7 Nutrition Habits Holding You Back
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Nutrition is arguably more important than fitness when working to build the body you want. We have all heard the sayings, “you can’t out-train a bad diet” and “abs are made in the kitchen”, right? As cliche as these says may be, they hold so much truth. If we fail to get our nutrition dialed, we will struggle to build the body we want, plain and simple, sister!
Over the past decade, I have noticed 7 habits many women think are helping them on their fitness journey, when in fact, they are doing more harm than good. So, if you have found yourself on fitness plateau and can’t figure out why you aren’t seeing more results, ask yourself if you need to break one of the 7 habits I share in this episode of Embrace You Real. Be sure to let me know which habits you need to break over on the ‘gram by sending a DM to @embraceyourreal, or tagging the podcast in your IG stories!
If you loved this episode, then you'll also love...
Episode 18: What Happens When You Don't Eat Enough
Episode 206: 5 Nutrition Tips for Consistently Nourishing Your Body
Plus, get your free macro counting e-book here.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real, with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it, let's go.
Hello, and welcome back to the Embrace Your Real podcast. Now, nutrition is arguably more important than fitness when it comes to building the body that you want. We have all heard the sayings, you can't out-train a bad diet, or abs are made in the kitchen. As cliche as both of these sayings might be though, they actually hold so much truth. If we fail to get our nutrition dialed in, we will struggle to build the body that we want, plain and simple.
Over the past decade, I've noticed a few habits that many women think are helping them on their fitness journey, when in fact they're actually doing more harm than good. So if you found yourself on a fitness plateau and you can't figure out why you aren't seeing more results, I need you to ask yourself if maybe you need to break one of these seven habits that I'm about to share with you in this episode.
But before I do, I wanted to share this review. It comes from Jessica G83. She gave a five star review and said, "Keeps me motivated. I love listening to Julie. She keeps me motivated when I'm discouraged from not seeing results like I want to. Julie has taught me so much about everything, health and fitness and self confidence. And I couldn't be more grateful." Jessica, thank you so much for your review. I love every single one of you guys. You are truly what makes me have so much joy and excitement every single week to show up for episodes for you guys, just because this community is incredible.
If you haven't already rated and reviewed the podcast, if you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts, type in Embrace Your Real. First, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss an episode. And lastly, you can scroll all the way down on the Embrace Your Real page and you'll see the rating and review right there. It really does help us out. Rank our podcast in the charts so that we can reach more women in hopes of helping them to embrace their real.
All right, so let's dive into the seven nutrition habits that might be holding you back. Number one, you're prioritizing calories over macros. Now, if you've tuned into this podcast for any length of time, you've likely heard me talk about this topic before, which is why I'm going to chat about it first. But seriously, we have to stop prioritizing calories. And to share why it's important, I want to talk through an example.
Let's say that you are in a slight body fat loss phase and your caloric intake should be around 1800 calories a day. Now, if you're only focusing on calories, that's all you're doing, you're counting the calories, you could hypothetically eat about 80 to 90% of your calories coming from carbs and fats alone, and drastically skimp on your protein. Or you could drastically deprive yourself of carbs because you're under the impression that carbs will make you fat, and you're getting the majority of your daily intake from fats and protein. Which, typically, protein is the hardest for people to get on a day-to-day basis. And so you might be getting likely all of your calories from fats, with a little bit of carbs. None of that is good. And none of that is going to you to building the body that you want.
Now, one of the reasons why macro counting can be helpful to people and help you build the body that you want is because it ensures that you're eating a balance of all three macronutrients, because each of them play a vital role in your body. If you're new to macros, or if you just need a refresher, there are three macronutrients. So we have protein, carbs, and fats. One gram of protein equals four calories. And basically, the role of protein is to break down into amino acids, which can affect our muscle composition and are involved in creating mood regulating neurotransmitters.
For carbs, one gram of carbs is four calories and carbs, essentially their vital role is to break down into sugars, which give us energy for immediate use, but also storage. And lastly, fats one gram of fat is nine calories. And basically, the vital role of fat is that it breaks down into fatty acids, which can also form certain structures of our body, like our brain, our nervous system, our cell walls, but it can also play a vital role in our overall all hormone health. In addition to impacting your body, weight and composition, macronutrients can also impact how you feel, how you perform, and even how you behave.
So having heard all of that, now that you know what each macronutrient's role is and why it can be important to ensure that you're prioritizing all three, you've also learned that when you count your macros, your calories actually add up. So keep that in mind. And that's one thing that many people don't know, especially when they first start out, they're thinking they're needing to count calories and macros. But if you're counting your macros, your calories automatically add up because like I said, one gram of protein is four calories, one gram of carb is four calories, and then one gram of fat is nine calories.
But on the flip side, I will give you an alternative. If the thought of tracking all three macronutrients stresses you out ... which it can for some, for sure. Especially if you're just starting out. Inside my MCMS online academy, we actually teach women a method that many women find super helpful. And that is to count your overall calories, but focus on your protein. So focus on hitting your protein goal first, and count the protein in macros, and then leave the remaining of your calories up for grabs when it comes to carbs and fats.
When you do that, and when you're actually hitting your protein goal, and then you're hitting your overall calorie caloric intake goal, it's very, very unlikely that you're going to eat above and beyond, in terms of carbs and fats. It's more likely that you're going to have carbs and fats in moderation because that's just naturally how it works when you're counting your protein and overall calories. So instead of just counting your calories, like I mentioned earlier ... which you're likely going to be completely unbalanced. For sure, not eating enough protein, and possibly eating way more carbs and fats that your body needs. You have two other alternatives. You can either just count your macros, your protein, carbs, and fats. Or you could count your overall calories, but having the emphasis on really making sure that you hit your protein goal in terms of macros. So I'll give you a quick example.
So if my protein goal is 148 grams of protein per day, and I make sure that I'm counting that. And let's say, for example, my overall caloric intake goal is 1,800, 592 calories will come from hitting my protein goal if I hit 148 grams of protein. And then that would leave 1,208 calories for the remainder of the day up for grabs in terms of carbs and fats. So like I said, it's sometimes an easier way for people so that they don't have to focus on all three numbers. They can just focus on their protein goal and then their overall caloric intake goal.
But if you're just starting out or you're restarting out in your finish journey and you want to learn more about how to figure out your customized maintenance macros and calories, you can actually download my free ebook by heading over to www.juliealedbetter.com/free-ebook. Or you can just go to my Instagram. On my highlight, I have a free ebook highlight. And you can click that and you'll be able to get the link so that you can enter your information in and receive that free ebook. Also, I will link in the show notes so that you can easily go download it. So either in the show notes, on Instagram, or go to juliealedbetter.com/free-ebook.
Habit number two, eyeballing your food. So I actually just chatted about this in episode 206, Five Nutrition Tips for Consistently Nourishing Your Body, which I will go ahead and link in the show notes below. But for the most part, I can now estimate exact portion that I need in terms of chicken, rice, or veggies, because I've educated myself on what it actually looks like. I have spent years educating myself about food. I personally have found that education has been a key in helping me find more food freedom in my life.
Over the last nine years, I've learned what foods contain certain macronutrients, AKA protein, carb, and fat dominant foods. I have measured, I've weighed enough of my foods now that I'm at a place where I can typically just eyeball it. And I say typically, because there are definitely still times that I will use my food scale if I want to make sure I'm eating enough. So if I really am feeling like I'm lacking in terms of energy, or always feeling hungry, the first macronutrient that I always make sure that I monitor is my protein, because protein is the most satiating of the three macronutrients.
And so if that's the case, then I'll just take out my food scale and I'll make sure that I'm measuring enough shredded chicken to ensure that I'm eating enough of it. And oftentimes, honestly, if I'm just eyeballing it and I am finding that I'm low in energy, it's typically because I'm undereating it. And so that's why having that food scale can be super beneficial. And also, just educating yourself about the nutrient contents in certain foods, and then directly correlating that with your energy levels.
And I know that some of you guys, you are not there yet. And if you eyeball a portion of oatmeal, you could end up with two to three times the amount of what your body actually needs. Or you could be eyeballing two tablespoons of peanut butter, but you actually don't know what that looks like, so you end up with four tablespoons. Well, if this is the case, this could actually lead you to eating well over the amount of carbs and fats that you actually need in a day. For example, just eating double oatmeal is an extra 30 grams of carbs, or eating double the amount of peanut butter is an extra 15 grams of fat, which could be an additional 350 calories more than you thought you were eating.
Now, if you did this three times, think about that. You would times 350 by three, that would be an additional 1,050 calories that you didn't even know that you were eating. And it's the slight things, right? It's the slight things throughout our day that we don't really know, especially if we've never educated ourself on the nutrients and what foods contain, what they look like, the serving sizes, all of those things. And I always tell people this, that macro counting is not a long term solution, at least for the majority of people.
However, taking six months to a year, or even a little bit longer can truly add so much knowledge and expertise to your tool belt on how to properly fuel your body, because it tells you a bit more about the quality and quantity of your food, and how that affects your body. And then if, and when you decide to go into more of a mindful/self-regulation eating, you'll have the prior knowledge and expertise to do so successfully.
This is actually a really exciting strategy that we're going to be adding into our newly updated Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy. And if you haven't heard are going to be updating the MCMS Online Academy in the next few weeks. So if you want to get in for that new update, all you have to do is go to macrocountingmadesimple.com. You can purchase the course now at the low price that it is. We will be raising the price when we introduce this new course. And everybody who's previously purchased the MCMS Online Academy since 2019, you'll be automatically upgraded into this Online Academy.
I'm telling you guys, we've been working super hard to make sure that this is the last nutrition course that you will ever need. We're going to be giving you so many tips and strategies and videos and all the things to really make sure that you are successful in your health and fitness journey. So if you want to learn more, you can go to macrocountingmadesimple.com. That's macrocountingmadesimple.com. As I speak right now, we are mid-February. Like I said, in the next few weeks, we're going to be launching the new course. So you have less than two weeks to join the MCMS Online Academy at the low price that it is, and get automatically upgraded into the new course. Again, I will link macrocountingmadesimple.com below in the show notes as well, so that you can easily go click that after this episode.
Habit number three, not eating the foods that you want. I also touched on this episode in 206, like I just mentioned, which I will link in the show notes below. But I said that I would argue that eating less nutrient dense foods is just as important as eating more nutrient dense foods. And you might be like, but why? Well, the answer is simple. Because if we deprive ourselves of the food that we actually want, our cravings will build and build and build, and then we will likely overindulge. And this can create a super unhealthy relationship with food. And the goal here is to have a healthy relationship with food. If we want to have that, we need to find balance by incorporating the foods that we love into our everyday lives, so that we can create lasting habits.
It's not realistic to think that we can go the rest of our lives without ice cream or pizza or pasta or chips, or whatever the food is for you. So instead, I just encourage people to incorporate it into your daily allotment of nutrition, and your golden. Again, do not deprive yourself of food. Prioritize the foods that you love, just as much as you prioritize the foods that you think are quote, "healthy" for you, and likely you'll end up finding your sweet spot.
Habit number four, trying to go as long as you can without eating. Please, please, please stop trying to go as long as you can, before you eat. The longer you go without eating, the more you will be triggered to overindulge. Again, this creates a very unhealthy relationship with food. And again, the goal here is to create a healthy relationship with food. It is so much better to just be eating balanced meals throughout the day, so you don't get to the point of no return where you need to eat everything in sight to feel full and satisfied.
And you know what? When you do that, you oftentimes end up eating way more than you would if you just ate balanced meals throughout the day. When you do this, you definitely aren't taking macros into consideration, because I know from experience, when you reach that point of hunger, you will likely eat any and everything without even thinking twice about what and how much your body needs to be properly nourished in that moment. This is not the way to go if you're wanting to build a body that you want this year, and if you're wanting to strengthen your relationship with food.
Number five, not eating enough at meals. Now, I know a lot of women who are eating protein, carbs, and fats in their meals, but when they're done eating, they wonder why they aren't full or why they're snacking so much throughout the day. They're like, well, I ate a balanced meal, but I don't understand why I'm hungry. But the reason is likely because they're not eating the proper amount that will actually keep them full and satiated. If you're always hungry after your meals, this is a clear sign that you're not giving yourself enough food at every meal.
I don't know about you, but I would rather feel full and satisfied after eating, where I don't have to think about food for a few more hours, rather than needing food right after, or being hungry and just thinking about food until the next time that I eat. That way will leave you constantly thinking about food, and I don't want that in my life. I have too many other things that I'm focused on to let that hold me back and let that distract me. I personally find that my meals that are around 450 to 600 calories are the ones that keep me the most full and satisfied throughout the day. But dinner tends to actually be the largest meal of them all, around 700 calories. I'm going to give you an example of 450 calories, and I'll also give you the breakdown of macros so that you can hear both and get used to hearing both of those things.
So an example of a 450 calorie meal that I've been having lately is my strawberry protein milkshake with oatmeal, blueberries, and peanut butter. This meal alone is 35 grams of protein, 51 grams of carbs, and 12 grams of fat. And I find that that meal keeps me full and satisfied for anywhere from two and a half to three hours. Sometimes longer, depending on my energy and activity output of that day.
And then when I said, I typically have a larger meal for dinner ... so an example of a 700 calorie-ish dinner that I've been having lately is my absolute favorite cilantro lime Jasmine rice, with about four ounces of chicken, fire roasted corn, shredded mozzarella cheese, and top it with guacamole salsa. It's kind of like a copycat Chipotle bowl. And to give you an example of what the macros are for this, it's 47 grams of protein, 84 grams of carbs, and 25 grams of fat. All that to say, please do not be afraid of eating larger meals. I personally find that I love eating three or so bigger meals, and then having two or so smaller snacks throughout the day. And that is ultimately what makes me feel my absolute best.
Habit number six, prioritizing bars and protein shakes over real food. Yes, I typically have a protein bar per day, and yes, I even have a scoop of protein in my strawberry milkshake, but I also eat real food throughout my entire day too. Now, there was a point in my life where I thought protein bars and shakes were going to help me lose more weight instead of just eating real food. But the truth is, they're not going to make you get any skinnier or more fit or whatever it is that you're aiming for, rather than real food. The only thing that they will do is be a great convenience in your life. I eat them because they're convenient, not for any other stupid reason that you might hear on the internet, like they'll burn fat. Pardon in my French, but that's a load of BS.
But here's another thing. If all you're eating throughout your day is bars and shakes, you're going to be missing out on a lot of micronutrients that your body needs as well, which is vital to your overall health and wellbeing. You need real food to feel satisfied. Sometimes the bars and shakes will actually make you feel like you need to eat more food at the end of your day. And in my opinion, real food is more satiating and satisfying than bars and shakes.
And guess what? Real food is also great for helping you build the body that you want. So always finding that balance. And again, I am not saying that you can't have a protein shake or you can't have a protein bar. That is not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is that if you can find a balance of those things, not only will you be able to hit your micro and macro goals, but you will likely feel most satisfied at the end of the day.
Habit number seven, not eating enough food. You probably know it already and it's not brand new information for you, but I know it's something that many of you struggle with, with breaking this mentality, even though you know otherwise. You need to make sure that were eating enough food. You need to stop thinking that eating less food is going to help you lose more weight. Eating as little as possible will mess up your metabolism long term. Please do not do that. Don't mess with that territory, because it can take years to recover from. And I'm speaking from experience, don't do it. Nourish your body with what it needs. Don't deprive your body of what it needs.
I've outlined the dangers and explain in depth why you don't want to skimp out on your calories in episode 18, which is an OG episode, but it is, What Happens When You Don't Eat Enough. I will actually be sure to link that in the show notes below so that you can easily go listen to that. But just remember this, nourishment will lead to building the body that you want, but eating as little as possible can lead to a broken metabolism, for lack of a better term. But honestly, you guys speaking from experience, please, please, please do not damage your metabolism. It will take years and years of really being intentional about trying to repair your metabolism if that happens.
The good news is you absolutely can, and our bodies are adaptable. So if you're already there, please do not feel discouraged and just say, I'm just going to give up because there's no point. There absolutely is. There was a point when I got into my health and fitness journey, I genuinely, genuinely gained weight on eating 1,000 calories a day. And it was because I had gotten to, basically the point of no return in my metabolism. And I'm so, so thankful for a reverse diet. I actually talk about that in episode 46, I really go in depth about my journey about reverse dieting. But again, going back to that episode, that will really help you learn why it's important to not skimp out on calories. Episode 18, What Happens When You Don't Eat Enough. I will link that in the show notes below.
Okay. So let me recap those seven nutrition habits that you need to break if you want to start seeing better results. Number one, stop prioritizing calories over macros. It's really, really important that you're eating that balance of protein, carbs, and fats. Number two, stop eyeballing your food, especially if you have no education behind it. And that will likely make it a lot more difficult for you to see results. Number three, you're not eating the foods that you want enough. So you're only prioritizing the quote-unquote, "healthy foods," which will lead you to binge and over eat on those other foods that you're restricting.
Number four, you're trying to go as long as you can without eating. Number five, you're not eating enough at meals. Please remember that large meals are not bad meals. Number six, you're prioritizing bars and protein shakes over real food. Again, bars and protein themselves are not bad. But if that's all you're eating, it's likely that you're not going to hit your micronutrients goal, which is really important as well. And it will likely lead you to overeating because you won't feel satisfied. And number seven, you are not eating enough food.
So here's what I want you to do. I want you to learn how to properly feel your body. You can do that by downloading my free ebook. Again, juliealedbetter.com/free ebook, or I will put it in the show notes. I want you to learn and be better educated on the portion sizes of foods in relation to what your body needs. I want you to prioritize eating less nutrient dense foods, along with more nutrient dense foods. Just finding that balance so that you can still eat like pizza, ice cream, and all of your favorite foods. I want you to eat enough food at each meal, I want you to eat real food, and I want you to eat enough food overall. When you do those seven things, you will see results. Hands down. I can, 100% guarantee that if you do all of those seven things, you will see results.
Again, the three episodes that I referred to in today's podcast, episode 18, What Happens When You Don't Eat Enough. Episode 206, Five Nutrition Tips for Consistently Nourishing Your Body. And then I also mentioned episode 46, which is talking all about reverse diet. The good news is, like I said, if you feel like you've gotten to the point of no return, you really damaged your metabolism, our bodies are very adaptable and a reverse diet can really help you out. So if you're interested in that, go to episode 46.
That is all that I have for today's episode. I hope that you found this educational. I hope that you found it empowering to know that you can likely just fix one or more of these habit that you've been doing, which will help you to finally see results in your health and fitness journey. It's all about education, honestly. It's all about educating yourself, empowering yourself, and then just taking action and doing it. Doing the dang thing, day in and day out. It's not going to look perfect. Like I always say imperfect, but consistent action will always lead to results. Remember that, remember that, remember that.
If you have a girlfriend or someone in your life that you feel like would benefit from this episode, I just ask that you shared out with them. You can also screenshot this, post it up on your story or on social media. Be sure to tag me, Julie A. Ledbetter, I love connecting with you guys. Thanks again for tuning in. And I'll talk to you in the next episode.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the 'Gram, be sure to do so, Julie A. Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle. For that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode.
Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real, because you're worth it.