My Biggest Struggles with Macros & Weight Training as a Beginner

00:00Hey guys, love so much that you guys are listening to this podcast. If you ever want to have the video version of this, which usually has more effects and all that good stuff for those of you who are visual learners, check it out YouTube channel WarriorBabe if that's what you like. Either way, keep enjoying the show. I would walk into the gym. I would feel so scared. I would walk up the stairs and I would land on the cardio equipment because I was in my own little bubble. I was on my own piece of equipment and I could stay there for an hour.

00:32What's up you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkie Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. And on this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I'm your host, Nikki Stott, and welcome to episode number 72, where I want to share with you guys my biggest struggles as a beginner when it came with macronutrients, tracking macronutrients, understanding macronutrients.

01:11And then I want to piggyback off of that and also talk about my biggest struggles as a beginner when it came to weight training. And this is where I'm going to specifically also talk on, you know, advice for someone, and maybe that's you, that has some anxiety when you are walking into a gym. Because, man, I can totally resonate with that. I felt that same way when I first started out on my journey. So, this was also a question that was dropped in my question box on IG that I did a couple weeks ago, where I periodically ask you guys from time to time what questions you would want answered on the podcast.

01:53And to ask those questions in that box on my Instagram story. And specifically questions that are worthy of long answers that I can bring to this podcast. So, this was a great question, and I was super excited to see that and now able to bring it to the podcast and answer it with you guys here live. And you guys can, you know, jot down some things that resonate with you, which I highly recommend. Anything that does resonate with you here on this podcast, write it down so that you can refer back to it later days after you've listened to this podcast, weeks, months.

02:28I highly recommend that you do that with all the things that resonate with you because there's a reason why they resonate with you. So, if you are driving, though, take mental notes and then refer back to this when you can. All right, let's dive into it. Okay, let's first talk about a few of the biggest struggles that I encountered when I was starting out tracking macronutrients. Now, other than like pure frustration, pure confusion, pure overwhelm, the main things that I struggled with were when I was applying macronutrients and in the action of trying to track macronutrients.

03:08So, let me just say that I failed multiple days, multiple weeks in a row when I first started tracking macronutrients. And let me remind you guys that like, you know, I was in the bodybuilding world for three years when I first started my journey and it was just me strictly following a meal plan. The same basic boring meals over and over and over and over again for, yes, pretty much three years straight. And while I was learning, understanding what macronutrients were then because it was protein, fats and carbs and I had them in my everyday routine, I never understood the world that macronutrients and all of the food options that I had at my fingertips.

03:55And my, you know, they were right there. I never understood that whole world. So, as I transitioned into just wanting to know and understanding, wanting mainly because I was like, there's got to be more to this. It can't just be this. This isn't how people, you know, maintain their body or have these amazing results that they see. It's like they understand this whole other world. And I was like, I had to understand this whole other world. And so, you know, coming from somebody who I felt like I knew what I was doing to try to do this, I was like, I was just like, you know, slap in the face multiple times.

04:30And so I, like I said, I failed multiple days, multiple weeks in a row when I first started to track macronutrients. And I struggled more so in the action of trying, which let me just tell you guys, that is so completely 100% normal. When you are trying something new, I like to use the analogy of you learning how to ride a bike for the first time. You are going to hit some rocks, you are going to hit some potholes, and you're going to possibly fall off that bike and have a couple scrapes and bruises.

05:08And that is okay. That is not, that is not like saying that you should give up. That is saying, let me get back on the bike and let me try again. And so in the moments, the main thing of me trying to track macronutrients, the main thing that I was failing at was always, always, always, I vividly had this just image in my brain right now of just standing in the kitchen and just feeling so freaking defeated. And I always, always, always, always went over my macros for the day, mainly because I was tracking as I went.

05:48And I know this resonates just so hard for you guys, because I hear this time and time again with women that are inside of Warrior Babe, and they're trying to get this whole macro game down. And the main thing that they're struggling with is that they're always over. Like they have 50 grams left to hit to their carbs. They have 20 grams left to hit to their protein. They have like 10 grams left to hit to their fats. And it's the end of the day, and they don't know how to whip up a meal that will have exactly each of those things. And I just feel that.

06:19Like I totally feel that because I remember standing in the kitchen at the end of the day, multiple days in a row, multiple weeks in a row, just doomed. Just feeling so defeated because I had all of these things left to hit. And it was like 8 o'clock at night. And I'm like, I don't want to have, I don't want to like, the weirdest meal concoctions are going to come from this right now, which happens. But I was just defeated. I'm like, there's got to be a better way because I don't have to stuff my face with food right now. And so I learned hard.

06:50I learned doing this multiple days and weeks in a row. I was like, this cannot be this hard. And what I realized was, okay, if I pre-plan ahead of time, meaning I take the time the night before the next day to barcode scan things in my kitchen, to, you know, play the game of Tetris in my brain and try to get all of my meals and numbers to fit. But if I just take that time ahead of time to do this, then guess what?

07:21The more that I did do that, the more I was extremely successful going into the following days, having already pre-plan my meals. And there it is. I opened up the app inside of MyFitnessPal and it's right there. All of my meals are right there. The numbers are plus or minus five at the top for my macros. Because that is what I encourage that you're plus or minus five in each of the categories, protein, fats, and carbs. And that's you successfully nailing your macros for the day.

07:53And I was just like, like, light bulbs went off at the beginning. I was like, okay, so it's not the track as you go type of deal. It's like, let me actually take the time to put into logging my meals. And that would either be the night before or it could even be the morning of your day. And like you're sitting down to have breakfast and you log in your breakfast. And then you start to think about, okay, this is what I have for lunch. This is what I have for snack, pre-workout, post-workout, and dinner. Right? And guys, not only is it just super successful to be in line with your macros that day,

08:27it's also just an absolute game changer to the fact that you have the day planned. And now, you know, anybody who comes into your space, it's like, oh, let's go get lunch or let's go get, you know, this X, Y, and Z. It's like you actually can say no because you already have it all planned. You already have it all in a lot. Like your meal, your plan, your strategy is right there in front of you. And it just makes you feel so much more empowered to say no and just stay in alignment with what you already have planned.

08:58Because the second that you say no, then you go off kilter with all the meals that you have planned for the day. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you. At Warrior Babe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle,

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10:06And honestly, this is what's going to happen. You're going to go out to have lunch with your friends. And you're like, oh, well, shit. What was what macros? Where am I at now? And you have no idea. And then you throw away the rest of the day. And why I say that so confidently is because this was another thing that I struggled with when I was beginning to track macronutrients. I would easily cave to everybody that was around me that wanted to go out to grab lunch or go out to grab dinner. And then I have no idea because I didn't get to plan or look at menus and put this into my fitness pal.

10:36And I had no idea what this meal consisted of in terms of protein, fats, and carbs. And at that point, it was a wash. I just let everything else fall apart. And I let myself indulge in other things for the rest of the day. And then the next day came and then it's all just narratives in your brain of just self-sabotaging yourself. You suck. Why did you do that? Why did you follow the plan? Now you're off track. Now your progress isn't going to happen as quickly as you want to. And so like these are all the things I know this just I can feel like I can feel you guys really like,

11:09damn, this is me. This is me. This is me. Especially if you're a beginner at the beginning of your journey, you probably are struggling with these things. And let me just tell you the biggest thing that you could possibly do. Hey, hey, real quick. If you want to learn more about macronutrients and understand that methodology on how they can help you achieve your body composition goals of changing the way your body looks, I put together a free 15-minute training where I dive into macronutrients and how you can control your body for the rest of your life with them. That link is in the description below. Click on it after listening to the show today.

11:40It's just spend the time ahead of time putting all of your meals inside of the tracking device that you are using and follow through. And follow through on following what you have. That is like your game plan right there. Okay. And then what I would recommend doing is because, too, this is another thing that I struggle with. It's like, well, I want to try different meals. Well, I want to have a different lunch. Look, guys, like I mentioned this last week in a podcast that eating the same thing, it may sound boring, but there's so much thought removed from what you want.

12:21Like, what are you going to eat? Right. So, like, what I would recommend you do instead of trying to change up your meals every single day or wanting to try something new every single day while it's you will get advanced at doing that. At the beginning of your journey, what I highly encourage that you do is that you do eat the same things for like a week or two weeks at a time. You just copy that entire day inside of MyFitnessPal into the next day and you eat the same thing for the next two weeks. You will get used to that food.

12:52Your body will get used to that food. And then that just will eliminate all of the thoughts of what should I eat? What can I eat? Blah, blah, blah, blah. And then what you'll be able to do in two weeks is just cycle out one meal or cycle out two meals and keep three of the same other meals. And you'll just be able to try a different lunch or try a different dinner. And this is how you will just get better at tracking macronutrients. And I promise you, while it is hard at the beginning and you will struggle and you will feel frustration, you will get faster at riding the bike of tracking macronutrients.

13:29And come, you know, six months to a year, you will look back at day one and realize how much faster you have got at tracking macronutrients. Now, to this day, I'm eight years later, but I can tell you that within a year of being able to track macronutrients, I was able to go throughout my entire day of eating and then get to like three o'clock in the afternoon and track all of the foods that I had for the day so far.

13:59Just being able to see, okay, this is what I have left for the rest of the day. And it only takes me now probably two minutes to not even to just to track my entire day of food. And so I just encourage you guys, I get it. Like this is all the things I struggled with too at the beginning. You're not alone. It's just you've got to put in the time and you've got to put in the work and you've got to put in the consistency of doing this over and over again. And just make it easier rather than harder for you, right?

14:29Don't try and change all of your meals every single day. Don't log as you go. Take the time to just eat the same things for the first two weeks and take the time ahead of time to log your meals in the day. Okay? So those are a few of the things I struggle with macronutrients. Now for weight training, you guys, other than the fact that I had no idea what I was doing, let me remind you. So I, when I first was like, I want to make this change, I want to see a difference in my body.

15:03I would walk into the gym. I would feel so scared and so overwhelmed by the amount of people. And then especially when you get, like the way my gym was set up, the first gym that I went to, you walked in, it was the front desk and then a wide open floor plan. And you would walk in and there would be like a little walkway getting you to the locker room. And off to the right-hand side was all of the machines, right? And then towards the turn of the walkway, getting to the back, there would be steps going out to the cardio equipment.

15:38And then behind the steps and a part of the floor plan on the first floor that also just from the weights kind of segued into, or from the machine segued into the weight room. The free weights, the dumbbells, the barbells, the plate loaded machines. And that was even, that was the most intimidating space to me at the beginning of my journey than anything else in the world. And so when I first started and I first wanted to create this change, I walked into the gym.

16:09I walked the little pathway to the back. I would walk up the stairs and I would land on the cardio equipment because that was, I was in my own little bubble. I was on my own piece of equipment and I could stay there for an hour. And, you know, until I realized that this was not going to get me the body that I wanted, that I needed to get into the weight room. I needed to muster up the courage to go pick up that weight and to do exercises in front of, you know, 15 men.

16:40Okay. I had to do it. That was the way that I had to, that was the way, that was, that's the way you change your body composition is those weights. And I had to get past this, you know, call a gym anxiety or feeling intimidated or feeling insecure. And so, mind you, I had no idea what I was doing. Okay. And like when I started working with a coach and I got a workout plan, that workout plan was just an email of workouts I had to do of exercises in a list.

17:12No videos attached. No videos of like what the beautiful apps give you nowadays. And what we give our VIP clients and even our blueprint members that they have their own app. No videos attached. Okay. So, this is what I helped myself to do. And maybe you can too, but I don't know because there's videos now and everybody has videos to follow. But maybe the second thing will help you to get over gym anxiety and get over this intimidation and insecurity when you walk inside the gym. So, basically, really quick, what I had to do to feel a little bit more confident and feel a little bit more insecure with me or feel a little bit more secure with myself is that I YouTubed every single exercise I was supposed to do.

17:52And I would do that before every single workout. Okay. So, the night before, I would open up this email and I would look at the exercise is in the workout for the next day. And I would YouTube all of them. Because I wasn't sure how to, I didn't know how to do them. Or some of them, maybe I didn't know how to do them, but some of them I didn't. And maybe I wanted to just look at the form of a video and how to do it the right way so that I could go into the gym feeling like I knew what I was doing.

18:26Okay. And if I didn't do it the night before, kind of like the same thing with macros and tracking macros, right? Plan the night before. If I didn't do it the night before, then I would sit in my car right before the workout or in the locker room right before the workout. And I would YouTube all of these videos or Google all of these videos before actually going into the gym or before actually going into the weight room. So that I felt like I knew what I was doing, right? I had just seen this video.

18:57Okay. I had just seen this form in the video and I was like, okay, I can go replicate that for myself in the gym. That was like 50% of feeling more secure in myself. Was just knowing what the exercises were and how to do that. Okay. So I didn't look like a total complete loser. And like that's those are the things that I felt. Okay. I'm sure you guys feel that too. It's just a part of insecurity when you're first going into something that you've never done before.

19:28It's normal. Totally normal. Okay. Okay. The second thing that helped me every single time that I went into the gym when I first started my journey. And no joke. I think I still have this piece of item to this day. I wore a hat. I don't know. It was just my thing. It was just the thing that helped me the most to block out all of the people around me. I was unable to see all of the people around me.

20:00I wore it. It was a Nike hat and I wore it every single day. And I couldn't see anybody. It was like my blinders. Right. And this is what helped me just feel more secure, feel more confident, help with gym anxiety. And so I have said this story many times throughout my journey. And I know this has helped other women too as well. Just put on a hat if you feel this way or you feel like everybody's looking at you. Put it on and you're going to feel so good. And by the way, you guys, let me just remind you.

20:34And I learned this later with working out and being in the weight room. Everybody in the gym working out, especially the dudes in the weight room, they only care about what they are doing. They do not care about what you are doing. They only care about the way they look in the mirror and the way their muscles are popping or the way their body looks. They do not care about what you are doing. So if you need a little boost to your step, just stay in your own lane.

21:07Put the hat on. Just block everybody out and just do the damn thing, girl. Do the damn thing. Okay. And, you know, do all of these things that just will set you up for feeling the most confident and the most secure inside of the gym. Like knowing what workouts you're going to be doing. Knowing what exercises are a part of that workout. Knowing what those exercises consist of and form. And not just going in and winging it. Because if you go in and wing it, right?

21:38And this is something that I 100% before I had a coach, which take a step back from what I just said by, you know, having the email and YouTubing. Before I had a coach, the whole year before that, I would just walk into the gym from Pinterest. It's maybe 50% of the time was Pinterest workout. 50% of the time was me just going in and winging it. And that is where I felt the most insecure. Going in there and winging it. Having no idea what exercises I was doing. No idea if I was even doing them right.

22:10I wanted to just repeat the same exercises over and over again because I felt confident doing it with the one exercise. That wasn't getting me anywhere. That wasn't helping me, right? So know when you walk into the gym. Know what you're doing. Have your plan. Have the exercises. You know, now you guys have a lot of videos that you're able to just pull it up when you're doing right before you're doing the exercise. While that's good, I wouldn't encourage it because you could take away from your rest time. But just know what you're doing in the gym.

22:40And if you feel like you have anxiety and you feel like you want to walk up to the cardio equipment like I used to, put on a hat. Because you have to do the damn thing. You have to do the uncomfortable thing. You have to walk into the weight room with the other guys that are in there. And you've got to pick up a piece of weight. You've got to pick up a dumbbell. You've got to get under the barbell. Because that's what's going to physically change your body for the good and the way you want it to. To build muscle. To be toned. To lose body fat. It is you and that weight. It is you and that dumbbell and you and that barbell that's going to do it. So you have to get past all the things that you're feeling.

23:11And the way you can do is all the things I just said to help you feel a little bit more confident. Okay, you guys. So those were majority of the things that I struggled with as a beginner with tracking macros with weight training and just overcoming that anxiety that I know a lot of you guys feel when you have to walk into the weight room. Everybody's watching me. I don't know what I'm doing. Prime. You set yourself up. The two things that were the most similar when it came to macros and weight training is just plan ahead. Plan ahead and it will be an absolute game changer to the way you put in the work ethic

23:47and stay consistent and take action. All right, you guys. I hope you enjoy this podcast and I'll see you in the next one. Hey guys, real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, lose body fat, build more muscle, feel more confident. Do it alongside one of our 30 plus professional coaches. Work one-on-one with her to eliminate all of the guesswork that you may have and all you need to do is just do the work that she tells you to do to get to those goals of yours. And to learn more, click the link below this podcast and apply to our VIP program right

24:22now. Thank you.

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