Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - How Emily Lost 25 Pounds and Got Strong In Just 3 Months

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

In this podcast, I interview Emily, who read my book Thinner Leaner Stronger and joined my one-on-one coaching program to take her health into her own hands, lose 25 pounds, and get leaner and stronger than ever before. Before she found my work, she was 175 pounds and felt skinny fat. She didn’t feel like she knew what she was doing, especially when it came to nutrition, and was spinning her wheels. As a result, she decided to invest in herself, join my coaching program, and now she’s transformed herself into a lean, strong, and confident person. After a 3-month cut, she dropped 25 pounds, 10% body fat, and now she maintains around 160 pounds with a completely overhauled body composition. And the best part is she realized that once she had the knowledge, she had the power to make a change. Despite dealing with disordered eating in the past, she learned about what it really takes to lose weight without feeling hungry, fixed her relationship with food, and gained the confidence to know she can get results on command. So in this episode you’re going to learn how Emily navigated challenges like preparing for an ultramarathon while strength training and dropping body fat, what she learned about protein and why she changed her vegetarian diet, how she avoided derailing her progress while on vacation or during cheat meals, and more. So, if you're looking for motivation and inspiration, make sure to tune in to this episode. Timestamps: (0:00) - Legion VIP One-on-One Coaching: https://www.muscleforlife.show/vip (5:23) - Where were you with your fitness journey before you found Legion coaching? (9:28) - What was your body composition like when you started our coaching program? (10:58) - How did your body composition change over your coaching period? (16:14) - Did you stay vegetarian while doing the coaching program? (22:12) - How was your coaching experience? (25:10) - Is there anything else about nutrition that surprised you? (32:12) - What was your diet like during their coaching program? (43:51) - What did your work schedule look like while you were getting coached? (49:10) - Is there anything you would like to add? Mentioned on the show: Legion VIP One-on-One Coaching: https://www.muscleforlife.show/vip

Hi, hi, and welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life. I am your host, Mike Matthews. Thank you for joining me today for a success story episode, an interview with Emily, who read my book, Thinner, Leaner, Stronger, and then signed up for my one-on-one coaching program. And she lost 25 pounds of fat and gained a significant amount of muscle and strength. And before she found me in my work, Emily was about 175 pounds. And in her own words, she felt skinny fat and she didn't know what she was doing, especially with nutrition. And she felt like she was just treading water. And so she found my book Thinner Leaner Stronger and read it and it made a lot of sense to water. And so she found my book, Thinner Leaner, stronger and read it. And it made a lot of sense to her.

And then she decided to sign up for my coaching program just to make it as easy and foolproof as possible. And in three months of coaching, she dropped 25 pounds. She lost 10% body fat. And as you can imagine, she now has a completely different body composition. And like many women I have heard from over the years, Emily was also surprised to learn that with proper strength training, which adds muscle, which is very dense, the look that she really wanted is a higher body weight than she thought it was going to be when she started

all of this. So I have heard from many women over the years who, when they start their fitness journey and their strength training journey, let's say their evidence-based fitness journey, they have a certain number in mind that they associate with how they want to look. And that's usually based on some period in the past when they liked how they looked and they weighed a certain amount, maybe in college or sometimes even in high school. I've heard from women who obviously later in high school, you know, 17, 18, and then going out of high school, 19, 20, usually in that range, they weighed a certain amount and they were happy with how they looked. And then later in life, they have this idea that they need to weigh what they weighed in high school, you know,

late high school or in their early twenties to be happy with how they looked. But as Emily learned, when you start gaining muscle in the right places on your body, you weigh more than you expect, but you really like what you see in the mirror. In many cases, women will go through this process. They will add 10 to 15 pounds of muscle in the right places on their body and they will end up weighing 10, 15, even 20 pounds more than they thought they wanted to weigh in the beginning, but end up looking even better than or liking what they see even more than that earlier period in their life when they were not strength training, when they just had youth on their side, basically. And with that additional muscle, though, comes curves,

comes an athletic, but still feminine look. And so I always like to hear from women who experience that process because it's very liberating for them to realize that body composition matters a lot more than body weight. I have seen many female transformations, many women who have reached out to me just to share their before and afters, where the before and after weights have either not changed much. So maybe they started at 140 and they ended at 135. In some cases, their before and after weights were essentially the same starting at 140, ending at 140, sometimes smaller women starting at 120, ending at 120. But because of the change in body composition, because they essentially quote unquote traded

many pounds of fat for many pounds of muscle, of course, you can't turn fat into muscle, but by simultaneously losing fat and replacing that weight with muscle on the right places on their body, they look completely different. And so anyway, my guest today, Emily, went through that process and she talks about it. And she also fixed her relationship with food, which is huge. And she gained the confidence to know that she can do whatever she wants with her body composition, that she can continue to get leaner. If she wants to continue to get leaner, she can focus on gaining muscle and strength. She can focus on just maintaining what she has. And that also is very empowering when you understand that your genetics can't get in the way, your environment can't get

in the way, your food preferences, exercise preferences, schedule, none of these things can get in the way because you know how to make it all work. Hello, Emily. Good afternoon. Hey, Mike. How are you? I'm doing all right. How are you? I'm doing well. Cool. Well, thanks for taking the time to do this. You're still at work, so I appreciate you staying at work a little bit longer. That's okay. And we're here, of course, to talk about you and to talk about your fitness journey, your fitness transformation. And we can kind of start wherever you would like to start. Often,

you know, people will say, you know, before. So if I rewind, this is kind of what was going on. So we could start there. Or if you had something else in mind, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna listen and ask the occasional question. Yeah, cool. So growing up, I was always an athlete. I think a lot of your listeners and a lot of people who've done the Legion journey have been that position before and got into the workforce. Fast forward a couple years, late 20s, and I really didn't know that much about nutrition. I thought that if I wanted to get a certain physique that I just needed to stop eating, basically. I had dealt with a few eating disorders growing up. I'm also six foot, so I'm a pretty tall person, especially for a lady. So I had some body issue images of that. I guess I was about 29, 30. I was getting married. I had pretty much cut out a lot of

bad habits with eating. I guess, depending if you're talking about eating disorders, maybe it wasn't so good because I was cutting out a lot of stuff. But anyway, so after my wedding, the weight just kind of piled on. I wasn't as focused on it. And I had started weightlifting a little bit. I had bought your book, started weightlifting, didn't really know what I was doing, spinning my wheels. And in addition to having been an athlete, I decided I was going to become a runner too. So I started running. You can probably tell where this is going. So not great nutrition, running a lot and still not looking the way I wanted. So I was like, you know what? It was around Christmas time. I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go ahead and look into

doing this Legion coaching thing. I'll go ahead and do my form and see what happens. And I heard back and that's kind of how it started. And that was, I guess I started in 2020. So we were in the midst of the pandemic too. So there's all this crazy stuff going on. And I decided that I was going to do this crazy thing too. I was curious, did your decision to do it then,

what was that related to COVID somehow and what was going on? Or was it just something just happened to be okay? You've had enough and it's time to do something. Yeah, I think it was a little bit of all that. The reason I ask that is some people I've spoken to here on the podcast and just in day-to-day life, they gained a fair amount of weight during COVID and lockdowns, or they fell behind in their fitness.

And then other people, the opposite, they got fitter during COVID. Ironically, I'm one of those people just because I was no longer then driving to the gym because my gym was closed. I was working out at home. So I was like, I guess I'm not going to drive. I'll just go do cardio. So I just started doing more cardio, eating the same. So I just got leaner and looked better at the end of it. That's why I asked. I was definitely working out more, but it was like spinning my wheels because I wasn't doing what I needed to do and what I've learned to do to get the body that I wanted. I was running a ton. My teammate, actually, I'm a PE teacher,

so my teammate is my best friend and my running buddy. So we would sign up and do races and things. And a lot of them were virtual, but eating a ton and running a lot, but I still didn't look like I was. And that was really frustrating. And then, you know, my wedding came and went and I put on a lot more weight than I, you know, when I look at the pictures now, I'm like, wow, I had no idea I had gained that much weight. And by no means was I an obese person, but you think of yourself in a certain way. And then when you see a picture, you're like, oh, dang, like that's not, that's not kosher. That's not what I want. So I really felt like I was spinning my wheels. And I needed some more direction. And I

honestly didn't know it was so much nutrition based. Like I thought I was pretty good, but I was not. And I'd also been a vegetarian for a long time. So that was not helping me either. Yeah, yeah, that makes it more challenging. I want to follow up on several things, but just to give people an idea. Okay. So when you, when you started working with us, what, what did your body composition look like at that time? Yeah. So I was sitting around 175 pounds. I think we went back and looked at it. I was like 30% body fat. So in the scheme of things, that's within the range of healthy. It's just a matter of, do you like that look or not? Some women do, some women don't.

Yeah. If people were to see me walking down the street, they would be like, oh, that's a pretty average looking person. She's really tall and she's somewhat slender. And you always use the term skinny fat. I definitely felt like I fell more into that category than anything else. Yeah, which is almost inevitable for many women if they're doing a lot of cardio, not maintaining a very low percentage of body fat, which isn't even necessarily healthy. But some women get around the skinny fat by being like 15% body fat, which isn't even necessarily healthy. But some women get around the skinny fat by being like 15% body fat. Okay. But then that's also a look that some women do not like. And then there are health considerations as well. Performance wise, I wanted to keep

being active. I'm definitely more active now than I was at the time. I was not in the gym as a PE teacher. I was a fourth grade teacher. So which looks very different. So, yeah, my whole nutrition fitness journey has kind of led me to a new position at work, too, which has been really great. But, yeah, just wasn't where I wanted to be. And before we get into the details, I'm just curious. So how is your body composition change or how did it change over the course? I think I've pretty much done the full gamut now because I was, you know, with the elite coaching

side of things, checking in like every week. And then I went down to, I can't remember what the other levels are, but I've backed off and now I just use the app, which I really do love. And I can touch base with Jeff when I need to. I'm now in more of a maintenance phase. I'm about between 158 and 160. And my body fat percentage is about 20 right now. And when I look at the pictures, you can really see the difference. And I would like to probably do another cut because I've kind of gone through some cutting phases and now some bulking phases. I would like to be a little bit leaner, but honestly, like my energy levels now are way better. When I was the most thin was after my first cut with Luke, which was a while ago now. But yeah, I felt like I was dying at that point.

I joke that something that many lean people don't want to admit, very lean people don't want to admit is maybe even to themselves, is that they would feel a lot better with more body fat. They would have more energy. They would sleep better, better workouts, better sex drive. Everything is just better. Being super lean is cool. It's fun to look at, but it does sometimes feel like a measure of death. It really does. And I was, I think at my lowest, I was around 150 and you could definitely tell I was super lean for me. So I had ab definition. I wouldn't say I had a six pack or anything like that. And is it worth it? Exactly. I mean, I'll say though, in defense of, of at least doing it once, it's not a bad idea to do it once.

And just to say you've done it, I think once you do that, you also, nobody is now going to be able to convince you that energy balance isn't a thing and that calories in versus calories out doesn't actually work or doesn't matter. You've seen it work firsthand. And the only trap you can fall into, which I don't know if you've experienced this, I have a lot of other people who have gotten very lean have, is that once you've been very lean, there's a part of you that thinks that anything fatter is just fat. If you're not 17% body fat, like 20% is just, you know, there's you look in

the mirror, you're like, eh, meh, whatever. I looked better when I was leaner. Yeah. I was, I emailed Jeff. I was like, Hey, by the way, I'm doing the podcast and, uh, I'm definitely not my most lean. I mean, I know, I know I've been successful, but I'm not my most lean, but that's okay. Right. He's like, Oh yeah. I can still do it if I'm not like absolutely shredded. Right. It's still OK. Yeah. And I think that's important, too, because, you know, like you want to be a functioning person. You want to be in your relationships. You want to be happy. Like I was at the point where I wasn't eating with my husband anymore. We weren't eating the same meals or eating at the same time. And like that's that's a stress.

Yeah. And then there are some genetic components that come into play too. Everybody, we have different, I wouldn't necessarily use the term set points. It's not a fixed body composition. Maybe a settling point is a better term for it. A range of our body fatness in particular that our body likes is a simple way of putting it. And that can change. We can shift that range upward or downward based on our behaviors. And it seems to change slowly, but it does seem that there are certain body fat levels that, you know, some people, they just seem to have a fairly easy

time maintaining very low body fat levels. And, and, you know, I don't know about you, but I've known these people personally, meaning it's not somebody on social media who seems to not have to work so hard to stay very lean, but they're just not showing you everything that they actually do. Now I've known people who, yes, they're active, but they couldn't explain to you what a calorie is. They've never tracked the macro and yeah, they work out, maybe they played sports, whatever, but so did these other people. And why do they look that way? So there are some genetic factors in play as well, but it sounds like though, that you have found a sweet spot where you like the way you look, you like the way your body performs and you like the lifestyle that provides those things that you're not having to spend far more time or energy on this stuff than you want to. Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, I had

tossed around the idea of like, could I someday do a bodybuilding competition? You know, could I do a show? And yeah, I could if I wanted. And now I have that power. I know I can. That's pretty cool. And like you said, with the set point, definitely feel like I found a sweet spot. Would I prefer to be a little bit more lean? Yeah. But is it really going to make that big? So would we all. It's everybody. It doesn't matter how lean they are. They're going to tell you the exact same thing. It's a curse. Like you said, I'm like, if 150 was when I was my lowest, I'm always going to want that. And anything more is just fat, but it's not curse like you said i'm like if 150 was when i was my lowest and i'm always gonna want that and anything more is just fat but it's not black and white and i think that's one of the most powerful things of going through this is you get to learn all those nuances totally let's talk

about nutrition so you mentioned uh vegetarian and you you are still a vegetarian i'm assuming i am not oh interesting okay yeah. Okay. Yeah. Did that change during the coaching or was that before? So I guess to put things in perspective, I'm 32. When I was in college, my sister and I, and she's about my age, we started watching documentaries and things like that on nutrition and more of the environmental impact of eating meat. And not that I don't think that's still important, but I kind of went into it when I was in college thinking, this would be a great way for me to be healthier

because from these documentaries, I was hearing you're healthier. It seems like a no brainer in every way. Yeah, you're healthier if you don't eat meat. So I was like, well, I'm very concerned about being a healthy person. So I'm not gonna be eating meat and it'll was like, well, I'm very concerned about being a healthy person. So I'm not going to be eating meat and it'll help the environment too. Awesome. Which I know science

kind of shows it depends on what you look at, right? Anything can be supportive, but there's a happy medium. So I went for about seven years being a vegetarian. I played volleyball growing up for about 13 years and I started playing again and I was like, gosh, I feel dead. I had no energy. So it just wasn't really working for me. And so I slowly started to reintroduce meat and did salmon and eggs. And then eventually, I was like, you know what, I'm just going to try eating meat again. I was like, oh my god, what have I been doing to myself? And obviously, it's a personal choice. And everyone has their own code of ethics with it. But I felt like I needed to eat meat again.

You know, it's hard to say because there's so many different factors that could go into body composition. But I really feel like not eating meat did me a disservice in a lot of ways because I was just eating tons of carbs and fat. Yeah, I was going to say, I'm guessing your protein intake was quite low. And if it's too low, it becomes a major impediment to not just body composition, but to health. Low-protein diet is unhealthy, and it only gets unhealthier as we get older, stretch into our middle ages and beyond. It then speeds up sarcopenia. And just to comment quickly on the environmental impact and the ethical considerations, totally understandable. Something that is just a piece of advice, not necessarily for you, but for people listening, I would suggest before making life-altering decisions based on a documentary or one side of an argument. I don't care how that information is presented.

Try to go look at the other side of the argument as well and try to look at the strongest counterpoints to the side that okay, so let's say you feel there are some strong arguments that suggest that giving up meat is just the way to go. It's better for your health. It's better for the planet. It's better for animals. Seek out the strongest counter arguments you can find and then weigh them against each other and then make your decision. Try not to only hear one side of an argument, especially something that has been politicized because there's a lot of effective propaganda out there on both sides of a lot of controversial issues. And if you only expose

yourself to one source of that propaganda, and that doesn't even have to be used negatively necessarily, this is information that is meant to influence people's attitudes and behaviors, then you can make mistakes. You can make poor decisions simply because you didn't go and look at the other side. And if you would have, maybe you would have thought differently. Exactly. And I was, I mean, gosh, 23 at this point. You know, and what you just said is so true.

And that's the value of doing your homework, so to say. And I feel like with the coaching, with nutrition, you don't know what you don't know. And there's nothing you can do other than try to expose yourself to as many opinions as possible. And just to comment quickly on vegetarians, if there are vegetarians or vegans listening, you certainly can get into great shape with a vegetarian diet. Even with vegan diet, you can stay that way. However, the more restrictive a diet becomes, especially with sources of protein in particular, the more you have to micromanage it. You have to really start paying attention to what foods you are eating and why you are eating them. And that diet executed well, a vegetarian diet or a vegan diet executed well for body composition and health may not be enjoyable to, I'm speaking

to anybody listening who is currently eating that way and struggling with it or thinking about it. You have fewer options if you want to make sure that you are providing your body with enough protein and enough key micronutrients. So you can make it work for anybody who wants to, just know it does take more work. It takes a bit more, I guess, discipline can make it work for anybody who wants to just know it does take more work. It takes a bit more, I guess, discipline to make it work. Yeah. And I definitely was not doing that. Yeah. A lot of people understandably, I mean, they don't want to, okay, it's now it's not just eating five servings or six servings of vegetables per day. It's eating very specific ones for specific reasons. And then it's actually figuring out, right, how am I going to get, let's say in your case, we probably wouldn't want to go below 120 or 130 grams of protein per

day on average. So you're like, all right, how do I do that? Is half of that just going to be powders? And then what's the other half? And then can you find a powder you can stomach? I know my sister is still a vegetarian. So these are comments and questions I always ask her, like, have you found something that you like? She's seen me go through this process now and how your body can change if you're giving it what it needs. And she's like, no, I still haven't found anything. So like, I know that's a challenge for her.

And of course I've told her about your stuff, but she's also, she lives in Florida. She's going through to get her doctorate. So she's like, I can't spend money on anything right now. I understand. You had also mentioned that you were surprised at just how much of a difference nutrition made. I believe you were referencing your coaching experience. And can you talk to us about that?

Yeah, of course. So when I first started kind of sending my preferences, this is how I've been eating. This is what I like to eat a bunch of recommendations, which was awesome. Cause then I could customize it, you know, not just, well, you're going to eat this, this, and this, you know, when you're counting your macros, you can be a little bit more flexible. So, you know, protein was like the number one thing, right? You need to, and I think I was on the higher end. At that point, when I first started, I was looking at

like 170 grams of protein per day, you know, which is probably on the higher end. And some people might be like, well, you don't need that. But, but if for people, I mean, you, you also are tall and I think you said you weighed about 170 pounds or so in the beginning. So that's not an unreasonable amount of protein. If you really were adamant, it could have been lowered. But again, if I were working with you one-on-one, I would say, Emily, can we please get 130 or 140? Let's try not to go below that because it's just going to get in the way of results and you're going to be more hungry, which just means you're more likely to overeat, which means even worse results and so on. Yeah. So protein is like my favorite thing now. Basically, I've changed everything that I consume to focus on protein. So that was number one.

And then looking at carbs and fats, I can't remember the exact numbers now, but I know those were a little bit lower because I started in a cut when I first started with the coaching. And you were eating a lot of carbs and fat previously, right? Yeah. I mean, and that's something I know we'll talk about, like, what would you do differently? I probably, if I were to go back, I would want to do a little bit more tracking before I started, you know, the cut so that I knew exactly what I had been doing and what I didn't want to do again in the future. I don't know if you'd call that like a pre that loss phase, but that's something that I kind of wish I had more data on just so I know exactly what I was doing. Just out of curiosity, how, what value would that have been

to you? Just like a comparison, a starting point, like these are the habits that you had sort of thing. And these are the habits that you've built over time and what you've changed. Cause I think that could be really valuable because I know, I mean, I have no idea how much protein or how little protein I was eating, but I know it was a ton of carbs and fats. No one gets fat from eating too many vegetables, obviously. I joke, I joke that like they can get fat by, by eating too much fruit is like, like telling guys that they can, they can be sexy by, by getting a lot of money. Like, yeah, but it takes a lot. It takes a lot. It's not just, it's not just a moderate amount of fruit or money that it needs to be a shitload.

Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, I don't, maybe it wouldn't be very helpful to know, but I'm just kind of curious what I was eating. Yeah. I could see that. I mean, obviously the experience, you know, you know, the, the difference where you're like, okay, this is more protein and this is a lot less carbs and fat. And is there anything else about the nutrition in particular that was surprising to you? How protein helps keep you full. So not only did it help with, you know, body composition changes, it also helps keep you full, which was awesome because maybe this is all humans, but for me and my personality, I was like, I like to control things. I'm very type A.

So I was like, well, what happens if I get too hungry? I'm just going to be hungry all the time. And that really worried me. I was not as hungry as much as I thought I was going to be. Now, near the end of the cut, yeah, I was pretty darn hungry. That was like the last big push. You know, when I was trying to really get down to my lowest weight possible and the goal weight that we had set. And actually I went past the goal weight we set. I went lower, but I was like, let's push it. Let's see.

Yeah. So fullness, being hungry, wasn't a big issue. Eating the protein. Also just learning like how many calories are in a gram of protein? You know, and now working with kids and being in the physical education world, like, I wish we taught more of that. And I've tried to implement it into our lessons and things like the education is just not there. And, you know, I'm having like these, like aha moments as a 30 year old about nutrition that I feel like, wow, if I had known this before,

I would not be in the same position I'm in now. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard that from a lot of people who've gone through this process. Like, why didn't I learn this at least in high school? Like, why didn't I learn the basics that not, not, not that we should be encouraging teenagers to start counting calories. No, that's not the point. It's just to understand how our body works. That's all we're talking about is understanding our metabolism. Really? Yeah. Like you said, the carbs make you fat thing. You know, you can only lose weight doing keto or whatever it is, you know, all these gimmicks. I hate to use the word gimmicks, but it's like all these lines about nutrition that we're fed. They're usually stemming from people trying to make money.

Unfortunately, that's kind of how life works. Many people are mostly just motivated by money. That's about it. Yeah, it's so true. Well, now like my bullshit radar goes off anytime there's some kind of commercial on TV, you know, starvation mode and this and that. And it's like, wow, would I still be buying into that

if I had not done your coaching program? And it's like, wow, would I still be buying into that if I had not done your coaching program? And probably because I hear adults, I mean, I work mostly with women being in education at the elementary school level. And I hear it here, you know, in passing, or when we have our big luncheons, these misconceptions about nutrition. Have any of them asked for your advice? Because they've seen now your body change, and I'm sure that whoa something's happening here yeah so my teammates I work with I've shared a lot of what I've learned with her we have very different body types and shapes and where I'm tall she's very short so there's like

some things there but she's implemented a lot of it too and looks great I remember when I was at my leanest someone had asked me what was going on, like, what was I doing? And I told her that I was really focusing on weightlifting and nutrition. And she's like, well, I don't want to get bulky, which we all hear that. I was like, I wish I could get bulky. Like now I just want to be as big and strong as possible. Like I wish I was bulky, but it just does not work that way for us. Exactly. The only women who, and often they're not concerned about getting bulky, but you do have people just like with guys as well, who were always big and strong. Like that, that's just their body type. Even at a young age, they were just the big, strong kid, the big, strong boy,

the big, strong girl. And then they get into weightlifting. They're still big and strong. And they're always the biggest and strongest, you know, boys or girls in the gym. Many of those people end up getting into sports for obvious reasons. And even those people still have to work at it, though, to even get that kind of bulky look. I wish I was like, man, I remember laughing when she said it. And she was like, like, I'm not laughing at you. I'm just laughing at the fact that it would take a lot more than, whoa, she's way too bulky. If you just stay lean, the sheer amount of muscle it would take to really look bulky is, it's just not there genetically for most women, just as it's not there genetically for most men to look like a hulking bodybuilder. It doesn't matter what they do, unless they were to take drugs. If they just stay off drugs, it doesn't matter how hard they work. It's just not going to happen.

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so you can develop a healthy and a sustainable relationship with food and training and more. But then there's the kicker. Because once you are thrilled with your results, we ask you to fire us. Seriously. You've heard the phrase, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Well, that summarizes how my one-on-one coaching service works. And that's why it doesn't make nearly as much coin as it could, but I'm okay with that

because my mission is not to just help you gain muscle and lose fat. It's to give you the tools and to give you the know-how that you need to forge ahead in your fitness without me. So dig this. When you sign up for my coaching, we don't just take you by the hand and walk you through the entire process of building a body you can be proud of. We also teach you the all-important whys behind the hows, the key principles, and the key techniques you need to understand to become your own coach. And the best part, it only takes 90 days. So instead of going it alone this year,

why not try something different? Head over to muscleforlife.show slash VIP. That is muscle F-O-R life.show slash VIP and schedule your free consultation call now. And let's see if my one-on-one coaching service is right for you. One other question about nutrition before I move on to training, just because people like to hear specifics. So can you share just an example of your menu, your meal plan, the type of foods you were eating during the program. So while you were changing your body composition. Yeah. And actually I still eat the same way.

Which is a good sign. That means that you worked it out. You found stuff you like to eat. Exactly. And I think that's the key. I literally eat the same thing every day. Was that the case before? No, it definitely was not. I found that I really do enjoy it. You know, I'm eating things that I like. And the control part of me gets to control that. Maybe I'm a little rigid. I know, we go to my husband's house for the holidays. I do not typically eat what everyone else is eating. That's something that I need to work on. Like, I'm that person being a little bit more flexible buzz like no, I know what's in this I know it's hitting what I need and thankfully his family's really cool with it and they're very accommodating

I eat a ton of non-fat greek yogurt it's like my go-to so I usually start with like 350 grams of that in the morning for my breakfast I make this crazy weird concoction where I put a little bit of gel like cheesecake sugar-free jello mix in it to really thicken it up. I zap some blueberries in the microwave, like 100 grams, and then I top it with PB Fit powder. It's like a dessert. Yeah. It was so funny. I made it over the break or over the holiday, and my husband's mom said something about it to somebody. Oh, she's like, well, if I ran all the time and did what Emily does, I would eat dessert for breakfast too. And I wanted to say, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's not dessert. It is a treat, but it's not dessert.

So I usually start with that. I do the protein coffee. I stick my protein powder in my coffee. When I'm at work, our lunch is at 10 45 AM. So I usually wait to eat my breakfast until a little bit later in the day. So I flex my time. And then I have a huge salad for dinner with a ton of meat on it and different vegetables. And I still weigh everything out again. Maybe that's just me being too controlling and I need to be more flexible. But I do enjoy tracking macros and measuring my food. What is the saying? You can't manage what you don't measure, measure what you manage. I mean, everybody who has gone through this process, let's say most have weighed and tracked

food for a period. And I recommend that everybody do it if they haven't done it, because it will really teach you. It's eye opening. Yeah. I would say most people who have gone through this kind of evidence-based fitness transformation, if you will, this whole process have weighed or tracked their food, at least for a period. And it's something that I'd recommend everybody do. You don't have to do it forever, but if you've never done it before, and especially if you're kind of new to all of this stuff, create a meal plan, weigh and track everything for a few reasons.

One, and Emily, you can take over and you can speak to why you are even still doing it. I doubt it's just because you're being OCD. There actually are some big benefits. Even if it's a little bit of that, there's probably other reasons too. But let's say for people who have no kind of OCD in them, that doesn't appeal to them at all, but it will teach you portion control. So a lot of people are surprised to learn what a proper portion of a certain amount of food looks like. What is a tablespoon of peanut butter actually? What is a cup of something actually? Not a heaping pile, but like a measured out to the gram type cup.

And you apply that to all the foods that you like to eat. And then it can be very helpful for when you are not weighing or tracking, because at that point, you know what proper portions look like. It's also, I'll say this, and then you can take over and just share your experience with it. But it's also in my experience, especially when you're cutting and you want to make sure that you're precise. And if you're on any sort of deadline where it actually does matter that you reach this goal in four, six, eight, whatever weeks, as opposed to double that, it's nice to know that you're not accidentally eating more than you should be or than you want to be eating.

And so by weighing and tracking, it just gives you some peace of mind that your calories are right in the range that they need to be. You're not tricking yourself and accidentally doubling or increasing portions of things by 20, 30, 40, 50%. And it only takes a couple of those errors to almost completely wipe out or completely wipe out your calorie deficit for that day. And so those are some of the reasons why I've enjoyed it and why I do think that everybody should try it. I mean, there are exceptions to rules. If somebody has had a really rough history with food and disordered eating, particularly along these lines, okay,

fine. That's an exception. But in my experience, most people find it very beneficial. Yeah. And maybe that's part of it. I've had issues in the past with disordered eating. So for me, it's like a comfort in a way. The peanut butter thing is really sad. And that's why I usually use the peanut butter powder because it still gives me that taste. And I've learned how to treat and alter things so that I still get the taste and the textures that I like. But anyway, measuring, tracking it in MyFitnessPal has been really, really helpful for me. What about cheat meals or treat meals? Did you incorporate any of that or did you not really feel the need to? During my first cut, I did. My husband and I would always go out to dinner on

Saturday nights and I would definitely let my guard down a little bit and enjoy. But we would usually go to a restaurant where the portion sizes were not huge to begin with. So it was more of an upscale place and we would get dessert. I mean, it doesn't have to be a treat meals don't have to be binges. It's just something different, something tasty, something to look forward to. Yeah. That's a misconception. We're bombarded with like, this is what The Rock has when he does his big binge. That's what we should do too. Yeah. Yeah. oh gosh.

Seven pizzas or whatever. Yeah, whatever it is. You get to see the big stacks of food he consumes. But something else that came out of me going through this process, it's for everyone. It's up to you personally, but I don't drink alcohol anymore. And did you stop drinking during the coaching or was that before? During the coaching.

I was never a huge drinker. That was not something that I really loved anyway. I would, of course, have like two or three drinks if we went out to dinner or something, but I don't miss it. And it was impacting my workout. So I didn't want to track alcohol. Like, cause that's also not fun. So you were not, you were not drinking much, but you were noticing, uh, better workouts just by cutting it out altogether. Yep. And I would rather eat my calories and drink them. That was something

else that came out of it that I just thought of, but yeah, having a clear plan measuring. that came out of it that I just thought of. But yeah, having a clear plan, measuring. Yeah, wine. Wine, I think it's like 25 to 30 calories an ounce, I think, an ounce. Yeah, not that carbs are bad, but most wine, carbs. Yeah, I was talking to somebody in the gym just recently and it was joking with him

that he finally had the realization, the disappointing moment when he realized that he's just going to have to drink less wine or just stop drinking wine to lose his gut. Like that's what he's going to have to do. I was like, dude, there's just no way. I'm sorry. You can't drink two bottles of wine every weekend and make this work. I'm sorry. It's just not going to work. And then the occasional drink throughout the week, too. There is a point where even the sheer calories become insurmountable basically.

And I guess it depends on like, why are you drinking just because you enjoy it? You know, like what are you trying to accomplish? So it's all about goal setting and what you want. It wasn't what I wanted. And so I don't really, and I don't miss it. And I would say it's the, that's the smart decision. It's not necessarily the easy one for a lot of people, but alcohol is a poison. The research is clear that there are no, the, the, the downsides very much outweigh any potential upsides, which are even controversial at this point. Some people's bodies just deal with it better than others.

That's true. But everybody will be better off without alcohol. There's nobody who is going to benefit from any amount of alcohol, unfortunately, for people who like alcohol. Yeah. So I'm still tracking. I still weigh things. I put it in my fitness pal. And even if I'm over the holidays, I was obviously a little bit more lax. I always try to eat the same breakfast, like set myself up for protein. So then later in the day, I could enjoy other things

while still hitting my targets and my goals for my macros. But yeah, I'm going to continue doing it. Until one day you might be like, all right, it's like the little blanket like the kids you know eventually you give the blanket up well i will say this we uh finally we got married in 2020 my husband and i and we finally went on our honeymoon last summer we did like uh we flew into scotland and we drove around scotland we did ireland and iceland i did not track any of that partially because there is no way in hell I could have, but... Yeah. Yeah. That's good. That's also good advice for vacation, what you just said. Something that

is very simple and workable is try to work in some physical activity of some kind. If you can, it doesn't have to be workouts per se, but maybe it's hiking or just walking around. Try to get your protein in and then have one or maybe two just whatever meals where you're not worried about calories or macros. You're eating what you want. Again, binging, I would not recommend, but not worrying about it, just eating to satisfaction. And if you need some snacks along the way, just stick to high protein things. It's a very simple way to enjoy your vacation without coming back five pounds fatter, which is not that big of a deal. You can go lose it. But if you don't need to, then why? Why not just come back exactly where you left off? Yeah. So we were hiking a ton, but even just hitting your steps, if you have a step

target, that's super important too. So I'll stack. I do a lot of habit stacking now. And first thing, if I'm on vacation, I walk. I try to get at least 5,000 steps in the morning. 10 if it's a good day. Yeah, that's great. And for people listening, sometimes putting those steps into time context helps. So 10,000 steps is about an hour and a half of walking for,

for most people. So to do, to do 5,000, so you're going out for like, you know, a 45 minute walk, which I would hope that most people could do if they're on vacation. I hope they would give themselves time. I mean, I did get creative because I know you're in Florida. It got pretty cold there over Christmas. It was freezing where we were. It was like 11 degrees. So I mean, I still do run occasionally, nothing like I was. But my mother-in-law and I started doing like the Apple fitness dancing. Like that's what we resorted to. But I was like, I've got to get my system. So this is what we're going to do. We're going to dance and everyone else in the family is just going to have to sit and

watch. So you guys are going to be here. We're dancing. Every step counts. Let's, let's talk about training. So what did you, what did your workout schedule look like while you were getting coached? Yeah. So I have had two different coaches with you guys.

I had Luke and now I'm with Jeff or was with Jeff. With Luke, I was doing three days a week, you know, and he had lower body split and core, but really they were not high rep. I think I was, and still now I'm in like the five to eight range, some exercises I'm on eight to 12, depending on what it is. But yeah, with Luke, it was three days a week. I think I was Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And I'm not going to lie, even doing weightlifting from my volleyball days, it still sucked when I first started. I was like, my body was like, what do I do? The muscle memory wasn't there yet. Eventually it came. So like, you just got to suck it up for the first couple

weeks and like, let your body adapt to the movements, movement patterns. Then when I started working after the first cut, I kind of went to a mini bulk or a bulk if you want to call it that, which I wish I hadn't done now that I go back and look at it. I would have rather have maintained for a while. How come? Once I hit around the 155, 160 mark. So I got down to 115, right? And super lean, loving life, loved myself in pictures, felt great and confident in my clothing, all that good stuff. Not that I wasn't managing or watching what I was eating, but I was like, oh, well, I'm just,

I gave myself more freedom. Not that I gained weight too quickly, but I ended up getting back up to about 170. With a different body composition, I had gotten to another point where I was not super comfortable. And I know that if you want to build muscle, you've got to put yourself in that position. I don't know if I was in the right headspace for that because I had just been super lean. And did you finish that cut and go right into a lean bulk? Pretty much. Yeah. Maybe I should have paused the brakes a little bit, but I was loving, you know, when you're that lean, you see muscle. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I just want to look as strong as possible. So let's go into this bulk

and let's, let's put on more muscle. And maybe that wasn't the best thing. Which I mean, which is the right move. If you want to maximize muscle growth, it is. I mean, if you go into a maintenance phase, you can still gain muscle, but you'll, if you haven't done that yet, you'll see, I mean, it's not bad that you experienced a proper lean bulk because I'm sure you had great workouts. That was kind of cool. So you make a lot of progress and maintenance is you still can make progress when you're maintaining, but you'll see if you haven't done it yet, it's not the same because inevitably what happens with maintenance, because the point of maintenance is to keep what we see in the mirror, really. It's more about maintaining body fat levels than muscle because maintaining muscle is

easy. I mean, you can maintain all your muscle even when you're in deficit. So it's more about maintaining body fatness. And ultimately, that means that you're going to err on the side of eating a little bit less rather than a little bit more. Because if you err on the side of eating a little bit more, you're back to kind of lean bulking. And so even that, just that little calorie deficit that is going to occur more often

than a little calorie surplus, it does mean slower progress. It does. Yeah. And a surplus really isn't that much. What, 100 or 200 calories more? I mean, that's like nothing when you're eating. But yeah, my training was awesome when I went back to eating more. And then I picked things up with Jeff and I was like, you know what? I'm feeling good in my workouts. I definitely feel like I would like to include another day. So now I'm at four days a week and really enjoy that. I usually do one day of cardio where I do a run and my friend that I work with, we're

still running buddies. We don't run as much as we did. Oh yeah. And I forgot to mention this at the end of my lean or my cut, I did a 50 mile race. So I was still running and training for that. And that was really hard. That's something else. I wish I could go back and change, but we signed like crazy people. We signed up for the JFK 50 miler. It's like America's oldest race. Is that two, two marathons? Is it a marathon? It's like America's oldest race. Is that two marathons? Is it a marathon? It's like 25, 26. Yeah, it's an ultra marathon.

And where I live is where it is held, which is awesome. Like it's this great piece of history. And we were like, yeah, let's sign up for it. Let's do this. And of course, I'm like trying to get as lean as possible. I had these conflicting goals, but I was able to do both. So, and I know, you know, not everyone can. And there's another lady that I follow on Instagram, and she's all about,

you know, doing hybrid training. I don't know if I was necessarily doing that. But yeah, I was gonna say, that's that's extreme hybrid training. But sure. Yeah, I would never recommend that to anybody. So like, also be very clear on your goals. Like, what do you want? But yeah, so I now I just do cardio once a day, maybe twice, depending on the weather. If we can get outside, it's nice. I always hit my 10,000 steps. And being in the position I am at work, I mean, right now, the end of the day, I'm at 13,000 steps. So it's also something I've had to account for. Yeah, that's great. Before we wrap up, is there anything else that you wanted to share? Anything that I haven't asked you about that I

should have asked you? Nothing I can think of. I mean, like, honestly, I know a lot of people, when they look at coaching, they look at the price of things. And I mean, like, honestly, I know a lot of people when they look at coaching, they look at the price of things. And I know, like, I went for the elite coaching to start with. And I'm so glad that I did. It's an investment in yourself. Like I would totally recommend it. I've recommended it to people that I work with my family members, because you just learn so much. And like, once you go through it once, and you know, you can do it, like whatever your goals are, maybe your goals are to gain weight because you're super lean i don't know or gain muscle like either way like just having a coach has been super beneficial keeping you accountable even if

you're someone who's already in the fitness space like obviously i grew up as an athlete but i didn't really know what i was doing. So there's always room to grow. Yeah, that's common with collegiate and high school athletes. I've heard that story many times. Young, invincible, very active. And in those circumstances, yeah, it was effortless to stay in great shape and to look a certain way. But then often after college, the activity levels decline, but then there's the old eating habits. And then it's not understanding what was producing that fitness. And so I understand it can just be confusing. Like what happened to me? I was always like this and now I'm this. What happened?

Yeah. Really eye opening. I mean, I just, I don't have, there are so many different things I could say, but like, honestly, like if you're considering it, just do it. Well, Emily, thanks a lot again for your time and great job on everything that you've done. It's always fun to hear these stories

because this is really the intention of the coaching. It's to, it's not just to tell people what to do. It's also to help them understand why they're doing what they're doing and just set them up for long-term success, whether they ever need us again or not. And that really is the intention is in a three-month period, give people everything that they need to know so they could just carry on. Now, many people want to continue in different capacities for different reasons, and that's fine. But that was my intention from the beginning. It's just because that's the kind of coaching service that I would want personally. I grew up playing sports and the coaching that I always

enjoyed the most was the coaching that was educational. It was informative. I wasn't just being told to do things. I was learning why, like, why am I doing these things? How do they work? So then I could take that and use it to get even better. I wasn't reliant just on this one coach and his like black box of tricks, you know? Yeah. So anyways, thanks again for, uh, for taking your time and, and keep up the good work. All right. Thanks. Absolutely. rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you. And if you didn't like something

about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share, shoot me an email, mike at muscleforlife.com, muscleforlife.com, and let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you'd like to see me do in the future. I read everything myself. I'm always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.