All right. Welcome back to Talk Nutrition. Today I want to dive into planning for your goals for the new year and kind of a couple of things to watch out for, because I think a lot of people will make the same mistakes as usual. Rushing into your goals, not setting timelines, not getting super clear on what your year is really going to look like. So that's what we're going to dive into. All right, what is up and welcome back to the podcast. Today I want to break down how to break All right, what is up and welcome back to Talking Nutrition. I wanted to break down how to plan for your specific goals in 2025. We've got to discuss a couple of mistakes a lot of people make, then we'll get into the fact that first of all, you have a lot of time to reach your goals, right? Don't forget that. What to do when you have fat loss, muscle gain, performance, health goals, et cetera. And really hard to make sense of this because we're looking at 12 very solid months where you can get a lot of work done. Let me just start with that. What do people do with their New Year's Nine out of 10 times. They go in with this mindset where, Hey, in January, I'm going to get everything perfect. I need to see weight loss right away. And we're going to talk about, about fat loss, weight loss, knowing that most of your goals are generally speaking, fat loss related. We will discuss muscle gain as well. And by the way, every single muscle gain, sorry, every single fat loss client I have, I will always move into muscle gain as well. So it's not either or muscle will always be part of the conversation, of the journey. If you want to see optimal health, optimal results. And yes, that also goes for future fat loss goals too. We'll discuss how often to diet, how long for, how to transition, what to do with your time when you're not dieting. And to be honest, and I've said this many, times, that is where you will make the difference. It's not going to be all about slashing calories. Sure, you got to reduce your calories to lose fat, but what you do before and after the fat loss phases is so crucial. And you do not want to die at all year round. Like that's, that's a recipe for disaster. Now a couple of mistakes. A lot of people will make once again, and we know the statistic you've heard this before. I'll say it again. Just about 95 % of people who set a new year's resolution doesn't matter what you call it, right? Goal, whatever. resolution, they will fail. And the vast majority of those who fail will already fail by February. So I really want you to listen to this and understand that what I need you to do is not the exact same as what most people do. That's maybe even like one really good thing to remember. Look at the mistakes most people make, the low calorie diets, the fucking meal replacement shakes. the fat loss challenges where it's a couple of weeks, whatever it is, look at those things, right? The super crazy fasting protocols, the the juice cleanses, those kind of things. Look at those things. See those same people feel over and over again, time and time again, I should say. And realize why that is. Now, of course, part will be you actually following up with the plan and sticking with it, et cetera. But don't do what most people do. most people will try to change everything all at once. They will chase all these different goals at once. There's not going to be timeline. They don't prepare. They don't even have habits and routines in place and they don't give themselves time to change their habits, which there's no way to hack your way around that. You know what mean? That is going to take multiple months. It's very all or nothing. It's very all or nothing. Again, people go in with that high motivation. Maybe you feel like crap after overeating once again over Christmas, which happens for a lot of people, right? You're like, okay, January 1st, let's actually do it, right? And maybe you do feel motivated. Maybe you do feel like ready to take action. But then you start and you go hard for those first seven days and then maybe for that second week and then you'll start slowly, you know, lose that motivation. And guess what happens? You're going to fall off in no time. Let's not do that again. I want you to really take your time here. Let's break this out. I've talked to a lot of people, whether they end up joining our coaching program or they just have a quick question on Instagram. Most of you have at least struggled to lose your goals for at least a few years. I'm not just making these numbers up. Like I talked to lot of people. like five to 10 years is pretty common. I even talked to people where it's like, Hey, you know what? Like I'm 50 years old now. I've always been overweight. I've always struggled with my nutrition. I don't know what to do. Okay. And maybe it's just one year, maybe even a few months for you, right? It doesn't matter. If you've been struggling with your health, with your nutrition, you don't know how to lose fat, you don't see the results from your hard workouts, et cetera, right? Your energy is crap, whatever it may be. And that's been the case for multiple months, years, sometimes even decades. Then give yourself the time to figure it out. You have so much time. There's no deadline here. Now I'm not gonna say that this is gonna take multiple years for you to reach your goals. Now that's not the case. Sometimes in May, kind of depending on how your goals change and maybe we do have, you know, 20, 30, 40 kilos to lose, we're going to take our time for that. It's going to take years. But remember too that in the big picture, in the grand scheme of things, it's really just a fraction of the time spent struggling. So let's do it right this time. Everyone can do quick and intense, but can you do slow and consistent? going back to the newest resolution. Everyone is ready to go hard for a couple of weeks and then they fall off. Can you just take it step by step? Last month, see the results eventually, because you will get the results. As long as you keep going, right? So let's break down your goals. Maybe you're listening to this, maybe you think, you know, I want to look lean, toned, defined, shredded, whatever you want to call it, Jacked. You want to lose fat and build muscle. That's what it comes down to. Maybe you play a sport and performance is very important for you. We have a couple of people listening who are very much into CrossFit, only big weightlifting, running, football, like so many other sports, right? And you want to have energy for that. Cool. We'll talk about that. And maybe we'll do a performance specific kind of season, sorry, not season, episode later down the road so we can align things with the season. I know we have a bunch of people listening who really participate in sports where there are matches and stuff, but okay. We'll talk a little bit about performance because it's gonna pretty much align with muscle gain and fueling up and maybe just general health. Now, what we're gonna do here in many ways will improve your health. Getting to a healthy body fat percentage, building a healthy amount of muscle, right? Those kinds of things, very important for you. But I want you to think, okay, what is my main goal right now? The top priority. I don't want you to say all these different ones, right? Fat loss, muscle gain. Performance health, what's the number one for you? What's the number one for you? And let's plan for that. There's a seasonality to nutrition. I think we forget that sometimes. To where maybe you have all these different goals, but we wanna chase one at a time so that you don't chase fat loss and muscle gain at the same time, which can happen by the way, especially in the beginning, if you're just getting started. But eventually it's gonna be either or. Hey, there's gonna be a fat loss season, a muscle gain season. And there's a couple of transitions in between. I also want you to think where are you currently at? Because we might want to lose fat, but are you actually ready? Is your eating pattern all over the place? Do you even stick roughly to a consistent schedule when it comes to your meals? Or is it all over the place? Do you eat very little and then you have lot of cravings and you overeat in the evening? Maybe you do very well during the week and then when the weekend comes you overeat and you drink a lot. Okay. Let's work on those kind of things first. Maybe you're not eating protein, fruits, veggies. Hey, maybe you just spent 12 months trying to diet. Trying, that's a big word, right? Or, by the way, there are people, and I would say like those are the exceptions to the rule, but there are people who are really under eating for a very long time. That's also a problem. So that means we're likely not going to start with fat loss, even if you want to lose fat. And that's sometimes hard to hear. Because now you think, hey, January 1st, I'm going to go hard. I'm going to... lose weight right away. It's a good chance it might not happen. And that is okay. I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you lose the weight if that's one of your goals, right? But where are you currently at? This is what I do with every single client. I'll literally give you the secret to how we get results, right? And I talk about our framework all the time, but we start with that first phase. We get you ready. We optimize your routines. We work on habits. Hey, what are some mindset things you struggle with? Are you even sleeping enough? Those kinds of things. that's what you want to start with. And if you have a lot to do there still, if a lot of work needs to be done to get you consistent and in a good spot to even be able to stick with your nutrition, then I do not recommend fully diving into a dedicated fat loss phase. Now, what I will say is this. And assuming you're tracking this, this would be a big help if you know roughly where you're at currently with your calories and we can calculate your maintenance. You know what? If you are overweight and you want to really lose weight and you're like, Hey, I want to go into a moderate deficit while working on my routines. That is something you can do. And that's something I do with certain clients. Now I'm a coach who does this with hundreds of people. I know when we can do that, when it's maybe not the right time. So it's going to be personal, individual. I need to keep it general on a podcast like this. And if you do need individual help, we are starting our first cohort of the Odyssey on January 6th. That is $150 per month. You can have an add-on with more check-ins for $50 if you want, but that's a very great option for you if you currently feel like, I'm kind of stuck. Okay. On the podcast, I will keep it general. I'll make sure to drop the link to the Odyssey in the show notes, as well as below that, a... calendar link that takes you straight to, there's no forms, whatever, it's straight to my calendar. If you want to do a 15 minute call, let's have a talk. I'll drop that there too, because I know this time of year, right, a lot of you are kind of getting ready. Let's talk, right, if you need help. Okay, back to the podcast and keeping it general. If you do really want to try, you could potentially start at maybe a, I don't know, let's say like a 15 to 20 % deficit from your maintenance. while you work on your routines. I tell my clients this too, hey, this isn't an exception to the rule. We're not gonna really expect a lot of fat loss to happen, but it can happen. Like I said in the beginning, like if this is the start of your journey, it's a very good chance actually. If you haven't been lifting weights, if you haven't been eating enough protein, and now we work on all of that and your fiber and your fruits, veggies, et cetera, right? We tend to see a really good response for those people who have a bit of work to do in terms of habits. So if you are at the beginning of your journey, you can likely see a lot more results than most experienced people, which is really cool, the way. I'm saying experienced, I just mean like people who have been lifting weights and they've been working on these kind of goals for a while. Okay, you either start at maintenance or you go into a moderate deficit and you just stay there until you are consistent and do not make any changes until you actually can say, I have full control of my intake now. Because if you have a consistent intake, now we can toggle. Now we can move you into muscle gain. Now we can move you into fat loss. If you're still all over the place and there's, of course, there's a, let's call it a spectrum when it comes to being all over the place. Like if it's a little bit, of course we want to be flexible. You know what I mean? But if you can at least be 80 % consistent, like that's what you want to aim for. And we talked about this recently. Now, let's say that's gonna be at least four weeks. With most of my clients, it's four weeks. Some other people struggle with tracking those kind of things. We go longer, right? Okay, let's say four weeks. Maybe you're already consistent for like a few, but that's okay, right? But either way, like I want you to have a starting point that needs to be really dialed in before you can say, hey, you know what? Like I'm actually ready to chase this goal. Because this is what I want you to do now. Because we're gonna map out the year, right? So let's assume here, Big assumption, but let's assume you want to lose fat because I know I talked to a lot of you on Instagram, on our calls, etc. And to our clients, most of you start with a fat loss goal, right? So let's put that in the context here and we'll talk about muscle gain too. Okay, 2025, you want to finally get lean, you want to finally be able to wear those old clothing again. You want to finally be able to walk around the beach and feel confident. Cool. January is a really good time to start. I said, whether you got to dial in your routines first or you can dive into fat loss right away, either way, let's start with a deficit because it just works time wise. Q1 can be dieting, let's say. I don't know where you currently at right now. So again, general, let's say we're going to diet January, February, March. That's three months. You can lose just about, I don't know. 5 to 10 % of your current body weight and I'm saying percentages because it's going to be personal. But I've seen among my clients 5 to 10 % being very doable for one fat loss phase. Listen, if you have 20, 30 kilos lose, that's cool, but it's not going to be in one go. We're to take a time to go back to maintenance and this goes for everyone. By the way, also if you're done, like if you lose 5 to 10 kilos or percent, I should say, and you're kind of like, hey, you know what? I'm pretty happy here. Cool. Either way, everyone here should move out. Do not stay on low calories. That's the number one thing that people fuck up with after they lose weight. And no one teaches them this. That's why I'm telling you, you gotta go back to maintenance. You gotta get those calories up. it may be gonna be slightly lower than usual, or then before, I should say. It's not that much of a difference. So, okay, we've lost weight. Let's call it five to 10%. Hey, it depends on your adherence, it depends how your body responds, but that's something we can aim for. What we're gonna do now is we're gonna say, April, reverse diet. You jump halfway between where you ended your cut, calorie-wise. And you knew expected maintenance, boom, halfway, and then you slowly increase. I recommend doing this with the coach who can guide you and who can hold you accountable, because reverse dieting is a hard process, I'm not gonna lie. If you've never done this before, it's gonna be scary. You're gonna see that weight fluctuate even more than usual. You're gonna need someone on your team. Shameless plug, once again, the Odyssey is almost here. So January 6th, we'll start with our first cohort. You can still jump in.$150 a month, 12 week course and group coaching program. We're throwing in lot of bonuses for that first cohort. So you don't wanna miss this. Again, in the show notes. But let's take our time here to reverse diets to get those calories up. I've seen this over the years. The people who wanna take their time to do that reverse diet always have better results. They always stay in leanness and hey, it requires patience because we want to feel like I can finally let go. I've lost the weight, I can finally go to, you know, eat whatever. No, like we got to be smart here. It's a very tricky spot to be in, you know what mean? The end of diet. So we transition out. That brings you into May. Guess what? We're almost, you know, we're going to close the summer. Now, what you will do here depends. The way I look at it is you can either do maintenance or you can go into a slight surplus, meaning we're going to build muscle. Now this depends on how long we want to go, your plans for the summer, when you're going away, if that's early, late summer, whatever it may be. Again, generally speaking, what I see people want to maintain through summer, there's times where we don't even track at all. There's times where we do some tracking. It's going to be individual, but okay. Let's say we want to maintain or build muscle. I'm going to say, okay, so if you've been dieting for three months and we do a one month reverse diet, you want to at least be in maintenance for three to four months. Yes, that's a long time. You're going to have to be patient here. You are not going to diet again after like a few weeks. No, you're going to have to fuel up and stay at maintenance for three to four months. If you want this whole thing to last or hey, by the way, if you don't do it, Be my guest, but you're gonna be among the 95 people who don't reach our goals. I'm literally giving you the exact steps to follow to lose fat and keep it off in 2025. But you're gonna have to be able to stick with this. With guidance and accountability, that's much easier. But okay, three to four months. Now here's the cool thing. Don't see those 3 to 4 months as I'm not losing fat, nothing is happening. No. If you can lose 5 to 10 % of your body weight, and by the way, your weight is going to go up a little bit usually, that's normal, right? There's muscle glycogen, food mass, so much. If you can create a new baseline that's 5 to 10 % lower than where you were, cool. Now you can just go to the next step. Make sense? Long term, we're still talking a few months. Like it's not that much, you know what I mean? So don't just look at it, hey, I am not losing weight. No, you are maintaining fat loss. You're allowing your hormones to balance out, so to speak, to return to their normal levels where they should be. You're allowing your metabolism to speed back up again. Again, metabolism, right, overcomplicated. Usually it'll slow down when you lose weight and when you're in a deficit and it'll go back up again a little bit once you reintroduce calories. You wanna do this smart though, but... And by the way, if we talk about metabolism slowing down, most of it is gonna be your non-exercise activity, which is why we track our steps. okay, metabolism slows down, speeds up, that's a normal process, but you have to give it time to speed up again before you wanna go for round two of fat loss. Otherwise, you're gonna have a hard time losing more fat. So not only are you keeping it off while fueling up, you're also setting yourself up for success for your second fat loss phase if that's what you wanna do. Plus, you're not gonna build a lot of muscle during diet, you know what I mean? Maybe at the beginning, if you're a beginner, you could be lucky and you can't see that. But usually, muscle gain is gonna happen more at maintenance or even a slight surplus kind of depending on your level. I like pushing people into a lean gaining phase, right? A slight calorie surplus where you eat more than what you burn. Also there, you wanna do it controlled. Because here's the thing, if you go too fast, you're going to gain more body fat, not just more muscle. So don't rush it there either. But okay, three to four months, it sounds like a long time if you only focus on dieting, but three to four months, if you focus on your training and just keeping good habits and by the way, yes, being flexible, because I like to practice that there as well. I step away from tracking with a lot of people, it kind of depends what they want to do. But three to four months of dedicated like training on a resistance training program, you follow something week to week and you progressively overload. You can build muscle, guess what? Now you're gonna look leaner when you cut again. Make sense? So what I like to do, because this is a question that comes up all the time, so I wanted to tackle it right away. Do you need to be at maintenance before you go into fat loss? Sorry. Do you need to be, shit, totally messed that one up. Do you need to be at maintenance before going into muscle gain? No, you don't have to. When people go into muscle gain with me, what I do is we just continue to reverse diet. and just keep adding, make sense? And sure, like for a while you're gonna see that weight be stable, but we're gonna keep adding food so that slowly but surely eventually that weight goes up. So you can go into muscle gain right away. I just like to spend more time building muscle then, because here's the thing, like, fat loss is just one part of the puzzle, one piece of the puzzle, right? Looking lean, defined, toned, whatever you wanna call it, isn't just... a lower weight on the scale. If that's all you're chasing, like fucking most people out there, you'll set yourself up to let yourself down because here's the thing, it's not about that scale just going down all the time. There's gonna be many weeks, even during a fat loss phase, where you're not gonna see that scale move and that is okay. Doesn't mean you're not losing fat. Now, not just that, there's so much more value when it comes to eating enough than just dieting. Think about this, how much time have you recently actually spent fueling your body with what it actually needs? The calories, the macros, the micros, all the fiber, your bodily systems, need to work and they need the energy, they need the nutrients for that to actually function, right? When was the last time you could, honestly, No judging here, but honestly, when was the last time you were like, hey, you know what? For an extended period of time, I just ate enough and I ate healthy. And I felt really fucking good. My energy levels are good. I'm not crashing all the time. If that's been a while, okay, cool. Let's focus on maintenance, let's do it well. Now, I said I was gonna mention performance-based goals too. So let's get into that for a sec. If you do CrossFit or any kind of sport and you really wanna focus on performance, okay, cool. Now that means that during those maintenance phases, you wanna really eat as much as possible without seeing a bunch of weight gain. That's really what it comes down to. Just drive those calories up as far as you can. Of course. You wanna control things, we're not just gonna gain a bunch of weight. If you wanna put on muscle, slight surplus. If you wanna maintain, just stay in maintenance, but try to find that upper limit of your maintenance range. As much calories as possible. Now that being said, let me see real quick because we are now into summer. So let's say you maintain or build through, I don't know, August or something. It really kind of depends what your plans are. You could potentially go into another cut if you want to lose more body fat. So that could be August, September, October. It could be September, October. Again, I'm just using this timeframe as an example. Now, why do I say until October? Well, we got Christmas coming up. Right now it's December, right? You probably don't want to through Christmas. I know some people who just have a few things, they still diet and they just take a diet break or even a few refeed days around Christmas. But generally speaking, most people want to have lots of calories to play with. I want you to practice flexibility. I don't want you to stress about nutrition. And we're going to practice moderation while enjoying, of course. So that's why I'm saying, hey, if you want to do another cut, let's do it after summer. and then reverse diet through November so that you're back at maintenance for December. And then you can either maintain or go into a surplus again, build some muscle. You're going to have extra calories anyway from those festivities let's call them. So like use the calories, you know what I mean? And of course everything like even maintenance phases like you still want to control things. Control just doesn't have to mean always tracking. But hear me out. So that's one year of periodization for you. I can promise you this, if you follow that exact plan, you focus on your routines and habits now through maybe January, kind of depends where you're at, you have like, you know, at least a four week block of like dialing in your routines and habits. You then cut maybe January through March, reverse diet April, maintain a muscle gain for the rest of spring and then summer, cut maybe after summer. reverse diet before you're back and maintenance around December, I can pretty much guarantee and I can't do the work for you, so I can't guarantee this, but if you follow that plan and of course you cover your proteins and your whole foods and you train hard and you sleep well, you manage your stress and you hydrate and there's so many things. When you follow that exact plan, your results will be really fucking awesome. Now course it's allowed to keep up with it, so if you need guidance of course we can help you with that. But that's a 12 month plan. That is not that long. In the grand scheme of things, if you can take 12 months, and I'm saying 12 by the way, six to 12, because if you just want to lose fat and then maintain, you can do that in half a year, right? You can do that in half a year. Now, if you want to lose more than let's say 10 % of your body fat, let's call it a year. But in the grand scheme of things, if you invest six to 12 months into your own health and your goals and learning how to do this shit, then that's actually not a long time. That's actually very short amount of time. Because if you learn from this, meaning, hey, I'm not just listening to a podcast, watching videos, et cetera, reading stuff, no, actually applying stuff and troubleshooting and working through your challenges and roadblocks and maybe working with a coach. If you do that for six to 12 months and you truly learn, meaning through application, it sticks. You literally have the tools for life. You literally, and of course there's, you know, specific cases, know, auto immune disease, et cetera. But generally speaking for most people, if you can give yourself that six to 12 months, you will change your fucking life. And I can guarantee you that, but that's only if you truly learn from applying everything that you learned. Make sense. Remember that you will not reach your goal in four weeks or even 12 weeks. That's a harsh truth. It's a fact. You will not reach your goal in a matter of weeks. So why the fuck would you give up in one month? Why would you give up even before February? Six to 12 months is not even that long. Hey, by the way, again, if it takes longer, that's also okay. I'm not saying to give yourself that time limit, but you got so much time. Like how old are you? 30, 40, 50s? You got so much time. Don't rush it. Don't rush it. Work through this stuff. Don't beat yourself up if you don't manage to stick with something like actually troubleshoot with someone or by yourself, but try to truly learn from your mistakes, let's call them. Not even mistakes, just hiccups, let's say. Learning opportunities. You have some time. It's gonna take time, that's okay, but you have that time. And remember too, and this is something I gotta remind you of too, if we think of habits. So what's a habit? It's a behavior that just happens on autopilot. For something to become a habit, can take anywhere from, I believe the number is like from 18 to more than 250 days. For your brain to make new connections, for those connections to then strengthen over time, right? It takes a long time. For your, in quotes, bad habits to disappear slowly but surely, those connections need to become weaker and weaker and weaker. There is no way to shortcut that process. It's gonna take anywhere from 18 to 250 plus days. I don't really know how long it's gonna take exactly, because when it comes to research, like we see all these different numbers, doesn't matter. If you give yourself enough time, you keep working on this stuff, and I'm gonna say six to 12 months, you can get a lot done. Maybe you're not there yet, and that's okay. We all will always have stuff to work on. But I mean, if you give yourself that time, let's say 2025, like let's truly, I don't know, that sounds fucking cheesy too, right? Let's make 2025 your year. No, I mean it. Like if you can dedicate six to 12 months to truly learning, applying the stuff I just mentioned, continuing to really look for good information, maybe getting coached. And by the way, I know I've mentioned this a few times now and I'll do it again. Like we are starting the first cohort of the Odyssey January 6th. Link is gonna be in the show notes. If you have questions first, my calendar link is below that. But even if it's not with me or my team, get coached. Like if there is a shortcut, it's guidance and mentorship from someone who's been there, done that, who has the experience, who can help people like yourself reach your goals. And again, I'm super biased, but honestly, that's why I've, since the very beginning, from the first month I started my coaching business, I got a mentor for a thousand dollars a month. This is when I was not making money yet, right? Just so you know. Over the years, I've had multiple coaches, multiple mentors. I continue to invest. I choose to invest because I know that when I get that accountability, first of all, they keep me in check because I need accountability too, by the way. They can teach me the things I've not learned yet and they can help me troubleshoot and brainstorm and work through obstacles. So without, again, making it too cheesy, like let's make 2025 the year you will reach your goal. I'm not gonna lie, it's gonna take work, but I know you can do it with the right approach. So again, to recap for maybe 2025, if you mostly wanna lose fat, cut through, know, March, January through March, reverse diet, then the rest of spring, summer, maintain or build muscle, short muscle, sorry, fat loss phase afterwards, go back up, maintain for a few months. And just like that, right, you can always keep repeating that process. Now, depending on your plans, et cetera, you can tailor this to your life, your calendar, because what I always keep in mind is business trips, vacations, birthdays, the holidays, of course, but that should give you good idea of how to structure your nutrition. And by the way, if for the last six to 12 months you've already dieted most of those months, I want you to really actually take more time at maintenance first. I know it requires patience, but if you can do that, the results will be better. your metabolism will be in a better spot. As a general rule, and this is one I wanted to mention, I'm gonna say, I don't want you to diet more than twice in 2025. You can choose to do so if you wanna have better results, you will spend the time in between before and after your fat loss phases at maintenance or even building muscle, right? So let's get into it. If you need help, you know where to find me. There's a link in the show notes to the Odyssey. That's $150 per month. That is our group coaching program and course. It's a 12 week course. After that, of course, like I said before, no one reaches their goals in 12 weeks. You can continue with us on a month to month basis. But I'm very excited for this and think you're going to learn a lot. And we're going to be there to hold you accountable. And there's 10 plus people in there now already waiting to get started in January, January 6. to support you to reach those similar goals and to do this together. Because it's a community too. And that's one of the things, going back to accountability, that will also keep you going. Having people around you who want to see you win. Again, if you want to learn more, there's a link to my calendar as well. 15, 20 minute call just to talk about your goals, see what's a fit. And I'll talk to you in the next episode.