Episodes

I think we all know that eating too much sugar is not good for you. Excess sugar consumption has been linked to all sorts of metabolic dysfunction like high blood pressure, excess weight gain, insulin resistance, and diabetes just to name a few. So the solution is pretty simple – just moderate your sugar intake. But why is this so much easier in theory than in practice? Why is moderating sugar so difficult? Today I take a deep dive into why moderating sugar is so difficult and offer some pr...

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on human metabolism and I’ve noticed a lot of inconsistencies in the data available. There seem to be a lot of misconceptions about metabolism, especially when it comes to losing weight. So today I want to take some time to address some of the most common myths and misconceptions around metabolism. I did an entire episode on fixing your metabolism – episode 141 – so I won’t be rehashing all of that here today. Today I want to focus on demystifying met...

I work with a lot of runners who are awesome at sticking with their running plans. They get up early on Saturday mornings religiously, regardless of the weather outside. They do the required speed work every week, no matter what. They never miss a workout, even when they are sick and should probably take a day or two off. But when it comes to sticking to their diet so they can lose weight…it all seems to fall apart. Why is this? Why is it so easy for runners to stick to a difficult marathon...

A lot of people set out to lose weight and then quit. They change their diet, start exercising, and then at some point just throw up their hands and give up. This was definitely me and it was probably you at some point as well. While there are a lot of reasons why someone might give up on themselves, one of the most likely reasons is a serious lack of focus. Being focused means more than just paying attention to what’s in front of you, it can actually be the key to accomplishing all your hea...

Over the last 100 years or so, we have become a society of pleasure-seekers and pain-avoiders. We do anything and everything to avoid what we perceive as painful and chase everything we deem pleasurable – even if it’s actually harmful to us. This is classic addictive behavior, especially when it comes to how we consume food and alcohol. But what are we really addicted to? Chocolate chip cookies? IPAs? Or is it something else? In this episode, I’m going to explain how dopamine might be the re...

If you’re anything like most runners, especially if you live in the US, this is most likely the off-season for you. You’ve completed your Spring races and you’re not quite into the next training cycle yet. Most runners approach this off-season as a time to live it up, eat and drink whatever, slack off on training, and “just have fun.” This was always my approach to the off-season, and I figured I would get back on track as soon as training started up again. The problem is that I ended up gai...

Today I have a special treat for you, I’m sharing a candid conversation I recently had with Pete Caigan. Pete is one of my clients who has had a pretty remarkable transformation over the last 6 months or so. Before finding me, Pete was training for an ultramarathon and found himself gaining quite a bit of weight. He ended up getting a DNF (did not finish) at his first 50k attempt and was determined to try again and succeed. He shares his story of changing his diet, getting fat-adapted, losin...

Recently, I completed a self-supported, solo 12-hour run. I’ve always wanted to do a 12-hour event, but I could never really find a race that spoke to me. So, I decided to take things into my own hands and do it myself! In this episode of the podcast, I share what I learned running solo for 12 hours – what prompted me to want to run alone for so long, how I approached training, how I fueled during the event, and some interesting lessons I learned along the way. If you’ve ever considered doin...

Your mindset is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. But most people do not spend any time at all working on improving their mindset. This is crazy to me because without the right mindset, losing weight and keeping it off becomes nearly impossible. However, armed with the right mindset, losing weight becomes easy and effortless, and your success is all but inevitable. Everything you want for yourself but don’t already have requires a shift in your mindset in order to get...

Most people will agree that exercise should be included in any weight loss plan. Unfortunately, most people think that exercise should be the ONLY component of their weight loss plan. Eat less and move more, right? Isn’t that the mantra that’s been forced upon us for several decades now? How’s that actually working for you? Not great? Well, the good news is…you are not alone! It didn’t work for me either! There’s more to losing weight than just exercising more and eating less. I know that ...

Nutrition is going to be the number one driver of your body composition. If you’re a runner and you want to lose weight, you have to get your nutrition game on point. The thinking that just running more is going to solve the weight problem for you is outdated and just doesn’t work. There’s a lot more going on when it comes to weight loss – the types of foods we eat, the timing of our meals, what happens in our bodies when we eat certain foods, and so much more to consider. And don’t worry, I...

At some point in your weight loss journey, you will experience a setback. This is normal and nothing to be ashamed of. But most people just do not handle setbacks very well. They get down on themselves, they feel gross feelings like guilt and shame, and most of the time they just give up. Do not do this! Instead, you have to learn how to handle setbacks properly. So in this episode of the podcast, I break it all down for you and explain what to do instead so you’ll be handling setbacks like...

There’s a real crisis happening in our world today, one that’s been decades in the making. And I find it somewhat disturbing that no one is really talking about it. It’s not making the headlines, it’s not in the news, and it doesn’t come up in your social media feed. But if left unchecked, if we allow this crisis to continue as-is, it could lead to the end of human life – at least as we know it today. You might think I’m being a little overly dramatic here, but I promise you I’m not. In thi...

One of the most important concepts you need to learn if you want to take back control of eating is the desire scale. This is a tool we have recently started using in The Coaching Project and it’s been so well-received that I thought I’d share it with you here today! When you’re trying to lose weight, sticking to your food plan makes or breaks your progress. If you’re constantly giving in to temptations losing weight is going to be very difficult and feel pretty miserable. Instead, if you can...

There are more diets out there in the world right now (and more conflicting information about those diets) than I even care to think about. And there is one thing I’ve noticed that comes up again and again – the fact that diets don’t work. Why? Why don’t diets work? Every one of them claims they are THE answer to your weight loss problems and basically, every one of them fails to produce lasting results. Today I’m going to dive into the five biggest reasons why diets don’t work and give you ...

Most people think that losing weight equals suffering. If you want to lose weight you have to stop eating all “delicious” foods forever and you will suffer every single day. They use words like suffering, struggling, deprivation, starvation, and white-knuckling it. I don’t know about you but all of this sounds pretty terrible to me. If this is what you think losing weight looks like, then it’s no wonder most people quit. If you’re suffering every day trying to lose weight, you are doing it ...

One of the biggest problems people talk about when they can’t seem to take action toward a goal is feeling like they are stuck. Feeling stuck can literally stop you in your tracks, make you lose all motivation, drain you of any willpower you might have had, and make you feel pretty terrible. The solution then becomes pretty simple – get yourself unstuck. But what does that even mean? How do you get yourself unstuck when you can’t seem to make any progress at all? What do you do when you feel...

If you want different results you have to do things differently, right? But doing things differently requires some work, it’s an uncomfortable process, and honestly, this is why most people refuse to change. But what if you could make change easier? What if you could replace a bunch of your bad habits with good ones? That would be amazing, right? That’s the basic premise of developing good habits – make living a healthy lifestyle automatic and easy. But again, most people won’t do the work ...

One of the most confusing topics in the health and fitness world today is…what should I eat? There is just so much noise out there on social media, in the news, and even on podcasts. And almost every one of the principles someone says you need to follow is contradicted by some other principle that someone else says you need to follow. Just about every person I talk to tells me how frustrating all of this is and honestly, it’s probably the number one reason why I do what I do. I became a coac...

One of the biggest fears you face when you set out to better yourself is the fear of being criticized. You want to lose weight but you are so afraid of what people will say about you that you quit or you never even start in the first place. The fear of being criticized is one of the three main reasons why most people don’t succeed with losing weight or with anything else for that matter. The other two are the fear of failure and the fear of success which I talked about in the last two episode...

Failure, or rather the fear of failure, is perhaps the biggest reason why you do not achieve the important things you want for yourself. People are so afraid of failure that oftentimes, they never even try. They decide ahead of time that failure is inevitable and so they quit before they ever get started. The truth is, failure is always going to be part of the process. Instead of fearing failure and giving up, you need to reframe what failure means for you. So in this episode of the Running...

Fear of success is probably something most people aren’t aware of. If you ask people why they can’t seem to reach a particular goal, they will come up with all kinds of reasons, excuses, and stories, and they’ll almost never say “fear of success”. But fear of success is a real thing and today I want to bring this into your sphere of understanding. I want you to become so keenly aware of your natural fear of success and what it looks like that you’ll never have to fall prey to it again. In th...

When it comes to proper hydration, most runners are all over the place. I get it, it’s a little confusing…how much should you drink, how often, should you only drink water, what about electrolytes, is Gatorade the best option, etc. So today I want to end the confusion for you. I want to give you a very clear understanding of what hydration actually means and how to do it properly. That’s why I’m calling this one, “The Ultimate Guide to Hydration for Runners.” You will learn what hydration m...

If you’ve ever struggled to lose weight and keep it off, then this episode is for you. There are many different ways to lose weight – cutting calories, cutting carbs, cutting out snacking, more fasting, eating less meat, eating only meat, eating only cabbage and celery, and on and on… Some of these weight loss methods are more successful and more sustainable than others, but they all work to some degree for some people. Despite all of these different weight loss methods and their relative eff...