The Smart Nutrition Made Simple Show with Ben Brown

Jonah Mitchel the Founder, Co-Owner, & Head Coach of Phoenix Fitness & Nutrition.   “My passion for health and fitness started when I was young and grew up witnessing my single-mother struggle with her weight & self-image. I ended up copying a lot of her same behaviors of punishing myself for never being good enough with my appearance or performance in sports, which led to years of poor self-esteem & unhealthy weight loss attempts to lose over 40 lbs before I realized that I didn't want anyone else to suffer the way my mom and I had to in order to live a healthy, happy life.   I started my coaching career training athletes, which led to becoming a personal trainer at a 24-Hour Fitness. Wanting to help take my clients' success a step further, I got my nutrition coaching certification from the Nutritional Coaching Institute.    I launched Phoenix Fitness in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and now I get to do what I love with my lovely wife, Hannah by my side!”   Jonah is proud of his ability to adapt and pivot to be the best coach and company for the people we serve. To see personal growth have a direct impact on business growth. Empowering lifelong dieters to take back control over their health and their lives through simple and effective means.   Connect with Jonah: https://www.phoenixcoaching.fit/ https://www.facebook.com/jonah.mitchell.752 FB Group: The Total Mind Body Transformation   Connect with Ben: Join our Nutrition Community: https://www.smartnutritionmadesimple.com Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: www.SmartNutritionMadeSimpleTV.com Connect with us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bslnutrition As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. AND, if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat, just schedule your free nutrition strategy call over at https://www.bslnutrition.com/free-strategy-call/

How do you define success?   I think it’s fair to say that each of our definitions will vary while we can probably all agree that attaining success will require similar efforts and values…   Around commitment, perseverance, ownership, trust, and certainly discipline.   Often when we think of success around dieting, its invariably related to visual changes, in body composition, in muscle mass, and in scale weight, and while those certainly can be valid, I’d like to challenge you to think a little bit deeper around the intrinsic and internal changes that have to take place to drive change.   If you don’t know who I am, my name is Ben Brown and I’m the owner of BSL Nutrition, an online nutrition coaching company that helps you change your belief system around what it means to be healthy…   And in this conversation with my friend and client Casey Strunk, we discuss the transformation that he’s undergone over the past 2 years having worked together.   While visually significant and remarkable, the depth of transformation that has transpired below the surface is that much more commendable and exactly what I want to share with you today.   Before success happens on the surface, it has to happen in the mind, and for Casey, it was simply a matter of acknowledging that he wasn’t living up to his potential, deciding to make a change, and then striving to get better every single day.   I hope you enjoy this conversation and don’t hesitate to let me know if you’d like to discuss working with us to help you do the same.   RESOURCES: Grab our FREE Fat Loss Fix Guide: https://www.bslnutrition.com/fat-loss-fix-guide/ Connect with Ben: Join our Nutrition Community: https://www.smartnutritionmadesimple.com Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: www.SmartNutritionMadeSimpleTV.com Connect with us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bslnutrition As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. AND, if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat, just schedule your free nutrition strategy call over at https://www.bslnutrition.com/free-strategy-call/

Do you know how nutrition experts always talk about how weight loss is about more than just calories in vs calories out? Well, in this episode we dive into exactly what that means and why our behaviors around food are actually the biggest limiting factors to our success.   If you don’t know who I am, my name is Ben Brown and I’m the owner of BSL Nutrition, an online nutrition coaching company that helps you change your belief system around what it means to be healthy…   Today I’m catching up with my friend Jared Hamilton, CEO of Hamilton Trained to discuss why your beliefs around food are getting in the way of your success.   In this episode, we talk about many of the deep and foundational factors at play for why we can have such a hard time losing weight despite “knowing what to do” and some of the powerful strategies we can employ to both identify and overcome these root behaviors. Connect with Jared: Hamiltontrained.com https://www.facebook.com/groups/fatlosssimplified/?ref=share_group_link Instagram.com/realjaredhamilton https://www.tiktok.com/@realjaredhamilton?lang=en https://www.youtube.com/jaredhamilton https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dieting-from-the-inside-out/id1349300090 Connect with Ben: Grab our FREE Fat Loss Fix Guide:  https://www.bslnutrition.com/fat-loss-fix-guide/ Join our Nutrition Community: https://www.smartnutritionmadesimple.com Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: www.SmartNutritionMadeSimpleTV.com Connect with us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bslnutrition As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. AND, if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat, just schedule your free nutrition strategy call over at https://www.bslnutrition.com/free-strategy-call/

What if I told you that there were no rules when it comes to weight loss?   How would it make you feel if you knew you could eat literally anything you want and still make progress?   And what if I said the problem isn’t the food, it’s the way that we’re thinking about the food?   You’d probably say I was full of it…   If you don’t know who I am, my name is Ben Brown and I’m the owner of BSL Nutrition, an online nutrition coaching company that helps you change your belief system around what it means to be healthy…   And in this conversation with my friend Mike Millner, owner of POP, peak optimization performance, we discuss exactly why our Mindset plays such a pivotal role in our long-term weight loss success.   Mike shares with us his background and personal experience with yo-yo dieting and the all-or-nothing mindset and how his experiences and frustrations with the nutrition industry propelled him into a successful career helping other men and women, like him, change their relationship with dieting, with food, with their body, and with their unrealistic expectations around what healthy weight loss and body composition change actually looks like.   I hope you find this conversion as enlightening and motivating as I did. Connect with Mike: http://www.neurotypetraining.com http://www.Instagram.com/coach_mike_millner https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mind-over-macros/id1450288507   Connect with Ben: Grab our FREE Fat Loss Fix Guide: https://www.bslnutrition.com/fat-loss-fix-guide/   Join our Nutrition Community: https://www.smartnutritionmadesimple.com Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: www.SmartNutritionMadeSimpleTV.com Connect with us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bslnutrition As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. AND, if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat, just schedule your free nutrition strategy call over at https://www.bslnutrition.com/free-strategy-call/

It’s back to reality for many of us parents… And thank goodness for that! As much as we enjoy the ability to spend time with kids, travel, and eat and drink galore… The lack of consistency and structure can get old, real quick. I think I’ve had alcohol and ice cream every single day over the past month. And as much as I’ve enjoyed summer and had the opportunity to relax mentally, physically, and dietarily, I just don’t feel very good. Literally, I feel like crap… I’m putting on body fat, my sleep sucks, I’m more anxious, and I don’t feel like I’m living in congruence with my role as a coach. So, now that I’m back from vacation, it’s time to get back into my routine…. And I thought you might like to join me? Nothing fancy here, just re-establishing some of the structure that I know from years of experience will get me feeling better and start to move the needle. Most importantly tough is NOT an all-or-nothing mindset around this process… Just some daily behaviors that will allow me to literally check the boxes on my calendar to drive momentum: Sleep routine: go to sleep and wake up at the same time daily Movement: 10k steps per day Hydration: more water, less tequila Nutrition: 3-4 meals daily with no snacking in between (focus on protein at each meal) Don’t get me wrong, for the beginner, each of these in and of themselves can take a significant amount of time to develop the skills to master, so perhaps just pick one. The point here isn’t to overwhelm you, but to simply share that I too am just a regular guy who also has to give myself a good kick in the ass from time to time… Despite what you might think, or see on social media, It’s not easier for me, I just have more practice than most. But truly, these are the daily behaviors that I prioritize to help me “get back on track”. There’s nothing magical about the process, other than actually committing to showing up daily. Again, the importance lies in daily consistency, not dietary extremism. You don't need to go keto, or gluten-free, or go crazy with your bootcamp classes, but you do have to do something different! So regardless of how much travel you still have left, or the myriad of events that you want to let loose for, or that you just want to wait until the right time to get started… Just know that you CAN still build momentum daily, even if it’s just a few daily behaviors to drive consistency above all else. Subscribe to get the best (proven) tips from the worlds leading experts in health, fitness, and nutrition: https://goo.gl/DUuyC6 Helpful FREE Resources: Fat Loss Fix Guide - 3 Simple Steps to Build your Unique Fat Burning Blueprint: https://bslnutrition.clickfunnels.com/optin-457843251610024749214 9 Best Pre-Workout Meals Guide - Boost your Energy and Stimulate Faster Fat Loss: https://www.bslfuel.com/9-meals-for-energy Ben Brown, Head Coach - BSL Nutrition ben@bslnutrition.com www.bslnutrition.com Here's Where You Can Find Us Online: Join our Smart Nutrition Made Simple Community where you can finally learn how to build a better body and create the energy to invest in your family without restrictive dieting through our Pure Science. Proven Results(TM) Process. JOIN HERE: https://www.facebook.com/groups/smartnutritionmadesimple Website: http://www.bslnutrition.com Supplement Shop: https://www.bslnutritionshop.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bslnutrition Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bslnutrition As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. AND, if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat, just schedule your free nutrition strategy call over at https://www.bslnutrition.com/free-strategy-call/ BSLNutritionSmartNutritionMadeSimple

One of the most important lessons we’ve gleaned from the past few years is to be firm in our beliefs, our standards, and to have clarity in our values from which our decisions are made…   If you don’t know who I am, my name is Ben Brown and I’m the owner of BSL Nutrition, an online nutrition coaching company that helps you change your belief system around what it means to be healthy…   And in this episode, I’m sharing an interview I did with my friend Jay Campbell on his Fully Optimized Living podcast   In this conversation we get deep into a few specific areas, namely, how we have leveraged our LIFE F.O.R.C.E. core beliefs as the driving light behind our daily lifestyle and business decisions as well as how we’re building an incredible community of like minded individuals who are working to realign their daily lifestyle and decision making processes in order to create the life they envision for themselves   Additionally, we discuss how the last two years changed couples and families, for better and worse… How to set non-negotiable boundaries around what’s important… Why so many people hop from program to program with no real change…   This was one of the more candid and honest conversations I’ve shared publicly and I hope you find some value here-in.    And if you do, do me a favor and leave a 5-star rating, positive review, and share this with someone whom you think could benefit so we can help more people make smart nutrition simple.. Enjoy… Subscribe to get the best (proven) tips from the worlds leading experts in health, fitness, and nutrition: https://goo.gl/DUuyC6 Helpful FREE Resources: Fat Loss Fix Guide - 3 Simple Steps to Build your Unique Fat Burning Blueprint: https://bslnutrition.clickfunnels.com/optin-457843251610024749214 9 Best Pre-Workout Meals Guide - Boost your Energy and Stimulate Faster Fat Loss: https://www.bslfuel.com/9-meals-for-energy Ben Brown, Head Coach - BSL Nutrition ben@bslnutrition.com www.bslnutrition.com Here's Where You Can Find Us Online: Join our Smart Nutrition Made Simple Community where you can finally learn how to build a better body and create the energy to invest in your family without restrictive dieting through our Pure Science. Proven Results(TM) Process. JOIN HERE: https://www.facebook.com/groups/smartnutritionmadesimple Website: http://www.bslnutrition.com Supplement Shop: https://www.bslnutritionshop.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bslnutrition Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bslnutrition As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. AND, if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat, just schedule your free nutrition strategy call over at https://www.bslnutrition.com/free-strategy-call/ BSLNutritionSmartNutritionMadeSimple

Just because we don’t generally support quick-fix dieting strategies doesn’t mean they can’t work when used in the right context.   Wedding Summer beach vacation Pool party   This is where the low-carb boot camp can come in handy…   (Credit to Charles Poliquin for teaching how to do this)   What is Low carb Bootcamp?   Carbohydrate elimination diet - typically things like bread, pastas, rice, potatoes, cookies/cakes, alcohol, and calorie infused beverages   Why do LCBC:   Easy way to reduce calories and kickstart the fat loss/transformation process Simplify to follow dieting strategy Short-term, effective solution to losing weight Motivation is high for short periods of time, like prior to big events    Benefits/why it works:   Drop body fat and water weight by reducing carbs (2-4% weight) - 4-8lbs for a 200lb person Reduced hunger and cravings when protein intake is high Decrease inflammation and a shift in healthy gut bacteria Improved insulin sensitivity and blood sugar management - more stable energy, better mental clarity   How to do it:   Protein goal: minimum 1g per pound of ideal bodyweight Eliminate all sources of carbohydrates: bread, pasta, rice, potato, oats, fruits, pastries, sodas, alcohol, especially wheat, dairy, and sugar Eat unlimited fibrous vegetables, particularly leafy green veggies - broccoli, spinach, cabbage, zucchini, cucumber - aim for less than 50g-100g carbs per day primarily from veggies Add healthy fats: aim for 0.5g per pound of ideal bodyweight - avocado, nuts, salmon Drink at least 1/2 your BW in oz of water per day and ADD electrolytes   What to expect:   Expect to feel amazing.   Moving from the SAD diet to whole foods and low carb-based diet, you’ll experience: > more focus > more energy > better sleep > Increased satiety   Sample menu:   Meal 1 - grass-fed hamburger or lean steak with 1/2 avocado, sautéed spinach in butter Meal 2 - Chicken thighs and asparagus cooked in coconut oil Meal 3 - snack - celery sticks with almond butter or deli meat roll-ups in romaine lettuce with mustard Meal 4 - Chicken breast or shredded cabbage coleslaw salad - use avocado oil mayo   Use essential amino acids intra-workout as well as whey protein post-workout weight glutamine and glycine   What to do after?   Reintroduce carbs in the post-workout window - 40-60g of carbs in PWO meal - oats, rice, potato   OR   Add carbs once per week as a “refeed meal” or day - about 50% more calories on that day - the leaner you get, the more carbs you earn on a daily basis and the better you’ll be able to use carbs for continued progress Add 1 higher carb meal every 5-7 days and as you lean out, reduce the number of days between higher carb meals Work up to at least 25% of your calories from carbs   Some feel better on a lower-carb diet but will need to make sure they’re consuming enough fats to offset the decreased calorie intake.   JUST BECAUSE YOU GOT LEAN USING A LOW-CARB APPROACH DOESN’T MEAN IT'S A SUSTAINABLE WAY TO MAINTAIN PROGRESS…   The metabolism is very adaptive and dynamic which is why most people benefit from slowly adding back in carbs and eventually leveraging carbs to their benefit while learning how to effectively maintain their calories. Connect with Ben:   RESOURCES: Purchase our Complete Essentials all-in-one exercise nutrition drink scientifically proven to boost energy and recovery: https://www.bslnutritionshop.com/ Grab our FREE Fat Loss Fix Guide: https://www.bslnutrition.com/fat-loss-fix-guide/ Connect with Ben: Join our Nutrition Community: https://www.smartnutritionmadesimple.com Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: www.SmartNutritionMadeSimpleTV.com Connect with us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bslnutrition As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. AND, if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat, just schedule your free nutrition strategy call over at https://www.bslnutrition.com/free-strategy-call/

If you’re working to lose weight and you think you need to eat out of Tupperware containers and bring your food scale to restaurants in order to be successful, then you’re going to want to stick around…In this video, I’m going to show you the simple strategies we teach our clients so they can eat out, and enjoy the foods they want…yes, even dessert, while still losing weight.   If you don’t know who I am, my name is Ben Brown and I’m the owner of BSL Nutrition, an online nutrition coaching company that helps you change your belief system around what it means to be healthy…   And in this particular topic, we’re discussing how to navigate eating out without breaking the proverbial calorie bank.   Now, no one ever ate anything by accident…   And it’s pretty rare, at least if you’re fortunate enough to be listening to this, to have a time when you don’t have full control over the calories you choose to consume.   However, we’re all guilty of eating, and drinking, too much, especially when eating in restaurants in the company of friends and family members, be it a celebration or Taco Tuesday.   So, how do we eat out, without overdoing it on calories, while still being able to enjoy the food, the company, the dining experience, and getting the results we’ve been working hard for? Listen to this podcast to find out.   RESOURCES: Grab our FREE Fat Loss Fix Guide: https://www.bslnutrition.com/fat-loss-fix-guide/ Connect with Ben: Join our Nutrition Community: https://www.smartnutritionmadesimple.com Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: www.SmartNutritionMadeSimpleTV.com Connect with us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bslnutrition As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. AND, if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat, just schedule your free nutrition strategy call over at https://www.bslnutrition.com/free-strategy-call/

If you’ve been trying to lose weight and you’re confused about how many meals or snacks to be eating per day, then this episode of the Smart Nutrition Made Simple Show is for you…   For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Ben Brown and I’m the owner of BSL Nutrition. We are an online nutrition and fitness coaching company that helps you change your belief system around what it means to be healthy…   And in this particular case, it’s time to put to rest some of the conventional beliefs surrounding meal frequency and fat loss.   In this episode we’re going to discuss:   some of the popular conventional wisdom around meal frequency My observations from coaching hundreds of clients over the past 15 years And what the science and our experience suggests is the best way to determine how many meals per day you should be consuming, why, and how to start to build the skills necessary to create your own personal meal scheduling system   Before we move further, I think it’s important to acknowledge why this even matters…?   I mean we’ve talked ad nauseum about the importance of just needing to create a calorie deficit for weight loss and so, it shouldn’t matter how many times per day we eat, whether it’s 2 or it’s 10, as long as we’re in a deficit, we’ll lose weight…right?!   And while theoretically this makes sense, in practice, it becomes a different story, because behaviorally, there are limitations to what we can realistically commit to WHICH IS WHAT MATTERS MOST.   Put differently, even if the science said that eating 6x a day was best, it wouldn’t matter because it's just not practical for the vast majority of us… and so, it’s important for us to titrate down the science to reasonable actions that help us develop skills to make consistent progress … which is what we’re all about here at BSL Nutrition.   So, back to the conventional wisdom…   We’ve heard that you need to eat 6x per day to “stoke the metabolism”   We’ve heard that you need to graze on small portions so you don’t over eat   We’ve heard that you shouldn’t eat breakfast   We’ve heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day   We’ve heard that you should intermittent fast daily   We’ve heard that we should just have bars for breakfast and lunch and then have a “sensible dinner”    And the list goes on and on…   So it’s no surprise that we’re confused about which direction to go so we can finally figure out how to lose the weight once and for all.   And this is where we need to move from understanding the data to real-world decision-making.   For most of us listening to this podcast, there are a few fundamental things that are relevant when it comes to long-term weight loss and behavior change: We need to find realistic ways to manage our calorie intake daily without necessarily having to track every morsel of food consumed. Don’t get me wrong, we believe strongly that food tracking, for many, can be the highest ROI driver of creating more awareness around portion sizes and weight loss limiting behaviors but…We also fully acknowledge that for many, this can create undue stress and exacerbate unhealthy eating patterns, which is why we often both substitute these skills and/or help leverage the tracking to create the very skills I’m sharing with you today We need to learn how to build satisfying meals without worrying about overly restrictive food rules that are unrealistic to follow long-term or having to think incessantly about food all day long We need a manageable way to eat daily that gives us good energy, helps us control hunger from meal to meal, AND fits within our hectic daily lifestyle   All too often, especially based on the plethora of popular meal strategies I listed previously, we have the tendency to set ourselves up for disaster, usually by undereating from meal to meal, trying to consume too little for too many meals, or simply starving ourselves early in the day only to find ourselves overeating at night because we have no control over our hunger or fullness cues.   Imagine what it would feel like to be able to eat a reasonable amount of food from meal to meal, feel perfectly satisfied for 5-6 hours between meals without finding yourself consumed by thoughts of treats, snacks, or obsessively thinking about where your next meal is coming from, and have stable energy and experience healthy weight loss in the process…   If you’re a fan of 80’s hip-hop, then you’d know that De La Soul said it best in their popular album 3 feet high and rising with their song “3 is the magic number”.   It seems that 3-4 meals per day is the secret meal formula for finding your satiety sweet spot that will allow you to effectively manage your calorie intake enough to lose weight.   Let’s discuss why that is…   For many of us, the conventional wisdom around eating more times per day as a way to both control our calorie intake and stoke the metabolism has been commonplace, however, research suggests that this actually isn’t the case.   What happens when we eat more frequently? We just end up eating more calories…   Research shows that the more frequently a person eats, the higher their total calorie intake tends to be, and the greater odds they are overweight or obese. Research has confirmed that there is no metabolic or satiety advantage to eating 6 times a day vs. 3 times a day, and 3 meals work better for appetite control at an equivalent calorie level.   Additionally, it’s been proven that snacking doesn’t actually help you better manage your appetite from meal to meal, rather, it just seems to add calories to your total intake.   So you might as well do away with snacking as those extra calories aren’t doing you any favors.   The reason for this has a lot to do with our hunger and fullness hormones, particularly, leptin and ghrelin. Essentially, what we know is that we need to eat enough at meals to stimulate the hormones and the brain to sense fullness, adequate nutrition, and thereby stimulate satiety so that we can have stable energy, blood sugar levels, and experience fullness for 3-5 or more hours before our next meal.   And this is where developing the skills to effectively acknowledge and manage your hunger signals becomes paramount…   Eating a highly processed, highly calorically dense, and low fiber meal like Mcdonald's will have a very different hormonal impact on your hunger and satiety signals than something lower in calories and higher in both nutritional value and fiber, like a lean steak, potato, and bowl of fruit   But that’s a topic for another conversation as what you choose to consume at those meals will be the main determining factor in influencing your nutrition decisions later in the day, or the week, by virtue of how you feel from meal to meal.   If you’re currently only eating 2 meals per day coupled with periodic snacks throughout, then you may consider committing to 3 square meals with anywhere from 3-5 hours in between.   Similarly, if you find yourself grazing all day long and not really committing to any one meal, or perhaps just an oversized dinner and snacking until bedtime, then you should figure out how to build out more substantial meals early in the day to help curb the hunger and lack of control you may be experiencing at night.   And yes, if there’s any one clinical pearl that you can take away from this episode, it's that what you choose to eat, or not eat, strongly influences the decisions you make later in the day and thereby how you manage your calorie intake…. Which is why we almost always suggest you start with a protein-rich, satisfying breakfast.   Here’s how I’d suggest building out your framework to get started.   First, factor in a 12-hr window between the time you wake up and your last meal… let’s say 7 am to 7 pm as an example.   If you’re currently eating and snacking all day long, then you may want to start with 4 meals spread out evenly, say 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, and 6 pm…   Or if you find you struggle to eat any solid meals except for dinner, you may just start with a solid breakfast, lunch, and dinner, say 8 am, 1 pm, and 6 pm. This might feel like you’re eating more earlier in the day, but it should also help curb the volume of food you consume later, thereby reducing your total calorie intake, which, as I said, is the name of the game.   Listen, this is going to take practice and commitment. You’ll need to experiment with what works best for you as it will take a couple of weeks for you to get comfortable with changing your eating patterns as well as start to observe how you feel from meal to meal.   Or, if that feels too overwhelming, maybe just start by adding a solid breakfast and not eating again until lunch…put that on repeat for a week or two until you get comfortable with it and then move to the next meal.   Or skip the mid-afternoon snack, or just add it to your lunch and see how you feel pushing through until dinner.   Regardless, there are a few things that you’ll want to pay attention to:   Are you getting hungry from meal to meal? If so, great, that’s actually a really good sign that your hormones are functioning the way they should be. This is a perfectly normal and healthy feeling that you’ll need to get comfortable with experiencing as it is necessary when we’re working to lose fat and control our calorie intake. If you’re too hungry, try eating a bit more at your previous meal. If you’re not hungry, try eating a bit less Is it actually hunger you’re experiencing? Oftentimes, especially mid-morning or afternoon when we’re caught up in work stress, tired, bored, or fatigued - it’s actually just a way for our body and brain to find a more pleasurable stimulus, like going for the caffeine, sweet, or salty snacks. Pay attention to these feelings, check-in with yourself and how you feel, and perhaps opt to drink some water, have a stretch, go for a walk, or lay down for a few minutes instead. What pre-existing behaviors drive your food decisions? A glass of wine after a long day? A handful of chips or trail mix when you’re in-between zoom calls? The mindless snacking while Netflix and chilling after the kids go to bed?     The beauty of committing to actual structured meals without snacking in between gives you the flexibility and freedom to eat the foods you want within reason, as well as help you establish some very reasonable and healthy boundaries around the foods that probably aren’t helping support your health and weight loss goals.   And because you have a clear-cut framework around when to eat and the freedom to decide how many meals and when are best for you and your schedule, you can now start to put in the work around building out the most satisfying and nutritious meals for you…   So that you can stay energized, satisfied, and control your calories without worrying about restricting foods, skipping meals, being hungry all the time, or constantly stressing about what and when to eat next.   Hopefully, that helps settle some of the confusion around how many meals to be eating for weight loss and how to start to build out your individual meal structure and if you need any help, we’re always here to support you…   Appreciate you tuning in and I’ll catch you in the next episode.   RESOURCES: Grab our FREE Fat Loss Fix Guide: https://www.bslnutrition.com/fat-loss-fix-guide/ Connect with Ben: Join our Nutrition Community: https://www.smartnutritionmadesimple.com Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: www.SmartNutritionMadeSimpleTV.com Connect with us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bslnutrition As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. AND, if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat, just schedule your free nutrition strategy call over at https://www.bslnutrition.com/free-strategy-call/  

Yooooo! Welcome back to another episode of the Smart Nutrition Made Simple Show. In case you’re new to the show, I’m your host, Ben Brown, a nutrition & fitness expert, and owner of BSL Nutrition, an online coaching company whose mission is to help you change your belief system around what it means to be healthy…. And in this episode, I’m catching up with my friend David Lawrence. Owner of MECA - Michigan Elite Conditioning for Athletes and now co-owner of The Poliquin Group.   In this informal conversation, Dave and I chop it up around the nuances of running a business with a busy family life, how he built his business to what it is today, how he thinks about growth, change, and surrounding yourself with those that have complementary skills, as well as the profound influence that Charles Poliquin had on his life and career, not dissimilar to my own.   So without further ado, let’s jump into my conversation with Dave.   https://www.mecastrong.com/ https://www.poliquingroup.com/   RESOURCES: Grab our FREE Fat Loss Fix Guide: https://www.bslnutrition.com/fat-loss-fix-guide/ Connect with Ben: Join our Nutrition Community: https://www.smartnutritionmadesimple.com Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: www.SmartNutritionMadeSimpleTV.com Connect with us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bslnutrition As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating, and review and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. AND, if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat, just schedule your free nutrition strategy call over at https://www.bslnutrition.com/free-strategy-call/