welcome to the blog
join our weekly newsletter & stay up to date with the latest posts
search for an article
TIPS FOR OPTIMIZING YOUR PERFORMANCE THROUGH RECOVERY: FUELING FOR PERFORMANCE PART 2
When it comes to seeing progress and reaching our goals, the things we do outside of the gym (like our nutrition!) are just as important as the training we do in the gym. If you have goals of improving your performance in the gym and how you feel overall, take stock of how you’re approaching some of these things. We also share about how supplements can play a role in helping maximize your performance and share which ones we recommend most!
MACRO-FRIENDLY RECIPE: BUFFALO & BBQ STUFFED SWEET POTATOES
We’re all about easy and yummy around here and these BBQ and Buffalo stuffed sweet potatoes check both of those boxes plus some. We plan to make these for the Superbowl and have been enjoying them often during this cold winter season. Hopefully, you and your family will love them too!
HOW TO TRULY MAXIMIZE YOUR PERFORMANCE GOALS THROUGH YOUR NUTRITION: FUELING FOR PERFORMANCE PART 1
You don’t need to be an elite athlete to optimize your performance. Regardless of your level or experience, you just need to make sure your nutrition aligns with your specific goals. If your goals are aimed at optimizing performance and recovery, your priority should be eating the right amount to fuel your training and your recovery. Today’s post will give you some of the basics on what to eat, when to eat it, and how food plays a role in your performance in and out of the gym.
RECOGNIZING PHYSICAL VS. PSYCHOLOGICAL (EMOTIONAL) HUNGER & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
Recognizing our hunger cues and the impact our environment can have on those cues is especially important for goals related to our nutrition. Establishing a difference between physical and psychological hunger is the first line of defense against any feelings of guilt, shame, or regret surrounding our food choices.
BUILDING STRONG HABITS FOR LONG TERM RESULTS
While we want our clients to have specific goals they’re after, as coaches, our goal is to also ensure that clients walk away with tools that ensure their results are sustainable and that they feel confident in navigating their nutrition on their own. In today’s post, I’m sharing more about some of those tools we aim to develop in our work as online nutrition coaches working one-on-one with clients, no matter what their goals are.
HOLIDAY COCKTAILS: MACRO-FRIENDLY DRINKS AND HOW TO TRACK ALCOHOL
When you think of holiday treats, a cocktail may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But between more dinners with family or friends and other holiday celebrations, chances are you’ll run into a cocktail or two. Whether you’re hosting Christmas brunch or having a cozy snow day at home, here are some of our favorite winter cocktails.
MACRO FRIENDLY COFFEE IDEAS AND RECIPES
A big part of diet culture that plagued me for a majority of my life was a fear of liquid calories. There is no need to fear liquid calories, period. For those who love a high calorie latte, mocha, etc., here are a few tips for how you can make a generally calorie-packed drink a little more “macro friendly.”
NIGHT SHIFT NUTRITION: YOU DON’T NEED TO LOSE SLEEP OVER YOUR FOOD, TOO
Working the night shift has been a notoriously difficult challenge for individuals pursuing changes in their nutrition. But that doesn't mean that progress can't be made with nutrition, even on the longest of nights. Here are six tips to help you as a night shift worker in your food.
MACRO-FRIENDLY RECIPE: BUTTERNUT SQUASH PASTA BOWL
Fall is my favorite season and part of that is making yummy, hearty meals that warm you up and bring together the flavors of the season. This pasta bowl uses seasonal butternut squash and is packed with other veggies (coming in at nearly 20g of fiber!) as well as protein. It’s an easy plant-based recipe that you can prep for the whole week or share with the whole family.
EMOTIONAL EATING, STRESS, SLEEP, AND YOUR GOALS
Some stress is considered vital for a happy and healthy life. Stress challenges us to adapt and overcome obstacles by learning new things, and stress motivates us to set and progress toward personal goals. On the other hand, too much stress that goes unrelieved can have negative consequences on our health and fitness goals, on top of negatively impacting our emotional health and well-being.
Macro Friendly Meal Ideas Using Pantry Staples & Convenience Foods
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. Many of our clients are parents, professionals and really busy individuals who don’t have a ton of time to spend on food but have health or weight loss goals and we believe that you can absolutely do both!
Why You Have No Appetite & What to Do About It
We often see tips for curbing an increased appetite, but what about those of us that consistently struggle with a lower appetite? Here are habits that can help you navigate having a low appetite.
Smart Watch Pros and Cons: Using Tech to Support Your Nutrition Goals
Smart watches - Apple Watches, FitBits, Garmins, etc. - can be such an incredibly helpful tool for daily life, but they become more detrimental than helpful when we rely too heavily on the data they provide. But we can understand how to utilize them in a way that is most beneficial for us and our needs, without having them give us inaccurate information.
4 Most Common Macro Tracking Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
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.
Strategies for Managing Low Appetite (Because Nutrition is Self-Care!)
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.
Challenging Restrictive Dieting: Understanding Dieting vs. Diet Culture
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.
Plant-Based Buddha Bowl Recipe: High Fiber Meal Prep
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!
Diversify Your Nutrition: The Power of Purging your Social Media
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.
8 REASONS TO CHOOSE MACROSFIRST AS YOUR MACRO TRACKING APP
Choosing the right tracking app can make or break your nutrition goals, and MacrosFirst stands out for all the right reasons. Let's jump into why MacrosFirst is superior to popular options like MyFitnessPal (MFP) and Cronometer and why it best fits your tracking needs.
SOBER CURIOUS FOR THE HOLIDAYS: HOW ALCOHOL IMPACTS OUR MACROS, BODY COMPOSITION, AND OVERALL PROGRESS
The holiday season often conjures images of festive gatherings, joyous celebrations, and, inevitably, alcohol. For many, these moments include a glass of wine, a cocktail, or a beer to toast the occasion. However, an increasing number of people are becoming "sober curious," re-evaluating their relationship with alcohol. This movement isn't about outright abstinence but about mindfulness and understanding how alcohol impacts our bodies, especially concerning health and fitness goals. Let's explore how alcohol affects our health, particularly in the realms of fat loss, sleep, and overall wellness.
EMBRACE FLEXIBILITY AND ENJOY SOME PIZZA: TIPS FOR MACRO-FRIENDLY PIZZA NIGHT
When I start working with a client, they typically believe that they can't enjoy pizza AND eat “healthy” at the same time. Their experience tells them that pizza is a “bad” food, it’s a cheat meal, and it will definitely make them gain body fat. But often, that’s a fear of food and diet culture talking. By embracing a flexible approach to eating and incorporating some macro-friendly strategies, pizza can be part of a balanced approach to nutrition. Grab a slice, and let’s dig in!
CHANGE TAKES TIME: WHY WORK WITH A NUTRITION COACH FOR 6 MONTHS?
At KLN, we require a six-month commitment from our clients, and there's a good reason for it. When you first join us, we take the time to get to know YOU – your habits, history, and what makes your daily life tick. This isn't something we can rush through-- it takes TIME! Time need to see how you live, how you interact with food, and how different factors affect your eating patterns. Getting to know you as an individual - your lifestyle, your needs, and what keeps you motivated - is crucial for providing the absolute best guidance and support from your coach.
3 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR MEALS MORE FILLING: MACRO-FRIENDLY TIPS FOR SATIETY
If you’re in a calorie deficit and working towards fat loss goals, a main goal should be minimizing any feelings of restriction or hunger so you can maximize adherence to your deficit. This is why we, as coaches, take a strong stance against aggressive and unsustainable deficits. If our hunger is through the roof each day, it’s not very likely that we’ll be able to adhere to that calorie deficit for long. Luckily, there are tools that can help us minimize hunger and, luckily, those same tools also keep us well-fueled and promote our overall health as well.
TRADER JOE’S: YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD PROTEIN PROVIDER - 30 HIGH PROTEIN FINDS
Navigating the aisles of Trader Joes to find high-protein options can be manageable, even with the vast array of calorie-dense novelties and goodies. You can easily incorporate more protein into your diet by focusing on items with lean meats, plant-based proteins, and convenient prepared foods. This guide should be handy to help you make informed choices that align with your nutrition goals. And soon enough, you might find yourself a Trader Joe's connoisseur.
WHY YOU SHOULD DITCH THE SCALE WHEN WORKING TOWARDS WEIGHT LOSS GOALS
I think we all technically know that our weight is just an arbitrary number on a device that doesn't mean that much, but it can still be difficult to let go of the anxiety and frustration that this number sometimes carries. It's easy to step on the scale and either feel proud when we see the number has decreased or hopeless when it hasn't. This is because we have this idea that the number on the scale equates to our self-worth. Rather than just suggesting that you don't let the number on the scale bother you, I want to delve deeper into how we can utilize the number on the scale as a measure of progress alongside other metrics, or how we can step away from the scale entirely -- and how to decide which option is best for us.
MACRO-FRIENDLY RESTAURANT SERIES: STARBUCKS
Let's face it, life often gets chaotic, leaving us little time to complete all of our errands, let alone cook all of our meals from scratch. Popping into Starbucks for a drink or a meal might seem like it will throw our nutrition goals “off track,” however if we understand the nutritional content of the food we're choosing, we can choose foods that help us work towards our nutrition goals. Believe it or not, Starbucks DOES have some food options that keep us fueled and feeling good, proving that even in the midst of a busy day, we can make choices that support our health.
MACRO-FRIENDLY AIRPORT TRAVEL SNACKS
Whether you’re a frequent flyer or only an occasional jet setter, staying goal-aligned with your nutrition during air travel can feel overwhelming with so many other aspects of your trip demanding your attention. Staying on top of your energy needs is a must though, so we’ve compiled a list of snacks you can grab at most major airports and ones you can source before your travel day and bring through TSA to help keep you fueled until you touch down at your final destination.
BREAKING THE CYCLE OF RESTRICTION: HOW TO CREATE A BETTER RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD AND YOUR NUTRITION
The cycle of perpetual restriction can look like throwing away the cookies your friend just brought over because you know that if you have just one, you'll spiral into eating every sweet treat in the pantry. It can look like not even keeping those “scary” foods in the house because you've labeled yourself as someone with no control. It can also look like an entire inner dialogue of categorizing “good” foods and “forbidden” foods and promising ourselves we'll only eat “clean” while also ignoring the fact we've never succeeded at this game in the past.
NUTRITION TIPS FOR YOUR NEXT CAMPING TRIP
Camping is one of my favorite ways to vacation/travel, even though it involves more meal planning than other vacations. That extra required planning also means it can be friendlier to your nutrition goals, especially if you take the time to pre-track some meals to ensure you’re hitting your protein and other targets.
SIGNS YOU NEED TO REVERSE DIET: NAVIGATING CALORIE DEFICITS, MAINTENANCE, AND MORE
As someone who reentered the dating world a few years ago, I never fully understood the concept of red flags. And then, suddenly, I understood the dialogue. It seemed like I was in a parade, and red flags were readily available and in abundance. But dating doesn't have the monopoly on red flags. Our bodies often wave a giant red flag in front of us, and we seem to be colorblind to it. But I want to draw your attention to calorie deficit red flags, how a reverse diet can address those red flags, and whether a reverse diet may be appropriate for you.