After over seven years working as an online nutrition coach (and years in the fitness industry before this!), I want to share four major nutrition mistakes we often see as coaches working 1:1 with our clients. These mistakes aren’t because our clients are uninformed or wrong; they’re just often things we have been told (incorrectly) most of our lives.

Our ability to stay reasonable when feeling incredibly stressed or emotional tends to be most challenging. And unsurprisingly, ensuring we're well fed is a significant helper and factor with us thinking (and acting) reasonably. Here are a few ideas that may be helpful to ensure you're eating enough, especially when with significant time demands and stressors.

If you’re a perfectionist, chances are you’ve been told repeatedly that “perfect is the enemy of good”. The problem, though, is that the goal is still to be good. And if there’s anything I’ve learned from my perfectionist clients, it’s that good is never good enough.

Meal prep is one of those things that we know can benefit us by cutting down on time in the kitchen and brainpower trying to constantly decide what to eat, but is also exhausting and often ends with tons of uneaten meals. This is where batch prep comes to the rescue, especially when planning meals for your whole family.

One of the most frustrating forms of sabotage is chasing an old version of ourselves. Even if we do instinctively know that it’s a fruitless task, it’s something we often do that leaves us spinning our wheels in frustration and overwhelm because we’re chasing a goal that is not physically possible.

Something I often urge clients to do is to keep easy-win snacks on hand at all times, but especially during travel - whether that’s a day of work travel, a family road trip, or just a long day of errands where you’re out and about the whole day. While on the road, gas stations can be a fantastic place to find those “easy win” snacks.

Diet culture is a system that places value on our weight and size over our health. Diet culture is supported by a multi-billion dollar industry that pushes weight loss through every medium possible.⁣ Diet culture tells men, women, and children that they are not small enough, strong enough, or lean enough. ⁣DIET CULTURE IS HARD TO IGNORE.⁣ Anti-diet culture is not the same thing as anti-dieting, and let’s talk about why.

Whether you’re a plant-based eater or not, this tempeh, beet, and hummus buddha bowl is packed with tons of veggies, fiber, and important vitamins and minerals. It has a great mix of flavors (sweet, spicy and citrusy!) along with 25g of plant-based protein! It’s a great meal to make ahead of time and reheat throughout the week. We also share options for modifying macros depending on your needs!

Last week on the blog, we talked about the general idea of diversifying your conception of what “healthy” looks like. This is also a reminder to make sure that you’re getting your nutrition information from diverse sources. So this week, I’m here to provide some links to creators and resources to help you dig in further.

When you think of healthy food, what comes to mind? For most of us, it's usually something like egg whites and vegetables, or a big salad, or steamed broccoli and chicken and brown rice. But what about other food traditions and cultures? There are people all over the world who have lived healthy lives and probably never eaten what you just thought of as “healthy” foods.

I’ve been my dad’s nutrition coach for a little over two years now and while working with ALL of my clients is rewarding, working with my dad has been especially rewarding in its own way. And while you may think I’m here to boast about how I’ve helped my dad lose a bunch of weight and finally get back to his high school football weight and body composition, I’m actually here to tell you that he hasn’t changed much physically and hasn’t really lost any weight at all.

You might be faced with some big life events throughout the year - the ones we don't anticipate and that aren't always celebrations. These are often complex, emotional, challenging, and demanding situations that can make our nutrition seem especially overwhelming. Looking at these significant life events, there are three key things I learned that I think would benefit your nutrition should you find yourself amid these big life events and life changes.

We already know that a calorie deficit is the most important factor at play when it comes to pursuing fat loss goals. But, for most, staying in a consistent calorie deficit is a lot more challenging (and far more complex) than just “eating less and moving more.” One roadblock I see hindering progress over and over is not being in the right place to commit to these goals from the start.

Recently, as I was doing a major plant care day, I thought of one of those unattributed inspirational quotes you see online that says something like “nothing in nature blooms all year long; be patient with yourself.” I love a good metaphor, so of course that got me thinking about all of the other lessons my plants have taught me, and (because I’m a nutrition coach) how those lessons apply to nutrition-related goals.

If you’re new to tracking your macros, the idea of creating meals or planning a day that hits your macros can feel incredibly overwhelming. You may think you need to create complex recipes, weigh every part, and spend an hour of your day just doing math or playing macro tetris, but that’s not the case.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo (or just your love of macro-friendly Mexican inspired food) with this great enchilada bake! It is gluten free, vegetarian, plant-based, and can be adjusted to meet any specific dietary needs you have. Give it a try and let us know if you like it!

Individuals who strength train gain muscle, lose fat, look leaner, improve their health, and are more athletic than the general population. The reason we talk about strength training as nutrition coaches is because, alongside digging into our nutrition more, adding resistance training can aid in the pursuit of these goals.

As the seasons change, our bodies often crave fresh ingredients and lighter meals. When you’re prepping for a busy week, it can be tough to not lean on convenience, but there are easy ways to still get in plenty of whole foods and protein from plant-based sources without spending a ton of time doing so. This easy healthy vegan peanut noodle bowl packs a punch of plant-based protein, is full of fresh veggies and is an easy meal to prep for the whole week!