Food versus Exercise

Which will provide the most benefit first: 

Changing how you eat or increasing the number of times you exercise?

HINT: It's NOT exercise!

Think about it... 

The average person eats MORE THAN 3 TIMES A DAY.

That's at least 21 chances you have to change the way your body feels each week.

You can ALSO get AMAZING results by simply strength training 3 TIMES A WEEK.

But 3 vs. 21.

Therefore what you are eating is FAR more important than what you are doing for exercise.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

YOU JUST HAVE TO START.

The problem is you are overanalyzing all the diets that worked for so and so instead of LEARNING TO FEEL what works for YOU. 

I have heard all the excuses in the book. 

I hate to cook. I'm not hungry. I'm single and cooking for one is a pain in the ass.

If you learn "which foods represent which macronutrients" the excuses disappear.

For the most part our  food choices can be broken down into 3 main categories

PROTEIN     |    FAT    |     CARBOHYDRATES

I want to you eating something from each category with each meal you consume. 

Make it a game... think PLUG AND PLAY. 

Whether that means you are doing some food preparation at home or you are eating on the run 

YOU MUST UNDERSTAND which foods represent which macronutrients in different situations. You can either be prepared or you can have faith in your ability to make the right educated decision if you yourself unprepared. 

These are the following sources of PROTEIN currently in my fridge, and ready to go.

Chicken sausage, whole eggs, tuna, grass fed beef, greek yogurt, egg whites, cottage cheese, + sun warrior protein powder.

Moving along to FAT

Avocados, dry roasted unsalted almonds, cashew butter, coconut oil, flax meal, olive oil.

Finally CARBOHYDRATES

broccoli, zucchini, sweet potatoes, kale, healthy 8 mix, plantain chips, grapefruit, bananas, wild frozen fruit, brown rice bread, quest bars, sweet potatoes, + white rice.

As you can see the MAJORITY are real whole foods.  I adhere to the 80/20 rule. I practice eating "real food" 80% of the time and save room for my favorite "cheats" 20% of the time.  

THIS IS SO AMAZINGLY DOABLE PEOPLE!!!

What are examples of meals and snacks YOU love that follow this macronutrient PLUG and PLAY rule?

What are your favorite 20% foods?

DIET and EXERCISE, DIET and EXERCISE, DIET and EXERCISE

Is anyone else sick of hearing about DIET and EXERCISE!??!  

I want to set a few things straight.

At Stacey Schaedler Strength we prefer to refer to diet as nutrition and exercise as training.

This post is an intro to our nutrition basics. The next post will discuss our exercise/training beliefs.

When it comes to nutrition, it seems that few experts can agree on what a "healthy diet" is and isn’t.   This can be extremely confusing! I have been a vegetarian, eaten a low-fat + high- carb diet, eaten a high- fat + low-carb diet, eaten to fuel my performance, partaken in intermittent fasting, dieted for physique competitions…the list goes on and on.  These experiences have taught me invaluable lessons about how my body works. 

Your body is smarter than you and if you learn to listen to it, it can teach you a lot!

Protein Powders

I like to think that there are quite a few things I could help people with when it comes to health and fitness.

So it never ceases to surprise me that the MOST COMMONLY asked question I still get is … should I supplement with a protein powder and if so which one?
I blogged about this awhile back but I wanted to elaborate further this time around.

Before I elaborate, I want to ensure you that the following remains the same.

If your goal is weight loss, substituting a protein shake or any other "liquid meal replacement" is not in your best interest. 

Eating REAL FOOD satisfies you and the thermogenic effect of food (chewing and digestion).

If you are looking to put on mass, the same too applies EAT MORE FOOD.  FOOD IS GOOD :)