism. The best way to speed up your metabolism is to move back into maintenance or even reverse up a little higher because you have to add food to speed up that metabolism. Also, adding muscle speeds up your metabolism, so it's like a win-win. Uh, you start to build, oh, I already said you start to build muscle, but you you are mentally recharged and you become way less obsessed with food. Um, being mentally recharged is everything, you guys. Like you can't mentally be thinking about numbers and macros and weighing and being smaller year-round. You can't do it. It is so exhausting. So give yourself a break. It's okay. Like, give yourself that permission. Um, you also will have a healthier body image and you'll view yourself a lot healthier. Like for me, I become less obsessive when I'm in maintenance because I just know, okay, I'm just maintaining. I don't have to sit and pick myself apart. I don't have to try to get a six-pack or fit into these jeans or whatever. I'm just enjoying life and it is so freeing. It's amazing. I've been in maintenance for eight months and it has been the happiest I've ever been. I'm not gonna lie. Um, and then also you give yourself a break to build before you go back into a deficit so that you're laying a really strong foundation. So your cut, like let's say it's good to go in phases. So maybe you're in a maintenance phase for six months, and then you can like do a six-week cut, and then you go back into maintenance for four or five months or six months, then you go back into a six-week cut, and so you're doing cycles. And so when you do the cut, you have been in six months of maintenance or even building. Maybe you're in a surplus, and you lay that strong foundation, and then your cuts are way more effective because you have you're making a greater dent in your caloric expenditure. So you have, let's say you you're maintaining or your surplus is 2600 calories. When you go to cut, you're you're technically cutting at 2300 calories or 2100 calories. That's amazing. Your body's gonna start responding and you're still eating 2100 calories. Does that make sense? So that's the math and like the science behind it. But um, you don't have to go down to 1200 calories, your body's gonna respond at 2100, and that's amazing. That's a good thing. So, how do you do it? Whenever your deficit numbers, like wherever they are, wherever you started your deficit numbers at. Let's say I'm in a cut and I've been eating 1400 calories for 12 weeks and I'm just done. Um, then what you're gonna do is you're gonna slowly add about 20 grams of carbs and five grams of fat. This is very loose. I'm just giving you an example around there, and try to add a little bit each week. So I'll add 20 grams of carbs, five grams of fat for a week, see how my body responds. If I'm good, I haven't gained weight, I don't feel like I'm holding on to it. I'll add another 20 grams of carbs, five grams of fat. If I feel good and the scale's not moving, then I'm gonna add another. And you keep going until you feel like your body holds on to it or you start gaining weight. Now I did this, I was shocked. I added like 170 carbs, and I still didn't gain one pound. It's crazy. Like your body can handle a lot more than you think it can, especially if you're eating nutrient-dense food that your body loves, your body's gonna respond a lot better. Um, and one like word of caution is you don't go into a maintenance or a reverse expecting to lose weight. You have to set other goals. Like maybe your goal is strength goals, like you're gonna double your deadlift, or you're going to really work on your pull-ups, or maybe you want to run faster, whatever your goals are. Maybe you want to enjoy eating more and work on your relationship with your food. Whatever your goals are, they don't have to be aesthetic. So my goal was just to, I wanted to feel better. I wanted to have more energy, I wanted to lift more, and I wanted to fix my hormones. I did all those things, so I'm successful, right? My goal wasn't to get a leaner six-pack when I'm in maintenance. You just have to know that. Um, and like I said before, like my personal story, when I reversed and I went into maintenance for eight months, I have stayed the exact same weight than when I was cutting. Like when I was eating 1400 calories and I was starving at 1400 calories. I won't, I don't like to go lower than that or I start feeling like crap. But when I was at 1400 calories and like obsessing over every little thing I ate for months, you guys, I didn't lose one pound. So I was like, you know what? My body is just tapped out. I need to just go into maintenance and give it a break. And I did, and that's when I was able to double my carbs and not double my fats, but almost double my fats. I'm eating almost twice as much as I was before and haven't gained a pound. Not one pound. I'm the same exact weight. If anything, I feel like my body's like recompositioned. So because I'm able to add more muscle and lift so much heavier, I feel like I look more athletic than I did before. So that's just my personal story. I'm so happy. I keep thinking, okay, maybe I'll start a cut this month. And then I'm like, no, I don't want to. I can't do it. I'm just so happy. Like, I'm just so happy with my lifestyle right now and being able to eat treats on vacation and never feel guilty on a Monday and never feel hungry. I never feel hungry. It's the most amazing thing. And it's beautiful, it's great to live there. And what my plan is is to stay in maintenance or even a little bit above while I'm lifting super heavy. And then in January, when we start the challenge, I'm gonna do that with um my clients in January. And um we are going, it's the reset challenge, and so it's just like resetting your body, your priorities, your mind, everything. And I'm gonna do that reset challenge with my clients for eight weeks and go into more of a deficit for eight weeks now that I've been in maintenance. It will have been for almost um 10 months. So that's a great maintenance time. It's time to then lean out after the holidays, right? I'm not gonna make it hard on myself. After the holidays, after we've enjoyed everything, I'll be ready to hit the ground running and hit it hard. And that's my plan. So if you want to do that with me, I would love for you to do the reset challenge with us because it's just a great way to get back on track mentally and physically. And um, it's just really helpful to do it with other people and to have a coach that's like walking you through. And when you have a hard day, you can vent to your coach or you know, you can vent to the person that's holding you accountable. They can check your um, like me and my team will be checking your um calendars in the apps to like make sure that you're actually doing the workouts, make sure that you're hitting your macros, all of that. So I know it can be scary if um, you know, to like add calories back in and move into maintenance. Um, but most of your life should be spent in main maintenance. That's where the magic happens. So enjoy the holidays, live with intention, fuel yourself because it feels good to eat healthy instead of because you have to restrict to be a smaller size. Because I want you to focus on abundance mentality and all the things that you can add to your life instead of what you need to restrict. So you got this girl. If you need any help, I'm here for you every step of the way. Let me know what questions you have in the comments. I'm always here. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please like, subscribe, comment. It means all all it means everything to me, especially as a small business owner, um, to know that you know you like what I'm doing and then I can do more of it. So I will talk to you guys next time. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us in today's episode. If you liked the content and want to hear more, remember to hit that subscribe button and write a review. As a small business owner, I appreciate it more than you know. If you are looking for a program to help with self-confidence, to lose weight, get in shape, and work on your mental, physical, and emotional health. Check out my training programs on www.bodyby.com. My team and I help to hold you accountable through the Body Bibris app, where you log in to see all your workouts, custom meal plan made specifically for you and your needs, and communication through the messenger. You are never alone when you're on the Body Bible training program. Click the link in the show notes to get more information on how to transform your life from the inside out.