Why Strength Training Transforms More Than Muscles

00:00Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. The questions about intermittent fasting and strength training and how we work around that. So if someone's really wanting to intermittently fast and also wanting to strength train and build muscle, what's your recommendation there?

00:35My recommendation is completely counterproductive. Hello, what is going on, 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 am your host, Nikkie Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode 152, where we're doing a little something different here.

01:07We are sharing an episode when I was a guest on Dr. Morgan Nolte's podcast, Reshape Your Health. And so in this episode today, you are going to hear Dr. Morgan talking and asking all of the questions to me on how to build muscle, the macronutrient world, and helping you guys along your fitness journey. So buckle up and enjoy. I just want you to give us a breakdown. Like, in case anybody forgot from the other, like, 20 episodes that we've had on this,

01:42why is strength training and building muscle so important? All right. We're kicking it right off the gate, Morgan. Let's go. By the way, audience, I'm stoked to be here and to serve you guys today. So I hope that you do take away tons of valuable information and go run with it. Go apply it. All right. So question is building muscle and why it's so important. So many reasons. So to speak high level, I love following, I don't know if you follow her, Dr. Gabriel Lyons.

02:13Yep. She's on the show too. Let's go. Yeah. She shares her message through her platforms that just resonates so freaking hard with me. And to sum it up in one sentence, really why building muscle is so freaking important. And I'll elaborate too, but just being that muscle is the organ of longevity. So muscle is like an active tissue on our body. And there's a saying you either use it or you lose it. And there was a stat that I was reading, what was it? Like last year or maybe early.

02:44Yeah. Last year that our muscle mass decreases approximately like three to 8% per decade after the age of 30. And this like hit so hard when I read that because I remember working in the ER and I remember seeing so many people coming in with fractured hips and like, you know, osteoporosis, which we were talking about a little bit before this. Um, and, uh, I just believe wholeheartedly that if you have more muscle to your body, your bones are going to be stronger and you're literally able to add more years to your life.

03:17And that means so much. That means being able to keep up with your grandkids. That means being able to get up and down from your chair so much easier, easily doing normal lifestyle activities on a daily basis, more easily, um, all of the things. So, you know, uh, that's one of the main reasons why I think it's so important, but then, you know, we can even dive down and talking about your metabolism and your physique and, uh, all of the things. But overarchingly, it's just, uh, a muscle for the organ of longevity.

03:48Yeah. Yep. So Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, that's kind of like her trademark saying, and that's why we brought her up and, um, she had a great episode as well. And we'll get into some of those principles, but also go deeper into the conversation. This will be kind of a good dovetail to my conversation with her. You really recommend tracking macronutrients. And I'm curious, why is that such a cornerstone of your approach? Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Ph.D.: Macronutrients just scientifically makes the most sense. And until it's like proven differently, like there, this is the way that I will forever believe the best way to be, to follow your, to get a wealth of knowledge in the nutrition realm.

04:26What I like to say is like, and talk about the Dwarri Babe community is that like tracking your macronutrients, like fully doing it, protein, fats, and carbs is like your North star. Um, but you gain so much knowledge from understanding what you are putting onto your plate when you solely focus on what foods are made up of. And in terms of like gaining the physique and gaining the type of like, you know, I specifically speak to like building more muscle and changing your body composition and, um, all of those things.

04:57And in order to get to that type of goal, you really have to hone in on, on looking at your nutrition for what it is. Um, you're not going to be able to decrease body fat and to build more muscle tone, just solely focusing on counting calories. Um, because calories are made up, uh, you know, calories, you could be consuming a little bit of protein. You can consume, consuming a ton of carbs in a day and you can be consuming like, you know, moderate fats. Um, but the main thing that you need to focus on is if you want that type of goal that I just said is like, you need to find the balance between the three of them.

05:30Um, and macronutrients is, I say, it's like a skillset that will serve you for the rest of your life. If you can understand, um, you know, what you're putting on your plate day in and day out and how that serves a purpose and the way it fuels your body to have you go after the activities that you want to do on a daily basis, you know, perform more professionally in your work. Um, have a clear thought of, you know, mental space because providing your body feel that way is so freaking important. Um, and then being able to, you know, go work out and strength training and build the strong body that you want.

06:04You got to nail it down to eating what your body needs to fuel properly. Yeah. That's a beautiful explanation. Where do you typically recommend somebody start with macronutrients? I, I just want to leave it at that because there's so many different avenues we could go down. So where does somebody start if they're like, all right, I'm buying in, I'm going to track my macros. Now, what do I do? Yeah, totally. So like what I just said, like tracking your protein, fats, and carbs is like your total North star of what I would love to get everybody to ideally.

06:35However, I understand that the general, you know, population is like, what is a macronutrient? Exactly. No idea what macronutrients are. I remember being at the dog park and this woman was like, what? Kind of looking at me, like I had like three different heads and I was like, okay, let's take a step back here. So the way that I typically approach it. And I know our coaches approach it inside of warrior babe is we meet the client where they're at. So say we're on like an onboarding call face-to-face on zoom. And we're just asking a bunch of questions on like gathering an understanding of what this client is, where they're at exactly.

07:08And majority of the time, they have no idea what a protein, fat and carbs are. They don't know what foods consist of that. So we're like, okay, let's understand that our North star is this. In order to get to that North star, the only thing that I want clients to focus on is just eating more protein. The amount of women, and this is like, this was my problem too. When I first started, I had to Google what foods consisted of protein. I had no idea. So I've been there and I've learned so much through the years, but that's ideally not women are not eating enough protein.

07:45And protein serves, it's literally the macronutrient king. And in order for like all of the goals and all the things that can happen internally with your body and how it helps you to reduce body fat too as well, even when you're eating it. But without getting too sciencey, that's where I would love people to start. Let's just focus on, let's just have seven days of you tracking how you would normally track. And like opening up MyFitnessPal, you've never opened up MyFitnessPal. Not before a day in your life.

08:17Let's just do it because we have to build upon new habits that are going to get you to where you want to be. And that, you know, you have to bring about change in that respect. So even if they don't want to, and I'm sure we're going to get into talking about this. There's always a little bit of resistance at the beginning. I don't want to try. I don't want to have to do this. Well, we'll get there. Okay. So, you know, I make them track. I'm very, very blunt, hard. Like, to the matter of fact, like, you want to change, I can get you to change as long as you meet me.

08:51And you want it just as bad as I want it for you. But I can't want it entirely. You have to want it. So they'll track for the first seven days. Typically, after the first seven days, it's like, okay, yep, we need to just, it's like 60 grams of protein a day. And I'm like, all right, guys, you know, like, that's not enough. That is, you know, we need to fix that. So what I ideally want clients to get to is, you know, you think about the North Star, what I said, protein fats and carbs are like, let's take a step back.

09:22And let's just focus on the North Star of getting to your body weight and protein. And that means, like, you know, I'm 150 pounds. So I'm eating 150 grams of protein in a day. And some people were, like, looking at me, like, dead eye in the face. They're like, how the hell did I get that? And I'm like, okay. So you're only eating 60 grams of protein a day. Let's make the goal 100 grams of protein in a day. And what I love to do, the easiest, simplest way to break it down is if you have 100 grams of protein to focus on, let's say you're eating five meals a day.

09:54That's 20 grams of protein in a meal. That is easily, like, maybe 150 grams of egg whites. That's maybe, like, three ounces of chicken. That's maybe, you know, one scoop of protein powder. That's maybe some Greek yogurt. And I can fire this off in my head because I've been doing this for so long. And that's ideally where I want everyone to get to. They can just, like, with tracking macronutrients, like I said earlier, it's like you're seeing this portion size that you're weighing out on plates consistently.

10:27And you're able to eyeball it. And you're able to see it. And it just becomes intuitive at that point. So I just, you know, break it down like that. Okay, 100 grams of protein is our goal. Sweet. We'll track it. That's the only thing I want you to focus on. Because if I have them focusing on all three, it's like instant overwhelm. And they just want to give up out of the gate. So I know that's not a way for our clients to succeed. So for a couple weeks, they're just doing that. And then we'll bump up the protein to get it to their body weight. And they feel more confident after they've seen, okay, that's not that hard.

10:59They have to do it. And that's how they gain the confidence in themselves that they know they can do it and the belief that they can do it. And then, you know, usually a month or a month and a half in, it's totally different for everybody. So I'm just ballparking it. But then we'll start playing with the fats and the carbs. Honestly, like I don't care too much where the fats and the carbs are coming from because interchangeably, they work great together. And sometimes that can be overwhelming if we're, you know, trying to get the fats and the carbs to align perfectly. I know. Yeah. So that's, again, not yet the North Star. So one thing is like, okay, let's just like, how would you continue to add this stuff in?

11:34And then like we work our way up to the protein, fats and carbs. It's not an overnight thing. And it's not typically like the first couple of months thing. It's like it takes a couple, you're rebuilding, you're establishing new habits. So you got to give yourself grace and that respect when you're trying to do that. But that's how I would typically approach getting somebody to love macronutrients and see that it's like, it's an awesome thing to understand. I'm obsessed with it until it's proven otherwise in the scientific world. Yeah.

12:04I think I like to say it removes the marketing labels. It puts foods on equal playing fields because beef can't advertise for itself, like legally. Whole food is at a disadvantage for marketing. And you might see a protein bar in the store that says high protein, but on the back, it has more added sugar than it does protein. And when you're actually tracking your macronutrients and you see what is in your food, it's on a level playing field now. And you can't hide behind any marketing. I think that's one. I wanted to clarify something.

12:34So you said a gram of protein per pound of body weight. Is that ideal body weight or is that current body weight? What's your opinion on that? It depends on the physique I'm working with. Let's say that I have somebody that's like 200 pounds, 250 pounds. I'm not going to make that human eat 250 grams of protein. So that would be ideal body weight. If it's a physique that is skinny fat and we're trying to build up some more muscle, then I want her to potentially eat the gram per pound of body weight or maybe even like 1.2.

13:06So totally, I said that like broadly speaking, but it totally depends on who I'm working with. That makes sense. Yeah. We typically say like one gram per pound of ideal for the exact same reason. We're not going to make somebody who is 250 pounds eat 250 grams of protein in a day because they would hate us. And it probably would not be very feasible. So that's great. I think that we're totally on the same page there. We know also that in order to build muscle, protein is just one part of the equation and strength training is so important.

13:36And do you think this is kind of spitballing? Do you think that strength training or resistance training is more important or are they equally important for strength training? Excuse me, for building muscle. Macronutrients with. Yeah. Eating enough protein or getting the resistance training. Do you have an opinion on which is more important for building muscle or do you really need them together? You really need them together. Well, I always say nutrition is king. Exercise is queen. So you need the protein for the muscle fiber recovery after you break.

14:12You break down muscle in the gym. You don't build it. You break it down. You build it in the recovery periods afterwards, which comes from proper nutrition, sleeping well, hydration, all of the things. So they coincide totally together. You need the progressive overload in order to put the resistance on the muscle. And then you need the protein to be able to repair and build it. Mm-hmm. I agree 100%. I'm kind of curious. When you have clients start out, what is your recommended training schedule if their goal is to build muscle mass independent of weight loss, let's say?

14:44And so we have their protein target. What recommendations do you have for their strength training program? Or do you kind of table that until they get their nutrition dialed in? What's your approach on that? Yeah. Totally depends on who I'm working with. So if somebody has never strength training day in their life before or even the type of equipment they have, then I may have to do some magic skills with like tempo work with bands and like tempo work with body weight and tell them like, yo, you got to get some dumbbells and you got to get some barbells. Because that's where the resistance is truly going to come from.

15:14But majority of the time if I'm saying like, okay, we got the protein down, maybe they have an understanding that they know they need to get into weights. It's going to be progressive overload for me no matter what. So I'll start with somebody, maybe a goal of focusing on some main compound lifts, like shoulder press, squats, chest press, deadlifts, and then isolation work around that. But maybe I'll do some progressive overload, playing around with the weights out of the gate, playing around with the sets of reps, playing around with the time, playing around with the rest periods.

15:51And then changing them every few weeks to continue to create stimulus in the muscle to keep challenging it. But North Star always with people I work with, regardless of trying to get it into the more individualized, it's always going to be the progressive overload approach. Will you explain what that is just in case somebody's listening? They're like, what in the world is progressive overload here? Yeah, totally. So it's the continued ability to create more essentially resistance on your muscles so that it gets challenged over time.

16:29And then you're doing it in different variations in different ways. So you're doing it by what I said, like you're trying to do it by rest periods, increasing or playing around with rest periods. You're doing it by different sets, reps, all of those things. You're doing it by tempo work is another great way. There's definitely different facets, but overarchingly, like in layman terms speaking, it's just the ability to stimulate your muscle to be able to grow.

16:59And you got to change it up every once in a while. But the thing is, before I say that, or in addition to me saying that, you got to do the boring work. So progressive overload is like doing the boring work on a weekly basis, right? So it's like a lot of women come to us and they're like, well, I'm so bored with my workouts. I want different workouts every two weeks. I'm like, that's not the case here. So you have to keep doing the same exercises over and over and over again because it helps to promote the muscle growth.

17:32It helps to promote adaptation. It helps to, again, build more resistance. I feel like I'm just repeating myself there. But when your muscles are subject to progressive overload, they undergo like microscopic damage. So they're breaking down the fiber to get a little bit more into the weeds of the science side of things. And that damage that you're doing to those muscle fibers will stimulate the body to repair and to strengthen those muscle fibers. To gain more muscle mass is the overarching like North Star progressive overload. And this gets the body to adapt, continually adapt.

18:03And I'll tell you what is not progressive overload, which is an applicable example to many people listening. I used to teach jazzercise. And we had jazzercisers using the same five-pound dumbbells, eight-pound dumbbells for years. For years. And for those just listening, Nikki just hung her head like, oh, no. That is not progressive overload. That is using the exact same weights. It's not going to get you the results that you want. And so I think that strength training is important.

18:33We typically, I recommend all major muscle groups at least twice a week at a moderate to high intensity, preferably high. And I typically do three to five sets. But I'm kind of curious, how would you optimize that program? Would you change anything about that? So you said two muscle groups, two times, or the muscle groups, two times a week? All major muscle groups, two times a week at least. So working your glutes, you know, at least two times a week. Your quads, two times a week. Your chest, your back, your arms, two times a week.

19:06And so it could be a split routine where Monday I'm doing arms, Tuesday, or like pushing. Tuesday I'm doing legs. Thursday I'm doing pulling. Friday I'm doing legs. Or if it's a total body routine, which is where I started, honestly. I did two days a week of total body. And then I would work all major muscle groups on those two days. And that's typically our recommendation. I was wondering how you change things or if you had any more nuanced information to add there.

19:36Yeah. I mean, I think it totally depends on the individual. Like all of, a lot of these answers are dependent on the individual and who I'm working with. If time permits, like I would love split work. I would love kind of the bodybuilding style approach. And it depends on the goal, you know? It's like, are we trying to get to like small little muscle groups to build them up? Then I would love to continue to do splits for isolation work. Or, you know, what are we trying to build more mass? Like, and then I would do like a little bit of the compound movement with progressive overload, maybe a little bit of power lifting style.

20:11Are we looking to, you know, that's, I don't want to use that word. But like, maybe it's just like kind of weight loss and getting the human to move their body and do full body. Honestly, it's just like, I've gone and I'll just be totally transparent. Like, I've totally changed out my training techniques over the last couple of years just to learn what I like to enjoy the most. Because like I said earlier, nutrition is king. If I can nail down my nutrition and get that spot on, the way that I exercise, if it, I mean, it's always strength training for me.

20:45Then if it's what I enjoy, it's like, do I love doing the splits? I loved it. I did it for a while in the bodybuilding world. Then I transitioned to full body because my legs weren't recovering as well from doing splits with legs. And I was doing them two times a week and I was actually hospitalized for rhabdo. So it's like, okay, well, now I got to tweak that. Yeah. Explain what that is because people are like, what's rhabdo if they're not in that field? It's another, it's, it's where your kidneys cannot filter out the lactic acid fast enough.

21:17And so my, basically I was bottling around like a penguin. I, my muscles work so, they were consistently in the state of like being contracted. Um, that like walking, bending, sitting, like it just hurt. And I, I, I knew it cause I've done it. This is, that was probably the third time I've been a rhabdo, unfortunately. And females, once you're in it, it happens more predominantly.

21:48Um, and I wasn't hydrating enough. So I had to be hospitalized for it. And I had to get seven liters of fluid and I looked like a balloon. Um, that was not fun. So at that point, yeah, I was like, I need to change up my training. And that's where I went full body. And then, you know, recently I've been doing push pull legs. So it's like, it's what I play around with a lot of different things. I love that. And I want people to really understand that. Like we are both experts in our field and we still play around with our workout. Like there's still no perfect program for us either. And we really, but we embrace that.

22:19We embrace that. There's no perfect program. We embrace that. We can be, we can have that structured flexibility with our lifestyle. And I think that's one thing that keeps it really sustainable for us is that structured flexibility. We give ourselves permission to mix it up. And speaking of mixing it up, I would love to talk a little bit more about. The bulking and the cutting, because that's not something that we've talked about on this podcast. Can you explain a little bit more? What is bulking and what is cutting and who is it appropriate for?

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23:28Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. Totally love this. I just actually on The WarriorBabe Show did a podcast on this. It was episode, it was one of the most recent ones. It was episode in the 140s, low 140s.

24:02Essentially, I love to use the cutting and bulking if you really want to put on muscle mass. I think it's the best way to say it. But you don't always, I want to just like note here, you don't have to, women don't have to go into a bulking phase. I know we were talking a little bit before this, but how like scary the bulking phase can be. I actually personally love to call it the building phase because it brings a different kind of narrative to the female brain because bulking is like, oh my God, I'm going to get fat. But essentially the definition of them and like the cutting phase is like a period where

24:35your primary goal is to decrease body fat while preserving your lean muscle mass as much as possible. So I like to talk about and talked about many, many times on the podcast, there's a difference between weight loss and fat loss. Yes. Fat loss is you're eating enough of the right macronutrients and enough protein essentially to keep your muscle mass intact as you're losing the body fat around it. And so during that phase, you know, you're typically focusing on being in a calorie deficit and you're just overall looking to improve your overall body composition, right?

25:13You want to get more of the aesthetic look while preserving the lean muscle mass. Because if you're just looking to lose weight, you're going to lose the muscle mass along the way. Um, so that's the cutting phase and the bulking or building phase is like, it aims for people to focus on building more muscle. And in this, you will, you have to muscle needs a little bit of fat to, to, to, um, to grow. And so in that phase, you're focusing on, uh, being in a little bit more of a caloric surplus.

25:45Um, and that is intended mainly the more food you have, the more ability you're able to recover your muscle. You're able to, um, you know, increase in strength and, and just, you know, overall you are building more muscle. And then I, what I love to say is like, when you're coming, you're done in that phase. Um, you will transition back into a cut and you get to like reveal all of your hard work that you just put on while you've been in the bulking phase. So is it possible to do it at the same time in your opinion, or is it just not as effective

26:19if you're looking to build muscle and drop fat at the same time? What's your perspective on that? Totally. And that's where there's the little thing in between these two called a maintenance and maintenance is where the magic happens. To be honest, I don't think you have to, what I said before, you don't know a lot of women don't have to go. Maybe I didn't finish my thought. I don't think I finished my thought there, but you don't have to go all the way up into, um, a building phase. You can totally stay at maintenance, but you have to be eating enough, uh, food to help those

26:52processes happen internally with your body, which is building more muscle while at the same time being able to, um, decrease body fat. But while you're building more muscle, you're essentially like you're increasing your BMR, you're increasing your metabolism. Um, you're doing a lot of things that will help aid in the process of you decreasing body fat. So I, I love to say that a lot of women don't have to start off their journey in a cutting phase. I almost sometimes don't recommend it because a lot of these women, first of all, aren't even eating enough anyway. And if we're going to go cut, it's like, we're just going to bang our head up against

27:24the wall because nothing's going to happen. You're not going to get the results you want because your body needs more food. So I love bringing people in, uh, into warrior babe and getting them to eat more food out of the gate, getting them to sit up at a higher caloric intake. Um, and they don't know it, but it's their maintenance. And then having them do the strength training, they're like, Oh my God, I'm seeing all these incredible changes. I'm like that food, baby. It's that maintenance. Yes. I was wondering, cause I think there's differing opinions on that. And I think we need to talk a little bit more about protein dosing too.

27:56I think when we're talking in intermittent fasting and how all this works together, because I have a couple of things, my, one of my big mistakes, I have two big mistakes when it comes to over the last few years with my nutrition and exercise programming. When you get into intermittent fasting, at least for me, there's this, there's all or nothing mindset of like, I am not eating until 10 AM. And then I would strength train in the morning and not eat until 10 AM. And it was taking me days to recover.

28:26And I thought, I'm, I'm not that old. I should not be able, I should be able to recover faster than this. And so one of the big mistakes that I was making was not fueling right after strength training. And I want to talk about the importance of that. And then the other big mistake that was underdosing, even myself as a physical therapist, I was working mostly at a moderate intensity. And I would love your opinion about the benefits of moderate versus high intensity. And when like, is moderate intensity ever beneficial for certain physique goals or anything like

29:00that? So let's start with the questions about intermittent fasting and strength training and how we work around that. So if someone's really wanting to intermittently fast and also wanting to strength train and build muscle, what's your recommendation there? Uh, my recommendation is completely counterproductive. So, and I'll explain for the purposes of building, for the purposes of building muscle, it's completely counterproductive. So as we've been talking about through this entire podcast, the most important thing that I've been saying is nutrition and feeding your body. And, uh, what happens after you're done strength training is, um, you are repairing and you're,

29:35and you're building back the muscle that you just broken down inside the gym. Well, for many reasons, why I believe fasting is counterproductive is the, the main one is it reduces the ability for protein synthesis to happen. So intermittent fasting, it, it causes a reduction in protein synthesis, which is the process of building new muscle tissue and protein synthesis is, is, uh, most active after consuming the

30:05protein that you have. So when you have the protein in your body and you're about to go do a strength training exercise, you're, you're starting the whole process of the protein synthesis to be happening. So if protein intake is limited, um, as you were kind of talking about with the dosing, the muscle growth is going to be compromised. At the same time, you know, you're, when you're not fueling your body before you go into a strength training activity, your body is active tissue. It needs something to feel off of. And so if you're not giving what it needs, it's going to turn on it to itself and it's going to

30:37use itself for energy to help you get through the activity. That's what I mean by counterproductive. It's like, you don't want to use it because you want to build it and you want to get the physique you want. So if you're not feeding your body what it wants, it's going to turn to another active energy source to get what it needs. Um, and that, uh, in turn also is it, that causes muscle breakdown. So if you're fasting for periods of time, especially for, uh, before any type of strength training, it's going to, it's going to just turn to muscle breakdown, um, as the body looks for more

31:08sources of energy. So, and then nutrient availability, like it's like, if you're, if you're fasting for periods of time, it, it can be challenging to consume this, the necessary amounts of calories that you need for muscle growth and to support muscle growth. So those are just a few of the things, um, that I feel like, and most there's like a side story. When I, I lived in Bali for six months, I'll never forget this. This woman passed out in front of me at the breakfast stand. And I look at her, I'm like, why, what, what happened? She's like, I just got done strength training.

31:38I'm like, did you eat before you worked out? And she's like, no. And I'm like, well, your glucose is just completely tanked. So, uh, there's just, it's just counterproductive to sum up that entire answer. If you want to build more muscle and you want to have a tone physique, you have to give the things it needs, AKA food in order to support all of those things to happen. Okay. So answer me this. Cause right now I'm fat. Like I work out early in the morning, five 30 and I'm strength training. And then I have my protein shake right afterwards.

32:10Is that good enough? Or would you recommend I have the shake before slash during? I would recommend dinner before too. Cause you say, what'd you say? I ate dinner the day before. So there should be, in my opinion, some, but you're thinking maybe not. I get that concept, but I, at any time, I just want to give my body what it needs. So I would love, I recommend people to have the protein and a little bit of carb before they go work out.

32:41What if it's okay. So this is my, where my mind goes then is five 30 in the morning and I'm not hungry and I don't feel like eating. And I feel like I exercise and I perform better in a fasted state. And I'm sure that you get so many people that say, but I perform better when I'm fasted. So then what's your comment back to that? Totally. I've heard this so many times. I'll never forget the story of working with a client. She was said the same exact thing. And I was like, Hey, trust me for a second. Trust me now.

33:12Believe me later. Go and give your body what it needs. Give yourself a protein shake. Give yourself a carb source and do the strength training activity in the morning. And she was like, I'm going to throw up. I feel like I'm going to throw up when I eat before I work out. And I'm like, yeah, okay. I understand that. And that's because your body isn't used to consuming something before you go and lift. It's done X, Y, and Z for so long without, you know, going in a fasted state lifting and then eating afterwards. And so she, and I was like, just give it time to adjust your body.

33:44Metabolism needs to adapt. It needs to recognize what you're trying to feed it before you go lift. And so she did that. And then, um, came back to me two weeks later, she was like, you know, I'm ready to go. I'm so hungry in the morning. I can't wait to eat. I can't wait to work out. But the most important thing that came from that was her ability to lift more weight. And so sure that those methods work. Like, I don't want to like down the fact that you like shouldn't, uh, or you shouldn't fast if that's how you perform better, which you do. Some people do, but I look at it in terms of like, what's the ultimate goal that I'm going

34:19for? I want to build more muscle. I want to be stronger. So how is that going to, what's the things that are going to aid in that process happening? Food. And so with that, she did that. And then she was like, I feel so much stronger. I can lift more. I'm not tanking out early for people that fast in the morning. Maybe you've experienced this. Cause I have also gone through periods of trying this and seeing how I feel. Cause I'm, I love being my biggest, biggest experiment. And I tank out in 30 minutes. I can't, or even less, I can't get through.

34:50How I normally would get through, um, without food in my system. And, you know, I totally, I think it's, it could be different for everybody. Okay. I have a couple of follow-ups there. Um, I was working out in the afternoon, felt so much more gassed in the afternoon. Interestingly, so fed, but afternoon, and it could be because my cortisol is rising in the morning, naturally like to wake me up. And so I think that definitely helps. I mean, I, it was amazing. Like the amount of weight that I'm able to lift in the morning. And then number of reps that I'm able to do compared to what I was doing in the afternoon.

35:24Yeah. That's crazy. It begins to me. That's number one. Number two is I'm open to trying it. Like you said, I'm, I'm certainly open to trying it. I have to figure out a way to blend that up without waking my kids up. I know. I will try that. I won't have the same texture, but I can accept that. And, um, how many, so my next question was, what is your typical pre-meal workout then? Like you said a little bit of carbs, but is that like half a banana or what is that for you? Uh, mango, these, uh, solely they're from whole foods.

35:58They're the mango gummies. They're one ingredient mangoes. So how many do you have? Like how many grams of carbs do you have? 30 grams. 20 grams. Okay. And then how many grams of protein? Uh, usually 25, 30 scoop of protein. Okay. What do you have after? White. Okay. Or Greek yogurt. Cause I like to limit my protein shakes to like two a day, like artificial protein, not my jam. Yeah. Um, and I try to get the best quality protein shakes.

36:29And then afterwards it's a protein shake and a banana. Okay. So I, I think one thing I want to point out, and if people don't follow you on Instagram, they should, so they can see your physique, because I think it's a rare opportunity when we get to talk to someone with your physique and see how much do you eat? Because I think there's so many people out there that probably assume you don't eat very much. And I also want to preface this, that a lot of people in our community, their focus is insulin resistance. Their focus is blood sugar management. And I think that it is okay for you to have like one goal of blood sugar management, lowering

37:05insulin resistance and eat two to two times a day or three times a day, but then reach that goal and then get onto the next goal of body recomposition. And so a lot of times what we recommend doing is two to three meals a day, focusing on nutrient dense foods. And then they reach those goals and they're like, what's next? And I think that's, in my opinion, you can either start at your approach, start at our approach. But ultimately, if you want to get into that muscle building phase, we have to be okay eating

37:36food. And that is such a mental roadblock for people, myself included, obviously, since I've been used to fasting more. And so you're suggesting about 30 grams, depending on how hard you work out, maybe before you work out, plus some protein. Then you refuel right after you work out too. Yep. Yep. Tell me what that meal is like. That one's the protein shake or banana. And that's usually about like 25 to 30 grams of protein. And then a banana is anywhere from like, it depends the weight of the banana, but it's

38:08anywhere from usually 25 to 32 as well, grams of carbs. And how long are you working out for? And you said you just do strength training. So how long does that work out? Typically 40, 45 minutes. Okay. And then do you not eat again until lunch and then dinner? Or what's the rest of your day look like? Yeah. Then I have around noon, I have my staple. At that time, it's not really a breakfast, but to me, it's a breakfast. Meals just, you know, I don't really do breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Lunch is typically, or breakfast is typically bagel and cream cheese and egg.

38:46A whole egg and egg whites. I've literally had that same meal for the last like two years. I'm a stomach that's like boring all around. And I don't like to cook Morgan at all. So, and then the rest of the day is Greek yogurt with some granola and honey. And then typically dinner time is like Whole Foods I live right across the street from. So they make the pre meals. And I get chicken scallopini, some asparagus, and some mashed potatoes. And then I always end my day out with, and typically there's another meal in there.

39:20It's either cottage cheese and some fruit spread or on the go. If I've already had, if I've only had one protein shake in a day, I'll do a condition one protein bar, which is so good. It's lemon poppy. It's like made from real food. So good. And then, then I always finish my night with dark chocolate, dark chocolate, always two, three pieces, four pieces, depending on where I can fit in my macros. And I think one thing I want to highlight is the simplicity and the, and the repetitiveness,

39:51like the repetitiveness. I think I'm saying that right. Repetitiveness, something like that. That is so important. She's not mixing it up. She figures out what works for her and she does it. And she doesn't use the excuse like, well, I don't like eating the same thing over and over and over again. Well, I bet she likes her physique. You know, I bet she likes the simplicity. I bet she likes it. How she likes it. And she finds what works for her and you keep it simple. And I wanted to know too, so how many doses, because I focus on doses of protein.

40:23Like if we're thinking, you know, three gram losing threshold, because we work with mainly older adults. So I like to use the three gram versus like a 2.2 or 2.5. So about 30 grams of a high quality protein. If we're talking about our average client, how many doses are you getting a day? Like three, four, if you're doing three solid meals and a shake or a bar or cottage cheese, I'm just trying to follow along and figure out how many doses you're getting. Probably around five. Okay. I haven't been to each different meal. So I eat five meals a day and then I'm having protein each one of those meals.

40:55That's incredible to me. And I think that this is mind blowing. And the coolest thing I had Deborah Adkinson on this podcast. Have you heard of her from Flipping 50? No. She's great. She's really great. And she is jacked as well. And she brought up something that was so cool. She's like, well, your current strategies get you to where you are, but you might need a new strategy to get you where you want to go. You know? And so I think that I love learning these strategies and challenging myself because I am so big

41:30on blood sugar management and eating less often is going to be inherently better for blood sugar. However, my blood sugars are amazing. And the foods that you're eating also make a difference for blood sugar and building muscle mass in general is so good for blood sugar long-term. Amen. Amen. So you can hear in my voice like, oh my gosh, I'm going to go from like not eating before I work out to eating before I work out and maybe eating after I work out and then eating

42:00another time of the day. Like if that's one, two, lunch, dinner is three, four, and then maybe, you know, another high protein snack or something in there. What are the biggest mindset blocks that you encounter? Because for me, I'm just like everybody else. And it's like, if I eat that much, I'll just gain weight. What happens, you know? First of all, I love that you're like, I can tell with your voice, like you are intrigued to learn a different type of strategy. I respect that so much. Oh yeah.

42:30I'm always open to it. That's awesome. Um, second, it kind of like, okay, well think about where you are right now and what you're trying to do. You kind of just said it, like you had to be open to try different strategies. And so you did the assumptions of what you're playing and it's all, all of us base things off of assumptions. And it's just the way that we've kind of been ingrained growing up. I think maybe, uh, somewhere along the way, marketing family, I don't know, diets X, Y, and Z that, or carbs make you fat.

43:01Like these things, these narratives that play in our, our day to day, um, kind of gets ingrained in us and we believe it. And we assume that's going to happen to us. It, uh, what I would say is like, you won't know until you try it. And like, believe or trust me first, believe me later. Trust me now, believe me later. I like that. Trust me now, believe me later. I say that to all of the clients because they too have those things, you know, they have these preconceived notions. They have these concepts, they have these stories, they have these narratives in their head.

43:32And I just like to challenge those beliefs and ask what kind of evidence they have to support that. And typically they don't ever have the evidence of which to support those thoughts. And it's usually just made up concepts. So, um, and that's one of my favorite things to do is challenge the mindset to get them to break the beliefs and break the narratives and to be able to trust that what I'm trying to do with them. Uh, first of all, in a professional space of being a coach, my goal is not to make my

44:04clients fat. So, uh, that's the joke that I like to put out of the gate. Um, and my goal is to make you feel your healthiest best self. So, uh, it would be out of my, my, you know, it would be wrong with me as a professional to go against that. So, you know, it's, I always like to challenge these beliefs. Why? What's your evidence? What's your data? You know, and typically it doesn't match up. It's just these stories that they're telling themselves. Mm-hmm. Um, okay. I, but I'm such a good student and I think that you're, you've done such a good job to

44:36lead by example. And I have really done a nice job up until this point and I'm ready to optimize. I'm ready to go to the next level. I'm ready to really get serious about putting on more muscle mass because I'm doing great, but I'm just ready to take it to the next level. So I'm excited to try new things. I'm excited to try that pre and post workout strategy. I think I'll probably start there and not really change anything else and then just do my other two meals and then I'll see where that takes me. And then if I feel like I want to add in another snack, I'll do that.

45:08And I want people to get to understand two things. Number one, teachable mindset, flexible mindset. I'm learning. Number two, I'm not doing everything that she says. Oh, there goes the balloons. I don't know why. If you're watching on YouTube, there's some, sometimes when I do my hand motions now, a thumb will go up or balloons will start to go up. And I always say, okay, good. Zoom agrees with me on this. You know, number two is we have to have that growth mindset. We have to have that curious mindset, not an all or nothing mindset.

45:39I'm picking one thing that she said today, and that is what I'm going to take from this conversation and apply it to my life. And I hope that other people are doing the same. But before we hop off, I have to dig into your mindset a little bit more about consistency with tracking because we teach macro center program. And I have a little bit more of a sensitive approach to it for a couple of reasons. The first are people with eating disorders and a history of an eating disorder. And so when they come in, they have that history of being super obsessive and it not being

46:09psychologically very healthy for them. So what is your approach to macros tracking in that scenario? Yeah. So what I always joke around with our team is like, we're not just personal trainers. We're like somewhat of a little bit of a therapist and helping, you know, helping women in different scopes of what is still applicable to us as personal trainers as best as we can. But I won't even, I wouldn't even go down. Like how I said earlier, like North Star is this.

46:41I first want to dig into understanding those stories and narratives and where they come from and how I can support that human and where she's at before I enter in and may not ever even enter into that world without a human. I may just do portion sizes. I may just have her focus on the protein and then the other things kind of fall together. We work on intuitive eating kind of out of the gate. Um, there's definitely phases of different of which I would navigate certain situations.

47:13So that would be the one for that one for sure. Okay. And then I wanted to get that one off, off of our chest, because I think some people listening definitely have that going on and that resistance to tracking. And we just wanted to say, like, we see you, we understand you. This is not a cookie cutter approach. The other thing is discipline and accountability. That is, I'm so disciplined about what I want to be disciplined about. And for some reason, I just have this mindset block around tracking. And I don't know if it's because I feel very dialed in with my nutrition already, or if

47:46it's, I don't know what it is, but let's go back to that beginner mindset. Somebody who, yeah, I'm going home about this. I'm going to track my food for a few days. And then, oh, it's too cumbersome or it takes too much time or like those types of beginner mindsets. How do you address those? I always try and understand what the human's why is. What, why do they want to do said goal? And it's always typically very superficial. It's like, you know, I want to lose weight. I want to feel better in a bikini.

48:16And I'm like, okay, let's get a little bit deeper. Tell me really what, like, why? And she's usually like, oh, I want to be a role model for my kids. I want to be more intimate with my partner. And so I always will attach. I will always, I will always remember that. And then I know that in order for the human to get to said goal of building more muscle and, you know, getting to said physique that they want, or to get to the deeper reason why I feel more confident in their skin, like I will hold them to that vision no matter what.

48:52Um, but I will, uh, along the way at the beginning, like kind of what I said earlier, uh, ask them, okay, this is who they want to become, right? Who they want to become and how is that person showing up and what is that person doing? So kind of out of the gate, getting them to think if they can, in that mindset of what is that person doing? How are they showing up? What are they eating? What are they doing on a daily basis? Are they, you know, they're eating right. They're tracking their macros. They're getting to the workout. They're having the results they want.

49:22Okay. So right now we got to start acting like that person and we got to bring it into present day. And I, I, you know, macronutrients is a part of getting to that said goal. So wherever they're at, I meet them where they're at and I try and bring them along the way to, uh, that said goal by, you know, okay, we're starting here with macros. And then a couple of months in, we're going to add this here. Um, but out of the gate, I mean, we mentioned a little bit earlier, you know, we talked about it before jumping onto the podcast.

49:53I always get the excuses of like macronutrients is time consuming. Macronutrients takes too, you know, it's tedious and I don't have to do it for the rest of my life. And I'm like, dude, you don't have to do it for the rest of your life. But right now, right here, right. You know, you want to get to this goal. You got it. You it's a, it's a skillset. I don't look at it as another diet. I don't look at it as another like trend. I look at it as like, it's science. And in order to get you to where you want to be and who you want to be in the longterm of like intuitively eating, feeling more confident with food, macronutrients is a skill that you

50:25got to understand. It is. Yeah. It's knowledge, but knowledge means nothing unless it is applied consistently. So I think like knowledge with acts like action compliant, like combined with discipline is what leads to success. You can't have success with improper knowledge and you can't have success with no action. You need both of them and you need consistency because I think success is just little disciplines compounded over time and understanding macros, proper nutrition. That's just a skill set that anybody can learn.

50:56And we are both so passionate about this because we live this and we know how we're awesome we feel. And we want everybody else to feel as physically and emotionally, like as mentally energetic as an awesome, because how does the world change if everybody is showing up to their highest capacity? Amazing. It's amazing. So I think we're both equally passionate about helping people just improve their health. I wanted to just check my list quick before we hop off. And there's one thing that I do want to piggyback there because you keep talking about discipline

51:26and everyone listening to this, like you cannot rely on motivation. I had Sal DiStefano on my podcast and he, I was like, what's one of the biggest like myths in the, in the space? He goes, motivation. I was like, bro, I was not expecting you to say that, but tell me more. And it's everything out there. The marketing is all about motivation. Like finding more motivation. You got the motivation. Like it's not any, you will not, motivation ebbs and flows. Motivation is good. It's just an emotion. It's going to come in. It's going to go. Tell me you, I know this morning I wasn't, didn't want to wake up and go work out.

51:59I didn't want to go get my, I don't want to get my steps on a daily basis. But what has been a part of 99% of my success is that I have the discipline to follow through no matter how I feel, no matter what temptations I have. I don't feel like doing this or I don't want to track my food or I don't want to go work out or X, Y, and Z. It's like, I still show up. And that's what a winner's mentality takes in order to get to the goals you want. You got to be disciplined. You got to flex that discipline muscle on a daily basis. The only way it's going to get stronger.

52:29And holding that future vision of yourself top of mind. Like we really work on that vision. We call it our personal faith formula. Like I just rewrote mine. It's so good. I'm reading it morning and night and pieces throughout the day. To hold that vision of my future self there and hold myself accountable to that. So reading it in the morning and night, creating action items, like all of this is so important. But if you do that, you learn how to make decisions from your goal and you, you accept and reject ideas from your goal because everybody's current circumstances are their biggest limitation.

53:02And we have to get outside of that and into the vision, into the goal in order to achieve that. And I just, I love this conversation about the future, the future version of yourself and the discipline. And I say, use your limited willpower, your limited willpower. If you're going to use it for anything, your motivation, use it to impact your mindset and to get into your subconscious mind, the person that you want to become, because then that motivation to follow through will naturally happen. But like this morning, I did not want to get out of bed.

53:33I'm like, I'm cold. I'm tired. I didn't sleep well. And I said, absolutely not. Anytime you are negotiating with yourself or rationalizing a decision, that is your old programming working. And that is not, that is not the future you. So if you, if someone takes something away from this episode, I hope it's do it now, be it now. And I say that every day, do it now, be it now. It's day one. And if you wake up with that urgency, like you will be so much more likely to follow through on your action items for the day.

54:04If you hold that future vision in your head and you don't rationalize with yourself, you don't accept your own excuses. It's, it's part of it. Right? So we talked a little bit about strategy. Everybody knows I'm obsessed with mindset. And I can just tell like your current results tell the story, whatever your current physique is, whatever your body composition is, whatever your blood sugar is, your results reveal the story and it reveals your standard more than anything. Like what standard are you placing on your life? And so I think that vision casting, that goal setting, we need to elevate the standard.

54:37And I mean, talk about this all day. I think I'm coming on your podcast in the future and we should talk about this. Heck yeah. I would love to. I can see you're on a roll with it and everything you're saying is so freaking good. You, uh, there was a, I forget what the quote is. I'll define it. I want to touch it on my podcast, but you are your own, you are your, uh, you are your lowest standards or something like that. You'll never, you have to operate. You have to operate differently. I'm so butchering that, but you get the concept there. I saw the little light bulb go off. Well, it's almost like the team, like you're only as strong as your weakest league.

55:09Like you're only as strong as your lowest standard. And the thing I love about standard is like your goals can change, but your goals take a long time to reach. Like reaching the body composition that you got did not happen overnight. And like our clients do not get results overnight, but our standard are the daily choices that we can up-level every single day. And I think that's why I like the difference between like, what's a goal versus a standard. And, um, I could talk to you. Look at you. You are going off right now. Let's go. I love it. I know. I was like, I could talk to you all day and pick your brain. And I feel like this is a coaching session for me on my next level and my next strategy

55:44to try. And I'm so appreciative of your time. You've been super generous with your time today and your expertise. So let our audience know where they can learn more about you and the warrior bay program. Where they can find me. They can find me on Instagram. I love to hang out there the most at Nikki Stott, um, warrior bay, warrior, babe.com, uh, YouTube at warrior or the hype. What's the forward slash warrior, babe? Yeah. Those are all the places. Warrior, babe. And Nikki Stott everywhere. Awesome. We will link it up and we'll stay in touch. Thank you so much for coming on the show and offering your expertise.

56:15And I really hope people take their strength training and their nutrition strategy to the next level. And that they pick one thing that we talked about today and implement it right away. Do it now and be it now. Let's go. Thanks Morgan for having me. Appreciate it. Thanks. You're welcome. Real quick. The only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review, it will take you

56:4810 seconds and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

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