Episodes

There are a lot of dieticians and weight loss coaches out there who preach the benefits of tracking your food. They suggest tracking every bite you eat, entering all of your food into an app each day, and then sticking to this routine for…basically…ever. I’m not a big fan of this approach for many reasons which I will share with you here on today’s podcast! Today on the Running Lean podcast, I answer the big burning question: should you be tracking your food? If no, why not? If yes, how shoul...

It’s a new year and a time when a lot of people become ultra-focused on health, fitness, and losing weight. It’s also a time when a lot of people will try some new fad diet or a new exercise routine that promises instant weight loss with minimal effort. I’m definitely not going to do that here today since I’m a big fan of the slow and steady approach to losing weight. In this episode, Common Weight Loss Myths Debunked, I clear up the most prevalent misconceptions about weight loss and offer s...

There are basically two ways to approach any challenge. One way is to focus on all the reasons why you can’t do it. The other way is to focus on all the reasons why you can. I find it interesting that so many people choose option one when facing anything challenging in their life. They spend a lot of time and energy focusing on why they can’t do it. Today, talk about why you do this, how this kind of thinking is keeping you stuck, and how to stop arguing for your limitations. Work With Me ...

Most people spend a great deal of time thinking about the past. They ruminate over things they did that they regret doing. They replay situations over and over and wish they’d handled things differently. They focus all of their energy on past events and spend zero time or energy on their future. This is a mistake. Why? Because you can’t change the past, it’s over and done with. But you can 100% change your future, so that’s a much better place to focus your energy. So this episode is all a...

If you want to accomplish a big goal, the key to getting there is consistency. You have to take aligned action and continue to take it over and over and over until you eventually reach that goal. The problem is, that most people don’t stick with something long enough to see the end result! They get off track somewhere along the way and usually end up staying off track. Getting off track is not the problem, we all do it, the real problem is not getting back on track. So today, it’s all about...

Sometimes, I have a bunch of thoughts that I want to share with you here on the podcast and I’ll create an episode for each one of those random thoughts. This is a great way of taking a deep dive into each topic and looking at it from several different angles. However, today’s podcast is going to be a little bit different. Instead of focusing on one topic, I’ve got several random thoughts about weight loss for runners that I want to share with you here today. They might all be seemingly rand...

Most people come up with all sorts of excuses, reasons, and stories for why they can’t accomplish something hard. You set out to lose weight so you change your diet but you eventually slip back into old habits and your new way of eating goes out the window. When you ask most people why they do this, that’s when all the excuses, reasons, and stories come into play. There’s a different way to approach all of this and in this episode, I’m going to show you the way. Most people think that the pr...

It’s officially the Holiday Season and that means it’s time to gain a bunch of weight over the next 30 days and start the new year feeling like crap, right? I know it seems kinda crazy when I say that out loud, but the truth is, that’s the way most people do it. Most people gain quite a bit of weight during the holidays and then swear a solemn oath that they will get back on track in January. I’ve done this many, many, many times so I know exactly what this looks like. I also know how terrib...

When it comes to diets and dietary advice, there is a lot of conflicting information out there. For every study that shows that one particular food is bad for you, there’s another study showing that it’s actually good for you. It is extremely difficult to make sense of all this conflicting information, and it can feel very overwhelming when you’re trying to decide which diet is best for you. In this episode, I’m going to help you make sense of all the conflicting information out there so you ...

One of the toughest things about losing weight and keeping it off for good is developing a healthy relationship with food. I work with runners every day who admittedly have a very unhealthy relationship with food. They overeat, they are constantly making unhealthy choices, and generally feel very out of control around food. If this sounds like you, rest assured there is nothing wrong with you, you’ve just developed some unhealthy thought patterns about food. So, one of the most beneficial th...

I recently sat down with Dr. Marvin Merrit and had an awesome conversation about what it means to be a healthy human being. In the world of health and fitness, there is a lot of information out there – it can really feel pretty overwhelming. A lot of that information can be confusing and even contradictory, so how do you know what you should do? Well, rest assured that Dr. Marvin and I will break it all down for you and offer up some very clear strategies for reversing disease through nutriti...

Today is a very special episode – number 200 – and I wanted to do something a little different to celebrate this milestone. I’ve had a look over the last 200 episodes and picked out the most important mindset principles runners need to know in order to crush your running and weight loss goals. I’ve featured each of these principles on previous podcast episodes and you can easily go back through the archive and get a deep dive on each one of these any time. It’s super fun putting these podcast...

There’s a lot of confusing information out there about how runners should approach strength training. Some people say you should use very light weights and do a ton of reps so you don’t bulk up too much. Other people suggest lifting super heavy weights and doing fewer reps but that seems a little scary and not a very good choice for long-distance runners. So what’s the right answer for you? That’s what this episode is all about! In this episode, I will explain the difference between training...

When it comes to running tough races, you eventually get to a point where it’s all mind over matter. Your legs hurt, you’re exhausted, and you just want to quit. This is when your emotional toughness game really has to be on point. You know you can physically keep going, but your emotional state is trying hard to convince you otherwise. This emotional toughness or emotional tolerance is also required when you want to do other tough things in your life like not eating pizza when everyone arou...

Have you ever caught yourself eating something that you know is bad for you, but you do it anyway? Have you ever changed your eating patterns for a period of time and then found yourself going back to the junk food you used to eat, even though you know you probably should steer clear of it? This was me for sure. I found myself going back for more of the junk food I used to eat, even after long periods of healthy eating. Why do we do this and what can we do to stop it from happening in the fut...

No matter how hard we try to control all the circumstances of our lives, eventually, things get a little out of control. Your boss increases your workload, the kids are riddled with extracurricular activities (which means you are too), aging family members need constant care, and you start to feel overwhelmed with everything. Stress and anxiety levels increase until you’re sitting at DEFCON 1 and ready to explode. How you handle yourself during these times of intense stress is extremely impor...

There have been some eye-opening discoveries recently around dietary advice doled out by influencers on social media. It turns out that the food and beverage industry has been paying registered dietitians to promote diet soda, sugar, and supplements on TikTok and Instagram. While this may not come as a big surprise, it speaks to a much bigger issue. The food industry is deliberately confusing us into eating more junk food so they can make more money – at the expense of our health and well-bei...

There are a lot of metrics available to runners these days – pace, distance, time, V02 max, recovery advisor, race predictor, stress score, heart rate zones, lactate threshold, vertical oscillation, performance condition, and on and on… It can be confusing and overwhelming to even try to understand all of these metrics much less improve them. Today I want to take a look at a few key metrics and explain what they mean and how you might be able to improve them. The 3 key metrics you want to pay...

When it comes to losing weight, there are many, many approaches you can take – some of them will work while others definitely will not. Runners especially need to be mindful of their approach to weight loss because certain methods might help you lose weight but will impair your running performance in big ways. In this episode of the podcast, I go over 5 dieting disasters runners need to avoid if you want to lose weight without completely destroying your running performance. I’ll be talking ab...

A LOT of people are addicted to, or have a troublesome relationship with, sugar. And a LOT of people I work with come to me because they want this problem solved once and for all. The problem is that most people don’t know how to break their sugar addiction and never get to a place where they can enjoy sugar in moderation. They continue their dysfunctional relationship, even though they know it’s doing them more harm than good. But wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have such a messed up rel...

Lots of runners look pretty healthy on the outside. They exercise a lot, maintain a decent weight, have low body fat percentage, low BMI, and generally look fit. But inside there could be a lot more going on that no one really sees. I came across a study recently that looked at low-carbohydrate diets versus high-carbohydrate diets and their effects on athletic performance. The results are pretty interesting from a performance standpoint and also kind of surprising from a health perspective. ...

There’s a lot of confusion out there these days around carbs, especially in the endurance athlete community. Are carbs good? Are they bad? Do they have a place in our diet or should we avoid them altogether? I think you can probably guess my stance on this, especially from the title of this episode “Carbs Are Not the Enemy”. But if you are one of the many people who are confused about all the talk on whether carbs are good or bad, my goal today iis to help clear this all up for you. In this ...

If you are having a hard time sticking with a health and fitness routine, then you might want to have a look at your locus of control. Locus of control refers to where you believe your control lies – either outside of you or within you. People who have a strong external locus of control tend to have a very hard time sticking to a plan and accomplishing anything. On the other hand, people with a strong internal locus of control have an easier time sticking to a plan and are more successful in ...

Most people tend to be pretty motivated when they start something. You decide you want to lose weight so you change your diet, and for the first few weeks, maybe even a month or so, you are super motivated. You’re tracking your food, sticking to the plan perfectly, and feeling good about yourself. You think, “I am crushing this!” But then, over time, that motivation begins to fade. You stop tracking your food, you cheat on a few meals, and you longer feel motivated to keep going. This is t...