I’m a huge advocate of Flexible and Sustainable Nutrition Protocols. This began with me having had a few nutrition coaches for my first few bodybuilding shows that were heavy into restrictive meal regimens, eating 6-8 times per day religiously regardless of work, family, events, etc. and very strict food limitations as to what I could or could not eat.

In short, I had developed an eating disorder based off of the couple years of eating this way. I'd skip out on any and all social gatherings to ensure I ate all my meals and did not splurge on any 'bad' foods while away from home with my friends. I had embedded this habit into my lifestyle which negatively impacted myself and those around me. I knew there had to be an easier way to attack my fitness goals.

After obtaining my degree/certification, along with a lot of self-taught knowledge gained from well sought after individuals on the science side of fitness, such as Dr. Layne Norton and Dr. Mike Zourdos, I began to discover and understand the principles of flexible dieting also known as IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros).

With this principle, my world slowly began to change. I slowly weaned my body off of the addicting bad habits of restrictive eating and set meal times of every 3 hours. I began focusing on nutrition protocols that would allow me to live more freely when I was not doing anything fitness related, yet still obtain the same goal since I was putting fitness before anything.

Nowadays, I am grateful to not only work from home, but I no longer spend countless hours meal prepping for the week, cooking fresh meat on a daily basis to consume because it's required of me. Rather, I eat in conjunction with my day and don’t plan around my eating. This saved me. On busy days I can grab something mildly processed or have a ready to go meal option that's quick and efficient rather than worrying about carrying a Tupperware container of fish, a scale to weigh it, and not to mention the god-awful smell it emits once opened up. I now realize and understand what's happening digestion-wise when food is put into my body, and that those restrictive habits I was a part of in the past are no longer necessary.

I am happy to say I have practiced flexible and sustainable nutrition methods with myself and with my clients for a few years now and I enjoy spreading the word on the overall health and lifestyle benefits it has over traditional dieting and restrictive eating. I enjoy spreading the word of my own protocols with as many as I can!

For any beginner, as amped up and excited you may be about spending time in the gym, I heavily advise starting small and building up gradually over time as I mentioned doing myself. This ensures constant progression — whether you’re a beginner or more advanced.

More specifically, when talking about the weights — start out slow and don't push too close to failure. Allow yourself to slowly progress each week by inching out another rep with the same weight, or move up a mere 2.5 or 5lbs from last week and perform the same number of reps.

As for cardio, the same principles apply. For instance, if fat loss is the goal, jumping in from no cardio and going into the gym 4-5 times per week and doing something like 30-45 minutes of cardio can work in the short term — but once you plateau or stall out, it's much harder to progress from there as you'd need to implement unsustainable measures to continue achieving fat loss by adding in additional cardio or increasing the time. Whereas if you began on a smaller scale, like 1-2 times per week at 15-20 minutes, you could adjust the time and amount of sessions based off the progress you see in the mirror, progress pictures, and/or on the scale.

From there, consistent progression is key! Always build upon what you've done and improve little by little. Slow and steady most definitely wins the race here.