Innate Wisdom Podcast

What It's About:

Join Loren Sofia, Functional Fertility Coach and owner of Innate Fertility, and Kitty Blomfield, co-founder of NuStrength, host of Weight Loss for Women and recovered chronic dieter, as they discuss sustainable weight loss and how to transition to a pro-metabolic diet the right way.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

-How the way you nourish influences the way you show up in the world
-Why we rationalize irrational behaviors, especially around diet & exercise
-What true sustainable weight loss really means
-How to know if you need to lose weight or gain weight
-The best type of exercise for weight loss
-The best type of diet for weight loss
-Why women gain weight when transitioning to more metabolically supportive foods
-How you can transition to a more “pro-metabolic diet” without gaining a ton of weight
-Other things you need for sustainable weight loss

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Loren: Welcome to the Innate Wisdom Podcast. I'm your host, Loren Sofia, Functional Fertility Coach and owner of Innate Fertility, and I'm honored to guide you through each episode where we'll cover not just fertility, but how to rediscover the innate wisdom of your body, restore your connection with your physiology, bioenergetics and metabolism, and get back in touch with Mother Nature and ancestral traditions.

[00:00:26] Loren: Welcome to another episode of the Innate Wisdom Podcast. On today's show, I'm excited to invite co founder of New Strength, host of the Weight Loss for Women podcast, and recovered chronic dieter Kitty Blomfield to chat all about sustainable weight loss and how to transition to a pro metabolic diet the right way.

[00:00:43] Loren: Kitty spent most of her adult life dieting and now helps free women from restrictive diets, help them restore their metabolism, balance their hormones, and build bodies that they love. I too, like Kitty, spent a lot of time jumping from diet to diet. From vegetarian, to vegan, to keto, to paleo, to low carb, you name it.

[00:01:01] Loren: And this led me down a path of restricting, binging, and then punishment. Does this sound familiar to you? And just FYI, if your diet is causing you to do this, please, you may be triggered by this, but you probably need to hear it. It's not working for you. And jumping to a new diet, even the pro metabolic diet, for example, isn't necessarily going to change anything unless you're changing yourself first.

[00:01:25] Loren: A lot of women find solace in pro metabolic because you get to, quote unquote, have juice and ice cream and bread, etc. But what if you allowed yourself to do that in the first place? To truly achieve sustainable weight loss, it involves healing your trauma. Changing your belief systems around yourself and about food itself.

[00:01:45] Loren: As pro metabolic the way I view nourishment is. This is why I don't consider myself to subscribe to any particular type of diet. I just allow myself to simply be. Continue listening to hear my conversation with Kitty, where we'll talk about breaking the cycle of unsustainable dieting and how to create a sustainable approach to living vibrantly.

[00:02:05] Loren: We'll also cover nutrition, exercise, and so much more. And just a heads up, Kitty might throw in an expletive or two. It's just her style. Fair warning in case you have any kiddos around. Now, enjoy the show. I'm so excited to welcome you back for another episode of the Knit Wisdom podcast. Today, I have Kitty, co founder of New Strength and Saturay.

[00:02:29] Loren: Welcome, Kitty. I'm super excited to talk to you today.

[00:02:32] Kitty B: Oh, I'm so excited to be here. I just love you and I love everything that you do. And I'm so grateful to have been asked to come on your podcast.

[00:02:40] Loren: Oh, ditto. I am a huge fan of yours as well, and it's just so fun to have you on today's show. I cannot wait for our conversation because I think we're going to have a lot of fun.

[00:02:53] Loren: For those that aren't familiar with you, would you mind sharing your story, your background, and how you got to where you are today and doing what you do today? 

[00:03:02] Kitty B: I, and I'm sure a lot of women can relate to this, but I was a serial dieter. You know, I started dieting at 17 and I tried every single diet under the sun, shake diets, fasting, I did isogenics for 12 months, low carb, keto, just super low calories, always trying to achieve this Specific number on the scale and I just always wanted to be thin and it was always at the expense of my health So, you know, I had painful and irregular periods.

[00:03:31] Kitty B: I didn't sleep through the night, you know, I had low energy My hair was falling out. I was constipated and I would get bloated no sex drive And I was just obsessed with food So I always felt like I was either restricting and dieting or I was binge eating and you know, there were even times when I would say no to go out to like events and things with my friends because I just couldn't eat the food or I was worried about falling off the wagon and binge eating.

[00:04:00] Kitty B: So it really did. And so I had a lot of body image issues too, I think, as well, and I used food as a way to control my emotions. So if I felt crap, I would just starve myself. And if I was skinny, then I was happy. And so I got married and, you know, oh, actually we were so party hard and I drank a lot of alcohol.

[00:04:23] Kitty B: So I was a loose cannon, but I also liked the drugs because they would suppress my appetite and I would eat less and then I would be thin. So, yeah. And so I got married and then ended up getting divorced and I was seeing this therapist and we would always talk about nutrition because I was always looking for the next diet, you know, the one that was going to be the one that I could stick to and that was sustainable.

[00:04:46] Kitty B: And she said to me, look, have you ever read about Emma Scarakis and Ray Peet? I don't know how we got onto it, but. You know, I was telling her about how I would eat heaps of green vegetables and she's like, Oh, you know, you probably shouldn't be eating so many green vegetables that they can, you know, suppress thyroid function.

[00:05:01] Kitty B: I was like, what do you mean? Aren't they just so healthy? Like everyone should eat green vegetables. So off I went and found Emma's website and I read this article defending carbohydrates and non complex carbs and sugar and I read it and I thought, Oh my goodness, this is me. Like, this is why my weight goes up and this is why I binge eat.

[00:05:19] Kitty B: I read all of her articles. I started reading Ray Peet's work and I emailed her and I said, I have to work with you. You know, this is my history of the dieting. I did fitness shows, you know, had all of these issues. And so I worked with her for 12 weeks. And at the same time, I met my partner, Craig. So she taught me about how to eat to support my metabolism, you know, pretty much tipped every nutrition belief I had.

[00:05:43] Kitty B: On its head really challenged me and then Craig taught me about strength training and tracking my food and energy balance and what they taught me transform my body and my health. So I started to eat more. I started sleeping through the night. My cycles became regular and pain free. I've started to build muscle.

[00:05:59] Kitty B: I got strong. I trained for performance instead of punishing myself. for all of the binge eating and I just fell in love with strength training. I got into power lifting and then at the time I was working in mining and I hated my job and this just changed my life so much. I said to Craig, you know, we have to do something together.

[00:06:18] Kitty B: So I left my job in mining. We opened a gym called new strength, nutrition and strength. We did that for three years and that's where we sort of developed our methodology. We worked with people in person and then we sort of got to the point where we had to decide, did we want to. Go online or open more gyms and so we decided to create a program specifically designed to help women like me who wanted to build a healthy body that was energized and strong and where they could eat real food and where they could look good and feel.

[00:06:47] Kitty B: Good. And something that was really sustainable. And so, yeah, we developed the Win at Life program. And then I emailed Emma one day saying I wanted to create skincare. And she said, do you want a business partner? And that's how Satre was born. So we created a range of, you know, metabolically supportive supplements that complemented our nutrition approach.

[00:07:06] Kitty B: So, you know, a lot of women are quite time poor or they don't like to eat liver, so they take the liver capsules. And then we created this skincare. So. Yeah, the We Don't Life program, we've been doing that for, it's been a while now, maybe five years, we built an app and you know, I've still to this day, even though I've been doing it for, feels like a long time, just so passionate about helping women break free from these diets and love their bodies again and eat real food and feel good and sleep well, because I believe that it's the foundation for everything in your life.

[00:07:37] Kitty B: And you know, so many women come in and, They improve their health, and they improve their body composition, and they start to eat real food again, and then they finally have the energy and capacity to, you know, like, maybe they'll chase their dreams, and there's something like a career change, or maybe they'll leave a toxic relationship, you know, like, most days, I mean, it's not, I'm not perfect, but, you know, most days I get up and I have energy and it's so amazing and I sit there and I, I was just saying to Loren, I drink my coffee with milk and collagen and maple syrup and I eat my delicious fruit and my toast with jam.

[00:08:16] Kitty B: You should be able to enjoy food and not hate your body and eat and not starve yourself and I just know how life changing it's been for me and that's why I think I just still love doing it. Today, even 8 years later. 

[00:08:29] Loren: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing that. I can totally relate to a lot of what you said, just having been through the hamster wheel of dieting and eating disorders myself.

[00:08:41] Loren: So definitely have felt the lows and also the highs. I think it really makes a difference. the way you treat yourself, which this is, you know, how you nourish yourself and how you exercise and take care of yourself really can impact the way you show up in the world. And other people notice it around you too.

[00:09:02] Loren: And it makes a huge difference. 

[00:09:05] Kitty B: Yeah, and you know, like even to this day, I still can't believe how much food I can actually eat and how little I have to train, you know what I mean, compared to what I was doing before. You know, I'd be flogging myself in the gym two hours a day, fasted, you know, I've trained three days a week now and you can train more if you want to, but more isn't always better and it still amazes me.

[00:09:29] Loren: It’s liberating, isn't it? 

[00:09:32] Kitty B: It's so good. I can't even describe it. You know, I think too, like you said, like it really affects how you show up in the world. And if you don't feel your cup up first, and if you don't allow yourself to heal and get your energy back, it's like you can't give to other people. I don't think, you know, like, and I'm sure I'm not, I don't have kids, but a lot of the women that I work with have kids and they feel everyone else's cup up before.

[00:09:57] Kitty B: Their own, and a lot of them say to me when they join the program, you know, I'm finally prioritizing myself and just doing these basic things. And I've got so much more energy and I'm a better mother and I'm a better partner and I'm better at work. It just makes me so happy when I hear that. 

[00:10:11] Loren: Yeah. People flourish when, you know, you give them honestly basic needs too.

[00:10:21] Kitty B: I just love food. 

[00:10:23] Loren: Oh, who does not? I mean, come on. But yeah, that's a huge part of it too. I feel like you should be able to enjoy what you're eating and it's part of life. We're created to enjoy that. So I love that. Thank you for sharing. And I also, I personally love your no BS approach to health and wellness and life in general.

[00:10:44] Loren: So, you know, just to kind of. Dig in a little deeper into this topic. I think a lot of women, myself included, in the past, we talk ourselves into layers of rationalizations that can keep us from making progress in reaching our goals, and I'm wondering if you can share. What ways that have worked for you, what ways that have worked for your clients that help you cut through the BS, or is it like a skill that you continuously have to hone in?

[00:11:17] Loren: Because sometimes women are doing these crazy things, you know, for example, you mentioned avoiding. socializing with friends because of the food, you know, you're not going to have access to your food. So you miss out on these like opportunities, but in the irrational mind, it makes perfect sense. Or like, you know, two hours of cardio and creating this insane schedule just so you can work out where everything else is so miserable or putting together this meal that is full of fake stuff, just so you can hit like a minimum.

[00:11:50] Loren: Or, you know, you don't go over your calories or macronutrient intake for the day. Like, stuff like that is just an example, but there's so many more. You know, how do you approach that? 

[00:12:00] Kitty B: Oh, look, like I feel, I'm just going to relate this back to a story, like a time in my life. So I feel like rock bottom for me was after I got divorced and I was working in my mining job.

[00:12:10] Kitty B: And it was a role that I'd never done before. So it was super challenging, quite stressful doing FIFO. So fly in, fly out seven days on seven days off seven nights, people in this role would typically be, you know, pit supervisors that had like five, 10, 15 years experience, but I was recruited into that role because they had these targets for this new mine where they wanted.

[00:12:30] Kitty B: Women and green people, like with no experience. And so I'd gotten divorced and I just didn't done the typical kid is like, don't deal with the emotions and the feelings and just, you know, go get a boob job. Cause I'm going to work on the outside. Cause that'll make me happy. Go and sleep with all these men and drink alcohol and take drugs.

[00:12:48] Kitty B: Cause try to validate yourself. And I was really not focused at, and I'd starved myself again. I lost heaps of weight and I was like, Oh, I'm so skinny. This is great. It's all working, you know, but I was miserable. I remember actually getting the boob job and like, A few days later, like it was so painful and I was sitting there thinking, I don't actually feel any happier.

[00:13:06] Kitty B: Like I don't have fake boobs anymore for people to see and I've got them taken out, but, you know, I really just needed to work on the inside, but I was really distracted at work and one of the step up supervisors complained about me to my boss saying that I was distracted and, you know, I was supposed to be leading her and, you know, which I was.

[00:13:22] Kitty B: And so he basically sat me down and he was this South African guy and I'm actually really super grateful to him now because it was sort of like what I needed to kick me in the ass to actually take some action. And he said, Kitty, you know. If basically if you don't get your shit together, I'm going to fire you.

[00:13:40] Kitty B: Like if it was anyone else, I'd be on a performance management plan by now, but I'm going to give you the opportunity to get it together. You've just got divorced. You don't have cancer. You're not bloody dying. You know, you're attractive young woman. You've got your whole life ahead of you. Stop wasting it by sleeping with these unsavory men and taking heaps of drugs and drinking alcohol.

[00:13:56] Kitty B: So went back to my room, sat on my little bed in my donger, cried and cried and cried and cried and then thought, you know what, I don't want to be this person anymore. Uh, I had probably. Bad relationship with my body and men. And so I've only had two relationships in my whole life, like my ex husband and Craig.

[00:14:14] Kitty B: And before that, I just slept with men. So what I did is I was like, all right, I'm going to buy every book I can on men and relationships because obviously I'm not good at this. And I keep attracting these. Um, and then I was like, well, you've got all these cycle issues and you're not very healthy and you're starving yourself.

[00:14:32] Kitty B: Obviously, what you're doing isn't working, you know, and I'm sick of feeling this way. And that's how I came across Emma. So I guess what I'm trying to say is I think you need to get help. That's what I think. Like, if it was me personally, what I've always done is. Find a good coach that has the results that you want and work with them because you need that guidance and support.

[00:14:53] Kitty B: So I worked with Emma. She really helped me change my mindset around my body and food. And then I was in a community of women that were experiencing or struggling with the same thing. One thing that I'm doing more recently is like a lot of emotional work. So. I've always been the sort of person who has taken action regardless of how I feel, but I never really dealt with the emotions or cleaned up the emotions or thought about, like, why am I actually reacting like this?

[00:15:19] Kitty B: So, the last 12 months, I've actually invested in a coach, Greta, I've talked about her in my podcast, and she said, look, even though. Things will happen to you and you'll feel a certain way. You still take action regardless, but it's not really in alignment. Like, you're not in alignment because there's this underlying things that have happened to you when you were younger that's making you react a certain way.

[00:15:39] Kitty B: So I guess what I'm trying to say is I think that if you've been dieting for years and years and years, you know, like, or someone who's. Who's probably listening to all this mainstream nutrition advice around, like, if you're trying to get pregnant. I really think find someone that has the results that you want, with aligns with the person that you want to become, and invest in some sort of coaching or a course and get support.

[00:16:01] Kitty B: Because it's really difficult, I think, to do it on your own. It's difficult to sift through all of the information because, like, you go on Google and someone's saying cut carbs, someone's saying cut sugar. You see all these fitness models training six days a week. So it's really difficult, I think, to decipher what is the right information, what's going to work for my body.

[00:16:22] Kitty B: And so I've just always believed in, you know, if I've gone, okay, This is where I want to be, you know, I wanted to fix my hormones. I wanted to have a healthy body. I didn't want to be obsessed with food anymore. I wanted to be strong. So I found people that could teach me what I wanted to know. I invested in coaching and then I became that person.

[00:16:42] Kitty B: I just think it's really difficult. I don't know if that really answers your question.

[00:16:46] Loren: No, I think it does. Yeah. I totally get what you're saying. I think you said a lot of really important things too. So, like, What can keep us on this hamster wheel too, and like, in this space of irrationalization and rationalizing really crazy things, is also partly just like consuming so much and not having any direction, like it keeps you in this hyper vigilant state, the state of like fight or flight, and like, you know, This constant hamster wheel, because you're like, Oh, I got to do this now.

[00:17:22] Loren: And this now, and this now, and take this supplement and this supplement. And before you know it, you have a pantry full of like, Supplements that you don't even know if they work and you're doing these crazy diets and fasting at the same time and then your workout routine is like mixed of all these things or like you can't stick to one thing because it's constantly changing depending on who you're listening to or see on social media that week and it's just like it keeps you in this fight or flight state where you're just constantly running on the hamster wheel and so I think what you're saying is important because You need to find that clear path and to quiet the noise and you can't really do that.

[00:18:04] Loren: If again, you're like absorbing everything. And so I think pausing to really put that work in to find that path, whether it is a course, or is, you know, coach to kind of clear the path for you. So, you know, what to focus on. And you can stop wasting your time. 

[00:18:25] Kitty B: I love that. I think you nailed it. Like I, and I find that with a lot of women who work with us is just simplifying for them saying, look, I just want you to focus on this and don't worry about anything else.

[00:18:37] Kitty B: And also reassuring them that they're on the right track because this takes time. You know, I think we want everything so quickly. And if you have been dieting for 10 years, you know, you don't have much muscle, you know, your body's depleted, you can't. Change that overnight, you know, like I always say to women in our program for you to get where you want To look physically and heal your body, give it 18 months.

[00:19:05] Kitty B: That seems like a long time, but let's just say you keep staying stuck on this hamster wheel of restrictive diet, you'll be stuck there for the next 10 years. Like, you are unravelling deep seated behaviours and stories about yourself. Like, I mean, some people come in and just change, but I think a lot of women that have had trauma, you know, and it's actually changing who you are at a deep fundamental level and that is hard and it takes time.

[00:19:34] Kitty B: But I think having someone there in your corner going, you're doing good, you know, like your body might not have changed this week, but like, look, you're sleeping through the night. You got your period last month and it was regular and pain free. You're feeling energized again because a healthy body, it's easier to build muscle and lose body fat when your body's healthy.

[00:19:53] Kitty B: You need to build that foundation first and do that along the way. Otherwise it won't be sustainable. And I think if you're listening to this and you can relate to my story, you're sick of feeling like crap and starving yourself all the time and having hormonal imbalances. So you have to invest that time and energy into building the foundation and just remind yourself, okay, like short term sacrifice, longer term gain, you know, you're not going to see those instant results.

[00:20:23] Kitty B: You're not going to see that instant gratification of like dropping a kilo on the scales, like with the old diets, but it doesn't work. Long term and doesn't feel good and I think maybe even as you get like I'm 43 in January is I just cannot imagine going back to like not sleeping through the night having low energy like that scares me and I think once you actually start to feel good and you get stronger and you start sleeping you've got energy again it's easier to Accept that the journey is going to be longer and enjoy it more rather than going, I hate how I look, I hate how I look, I just have to look different, you know, and it just makes it, I think, easier and you'll appreciate sleeping like eight hours a night and waking up and feeling good and feeling hungry in the morning and eating a delicious breakfast and going into the gym and training and having energy and, you know, each week progressing your weights and getting stronger.

[00:21:16] Kitty B: Like you actually start to enjoy the journey and not be so focused on. Yeah. I have to look a certain way because it's not like it stops, you know, like when you achieve your desired body composition, you don't just go, well, I'm just going to stop strength training now and I'm going to stop eating the food and whatever.

[00:21:31] Kitty B: You're going to do this for the rest of your life.

[00:21:34] Loren: Yeah. I think that's a really great perspective and you know, just to put it together to the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result. And so that's the hamster wheel and you have to do something different.

[00:21:49] Loren: Like actually different, not a different diet, but actually different to break the cycle and to achieve a different result. So I think what Kitty's saying is absolutely valid and a really important reminder and she's demonstrated it can be done. 

[00:22:09] Kitty B: Okay. I've done it, you know, and like I always say to women, I'm like, I'm just a bloody Bogan girl from the Gold Coast, and look what I've done.

[00:22:16] Kitty B: You know, you could totally do it too. You know, there's thousands of women that we've helped, you know, transform their bodies and health, and it's worth it. You know, yes, it might seem slow, but again, you have to, if ever I'm thinking, ah, this is taking too long, or like, this is annoying me, or I want to do it differently, I ask myself, like, okay, if I just keep chipping away like this, what result will I get in 12 months time?

[00:22:41] Kitty B: Will my future self thank me, versus if I go, I'm just going to jump back to doing keto, so I can drop some weight on the scales, what's going to happen in 12 months? And you've just got to, you know, I think it's normal to have those thoughts, because we're so conditioned to want quick. And, you know, we're so, I think.

[00:22:56] Kitty B: Focused on how we look. And I'm not saying you can't look better. You can, but if you really want to maintain a leaner body long term and be able to build the foundation. Like, there's no way around it. You have to build muscle. You have to restore your metabolism. You have to get everything running and functioning well.

[00:23:12] Kitty B: Otherwise, you're just constantly chasing your tail.

[00:23:16] Loren: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And it's really applicable also to fertility as well. I think we all. Want to know what the best supplement is for egg quality and the best supplement is for PMS and Just want to pop a pill and hope it goes away 

[00:23:31] Kitty B: Like sometimes women can't and I've been in the same boat like they're just taking a fuck ton of supplements I'm not saying supplements aren't beneficial But I feel like they're a waste unless you're doing the basic fundamental like lifestyle, you know cuz and nutrition changes because like if you're just so stressed all the time taking a Supplement isn't can do anything 

[00:23:52] Loren: I agree 100%.

[00:23:56] Kitty B: It's hard. It's really difficult. Like, I get it because even I just keep talking about this emotional work because I'm very diligent with the training. I eat a lot of food. I take all the fucking supplements. I get the sun. I do the steps. But for me, what disturbs my sleep is I We'll react to things that happen and then I'll get stressed about it and overthink it and try and think my way out of the emotion.

[00:24:18] Kitty B: So doing this emotional work has really helped me so much, you know, so I think it's more than just training and nutrition, you know, like, I mean, that's probably a topic for another time, but just if you've constantly going with emotional stress, that's no matter how well that you're eating, it's still going to affect you.

[00:24:39] Loren: Totally. It shows up unexpectedly. And yeah, yeah, I totally agree. I would love to talk more about your work specifically. I want to talk about weight loss because primarily this is your story. Also, this is my story and how I. Got stuck on the hamster wheel of dieting and eating disorders as well, just trying to also control how I physically felt as a manifestation of like really dysfunctional emotional coping.

[00:25:10] Loren: But, you know, the primary thing you help women is with weight loss, but sustainable weight loss. And I would love to Kind of dive in to see what makes your approach different from other weight loss coaches out there. And, you know, we kind of touched on it, but if you could expand a little bit more, that'd be great.

[00:25:30] Kitty B: Probably what we focus on is body recomposition versus weight loss and also improving your overall health. So, you know, like a lot of women, I think, yes, There are women that need to lose body fat, but I would say 99 percent of women are just under muscled and undernourished. So, you know, when a client, a woman comes to work with us, we don't just look at her weight.

[00:25:54] Kitty B: We look at her body composition. So we'll do an assessment. I'm just going to make some numbers up. So for example, you might come into the program and you know, you're 75 kilos, but you're 35 percent body fat. And you might have some cycle issues and sleep issues, you know, digestion isn't great. So we won't focus on weight loss, we'll actually focus on body recomposition, building muscle, you know, eating enough calories so that you can improve those health issues.

[00:26:19] Kitty B: Because I think If you're constantly dieting and you're stressed, your body will pull resources. Like if you're undernourished, it's going to, you know, pull calcium. You're not eating enough calcium from your teeth and bones. It depletes progesterone. Like, I mean, this is all the stuff that you talk about.

[00:26:37] Kitty B: And then, you know, downregulates your digestion. So you don't poo anymore because it's just basically your body's trying to survive. So, you know, in order for your body to, I guess, get restored back to healthy function, you need to give it adequate calories and adequate nutrients. So if you're constantly dieting, you're never going to fix your cycle issues, your perimenopausal issues, your digestive issues.

[00:26:58] Kitty B: So a lot of what we focus on is let's get you healthy first, and let's focus on building a solid foundation of muscle and body recomposition. So when we do that, when it gets time to Go to the diet, your body's much more resilient, it's healthy, you have more muscle, you're eating more food, so you can diet on higher calories, and then when you actually get to your ideal, you know, and I say body composition because I think, like, weight doesn't look at body composition, you know, like I, and I'm not saying all women are like this, like there's some women that come into our program that gain weight like me, and there's some women that lose weight because they've got a lot of body fat and not much muscle.

[00:27:36] Kitty B: But I actually gained weight. So my body composition, I've got way more muscle. I've actually got less body fat, but I'm heavier than I was. And then there's women that will come in at, you know, like 75, 80 kilos. Yes, they'll lose body weight, but they actually end up at a higher weight than what they ideally thought they wanted to be at because they have better body composition, have more muscle.

[00:27:56] Kitty B: So five kilos of muscle, five kilos of fat, they weigh the same, but five kilos of muscle takes up way less space. Five kilos of fat. And the great thing I think too, about having more muscle is you can eat more. Not a ton more like Craig was bloody telling me about some study about, you know, have, if you put in this many pounds of muscle, you only burn this much calories.

[00:28:15] Kitty B: But I think what's really energy intensive is the recovery process from training. So when you're actually lifting. Good form through the full range of movement. You really stimulating those target muscle tissues. You're lifting close to failure or to failure, and then you're giving your body adequate calories and you can recover that recovery process.

[00:28:35] Kitty B: The muscle building is quite energy intensive. So what I find with women, when they come into our program, their progress is slow, like recomposition. But they improve all their health markers. And when they get to their desired body composition, they're eating more food, they're sleeping through the night, they're not having to train six days a week.

[00:28:55] Kitty B: So they've built that really healthy foundation. So I think it's not just about weight loss. It's about improving their overall health first, and then getting them to their desired body composition. Because I think it's Like you can be healthy at a range of body fat. So, you know, for example, I'm probably sitting at like 19, 20 percent body fat.

[00:29:13] Kitty B: You know, there's women in our program that sit at 25 that have more muscle. And then, you know, you need to look at the range of body fat and then the health markers. So some women can sit at a lower level of body fat because they've got more muscle and they still have your regular and pain free cycles.

[00:29:28] Kitty B: Most of the time, like health is never going to be perfect. And I think it's about by trying to be perfect, but you know, I think it's just. focusing on the health markers first, focusing on muscle and then saying, all right, Where do I just want to sit? Like, aesthetically, and I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to change the way that you look, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't train.

[00:29:47] Kitty B: I mean, I train because I enjoy it and I love being strong, you know, there's also health benefits having more muscle, but I also like the way I look. I really like being muscular. I really like being strong. I like it makes me feel powerful. I like it. Putting on my jeans and feeling like I look good in my jeans.

[00:30:01] Kitty B: Not to say that I'm the ideal body shape because women look at me, go, Oh, you too muscly kitty. I would hate that. I think it's about finding your happy place and doing it in a way where you have good health and you look the way that you want to look. So I think that you can go to extremes either side and you and I've probably been at both.

[00:30:19] Kitty B: Ends, you know, I think sometimes the whole like healthy at any size, maybe a bit extreme. And then there's the fitness models who are like 15 percent body fat. That's probably extreme too. So, but you can have moderation, I think, and you can find a happy place somewhere in the middle. 

[00:30:34] Loren: I totally agree. And I think what I really appreciate, because this is also very similar to how I approach, you know, I primarily work on fertility, but I do get some women where maybe they're a hundred pounds overweight and their doctors told them that they need to lose weight in order to conceive or to be able to go through this fertility treatment successfully.

[00:30:58] Loren: And so. How can we get them to lose weight in a hormonally respective way that won't wreck their health further because weight loss itself is a catabolic process, and I love the concept of body recomp. Because that's just the best possible way to look at things. You know, I think we get fixated on a scale.

[00:31:23] Loren: For some reason, humans are really attached to numbers, like the weight that you weigh on the scale or like even infertility. So like pregnancy due dates, you know, we just, we hold on for dear life to like these idealistic numbers or dates. And it really diminishes. Our ability to make true progress or to see what's actually important.

[00:31:44] Loren: And, you know, you might be gaining weight, but also how do your genes fit? And also, like you said, how is your sleep? How is your cycle? How's your libido? Are you having more fun in the bedroom? Are you finding that you're more social and like people are noticing that you're glowing? Like these are all things that matter too.

[00:32:04] Loren: And so you could totally find a coach that will help you drop weight. Very fast, but it's going to come at a price and that price would be those health markers, but also a lot more, I think, in the long run. 

[00:32:21] Kitty B: Yeah, muscle like, like I think where women, so many women go wrong is that they just go to extremes.

[00:32:27] Kitty B: It's not healthy being at 45 percent body fat. It's not also healthy being at 12 percent body fat, you know, it's like, I think that's why it's really important to look at the individual because it's not one size fits all. I mean, it's all the same basic principles, and we get them to, you know, implement new behaviors and habits and all the same things.

[00:32:44] Kitty B: But, you know, if you're 100 kilos and 45 percent body fat, those women in our program, they lose body fat and their health markers improve, their cycles improve, but we just put them in a small calorie deficit. It's not eat 1200 bloody calories, and we get them to do some strength training and moving and you get them eating regularly.

[00:33:02] Kitty B: So they stop binge eating because you don't get to 100 kilos by eating 1200 calories. It's impossible. When women say that to me and then I push them more, they end up admitting they're binging. I said, I get it. You don't need to be ashamed. I used to do the same thing. I was just always better at restricting, you know, so I would have these epic binges, but then I would starve myself for days and days and days.

[00:33:20] Kitty B: Whereas these women just binge and binge and binge. You know, once we get them in the habit of eating more, like 1800, 2000 calories a day. walking, doing some strength training, eating regular meals, eating enough protein, slowly their weight drops off. We've had women in our program lose 30 kilos, but it takes time.

[00:33:37] Kitty B: And if the deficit's too extreme, you will just binge eat. And you know, it is quite stressful on your body. Whereas you can do it like you said, in a way where you can improve your health markers and lose body fat at the same time. And you can build muscle. So a lot of women that come to our program, they're new to lifting.

[00:33:54] Kitty B: So they can actually build muscle in a calorie deficit. As long as it's not a really super extreme calorie deficit. So I think again, it's, this is why I think a coach is really great because they can look at you as the individual, you know, someone who's 50 kilos and 18 percent body fat, you're going to have to go up in weight.

[00:34:12] Kitty B: There is nowhere for you to go but up. I've worked with women like that. They've really struggled mentally with gaining weight. And I get it because I was so fixated on the scale. I was like, have to be 60 kilos when I'm really thin and fit into my size six jeans. That's what makes me happy. But it's a different approach, I think, for different.

[00:34:31] Kitty B: Women, and I think, and maybe we'll probably touch on this, like, you know, sometimes I think in the pro metabolic community, like, this is where looking at the person individual is important, because if you're 100 kilos and 45 percent body fat, you don't need to gain any more body fat. That's not healthy for you.

[00:34:46] Kitty B: You need to lose body fat, but do it in a way that, like we talked about, that's hormonally respectful and that's going to support your metabolism. I think people just, like, we'll sometimes follow people on Instagram and go, Oh, it's like a blanket approach for everyone rather than looking at the individual and what they actually need.

[00:35:07] Loren: Hey, it's Loren. Are you interested in hormonally respectful weight loss or weight gain in ways that won't wreck your fertility? You can learn how to do this in my pregnancy prep e course, Conscious Conception, where I teach you how to shift your diet in a way that helps you achieve your goals sustainably.

[00:35:25] Loren: Learn how to use your temps and pulses, set up your macros. Set calorie goals and more, both tracking or intuitively in a way that supports your overall fertility. You'll also learn how to incorporate exercises into your routine with a three month training program by level that will prepare you to carry your baby in the womb and in your arms once they're here.

[00:35:45] Loren: Just visit inatefertility.org/get-pregnant to learn more. And if you're loving the show, don't forget to leave a review. Now back to the episode. Yeah. That also is true of fertility itself. Like there are women that have normal cycles and no problem conceiving at 18 percent body fat. And then I'll work with somebody that's really struggling at 25 percent body fat or 28 percent body fat.

[00:36:13] Loren: And, you know, there are a couple of pounds overweight, but it totally ranges. And then I'll have somebody lower body fat with. Different cycle issues, so it definitely plays a role and it's about finding you have to pay attention to your unique needs as well, which is where coaching or, you know, resources with that individuality in mind can really help.

[00:36:35] Loren: So, I really appreciate that. And you've mentioned strength training a couple of times now, and I know my answer, but are there any particular types of exercise? That you think are the best for body recomposition. 

[00:36:51] Kitty B: Well, I think, you know, body recomposition means changing your body comp. So let's just, I'm just going to make some notes here.

[00:36:58] Kitty B: Let's say you're 70 kilos and you're 30 percent body fat. So you've got. We don't always have 70 percent muscle. There's other like your bones and organs and things, but this is just what we measure. So it's actually changing that body composition to more muscle and less body fat. So in order to build muscle, you need to strength train.

[00:37:18] Kitty B: It's the only way that you can build muscle. You know, you need to live progressively heavier weights. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't do cardio at all. I mean, I used to. Go to extremes. And I think it's the extremes that's not great for you. So I used to just run and run and run. I used to do like an hour of super intense cardio, whereas now, and I did a great podcast actually with my friend Libby, if you listen to our podcast, we're not life where she digs a bit into more like, what are the beneficial types of cardio?

[00:37:45] Kitty B: And you know, it's dose dependent too. So again, like we talk about, don't go to these extremes, find somewhere in the middle. So. You know, I strength train three days a week and you can train more if you want, but I think it's about doing what you can commit to and what you can recover from. And then I like to walk and stay active and get out and get sun.

[00:38:02] Kitty B: And then, you know, sometimes I'll do probably once a week, a zone two recovery session, because I just enjoy it and it can help you with recovery. But in order to build muscle, you need to lift weights and get stronger. And I think I never realized. How capable I was. And I know you've competed in powerlifting or CrossFit or powerlifting?

[00:38:22] Loren: I haven't competed, but I used to coach CrossFit and I did enjoy powerlifting quite a bit and Olympic weightlifting too. 

[00:38:30] Kitty B: Olympic weightlifting, that's it. Yeah. So I think, you know, like women. Measure the wrong thing. And there's more to it than this. But, you know, in my mind, when I first met Craig, we were talking about, he's like, well, what do you want to look like?

[00:38:42] Kitty B: And he would show me some pictures of women. And, you know, he's like, they're actually really strong kitty. Like that chick can squat 120 kilos. So he's like, if you're looking at two women and they're both 70 kilos, let's say their skill level is the same. One can deadlift 80 kilos for 10 reps. The other one can deadlift 120.

[00:38:58] Kitty B: He's like, who do you think is going to have more muscle? I was like, oh, the one that can lift more weight, obviously. So he's like, exactly. So in order for you to look like you want to look and have more muscle, you need to get to this, these lifts or this deadlift. And it's actually one of the. Things that we do with our clients.

[00:39:14] Kitty B: So when they come into our program, we do the body competition assessment, we do the health assessment, and then we set the goals. So, for example, I want to have fix my shit periods, get my sleep on track, you know, whatever for the health stuff. Then I'm currently at 70 kilos, at 30% body fat. I wanna look like this.

[00:39:30] Kitty B: So that's. 68 kilos at 25 percent body fat. So the coaches will say, okay, so in order for you to achieve that body composition, you actually need to train on three kilos of muscle and only diet off a kilo of fat. So it's not so much about the dieting. It's about the strength training. Then after two weeks of doing their program, they can look at their numbers and say, all right, currently your deadlift is here.

[00:39:53] Kitty B: Making numbers up again, 50 kilos to 10 reps, you need to get it to a hundred kilos to 10 reps. I'm like, shit, wow. You know, but it gives you some tangible numbers to work towards. And then it's so amazing. Like you watch them get stronger and you look at their photos. You're like, I can actually see their body composition changing.

[00:40:13] Kitty B: You know, their weights not changing that much. But they're building muscle and losing body fat. I mean, if you're like 90 kilos, your weight is going to come down because if you're an 80 kilo female, 25 percent body fat, you would be the most jacked female in the world. And it's just not going to happen unless you take steroids.

[00:40:27] Kitty B: But I think, you know, that women and like, until they really learn how to strength train. I think you underestimate yourself as well. You know, like I never thought that I would be as capable as I am. When I first met Craig, I remember I could barely squat 60 kilos with shit form. But once I actually learned how to execute the movements well and I got good at it, because lifting is a skill, then I was like, wow, over time, one year, two years, it was amazing how much progress I made over time and how strong I got.

[00:40:56] Kitty B: And then my body looked. Like it looked different. I looked more toned. I looked stronger, you know, I was way more capable. So I think it's, you know, shifting your focus from flogging the fuck out of yourself with classes and here again, I'm not saying don't do any cardio, but. Making sure you're training and you're measuring your progress and you're actually getting stronger and over time you're getting better at the skill and you're adding more weight to the bar.

[00:41:21] Kitty B: And then you can throw some cardio in on top of that and it's dose dependent. Again, don't overdo it because in order to build muscle you need to lift the weights but then you need time to recover. You know, and you've only got so much energy to recover. And I think we all want to do more and more and more, but I think, you know, sometimes it's not about doing more.

[00:41:41] Kitty B: Are you looking at the things that matter? Are you actually getting stronger? It's not about doing more heaps, more sets and more volume. I mean, there is a certain amount of volume you need to do like a man of work, but often I think women look at the wrong thing. Like they'll come into our program.

[00:41:56] Kitty B: They're like, Oh, I'm training five days a week, kitty. And, you know, I'm not getting anywhere. I'm like, where are your numbers? I often ask them about the deadlift. They're like, Oh, I can only deadlift 50 kilos to 10 reps. And I'm like, well, I'm not saying you need to be like me, but I'm like 20 kilos less than you and I can deadlift 120, whatever.

[00:42:12] Kitty B: So they're like, Oh, I see. It's not so much about doing more. I actually need to get stronger. When that clicked for me, and then I went into that gym and I focused on really getting good at the skill and then every week, and you're not always going to add weight to the bar every week or like progress every week, that's normal, but over, you know, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months.

[00:42:34] Kitty B: Am I adding weight to the bar? Am I actually getting stronger? And if you are, your body will change. It will change. It has to. And obviously if you eat, you know, you do all the right things with recovery and nutrition. But, you know, if you want to look toned, if you look up the definition of tone in the dictionary, it's just having well defined muscles.

[00:42:52] Kitty B: So you have to get stronger and then lose the body fat over the top to show them off. Basically, and the thing about the more muscle you have, you can sit at a higher body fat and look leaner. Like that's what happens, which is really cool. Like people will say to me, Oh, you look so lean. And I'm like, well, actually not that lean, but I'm not super lean.

[00:43:10] Kitty B: It's just that I have a lot more muscle than you. Yeah. 

[00:43:13] Loren: I love strength training so much. I think it's so important for women, especially in general, not just to recomp their bodies. 

[00:43:23] Kitty B: You know, just in a way, but just like capable. Lots of women are probably like, Oh, I went out shopping and I could carry all these bags.

[00:43:31] Kitty B: Or I noticed I could bend down to pick up my kid and it was effortless. Like just feel strong and capable is so empowering. And I think. And you'll agree with this. Like when you go into the gym and you pick up a way that you couldn't once pick up, like it is the most empowering, like when you hit a PB, you're like, fuck yes.

[00:43:49] Kitty B: And I feel like it really transfers over to other areas of your life because lifting takes time. You can't cheat it. You can't make it quicker. You have to show up every session. You have to put the work in and it takes. a long time. So if you can do that and then apply those principles to other areas of your life, it teaches you grit, teaches you resilience, teaches you to play the long game.

[00:44:10] Kitty B: And I always feel good after I train, you know, it's just honestly, like I've never met a woman who said, Oh kitty, I got strong and I hated it. Yeah, it's 

[00:44:21] Loren: so good for mental health. It's so good for bone health, especially. It's great for hormone health. If you're doing it correctly and not taking it to another extreme, anything can be taken to an extreme, but I find strength training to be especially supportive of hormone health and muscles metabolically active.

[00:44:41] Kitty B: I watched my grandma. She had two knee replacements. She died of cancer and she was not very mobile. When she was older and that is like a lot of women come to me and have looked at my mother and my grandparents and I don't want to be 80 and not able to live a full life and I still want to be strength training.

[00:45:01] Kitty B: So, I think a lot of women do it initially because they want to look better. Like, that's just what it is, you know, but then they come in and they doing like, wow, I feel stronger. I feel better. I think it's improving my sleep. There's so many other benefits. And if you start, you need to start now, don't leave it.

[00:45:14] Kitty B: And, you know, just consistent, imperfect action. You know, I think a lot of women get stuck because they're like, Oh, well, what if I can only train two days a week, half an hour? I'm like, fine. Just start, just do that. And then, you know, maybe in that season of life, it'll change and you can do more, but I think it's just about starting and doing something and showing up and being there, you know, instead of the all or nothing mindset, be the all or something.

[00:45:38] Kitty B: Because if you just start honestly, and you'll just build on that and get into better habits and you watch, like you'll do more and you'll get slowly stronger and it'll become a new habit. It's just, I think you've got to start and not try and be perfect. 

[00:45:51] Loren: Yeah, I think that's really important because I feel like we can get in our own way.

[00:45:54] Loren: Sometimes it comes from this hamster wheel kind of people that are used to extreme dieting and on this hamster wheel are pretty much all or nothing people. So I get that, like, but just giving yourself permission to be. Perfect. And not have it completely a hundred percent dialed in is really liberating.

[00:46:19] Loren: You could still make progress. And like Kitty said earlier, it doesn't have to be the only thing that you do. If you do love other things, like I feel like if you do like strength training, but you also love yoga, you can do both and see progress. Of course. 

[00:46:34] Kitty B: Of course, it's just like I said, women, it's the extremes.

[00:46:36] Kitty B: Like these women come in like, I want to fucking run a marathon and also improve my body constitution. Like, well, yes, you can still benefit from strength training, of course, but just remember what you're trying to achieve. What's your main goal? But again, it gets not about doing the extremes. It's about finding a balanced place in the middle, about doing some strength training.

[00:46:55] Kitty B: And then if you like, enjoy going for a run, go for a run. Just don't run for 50 kilometers and not eat. You know, yeah, 

[00:47:02] Loren: yeah, exactly. So I also want to talk about diet and, you know, we kind of alluded to this a little earlier, but I would love to understand what you think women should be eating too, especially if they're trying to achieve a recomp body.

[00:47:21] Kitty B: So I think what you eat is important, and then how much you eat is important. So, tracking your food is super important, because if you've got a specific goal, you need to eat a specific amount of protein, carbs and fat, and then there's the micronutrients in food. So, I think sometimes when people come into the.

[00:47:38] Kitty B: Pre metabolic world, they just eat all this amazing, delicious, nutrient dense food that's so tasty, but then they don't track any of their food. So they're probably overeating fat, under eating protein, over consuming calories, and they gain all of this weight. So I think the tracking is super important. I always try and describe our nutrition approach as it's...

[00:47:56] Kitty B: Nutrient dense, easy to digest foods, most of the time, because it's not about being perfect and I think that's another trap people can fall into and be like, Oh, I want to eat perfectly and never eat polyunsaturated fats and, you know, you stress yourself out more by trying to avoid it. All of these foods.

[00:48:13] Kitty B: When I think again, it's like to me, you know, it's like the 80, 20 rule, you know, I had this lady on a call and she's like, I'm so stressed out because, you know, I'm trying to avoid pufas and I want to go out with my boyfriend, new boyfriend once a week. I'm like, don't worry about it. Just, you know, you're eating all this great home cooked food the rest of the time.

[00:48:31] Kitty B: One meal out with some pufas. It's not great. Isn't going to kill you. The stress is probably killing you. So I remember when I started working with Emma, my business partner, who's a nutritionist based in Melbourne, like re educating me on the foods, you know, you can eat carbs, you can eat fruit, sugar isn't the devil.

[00:48:48] Kitty B: You know, a lot of the foods that we recommend to eat most of the time, again, it's most of the time, it's just like my grandparents used to eat. So, you know, I remember going to my grandmother's house and she would actually squeeze oranges for breakfast. Douce and make us juice, we'd have eggs cooked in butter.

[00:49:05] Kitty B: She'd make homemade bread, you know? She cook a lot of like whole meats, like roast chickens with lots of like roast root vegetables, she'd actually make her own cakes. She'd make ice cream. She'd make custard. You know, I never remember. I'm not ever eating a ton of green vegetables or a heap like she might have a sprinkling of nuts on something, but I wasn't eating nuts by the handful.

[00:49:28] Kitty B: I don't remember like having green vegetables at every meal. So it's really easy to digest nutrient dense food. We get so sucked into the fitness industry like women just want to be thin, I think, and it's sort of in the 90s, you know, when the whole Kate Moss. Yeah, remember what she said, nothing tastes better than skinny feels.

[00:49:47] Kitty B: Like, that fucked up a lot of women I reckon. I used to say that to myself when I was dining. I'd be like, nothing tastes better than skinny feels and look at myself being all skinny. You know, so we tried to fill up on salads and green vegetables that are really a lot of volume, but not that many nutrients and hard to digest and not much energy.

[00:50:05] Kitty B: We try and encourage our clients to, you know, we get them to track their food, ensure they're getting enough protein, carbs, and fat specific to their goal, but then eat foods that, one, they enjoy, that are easy to digest, that contain the nutrients that their body needs most of the time. And then, you know, I'm like, look, if you want to go and eat a bloody Mars bar or whatever, you know, like you want to have this delicious biscuit or something, just fit it in your money macros and then eat great food for the rest of the day, depending on how you digest it.

[00:50:33] Kitty B: So, you know, some of the foods that we recommend and that you recommend are the same. So you like, you know, instead of taking multivitamin, eat liver and oysters. You know, liver is one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet. It's like 100 grams of liver has a week's worth of vitamin A, the usable form of vitamin A, copper and.

[00:50:50] Kitty B: All of these other incredible, you know, B vitamins, other nutrients, you know, oysters are high in trace minerals, so zinc, selenium, and copper, and they're in the right amounts that complement each other, you know, that are bioavailable, that your body can digest, you know, fruits and juices, you know, potassium, magnesium, vitamin C, good quality dairy, calcium, you know, bioavailable animal proteins that are easy to digest.

[00:51:13] Kitty B: You're going to get your fat soluble vitamins, you know, try and prioritize saturated fats rather than Hydrogenated vegetable oils like canola oil. So I think when I learned about all of this from Emeril, I was like, wow, this actually is just like my grandparents used to eat, you know, a lot of whole sort of whole foods, not a lot of preservatives and additives.

[00:51:32] Kitty B: Like I said, do this most of the time. Like I still, you know, I don't know. There's like this. delicious chocolate brownie at the shops that I really like, but just, you know, it's got fucking shit in it. But I don't eat it all the time. You know, but if I really feel like it, I'll just go and have a bit. It's not gonna kill ya.

[00:51:46] Kitty B: But a lot of women are just so confused, they think, oh, look, I would never drink juice. Like, I drink so much orange juice now. I'm not saying you have to drink orange juice. Like, eat fruit, you know, have some oranges, drink some juice if you like it. But I was always so worried about the sugar. Oh my god, sugar.

[00:52:01] Kitty B: You can't eat sugar, but sugar is just energy. You know, obviously you don't want to go and eat 10 cups of white sugar as only carbohydrates because it's just energy void of nutrients, but you definitely shouldn't cut out fruit from your diet and root vegetables and good quality dairy because you're getting this great energy source packed with all of these nutrients and it's delicious.

[00:52:23] Kitty B: You know, like how good is potatoes with butter and salt? How good is just, I love, every time I drink freshly squeezed orange juice, I'm like, I say to Craig, I'm like, Oh my God, I just love this juice. It's so delicious versus chugging back a fucking green smoothie. Don't tell me that that shit tastes good.

[00:52:36] Kitty B: I like eating high end spools of raw almonds and raw green vegetables. You know, I'm like, chia seeds. I'm like, it doesn't taste good. You know, I think we're so conditioned to all these, like, eat the superfoods, the spinach. Again, it's not that spinach. I'm not saying that it's bad, but like, you know, we've talked about this on a podcast, like, maybe cook it a bit and serve it with some saturated fat.

[00:53:00] Kitty B: So it's easier for your body to digest and then absorb the nutrients instead of pounding cups and cups of. Green spinach, because you think that it's good for you. 

[00:53:10] Loren: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And that's funny. You said that kind of reminds you of how your grandparents used to eat. And I think growing up, the only salads I had, this was a salad.

[00:53:23] Loren: This was actually how my grandparents defined a salad and that was sliced tomato and avocado and maybe some cucumber on the side from their garden. Almost like a palate cleanser. 

[00:53:38] Kitty B: That's so true. Like, and we say that to clients. So it's not, don't eat the salad, but have it as a side dish. You know, it shouldn't be the main part of your meal because it's just got no energy, no carbohydrates.

[00:53:49] Kitty B: Yeah, and I think we just, like you say, we're just trying to, the skinny bitch diet where you just eat salads and chicken because we're trying to starve ourself and fill up on green vegetables so we don't feel so bloody hungry all the time.

[00:53:59] Loren: Totally, yeah. And it's always like a control issue. Like, those of us that have gone through all the dieting and like, the eating disorders.

[00:54:08] Loren: It's always like, again, the irrational rationalization, like this food is bad. This food is good. And it's like, we have to have that in our mind to be able to function. So we put all these rules around foods where. Actually, the foods that are the most nutrient dense, you've probably marked as bad on your list, but also that Mars bar that you marked as bad.

[00:54:37] Loren: You can actually have that. And, you know, I feel like we have to get rid of the idea that certain foods are good or bad necessarily. And I'm not talking about like. There's this whole other saga happening in society here in the United States, where it's like in the kids schools and school lunches. I'm not talking about that.

[00:54:57] Loren: You know, this is not a social commentary, but I think the more freedom you can give yourself to have that juice, you're allowed to enjoy it. Give yourself permission to, it's not going to make you fatter for enjoying it. I feel like we have this fear. If we enjoy something, it's bad for us too. You know, I do think also, like you said, you know, when people start switching to more nutrient dense foods, but without thinking about their macronutrients or how they're transitioning, you know, they go from zero to a hundred, they can gain weight so uncontrollably.

[00:55:32] Loren: And I think it's important to, if that's a concern for you, sometimes I feel like to break free of the diet. Mindset that might have to happen, but you know, if you do want to do it with mindfulness in a different way, but still in a way that.

[00:55:52] Loren: It's important to pay attention to macronutrients and also like how much you're eating because they are more nutrient dense and I think that's where that's where a lot of people switching to a pro metabolic diet go wrong. 

[00:56:06] Kitty B: I think they just go like eating the full fat dairy. Yeah, it's really calorie dense, you know, so if you were actually literally eating 1600 calories and you go to consuming 2500 3000 calories, you're going to gain weight.

[00:56:20] Kitty B: Like you're going to gain all this body fat. And I think too, like some people do need to gain body fat, but it's like the really, really lean women, but whatever body fat you gain, if you gain 10, 20 kilos, you're going to have to lose that. And that shit is hard. Like dieting, even when done in a respectful way, that's a healthy way.

[00:56:40] Kitty B: It's still shit. I hate dieting. I hated tracking. When I first met Emma, I was so anti tracking because when I tracked in the past. My food, it was always about starvation and cutting out carbs and trying to eat 1200 calories. So I had to really shift my mindset and go, this isn't about starving myself.

[00:56:57] Kitty B: This is about optimizing my body. This is about understanding how I can actually eat more and train and improve my sleep. And we never starve our clients. We're not putting them on 1200 calories. So when you actually eat enough. to improve your body composition and improve your health markers and sleep.

[00:57:17] Kitty B: You're not going to be so starving all of the time, but you do have to be diligent. You do have to track and you have to think, well, I have this goal in place. You might be eating in a small calorie deficit. So like, you know, it's not again, like we said that a Mars bar is bad. But it may not be the best choice at this point in time because like it's going to be like, I don't know how many calories in the fucking Mars bar, but maybe it's like 600 calories.

[00:57:39] Kitty B: And it takes up so much of your carb content and your fat content, whereas you could eat a yummy bowl of sweetened Greek yogurt with honey and fruit. And then you could have something else. It's just going to keep you fuller for longer and more satiated, give you more nutrients. So again, I think it's, there's times when you might need to.

[00:57:57] Kitty B: Make a decision around a certain food, and it's not good or bad, it just might be more suited to your specific goals in time. Because if you are eating in a deficit, there's probably times when you're gonna be hungry. And there's strategies that we give our clients who are like, look, try not to drink your calories because it's not gonna fill you up.

[00:58:13] Kitty B: So for example, when I've ever dieted. Now, if I want to lose some body fat, I'll eat oranges instead of drinking orange juice. I'm still getting the nutrients, but it's just filling me up more. You know, I drink less milk and I eat more yogurt and cheese because it's just more filling. You know, more potatoes versus rice.

[00:58:29] Kitty B: That just fills me up more, you know, eating whole meats, eggs. These are things that are nutrient dense. And they're more filling and they're still delicious. So you're getting that sweet, yummy ripe fruit. Every night I still have my bowl of ice cream. So I just love ice cream. You know, it doesn't fill me up that much, but it's that one thing that I just love.

[00:58:45] Kitty B: You know, you've got to keep some things in your diet that you enjoy. So I think it's, you know, just being strategic with your food choices, given the goal that you have at the time. And now that I've actually, I'm eating adequate carbs and calories and I'm drinking juice and eating delicious fruit and sweetened yogurt and ice cream.

[00:59:03] Kitty B: I actually don't crave shit chocolate. I don't actually really crave much at all now because I'm actually giving my body what it needs and I occasionally will eat that food but then my digestion doesn't feel great. So I just do it occasionally because I really enjoy the food I eat and it digests well and I sleep well and I have great energy and I think you start to value those things and you just again like I'm saying I'm not saying you should never eat the chocolate bar or you should never You need a donut or whatever you want to eat, but I think you just find when you're actually fueling your body adequately, eating the sugar and the carbs and these nutrients, you just crave less.

[00:59:38] Kitty B: I think like less crap food. I totally agree. 

[00:59:43] Loren: Oh yeah. And I find that also with my clients, especially my pregnant clients. So you hear about these crazy pregnancy cravings and like, you're going to be eating pickles and ice cream and, you know, sending your husband out to get you, um, McDonald's in the middle of the night because you have to have it literally so many of my clients have zero cravings this pregnancy.

[01:00:08] Loren: I've had zero cravings and I attribute it to the nutrient density of the pregnancy prep diet and the diet during pregnancy that me and my. Clients are eating and you know, when your body is satiated and you know, it feels like it has enough of these things. It's not going to be waving a red flag. Get me more of this.

[01:00:32] Loren: I think it's totally applicable in so many different ways. I mean, I think you're right. Well, we've talked about exercise. We've talked about diet. Are there any other key components of body recomposition outside of these two things that you see get missed a lot? And I know you kind of alluded to it in the beginning, but I'd love to hear from you if you have anything off the top of your head.

[01:00:56] Kitty B: Craig and I were chatting about this last night. And I think a lot of the work that our coaches do with our clients is this emotional mindset work, because I think. You can do all of the right things with your training and nutrition, but if you're not addressing the emotions or the stress, it really makes it, I mean, you can still make progress, but it makes it a lot harder.

[01:01:20] Kitty B: And I only can speak from my own experience in the last 12 months is doing this work with this. Friend and coach Greta, I could do all the right things, even with, you know, like, and I've shared with you our whole TTC journey, like, the more stressed I got about it, even though I was eating all of the food, you know, I was, pulled my training back, walking, everything on paper looked perfect, but I was so emotionally stressed about it that I was waking up like six times a night, you know, so I think Whether or not, you know, like you say again, like, if you work with the coach in our program, a lot of our coaches have been through the same thing that our clients have been through.

[01:01:55] Kitty B: So they've got a lot of experience and they help them. I think, obviously, we train nutrition, but that emotional and mindset stuff too. I think that's just so important because I think your emotions, like, for me. I get a lot in my head and so an emotion will come up and I'll try to out think it and then that will build on it and I'll start to like feel sick in my stomach and I'll start to worry and then I won't be able to sleep and a lot of the work that I've been doing with Greta is, you know, just feeling the emotion tapping on it and that actually really helps.

[01:02:27] Kitty B: Yeah. Yeah. Works and knowing that, you know, whatever's happening right now, even if it feels like it's bad, or not, how you want it to be happening. It's happening as it should be. Like just little things like that. And I think when you're going on this journey of improving your health and your body, you know, a lot of women are so focused on how they look and they hate how they look and how they feel.

[01:02:49] Kitty B: And I think if you can tap into that and know that you are exactly where you need to be. Like feel those emotions and like a lot of what I used to as I would just be and I mean, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Like I said, I've taught myself to take action regardless of how I was feeling, but it would just bring up all of these negative emotions that affect my sleep.

[01:03:11] Kitty B: And, you know, I couldn't let things go. And now I just feel a lot more relaxed and happy and more in alignment. And I think you'll see better progress. And you know, like a good example of this is a client, you know, she was having a really stressful time at work and she couldn't make a decision about her work.

[01:03:26] Kitty B: And she was waking up at 2am every morning. Eating all the food, doing all the right things, as soon as she quit her job and made that decision that she was moving on, slept through the night. Like, it's just incredible how your emotions can affect your physical body. And actually, there's this book that I read recently by Dan Markham, you know, the Cowsey Grass blog guy?

[01:03:46] Kitty B: Yeah. Yeah. And it's about how your emotions affect your metabolism. And it's so interesting and it's so aligned with the work that I'm doing with Greta. So I'm going to get him on the podcast to talk about it. But I feel like this is. Why a lot of women don't maybe make quicker progress and you probably experience it with your clients.

[01:04:05] Kitty B: It's just so stressed, but they're just like, I can't control this. I just can speak from my experience. I can't control it. It's Groundhog Day every month. Like I'm doing everything. Why isn't it working? You know, which just stresses cause it's. Your body, it doesn't know that you're not running away from a bear, you know, like you're still releasing all that adrenaline, cortisol, you're having that stress response, but it's a response to something emotionally that's going on.

[01:04:31] Kitty B: Yeah. I don't know. Like I've done a few podcasts on it and it's really been life changing for me. I feel like I've addressed some really deep issues. Not that again, that's it affected me from doing what I've wanted to do, but it's just, I feel so much better. I feel more relaxed. I feel in alignment again.

[01:04:48] Kitty B: I don't know if that makes sense.

[01:04:50] Loren: Totally, it does. And I think what's really important about what you're saying is like, it applies to so many different situations to not just for body recomposition, but just like being able to enjoy life and whether you're on a body recomposition journey or on a fertility journey, like the emotional aspect is something you really can't deny.

[01:05:15] Loren: And even if you're just, as you mentioned, like trying to improve your metabolism with no desire to recomp your body, the emotional side plays a role too. So, you know, it's something that. We have to address and I feel like so many women are just hyper focused on nutrition and supplements when it comes to fertility, but I really work hard to try and expand their frame of thought because it is so much more than that.

[01:05:39] Loren: And it just goes to show to for body recomposition and just like anything else in life. It's a lot more than that. And it's really something that you have to contend with as much as it might be easier to put aside, but it's really important. 

[01:05:56] Kitty B: You know, I think to a lot of women, like I see in our program who work with will self sabotage.

[01:06:02] Kitty B: So it's like, there's a reason that that's happening. It's some programming or something that's happened to you when you're a child. And you know, like even through doing my own work, it's hard. It is really hard. Like you have to dig deep and there's times I've done sessions with Greta and just cried and cried and cried.

[01:06:19] Kitty B: But if you can do it and have these breakthroughs. Like anything, it becomes easier. You're training the muscle, right? Like, I think you just have to want to do it. You have to want to do it. Cause I think even like your fertility journey, changing your body composition, working on your emotions, whatever you want to bloody call it.

[01:06:37] Kitty B: Like it's all work and it takes time and persistence, but I don't know. Like I always think to myself, I don't like pain. I want to wake up and I do, I'm mostly happy. You know, I'm naturally positive person, but I think to myself, I don't enjoy feeling like this. So I think you just have to ask yourself, do you want to go through your whole life, 10, 20 years time and look back and think, Oh, I wish I'd just done that.

[01:07:02] Kitty B: I wish I'd just chipped away. I wish I'd just put the work in because even though it's hard, I think it's worth it. Yeah, 

[01:07:10] Loren: I agree. I couldn't have said it better. Well, Katie, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed this conversation. I know our audience has too. Fittingly, one of my last questions for you is, you know, this podcast is called the Innate Wisdom Podcast.

[01:07:26] Loren: You've shared a lot of wisdom so far, but is there anything that the audience can start doing today? It can be very small that will help them unlock the innate wisdom of their bodies.

[01:07:38] Kitty B: There's no such thing as perfect. Stop trying to be perfect. Stop waiting for the time to be perfect to take action. You know, stop being so hard on yourself.

[01:07:48] Kitty B: I think, give yourself some grace. And just show up every day and take imperfect action. And just try to be a little bit better every day. Because I think so many of us get stuck in this, I've got to be perfect, I've got to do it perfectly. You know, it's so funny, like, you hear about these people that try and try and try for a baby and then they're like, Oh fuck it, we're not going to try anymore.

[01:08:07] Kitty B: And then they just all of a sudden they fall pregnant. It's that sort of thing. It's just like letting go a bit and just stop being so hard on yourself. I mean, it's easy advice to give, isn't it? But easier said than done.

[01:08:21] Loren: Yeah. But I think it's really important because the more you can start to do that, I feel like the more weight comes off your shoulders.

[01:08:30] Loren: And the more breakthroughs you have, and the more progress you start to see, because you're no longer holding yourself to this unrealistic standard, and that can create more stress and more mental spirals that just drive you further and further down, you can actually start to come up and see the light, if that makes any sense, where it doesn't have to be this way.

[01:08:53] Loren: So I totally get what you're saying. And I really love that. So thank 

[01:08:56] Kitty B: you for that. And maybe can I just mention before we go, we talked about that as a gift to listeners that we're going to give you our seven day, eat more, train less, get results challenge for free. So there'll be a discount code in the show notes with the link.

[01:09:12] Kitty B: So, you know, that's. Just basically all of the foundational concepts to get you started to, you know, building this healthier, stronger, energized body. So you can look good and feel good and eat real bloody food. Yeah. 

[01:09:26] Loren: Thank you so much for that gift. That's really, really generous of you. So go take advantage of that.

[01:09:32] Loren: And how can people find you if they want to learn more?

[01:09:35] Kitty B: So if you go to our website, www. newstrength, N U S T R E N G T H. com. au, that's got links to our podcast, to Instagram, YouTube channel, Saturay as well. 

[01:09:48] Loren: Perfect. Well, thank you so much, Kitty. I really appreciate your time and for sharing all of your wisdom and it's been a blast chatting with you.

[01:09:58] Kitty B: Thanks for having me on.

[01:10:02] Loren: Thank you so much for listening to the innate wisdom podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review and share the podcast with someone who you think might benefit. If you're new here, we can't recommend enough that you take advantage of my free resources like the Get Pregnant Yesterday Checklist, Psycholiteracy Guide, Prenatal Primer, and Sperm Booster Manual.

[01:10:21] Loren: And if you're trying to conceive now or in the near future, I invite you to join my Pregnancy Prep eCourse, Conscious Inception. Make sure to follow me on Instagram too. at innate underscore fertility and consider joining my newsletter to receive exclusive content related to fertility and so much more.

[01:10:37] Loren: A friendly reminder, the content shared on this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be a substitute for the advice provided by your doctor or other healthcare professional. It is not intended to be nor does it constitute healthcare or medical advice.