Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to sit down with a Certified Nutrition Consultant. I have been wanting to do this for quite some time, so I may have been a little *extra* excited in Jen’s presence. Cue the comfy couch, plethora of fruits & veggies and buzzing vibe of our like-minded group.

As a personal trainer myself, it feels natural to offer nutritional guidance to my clients when brought up in conversation or whenever questions arise. I do have experience in the wide world of food & habits; between researching topics, talking with other professionals and being constantly surrounded by a wide variety of people on their health & fitness journey. However, this is not my area of expertise.

Because we fall into the health, wellness & fitness umbrella, people like to think we do it all…

Personal Trainers are NOT nutritionists. Nutritionists are NOT Personal Trainers.*

*Unless they’re formally educated in both.

Instead of taking it all on myself, I enlisted Jen, a Certified Nutrition Consultant to break down a few popular topics within nutrition.

ABOUT JEN JOHNSTON - CERTIFIED NUTRITION CONSULTANT of YOUR TRUE NORTH

“My name is Jen Johnston. I have a BS in Exercise and Sport Science and am a Certified Nutrition Consultant. I have been coaching CrossFit and helping others with their nutrition for the last four years. Whether it’s educating them on how to reach their aesthetic, performance and/or health goals, with an emphasis in helping to create a healthy relationship to food and their body along the way.

I take a balanced approach and believe that we should fit our “diet” into our lifestyle and not vice versa.”

HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF

Stop dieting. No really, if you’re someone who has been on a diet for an extended period of time (6 months or more) and you aren’t seeing the results you hoped for, it may be time to take a diet break. Our bodies are smart- they adapt to their environment:

If you’ve been dieting for an extended period of time, your body may have adapted to its intake.
If you consistently restrict calories below where your body needs to function, it may begin to hold onto ANY fuel it can get to be able to function daily.

I know this concept is scary and counter-intuitive to how we “think” weight loss happens, and that is EXACTLY why working with a professional is so important.

WHAT IS A REVERSE DIET

Reverse dieting is the process of SLOWLY & GRADUALLY increasing your calorie intake to allow your body to take a deep breath and reset energy levels, metabolism, hormones, etc. This is not about eating as much as we can in a day or filing our plates with any & all foods. Health and improving how our bodies feel are the top priority.

“This might sound counter-intuitive, but not eating enough can stand in the way of your weight loss. If you cut your calories, after a while your metabolism can slow down and you start to burn fewer calories thanks to a process called adaptive thermogenesis. Even if you maintain your training and lowered calorie count, it becomes harder to lose weight.” - Shape.com

MY FITNESS PAL

My Fitness Pal is a great tool for tracking and learning about the composition of food. It allows you to set goals, track calories, carbs / fat / protein, water intake and so much more.

If you’ve never used the platform, it can feel overwhelming, so start small:

Follow the setup process, but don’t SOLELY trust the goals they suggest. (It’s a great place to start, but intake & percentages are rarely accurate. Talk with a professional to confirm, before diving in fully.)
Learn to input the foods you’re eating currently before setting up your new “meal plan”.
Focus on one element at a time:
- Staying within a calorie range
- Hitting your daily protein goal
- Balancing the ratios with carbs & fat
  NOTE: This can change based on your goals, but the general idea is to focus on one element at a time and building up to the full picture of what the platform can offer.
Take mental notes of the composition of the foods you’re eating; are they high in protein? High in carbs or fat? Calorically dense?
If you sync a fitness tracker, please do not use the calories burned as anything other than information. Trying to include this in calories eaten can become confusing and may throw off progress (our bodies tend to be more complicated than My Fitness Pal’s simple math).

The overall goal is to use the platform to educate ourselves on what we’re fueling our bodies with. From there, we should be able to go 1 day / 1 week, or even eliminate tracking all together because we know what intake / foods our bodies feel happiest with!

These topics only scratch the surface of nutrition and building a healthy relationship with food but they are great jumping off points. Keep it simple, take the time to learn / understand why you’re implementing something new, and always check in with your body!

If you found this information helpful or have any questions please contact Jen Johnston