Episode 153: How to Stick With Your Nutrition Goals When You're Sick

The thought of chugging protein powder when we're under the weather is not ideal for most of us ;)

Here's how to stick with your nutrition goals when you're not feeling 100%. 

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Transcript

Becoming MindStrong: 154: How to Stick With Your Nutrition Goals When You're Sick

0:00  
Welcome back to the becoming mind strong podcast. My name is Rachel,

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and I'm the founder and CEO of

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mind strong, where for nearly a decade,

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we have only been helping Perry and post menopausal women. That is all we do. That is our jam. Not just lose the weight, not just heal their metabolisms, but have the skill, the knowledge, the education, to do this for the rest of their life. So on the other side, they don't need us or anyone else. They've got what we call the keys to the kingdom. Today's episode was inspired by an FAQ. If you've listened to past episodes, you hear me talk a lot about how inside Ignite, our signature 12 week program, we do what's called office hours, which are some of my favorite times, because everyone who's currently in the Ignite family can get live on zoom with me. We do a smorgasbord Q and A and I get to answer all the questions there in real time. So it's, it's a ton of fun to be live with everybody. And one of the questions that I get time and time again is, Rachel, what do I do about my macros when I'm sick? So that's we're going to dive into today. What to do about sticking with your nutrition goals when you feel in under the weather. Check it out.

1:16  
Welcome to the becoming mind strong podcast, the official podcast of Mind, Strong fitness. My name is Rachel, and I'm the CEO of mind strong. And we are here for two things. We're here for hope, in a stage of life where it feels like we are doing everything right and nothing is working. I am here to tell you you are not broken. This is fixable, and I promise there is hope. And number two,

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we are here for truth

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in an industry that is designed to keep us confused with shake systems and point systems and frozen meals. I promise you, it doesn't have to be that difficult. Someone can teach you the skill of riding a bike, someone can teach you the skill of knitting, and I can teach you to master the skill of nutrition. So are you ready? Let's rock and roll. So

2:13  
when I was thinking about turning this, this question, into a podcast, I was like, this is going to be a 32nd podcast, if I just answer the question directly. So in sitting with it, I think I can give more value by, as I love to do, zooming out a little bit and answering a bigger picture, picture question, and then getting more in the weeds about the conversation, specifically around what to do with my nutrition plan, with my macros when I'm sick.

2:39  
You hear me talk a lot about

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listening to your body, right? We talk a lot about it in the context of if your body's ready for weight loss, if it's not ready for weight loss, what it's saying to you. And this is true as well when it comes to things like sickness and injury. So again, I want to start with a bigger picture conversation around sickness and injury, and then I'll get more into the weeds, the logistics about how to handle nutrition, specifically when you're sick. Way, way back in this podcast, there's an episode all about working around injury when it comes to workouts. And one of the things that I talk about in this episode I want to loop into today's and that's that there is a big difference between soreness and injury. And I know this today's topic is about is about sickness, but I'm going to tie this in as a second. It is normal, especially when you first work out. It is very normal to feel sore after a workout. Side note, that is not the indicator of success for a workout. As you get more advanced, it becomes more difficult to get sore, and a lot of people think that means they're not having an effective workout. That is not true, right? You're just it's just easier to be sore in the beginning because your muscles aren't as developed. As you get stronger, as your muscles adapt and learn what you're doing, it becomes more tough to get sore, and that's okay. You can still practice progressive overload, pushing your muscles do it they can't do even if you're not sore. That does not mean it wasn't an effective workout. So there's a difference between, I am sore, right? I did an intense leg day yesterday. Sometimes the second day is is more intense than the first. I'm walking like a baby giraffe. Like, help me. There's a difference between that feeling and injury. Injury is like, Oh my goodness. What just happened? What was that pull? What was that pop? What is that feeling? Right? I think most of us, instinctually can feel the difference between soreness, I pushed my muscles and they're they're hurting or aching right now, versus injury. Something feels wrong. And what I talk about in that episode is, if it's soreness, give it some time, right? If you're walking like a baby giraffe the next day after legs. Certainly don't train legs that day. If two days later, you're still feeling a little sore, don't train legs that day. By the third, fourth day, if you're feeling a hint of soreness, but it's not terrible. You have a couple choices. Just do something else. Or By day three, you should be fine. Maybe just go a little lighter if it's intense, right? Really? Just depends on what we call your workout split. If you have other stuff you can do, do it. If you're like, Nope, I'm back to leg day and it's been at least 48 hours, you you'll you'll be fine. If it's just a little soreness injury we don't ever push past. If there is that little twinge in your back and you're like, uh oh, uh oh, is the sign to stop? Because if you don't uh oh, it turns into Oh, you know, the end of that sentence. I'm going to keep a PC here, right? What could have been a day off, two days off could turn into a year, two years off, especially if we're talking about back stuff. So we can, once in a while, when I say push through soreness, I mean, take, take some time, or I don't train legs within 2448 hours. I'm just using legs as an example. This is true for everybody part, but we can push through soreness a bit. We don't ever, ever, ever push through injury. We're going to leave it alone. We're going to do something else. We're going to consult a doctor if it doesn't go away. Now I'm starting this episode with that, and then, because I'm about to tie it into the sickness conversation, and then we'll have a more logistical conversation, similar conversation with sickness, right? There are days where I just whatever the case is, especially when I was teaching middle school, you feel a little sniffly. I'm going to give myself a choice, like, look, we know if we push through this, there's a chance I'm going to make this worse. So I'm going to be honest with myself, and this is these are actual conversations. I have in my head. Does this feel like, uh, just a little sniffly today? Like I'll be fine. I will live if I go do a workout, if I start feeling like garbage, I'll stop. So that's my first question. Second question, am I using this as an excuse to get out for working out? Right? Humans love to do that. Of like, Oh, I'm a little sniffly. Maybe I shouldn't work out today. And then down the rabbit hole of rationalization, we go, and next thing we know, we have a valid excuse. Listen, you always have a valid excuse not to the world is not going to end if you don't work out, right? No one's going to love you less if you don't work out what where the gold is. Is getting honest with yourself, am I using this as an excuse? Because you don't have

6:59  
to do it right.

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From there, it's like, am I going to make this worse? If I am I pushing through just because I'm hell bent on working out today when I know in my gut or I suspect, if I push through, I'm going to make this work. I'll worse. I'll kind of go through that checklist with myself and decide I'm going to interrupt this episode real quickly to ask a 32nd favor. If you are loving the podcast, if you can tap that Five Star Review button above, maybe even leave a few nice words, it is the biggest help to getting the podcast out there. As the time I'm recording this, we don't advertise the podcast, so we rely on our old friend, the algorithm to help get it in the hands of other women. Leaving a review is the absolute number one way to help us do that. Thank you in advance. Thank you. Thank you. Now let's get back to the episode. If I am sick, sick, and again, I just want to acknowledge that the question at hand here is usually about nutrition, but I'm starting with workouts, because then I'm going to tie it in a bit more. If I'm sick, sick, working out is is not in your best interest, and I'm gonna I'm not purposely not saying don't work out, because I don't ever want to be a hypocrite. And back in the day, when I was younger, I was the queen of what I, quote, unquote, should be doing, and what what I actually did. So I can preach this, because I've lived it. There were so many times where I was like, Man, if I work out today, I'm going to make this worse. I was like, I don't care. I just want to work out. Like, sometimes for me, rest days are harder than than actually working out. So I would do it, and then, lo and behold, I'd want to smack smack past Rachel for making that decision. Because what could have been one or two days off the gym turned into a week, because now, now that little head cold has turned into the flu, or whatever the case would be. So from a big picture perspective, this comes down to checking in with your body. Number one, does this feel like something little? Does this feel like something big? And then number two, getting very honest with yourself, am I using this as a cop out because I don't want to actually do it, or am I legitimately concerned that this is going to make the problem worse with the topic of the conversation around nutrition, similar, but different. How helpful is that statement? Similar but different? It's similar in that we don't ever want to force our bodies. For a lot of us, when we're sick, the thought of especially protein, and for a lot of us fat, just sounds it makes us nauseous, right? For some reason, a lot of us, a trend I see is that our body craves carbs when we're sick. This is not science. I want to say this a few times. This is not science, because, as someone who likes to teach science, this is a rare case where these are Rachel's guesses of health and fitness. This is not science based. I have a theory that the reason our body craves carbs so much when we're sick is because we tend to be really low energy, and because carbs are our body's energy, it's like, oh, Give me. Give me my energy source. I need it right now. That's not science. Maybe, maybe there's studies out there. I've never found one of why we crave carbs, but that's my that's my personal theory. Point of this conversation is that for most of us, the the trends that I see time and time again are that we. Carbs and fat and protein tend to make us nauseous. So the reason I started this episode with the workout conversation is the concept of checking in with yourself.

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Is this legitimately

10:11  
my body talking to me, right? Is it true that for my body in its current state, the thought of protein and fat is making me like hard? No, yes, give me carbs, or am I maybe just having some cravings and or I've been rocking my macros for the first few days, and I really just want a mental break, so I'm leaning into to this, this sickness craving a little bit more. I can tell you, in all my years of doing this, it's usually legit. Usually when people are like, I am just craving carbs and fat and protein are making me nauseous right now because I'm sick. I'm usually not as their coach. I'm never second guessing this, because you know your body more than I do, but most time when people check in with themselves, it's legit. I think we tend to use sickness as a cop out more than workouts, more for workouts than nutrition. But that's that's my own observation. So first thing I'm doing to get back on track here is I'm checking it with myself. Is this what my body's communicating, or is this more of a craving thing? If that's what your body's communicating, this is where it's similar to the injury conversation. I am not a fan of ever pushing through sickness. If your body is telling you, hey, if you keep shoving fat and protein into my mouth, I am going to vomit. Guess what's probably going to happen if you keep shoving fat and protein into your mouth, your body is telling you what it needs. Now that doesn't mean we have to go down the rabbit hole, right? We don't say, Well, I'm sick, so treat yourself. The next thing we know, there's a pint of ice cream and everything else like with there's a balance here. And I am always a fan of listening to our body. So one of the things we talk about with our members, if I were to have made this a 32nd podcast episode, is, if you are feeling sick, listen to your body. It is okay to go lighter on the fat and protein, to lean in a bit more to the carbs. And there are little tricks, little workarounds that we can use one of my favorites actually came from one of our coaches in a conversation on Office Hours, is bone broth. Bone broth is a fantastic if you're not a vegan or vegetarian, obviously, is a fantastic source of protein and it's warm and it's a liquid. So when you're sick, what does the doctor always tell you? Right? Drink hot liquids. And bonus, you're going to get some extra protein in there. So anytime we can find little hacks of like, Are there snacks I could stomach right now maybe I'm not sitting down and eating six ounces of grilled chicken while I'm not feeling well, and

12:37  
are there little ways that I can

12:38  
sneak some protein, maybe some fat in while I'm still having my saltine crackers, or whatever carb source your body craves, right? Have your saltine crackers and have some bone broth with it. So general, big idea of this episode is we always want to listen to our body. We never want to push through right? And if we can find little tricks and nuances, like the bone broth one is one of my favorite that

13:02  
help us sneak in some of the stuff to

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make it easier. Do it at the end of the day. The more we can listen to our body, the more we can give it what it's asking for, the faster we're going to get to the other side. If you're someone who loves working out, then you know rest days are harder than getting to the gym, and as someone who falls in that category. The conversation I have with myself is, look, you can take one to three days off right now and be right back to it, or we can do the thing that we've done in the past, and we can power through and you know how that story ends? You're going to be out for two three weeks, so the world's not going to end. No one's going to love you less. You get to step in the power of choice. Which one do you choose? And that's a conversation that that's best made as our future self. Listen to your body make smart choices, do the best you can at the end of the day, this is about a sustainable lifestyle. You are not going to ruin your goals by taking a few days off to let your body heal. We're going to be right back to it on the other side,

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you for more information on mind strong fitness, or to apply for a free one to one strategy session with my Incredible all female team, visit www dot mindstrong fitness.com, you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai