Feminine & Fierce

Nutrition is a belief system, right? Wrong. Nutrition is a science. And today I share with you why basing your nutrition on beliefs is dangerous. And we look at the exact scientific principles I used to get into the best shape of my life in my 40s, after being overweight for most of my 20s and 30s.

New Year, New You. It's a common theme around the start of a new year, and once upon a time, I would have disagreed with the ideology of setting new year's resolutions. However, after reading the research on the matter, I was surprised at what I discovered. In this episode we take a broader look at goal setting, but then take it a step further to the most important part - taking action. Enjoy!

Losing fat takes an element of self control. It just does. But full on super restrictive approaches don't work long term. If I told you not to eat, smell or even look at your FAVOURITE food for the next 6 months, AAAALLLLLLLL you're going to be thinking about is that food, right? Tell me I can't have something....I want it even more! And you're probably the same. So what do you do? If you know that your favourite thing is what is causing you to overeat (because it is so darn yummy and you can't say no), but now you're told you can't think about, look at or even smell it, (what IS with that by the way!), how do you move towards your goal without feeling deprived? There is an answer. And I share it with you in this minisode today. Enjoy!

If you're a woman over 40, you may have noticed 2 things: You gain fat around your belly easier than you used toYou struggle to lose that belly fat more now that you're older This can feel very frustrating, especially if you are determined to make changes with how you look and positive changes for health reasons. This episode explores the scientific principles of how to get rid of belly fat after 40 through the Three Body Recomposition Pillars that Feminine & Fierce embraces: FUEL, FIRE & FOCUS What we eat, how we move, and how we think. Enjoy!

When I first started out doing resistance training, I had so many questions. How many reps should I do? How many sets? Should I train to failure? How much weight should I be adding? Today we look at hypertrophy training (training for a toned body) and the difference of training for pure strength. My 10 years of strength training has seen me reach elite level for Bench press and Squat, and advanced level for Deadlift. I share the learnings I've had along the way from my own personal experience, coaching in my own facility, and the many scientific readings I have done over that time.

We know protein is an important macronutrient - THE most important one, in fact. And yet often getting in enough protein feels challenging for many of us. Today I break down the HOW TO of hitting your protein targets in a really simple, practical way. I show you exactly what I eat most days, and how keeping things simple is the best approach to changing your body, your health, and your nutrition.

Not only are we told that carbs are the enemy, but we are also told that sugar causes weight gain, sugar is poison, sugar is evil, eliminate sugar.... In the third part of the 'Carbs are the Enemy' Series, we look closer into sugar, the research around it, they myths, the facts, and some funnies in amongst all the seriousness. If you haven't listened to the first and second part of this series, I highly recommend you do so.

Goal setting can sometime feel difficult. We know we need to set SMART goals, but the best worded goal will only take us so far. The results come in the doing. So in this episode we unpack 6 strategies to help you keep moving towards that goal you have made, consistently, and with confidence.

If we want to achieve any goal, it always involves two distinct sides: The NumbersThe Drama The numbers is all the scientific and mathematical principles that are necessary for you to actually achieve that goal. The drama is all the emotion that we create and experience along the way. In this episode, we explore 6 important factors to help you move towards your body composition goal on the numbers side, and 6 crucial things on the drama side. I believe so passionately that the two must work hand in hand. If you want to experience long term success, you must understand both sides of the equation, and be willing to explore each point with curiosity.

Dopamine was originally thought of as critical in the "pleasure" system of the brain.   Research began to show that dopamine is also critical in causing seeking behaviour.  Dopamine causes you to want, to desire, to seek out, and search. It is released when your brain is expecting a reward. So essentially, it is the 'desire' transmitter - responsible for creating the DESIRE  before the reward. In today's episode we look at how to turn this around in your favour, and why living a life with conscious intention and thinking on purpose is so important in the pursuit of your goals.

So many things in life feel like they are out of our control. And when we feel out of control, we can often 'cope' by overeating, or by experiencing anger, or by feeling frustration. But what if I was to tell you that there is so much more within your control? Probably more than you realise. What if I was to share with you that sorting through and decluttering your brain, just like you would your pantry, is going to be one of the greatest gifts you can do for yourself? In today's episode we look at controlling what we can control, and bringing clarity to our thoughts through a de-clutter process.

What we focus on expands. What we water, grows. What we pay attention to, becomes larger. And when it feels like things are against you, it is easy to become focused on the negative. But if you shift your thinking to gratitude, and that things are happening FOR us, it brings so many new opportunities. From THIS space, we need to embrace a willingness to do new things, and not let the fact that we've 'never done it before', stop us. Don't let that be the determining factor for you not giving it another go. It starts with a decision to try new things.

We are told from our grandparents, our doctors, the latest blog or from 'influencers' that we should eat ONLY raw foods, ONLY organic, ONLY unprocessed, and that detoxing is absolutely necessary. But this way of thinking is very black and white, and not necessarily the absolute truth. Today we walk through 5 Nutrition Myths that may actually surprise you.

"Pretty sure I'm in starvation mode". I'd be filthy rich if I was paid a dollar for every time I heard a client tell me this. As women we have it pretty tough when it comes to dropping unwanted fat and keeping if off. But what is really happening when the weight loss just stops? Are you really in starvation mode? Are your hormones the culprit for your stagnation in progress? Check out this episode for all the answers.

How can we go from healthy, lean, athletic, sporty women in our younger years, to the opposite end of the scale - being overweight, tired, un-confident, and unmotivated? It is a question I've asked myself because I experienced this polarity, and tried desperately to get back to that earlier space through dysfunctional yo-yo dieting. The biggest thing we tend to do is blindly follow nutrition plans or exercise regimes, but never really look at the things that are going on between our ears. Let's explore those things today.

Over the course of 15 years, I yo-yo dieted. Sometimes it was a big yo-yo, like 25kg (55 pounds) of weight loss, 25+kg weight regain, other times smaller increments. But I just somehow couldn't stop myself from this weight loss - weight regain cycle, no matter how big or small. In this episode, we look at why we keep doing this craziness over and over again. We dive into the reasons why we sabotage our results, or why we don't even get started in the first place. Then we walk through a 4 step process to get you off this insane cycle. If you are keen to join me in a much more connected way, jump over to: www.sallypriest.com/waitlist to be first to hear about The Feminine & Fierce Academy that is coming soon.

We all have beliefs. And we believe what we believe because we know it to be true. A lot of our beliefs are shared by others, but some beliefs we differ greatly on. But have you ever asked yourself why you believe what you believe (about any given situation)? We don't usually explore what we already know, because we already know it, right? Today we challenge all of that. We look deeper into what beliefs are, why we justify our behaviour, and what things might be disguising themselves as useful, when really they are limiting our progress.

After attending the funeral of a dear friend, I spent some time reflecting over my own life. 45 years on the planet, in the scheme of things, is not a long time. Yet to date, I have learned SO much. Today I share my thoughts, (some quite personal), about life, and the lessons I have learned so far.

Sometimes its nice to hear some words of encouragement. It is never too late. You are not too old. It doesn't matter what other people say - you've got this.

What happens when you step on the scales and instead of losing weight, you've gained weight? You've worked SO hard, it literally doesn't seem fair. What happens when you have a bad day. From the get-go you felt out of control with your eating and a sneaky snack of oreos turns into an all-day binge fest. We have 2 brains inside our head, both with different roles to play. Our adult brain, and our toddler brain. Letting your toddler brain be in charge of making decisions is like letting a toddler run through the house with a knife! Its dangerous, right? You just wouldn't let that happen. Today's episode outlines the purpose of both these parts of our brains, and how to use them to their best potential for you and your goals.

Are you training at the gym, or even at home, but not seeing changes in your body? Are you trying to build strength, muscle, tone but feeling frustrated that no definition is showing? You're simply not seeing results? There is good reason why. In fact, there are 5 main reasons why you're not seeing the results you've been wanting. If you're a woman over 40, (and even if you're younger), these principles all apply.

Losing that last bit of stubborn fat is hard! And it's usually the last 5kg that is the most difficult to shed. Is it possible? Absolutely. Is it going to take commitment and precision to achieve? It most certainly will. In this episode we look at the important factors required to drop the last five, how your menstrual cycle affects your hunger, and my unique approach to overcome it.

More people gain weight back after their diet than people do who successful keep it off long term. This, to me, is a significant problem. Why do we 'fall off the wagon' time and time again? Well, in my own personal experience, it was simply because I was hungry. Today's episode looks firstly at the 5 fundamentals of fat loss, but then we look deeper into 5 principles around long term weight management. And I share with you one super simple yet effective strategy to help keep you from being hungry.

Want to lose weight? Simple. Join a gym. Train hard. Track your calories. Track the energy burned during your session. Not seeing results? Train harder. Well, not so fast. While it is SO easy to fall into the "I just have to train harder to see the results I want" mentality, there is one thing stopping you from making progress. We talk about it in today's episode.

Sometimes, some really practical tips are all we need to help us stop overeating. If you're a practical girl like me, you love practical things that you can start doing today. So in this 'minisode' - I give you 9. They work. But you have to actually implement them.

Many of us use the term hope as a positive emotion; I feel hopeful for the future. It sounds positive, right?. But hope doesn't inspire action. Rather, hope is a passive emotion that abdicates responsibility. It causes us to wait for things to happen, hoping.... What's the alternative to hope? Take a listen to the episode. It's truly powerful.

At Christmas time, we overeat, potentially over drink, and it seems to be a normal thing for us. We don't question it. We eat cake when it's our birthday. We eat cereal for breakfast. We grab a Zaraffas coffee mid afternoon. These are all 'normal' eating things that we 'do', and we don't necessarily question. But what about when you choose NOT to have dessert? Then your girlfriend is like, "what? You're not having dessert? Why?" And it feels like when we go 'against the norm' we are doing the wrong thing by not having dessert, when in fact not having it is serving us and our goals more than having it is. In today's episode we break down what 'normal' is, what 'normal eating' looks like, and how we can begin to purposefully craft and shape our lives to a new normal for US that serves us and our goals.

A program is only as good as your ability to stick with it consistently. And often the hardest part is not the planning, but in the doing.  For many of us women, there's a gap between what we know and what we consistently do. Today's episode helps to bridge that gap with 4 steps.

Keeping things simple is the best approach to changing your body composition. And part of that simplicity means planning your food ahead of time. Often we think that planning locks us in and makes things restrictive. But the opposite is in fact true. Taking 10 minutes each day to plan out your meals for the following days brings freedom and it is a powerful strategy to implement when you have a goal to change your body composition. So today we take that concept and talk about macros in a small amount of detail so that you can start planning your food with more confidence.

Setting a goal to run a hundred km race seems unreachable (unless you're an ultra marathon runner). And yet we set these same goals for our own weight loss - big overwhelming targets. No wonder our weight loss goals feel unachievable. But we push through, relying on self control - which feels even more impossible leading into Christmas. Well girlfriend, it's time you took a break. Sometimes you need to take a rest before going again, and today I'll explain why.

We live fast paced lives. We're all 'busy'. We wear many hats every day: Mum, work / career, tutor, managing the home, chef, counselor, accountant, cleaner, confidant, lover. And somewhere in amongst wearing all these hats we have our own self care. Life just feels ‘busy'. Then as we get older, we notice our body starting to change - it's more difficult to lose the weight, or it starts creeping on, especially around the middle, and we set a goal to lose the belly fat, or we really want to tone up the ‘flabby bits'. But we're so 'busy', how on earth are we going to find the time to prioritise that? Today's episode brings clarification to 'busy-ness' and why we need to eliminate the word 'try' from our vocabulary.

We go on a diet.  We track our macros.  We eat according to our nutrition plan.  We are so 'good' at sticking with it. But then it happens.  And it comes out of nowhere.  We are hit smack bang in the face with an urge.  It is so strong, we give in, because it feels so overwhelming. This is the number one thing that would make me fall of the wagon time and time again during my yo-yo dieting years:  an urge to binge on chocolate would come, and I couldn't resist.  I thought I was simply weak, not strong enough, or didn't have the willpower to resist the temptation. Today's episode explains 3 powerful concepts about your brain and what is happening in that moment, and then an easy-to-follow 6 Step Process to overcome this sabotaging scenario.  

Over my years of coaching women, I have heard so many times about the complete lack of support, negative opinions or out right judgement they receive from other people in their world while they are losing weight, or going to the gym each week. And it becomes a difficult thing to manage if you constantly feel like your health journey is being critisized. I personally experienced this on my own weight loss and strength journey, and learned the importance of setting healthy boundaries for myself to prioritise my self care. So if you are someone who feels like their boundaires are being violated, or you fall into the category of not being able to say no to people, then today's episode is for you.

So many of us women feel that by putting ourselves first, we are being selfish. We think that by giving to others before we give to ourselves we are acting selflessly. The problem comes, however, when we give without replenishment. Our giving comes at our own expense leaving us emotional and depleted. This then becomes a selfish space because we are no longer strong enough to carry our own load. We rely on others to fulfil our lack. Which one is more selfish? Giving to the point of depletion and then relying on others to fill you up again? Or, filling up your own cup first and then giving from that space of abundance?

There are two main reasons we overeat, both taking us further from our body composition goal. The first one is to do with the numbers, the 2nd is to do with the drama. In today's episode I discuss the 2 reasons in detail with all the learnings I have had over the past decade. These two tools alone are the tools that I have used to increase a huge amount of self-awareness around my eating, and it's been able to help me drop 25 kilos and keep it off for over 10 years. If there's any kind of tool that you choose to master in anything you learn around changing your body composition, these two tools I believe are most important. Weight loss is only half the journey. The other half is the long term management. So listen to the podcast for your long term success.

"But it's not my fault". These words often came out of my mouth if ever I talked about my weight gain. I seriously believed that it was everyone else's fault except my own - I completely struggled to take complete responsibility of my own life. Thank goodness I eventually learned that this could not have been further from the truth.

You've probably heard it before that fasted cardio is great to increase fat burning. This was such a bummer for me because I personally feel ill if I train without any food in my belly. So I turned to the research to find out if there was any validation to this statement. In today's episode we look at how the body burns fat, how fasted training impacts weight loss, and the research showing the real story.

Losing weight is one of the biggest self growth journeys I have been through. And one of the most shocking things I learned about myself is the greatest thing that kept me from succeeding long term. I was mean. I was REALLY mean. But I didn't actually realise that I was being so unkind. Today I talk about the one thing you can do to stop the Perfection / Failure cycle and stop being so darn mean to yourself.

You've heard about Macros. You've heard they help with weight loss. But HOW exactly do you work them out? It can be confusing and overwhelming with so much information out there, so let's keep things simple. In today's episode we work through 4 steps that takes you from realistic goal setting all the way though to working out how much protein, fats and carbs you need to be eating for your goals.

I have maintained my weight for over a decade after yo-yo dieting for many, many years. And I have had the honour to coach hundreds of women to lose fat, build muscle, and become the strongest they have ever been. Today, I offer you 7 Golden nuggets I believe to be fundamental in any weight loss or body composition goal.

When Dad called me last week telling me mum was on her way to the hospital after a fall, my heart skipped a beat. After a moment, and a little more information gathering, I realised that mum, while potentially suffering a broken bone, was going to be ok. But it increased my desire to encourage you to start doing, or continue doing strength training. Not only for how your body looks, but for bone health. Today's episode we dive deeper into how much strength training is 'enough' and how much may be too much. And I have created a free gift for you - The Beginner's Guide to Strength Training (including a barbell strength program). www.sallypriest.com/beginnerstrengthguide

We've been programmed to believe, by popular fad diets that carbs are the enemy. We eat them our weight goes up, we don't eat them, our weight drops down. So logic would tell us that they simply are the cause of all our weight issues. You may also have heard that carbs are the cause of type 2 diabetes and obesity, and that we should be avoiding them. And while for some individuals, some carbs may not serve them or their health, are blanket statements like this actually completely accurate? Are carbs really bad? Both Vegetables, fruits, white bread, croissants and quinoa are all carbs. So how do we know which ones are more or less optimal for our body comp goals? This is what we discuss in this episode.

Understanding that the scales only track your total body weight, and do not indicate any kind of body composition, we need to realise that there are several ways to track your progress. It's important to realise that none provide more than an estimate, and not one on its own is the ideal tracking method. If you use several of the methods I am about to explain to you, it will provide an overall estimate of progress - especially if you want to change your body composition.

There are some very unsexy things you often don't heard talked about - you know, the things that the quick fix products and fads don't tell you. It's difficult to ignore the 'sexy stuff' when you see an ad on your social media feed telling you how awesome you're going to look by purchasing their program, or how quickly you're going to get lean. Well, I could say that I hate to burst your bubble, but that would be a lie. I'm going to take great pleasure in telling you, that any kind of worthwhile and lasting results take time and effort, and I'm going share all the unsexy things that you need to know to make lasting change.

What is a realistic goal to set for fat loss, for weight loss, and what's the difference between these two things anyway? Often we set either unrealistic and aggressive weight loss goals which require an extreme caloric restriction to achieve, or, we set too vague a goal with no real direction. This episode breaks down exactly what body composition means, and some realistic and healthy expectations around fat loss and weight loss. A must listen if you want to set SMART goals for your fat loss journey.

Have you started limiting your portion sizes, seen some movement on the scales or in cm off your hips, but then after a time, things stop progressing? You're feeling frustrated, because you were doing well for a while, but now you're like, um hey, what's going on? There is actually a really logical reason for what is happening, and in today's episode I explain the science behind it, and how you can work with your body to kick your weight loss back into gear.

"I want the cookie. I feel good when I eat it. It makes me feel really good in this moment". How often do we do this? How often do we find ourselves sabotaging our goals because if 'feels too hard' or 'overwhelming'? In today's podcast we look at why it is our brains do this, why we somehow tell ourselves it's okay to sabotage our goals, and why avoiding or buffering our discomfort or pain now with food, is not such a good idea.

You've probably heard the saying ‘Go Hard or Go Home', and you may have even heard your own coach yell this across the gym floor during your group class. But sometimes doing more is not always better.  Sometimes doing less delivers so much more.  In today's podcast we discuss the Minimal Effective Dose, and why I believe it to be the best way to approach your training.

You really should weigh in every single day. wooooaaahhhh....too much Sal...too much. I hear ya. I used to feel the same way. But then I realised I was missing the point. I was missing WHY I didn't want to weigh in. And this changed everything for me. This was one of the largest shifts in mindset for me....and it had nothing to do with the number I was seeing.

There are 2, equally important elements to fat loss. The first part involves numbers and the actual science of fat loss. It's the physiological part of losing weight. The other side is just as important - the drama. The emotional component of weight loss. As women, I believe it is vital to understand and be self aware of both sides. If we focus on one side only, we may only see short term results. I believe this is the key to getting off the yo-yo dieting cycle.

Most of us women want to feel confident in our own skin. And often we set goals around dropping body fat and increasing lean muscle. But there is so much information out there, it's easy to be confused with what to do next. Today's episode breaks this down into 4 simple steps, starting with clearly establishing your goal.