Welcome to Day 2 of my 4 day coverage of low fat, medium fat, high fat and plant based protein sources here in Hawaii. As a virtual and female certified personal trainer on Oahu, my clients are often confused as to why protein choices matter. Most of the time they are unaware they are needing to focus on this until the Doc says their annual blood work came back and their cholesterol numbers are in the high alert range.
Medium fat protein sources contain anywhere from 4 to 7 g of fat per ounce whereas lean meat sources or low fat protein sources contain anywhere from 0 to 3 g of fat per ounce.
Choosing low fat to medium fat protein sources will help keep the saturated fat and cholesterol down in your diet.
Be sure to SAVE THIS POST! And stay tuned for Day 3 giving you High Fat protein sources and Day 4 covering Plant Based protein sources!
Here is Day 1 of a 4 Day PROTEIN CHEAT SHEET just for you! Living in Hawaii, we love our fish and poi; but, no doubt, we also love our fatty cuts of meat! As a female personal trainer in Hawaii, working on Oahu, I get asked ALL OF THE TIME, what low fat protein sources are available for someone watching their cholesterol? And after a convo I had with my 17 year old nephew about this very topic, I’ve decided to share this cheat sheet with all of you!
Why would you want to watch the fat intake in your protein sources? Well, for weight loss and as a weight loss trainer in Hawaii, I’ve seen time and again how protein choices for my clients can have an impact on their weight loss goals. For someone looking to shed body fat, clients should choose lower to medium fat protein choices, more often than not, in order to properly fuel their bodies.
And it works the other way too -when clients want to gain weight in order to gain muscle and size. For example, I’m now working with my 17 year old nephew on a clean muscle build. He’s done all the work to lose 30lbs so now he’s ready to add some muscle size to his 6’ frame.
So were chatting as I’m giving him his calories and macros which looks like this:
I tell him to keep his protein choices lean because although his calories are high, his overall daily fat goal is on the lower end. And since he’s used to the fatty cuts of meat in my family, he asked for a list of low fat protein sources.
So here it is. And if you need it too, comment below and I’ll send you the large text size PDF version of the entire chart.
Over the next 3 days, I’ll tackle Moderate Fat, High Fat and Plant Based Protein Sources in cheat sheet format!
Be sure to SAVE this post!
And BTW – what’s your favorite cut of protein? Or type in if you are plant based?
Do you remember your first diet? I do. I remember I was in 3rd grade at a school pizza party and a boy told me I didn’t need to eat any pizza because I was so fat.
Now with social media in today’s culture, dieting and the “perfect” body is all around us. Can we really blame ourselves if we are bombarded with messages that photoshopped bodies are the norm?
Diets always work when you first start them. You give it a good go for 30 days; for 12 weeks; for 1 year. BUT BUT BUT…
If we don’t unlearn all of the unhealthy ways of wanting to lose weight, we will never find a sustainable way of living and EATING forever. We will always be on the hamster wheel of lose weight, gain weight, lose weight. We are WAY TOO OBSESSED with Eating because the DIET INDUSTRY has taught us that we CAN’TTRUST OURSELVES to eat moderately and that we MUST FOLLOW a diet plan because we aren’t smart enough to listen to our own body’s signals. We are BRAIN WASHED to feel that in order to achieve body goals, it must be HARD; it must be BRUTAL; it should be lots of SACRIFICE and if it’s too easy, it’s not going to work, point.blank.period.
You know what though? YOU CAN TRUST YOURSELF. As your COACH, I am here to SUPPORT you through it in a SAFE SPACE as we don’t judge your eating, but rather, use your eating as a puzzle to solve as we practice to ENJOY food NOT JUDGE food.
If you want a better, less stressful relationship with food AND to minimize the amount of time and mental energy you spend thinking and obsessing about food, get on my wait list for my Moderation 365 Nutrition Course. This is a food relationship course where you will start liberating yourselves from the neuroses that chronic dieting instills in us before we’re old enough to know it.
The course seeks to help us unlearn the rules and strict dos/don’ts we’ve adopted over years of dieting. It seeks to help us get back in touch with our biofeedback signals like hunger, cravings, fullness and satisfaction—the things that chronic dieting takes from us.
#Moderation365 is about learning to eat the same on Saturday that you do on Monday.
Get on the wait list today by shooting me an email. This course will be limited to a very small amount of people as we dig deep, get real and do the work!
A Food Pusher or Pressure Feeder is someone who pushes or pressures you to eat something after you’ve already said no. Typically, they have their own agenda in wanting you to eat the food they are offering. Perhaps they want to be the best hostess or they feel they’ve gone to all this work and want you to enjoy.
And I admit, I’m guilty of it too. As a life time, hard core dieter in recovery, I would pressure those that I was with to share in foods that I had always restricted. It was Genki sushi dates and dessert with my sister Chera. It was fast food bites and binges off my husband Lekeli. It was a “who wants to share dessert with me” while out with a group of friends because I selfishly wanted THAT dessert.
It is true that all DIETS fail, eventually. THAT psychology always wins over white knuckle food restriction tactics. Lose 20lbs in 12 weeks. Check. Gain 30 pounds back within the 12 weeks after losing those 20 pounds in the first 12 weeks. Check. Check. Check.
Over the past 3 years, I’ve been really working on changing my mindset around food and have been trying hard to ditch the diets. It’s a daily effort, I must say. It’s still hard work. Can you fathom that? It’s still hard work to not diet as it is to be on a diet.
So why bother? Why continue this path you might wonder?
Well, I know one thing rings true for me – that I can no longer live in my obsessive 24/7/365 cycle of food obsession. Maybe it’s age. My inner critic will whisper to me…“it’s not age, it’s LAZINESS. And being UNDISCIPLINED and UN hard core (is that even a word, LOL). She will catch me, in a glimpse of a mirror, a shadow in a retail glass window, all times through out the day, with this one long, lingering thought…“You aren’t on a diet? Who the F do you think you are? Some, lean, fit, amazing looking woman who doesn’t need to be on diet? Yeah right! You are NOT THAT person. How dare you think that you, of all people, don’t need to be a diet.”
And as quick as that inner critic rears her ugly head, I am just as quick to acknowledge her prowess and dismiss her presence with the confidence in knowing that this my way; my new path toward self acceptance, self confidence and self worth, all independent of and irrelevant of my weight and my body size.
Maybe you don’t have that support network to cheer you on. But, I am here in your corner! My only goal for you is to have a good relationship with food so that you are no longer controlled by food, but rather, you control your relationship with food and that you can trust yourself in any food situation.
If you want a better, less stressful relationship with food AND to minimize the amount of time and mental energy you spend thinking and obsessing about food, get on my wait list for my Moderation 365 Nutrition Course. This is a food relationship course where you will start liberating yourselves from the neuroses that chronic dieting instills in us before we’re old enough to know it.
The course seeks to help us unlearn the rules and strict dos/don’ts we’ve adopted over years of dieting. It seeks to help us get back in touch with our biofeedback signals like hunger, cravings, fullness and satisfaction—the things that chronic dieting takes from us.
#Moderation365 is about learning to eat the same on Saturday that you do on Monday.
Get on the wait list today by shooting me an email. This course will be limited to a very small amount of people as we dig deep, get real and do the work!
There is SO MUCH FALSE weight loss and diet information out there that has BRAIN 🧠 WASHED us to believe that hours of cardio and cutting your calories super low is the answer to weight loss.
☝️THIS is a common issue I see many women making when they hire me for help.
FACT IS that hours of cardio and under eating leads to fatigue, hormonal imbalance, loss of muscle mass and overall just plain exhaustion, unhappiness and burn out. 🙅🏽♀️
Here are some ways to lose body fat sustainably and healthily:
1. Swap out your cardio for leisure walking
2. Spend 1 day per week doing a 10 to 15 minute high intensity strength training circuit – I have plenty on my igtv.
3. Up your protein intake to at least 85-100 grams per day. Not sure 🤔 what I mean? Message me for macro help!
4. Allow yourself to have one 200 calorie treat per day. WTF u said? Yep – it’s called #foodfreedom and eating the @moderation365 way. I’m getting certified this month, so I’ll be able to hook you up too!
If you need help in customizing your exercise and macros, message me! Each month I work with a maximum of 10 women in my #LevelUP coaching program.
Here’s what one of my #levelup ladies has to say:
“The best thing about #Levelup is that I can now workout “with” you more than once a week. I like that there is a specific progression and workouts make more sense in the big picture than when I was working out with you once a week and then coming up with my own stuff the rest of the week. I have gained a lot of strength since May and while I joke about working out with you for my beach body, it’s really about being functionally strong and staying injury free.
I’m really glad that you started your online program when you did so that I could continue working out with you throughout the pandemic in a way that was convenient but that has also given me results.” – K.C.M.
Does this sound like you? “I totally stopped exercising since it was crazy busy.” “I swore I was gonna start back in the gym after the New Year.” “I’ll start exercising in the spring!” Sound familiar?
I work with a wide range of clients; but they usually all have the same starting point – they are returning to working out after a LONG hiatus with a renewed motivation to get back to exercising, and they want to “go big or go home.”
Well, like most people, we all have some muscle, joint or bone problems that make us vulnerable to injury. Everyone seems to be nursing a sore back from either too much activity, or too little activity! Without returning to exercise smartly, we all can hurt ourselves. Take my quiz Fitness Do’s and Don’ts to test your exercise smarts!
I’ve spent over 20 years working with many different trainers who have all taught me training strategies that didn’t necessarily agree with.
When I went on to do my own thing, I took everything I loved about each of them and blended it with all the ways I felt certain of in order to share my passion for helping women find everlasting, sustainable, well-balanced and healthy methods in creating their best, strongest (inside and outside of their bodies) and most secure selves.
Sure, we work on weight loss; on scale weight, on body measurements… but that’s not the end all be all and most importantly, when working with me, you’ll experience so many more “wins” that will carry you through.
My mantra “iWeigh zero fucks” 😝 and so should you 😉
I remember, not too long ago, how food ruled my day; every day, every hour, every minute, every second.
What was I going to eat? How long was I not going to eat? Was it time to eat? Did I have enough protein to eat when I was supposed to eat? Maybe I shouldn’t eat at all. Maybe I should fast today. What time is it? Is it time to eat yet or is it not time to eat yet? Dam, 3 more hours until I get to eat again?
Are you exhausted yet? I was. My life revolved around food and it was E.X.H.A.U.S.T.I.N.G.
My diet history started in elementary school, in the 3rd grade that I can remember, when kids, mostly boys, teased me for being FAT. And I knew I was different. I was a little bigger than the rest of the girls in my class, but not the biggest. I was naive. Until I wasn’t.
I became the hardest working student in the room, to be smart so that kids would ask for my notes or help, as a strategy to neutralize the teasing. After all, if they needed my help, they wouldn’t tease me right?
WRONG.
It worked for a little while until it didn’t. And then I just became the fat girl who “knew it all” and the fat “miss goody two shoes” and the chubby “teacher ass kisser.”
I started diets young. My mother was weight conscious and so she became weight obsessed for me. My grandmother was blunt and told us we had to lose weight as children. I remember late nights in my family living room, when everyone else was already in bed, doing my Sweating to the Oldie’s Richard Simmons videos. This is where my exercise obsession began.
Fast forward to college, too ashamed to join a commercial gym, I began doing workout videos twice per day. I was running laps around my college track despite having excruciating shin splints. I lost weight, but it wasn’t enough. So I joined Jenny Craig where I lost all the weight I needed to lose (45 pounds) but where I also gained a hellava food and diet obsession.
How was I to keep all of this up? Exercise more. Eat less. Eat less. Exercise more. Exercise even more. Eat even less. And you know what is perfect for that? Marathon racing!
My first race was an ultra marathon called Run to the Sun followed by years of marathon racing. Then running became boring. My weight loss stalled. My body plateaued. And you know what is perfect for that? Half Ironman and Ironman racing!
I went on to spend decades racing mostly the half ironman distance; always on a diet; always chasing PRs (personal records) all with severe refractory Ulcerative Colitis that just became worse, worser and even worser (yes, duh, I know those aren’t real words), but you get my drift.
And BOY, was I run down, beat up, depressed and tired. SICK and TIRED for real. And my fate was colon removal surgery which I welcomed because after suffering 11 years with nothing but your body rebelling against you, I knew for me, it was this surgery or death. You never know one’s demons unless you walk in their shoes.
And so here it was, a situation I couldn’t out exercise, or diet away. I would be out of commission. I would gain weight. I would no longer have access to my coping mechanisms (exercise and dieting); well, I could still diet, which I did, but not nearly as restrictive as I had been.
And then I started over. I gained over 30lbs from that surgery and slowly but surely it came off. I’m not gonna lie, after I recovered I went straight back to my old ways – excessive exercise and dieting – except this time, I added gym sessions every day, cycling classes a few times per week, yoga when I could fit it in, on top of my triathlon training.
I started to realize that I used my exercise and my dieting as a method to tune out my feelings. If I was busy training for a race, I didn’t have the time to deal with how I felt, or think about how my body looked, what it didn’t look like, what I wanted it to look like, my weight, what my weight was or wasn’t. So I just stayed the course of over exercising and dieting because it was the only way I knew how to do it. After all, you have to suffer for the body you want, right?
Then fast forward to getting pregnant unexpectedly in 2018 at the age of 41, something I hadn’t planned on. I have told that story in a previous post, but when I began to get excited about it and started to prepare for it (buying matchy outfits, starting a registry, finally telling family and friends), it was all taken away from me.
In a matter of 12 hours, my life changed after losing identical twin boys at almost 5 months pregnant. The pain of such a loss is something I never imagined. This was something I would never have envisioned for myself. I never ever ever thought this would happen to me. And all my tricks, my habits, my go-tos, my fixes, all of my “methods” that I had used my entire life up to this point-methods that helped me survive a shitty childhood, complete epic races, got me through colon removal surgery – my “drug” of choice stopped working completely. I was a junkie with no veins left, grasping at straws trying to furiously find one, one good one because I JUST NEEDED to get through THIS ONE. LAST. TIME.
What if you actually liked how you ate every single day?
If you are like me, a LIFETIME dieter, then you’ll recognize these feelings right away: 1. You are either STARVING or miserably STUFFED.
2. You are deathly afraid of eating out situations where you can’t control your food intake (a party, a special occasion, a holiday, on vacation, at a friends house…)
3. You’ve labeled your favorite foods as TRIGGER foods which you refuse to have in your house (out of sight out of mind) because you can’t trust yourself around these foods.
The list of “food rules” can go on and on. But what if you liked how you ate every day?
When you are not counting or stressing
When you can have your favorite foods in moderation
When there are no off limits foods…
Sure it’s Scary and Uncomfortable! But you know what will happen?
When you begin to learn to include all foods into your eating style, even your favorite foods, you will:
-overeat less-stress less (because you didn’t overeat) -you’ll feel satisfied (because you aren’t swinging from starving to stuffed extremes)
It’s all a cycle you see?
Either you are in a cycle of Restriction & Binging and Starving & Stuffed. Those are not the FUN rides!
What if instead you could be in a cycle of Satisfied and Stress Free?
If you need some support with your eating style, I’m here for you! I’ve battled weight, diets and all of the in-between my entire life!
And one day, I’ll share my Ipecac story with you when I was in the lowest of lows of my food disorder.
