Reaction video channel I’m enjoying: Reactistan. Highlights include rural Pakistani villagers trying donuts and Mexican food for the first time. “This is so sweet. But who knows what it’s made of.” Agreed, my friend.
“Mark asks: ‘what is the point of all these observational studies?’
The point is for researchers to do something. I don’t say that in a cynical way, just in an observational way (har-har). Someone needs to write a thesis, then have a career, etc. The sheer quantity of these studies says more about how many people pursue this career path relative to the fruits of their labor, and less about what high-quality research looks like.
They do have some* potential for good. If we ever find that there’s some weird link between covid and broccoli, (or trans fats and heart disease), it will maybe be inspired by these datasets.”
What is a typical day for a health coach? In this article, health coach MaryAnn Jones talks with three practicing coaches to learn more about what they do day to day.
If you’ve been finding yourself eating more than usual in recent times, it’s no surprise. You’ve likely been stuck in the house with a stockpile of food. If you’re working from home, it’s difficult to resist taking frequent snack breaks, and if you’re not working, what else there to do but try out yet another […]
A lot of people are having a hard time staying motivated to work out while fitness centers and studios are closed. Perhaps you enjoy the social aspect of workout classes or you have a standing appointment to meet your lifting buddy at the gym. Maybe you lost access to your favorite activities as a result of temporary Crossfit box or pool closures. Or, you finally found a coach or trainer you connect with, and regulations mean sessions are on hold.
It’s understandable. Many people recognize that intrinsic motivation (self-motivation) to exercise isn’t going to cut it, so they’ve set up their fitness life around extrinsic motivational (motivation from outside sources) factors – friends, friendly competition, stellar coaching, whatever have you.
That doesn’t have to mean losing all of your progress and starting completely over when your normal routine resumes. Until we’re on the other side of the pandemic, we need to find ways to motivate ourselves to keep up our fitness at home. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
4 Ways to Stay Motivated While Working Out at Home
Set Up an Accountability Group. There’s a fair chance that your former workout tribe is in the same boat as you are, and would love to check in with some familiar faces. Or, your friends and family are craving some social interaction, even if it has to be on-screen. With social media as woven into our lives as it is, it is easier than ever to reach out to your network and your and gym buddies to share successes and encouragement. Set a time, even if it’s only once or twice a week, to discuss what you’ve been doing and champion each others’ efforts.
Use Apps to Compete With Others. There have to be hundreds of apps that facilitate competitions between friends and strangers alike. You can organize or participate in virtual endurance races using the Strava app. My Fitness Pal allows you to add friends and engage in friendly diet and fitness competitions. Peloton equipment and integrated apps offer challenges, achievement badges and new “quests” (based on Instagram clues) that are surprisingly motivating, especially when you can peek in on friends you follow to see what’s going on on their profiles. Primal Kitchen® is giving away a Peloton plus $200 in product! Head over to this page – entry only takes a minute.
Opt for Shorter Workouts and Microworkouts. Your workout doesn’t have to be a full hour of heart-pumping, sweaty hyperactivity. In fact, that can be counterproductive to your goals. Instead, try different formats to get the maximum benefit out of minimum effort. You can do an incredibly effective sprint workout in 10-15 minutes, start to finish. If microworkouts have piqued your interest, keep a resistance band or a few weights on the floor in front of your desk, and rep out a few sets of your favorite resistance moves in between emails throughout the day. You’d be surprised at how the effects of unobtrusive two-minute workouts will add up.
Play More. Every state has some form of regulation, but going outside is fair game. So, get outside. Find an open space to play Ultimate frisbee with your family. Take a bike ride with your kids since they’re home from school. Find a trail that’s open to the public and and hike out to a lake to skip rocks. Movement doesn’t have to follow prescriptive exercise formats, and the more fun you have, the more likely you’ll be to go back for more.
This setback is temporary, and we’ll undoubtedly get back to our preferred flavor of fitness. Sooner? Later? I’m not entirely sure. Until then, being flexible and getting creative will help you optimize your health.
Avoid inflammatory, processed foods. Get plenty of sleep. Move your body on a regular basis. It’s the trifecta of good health. But if this was everything you needed to know, we’d all be metabolically flexible with rock-hard abs and proper blood sugar levels.
That’s because knowing what to do and how to do it are two entirely different things.
Too often, I’ll get messages from new clients saying they’re ready to drop all carbs, get better sleep, start intermittent fasting, cut out fast food, buy blue blockers for everyone in their family, workout more…
In other words, they’re all in.
You’d think I’d be super psyched about their level of motivation. But to me, it means they need help reeling it in. My job as a health coach is to show people how to get from point A to point B, and having broad, sweeping goals with no clear direction doesn’t work. Ever.
To really succeed, you’ve got to know what you’re changing and how to measure your success. Want to sleep more? Eat more veggies? Exercise more? Yep, me too. But real goal setting requires getting smart about it. And that’s where SMART goals come in. Originally credited to Peter Drucker in his 1954 book, The Practice of Management as well as George Doran and Dr. Edwin Lock, and used by everyone from professors to Primal Health Coaches, SMART is an acronym that stands for:
• Specific. What specifically do want to achieve?
• Measurable. How will you quantify your results?
• Attainable. Do you have the tools to make this happen?
• Relevant. Does this goal align with your lifestyle?
• Timely. What’s your deadline on this goal?
NOTE: If you’ve seen different versions of this, just know that there are a few different variations out there. Sometimes the ‘S’ stands for significant or simple, the ‘M’ for meaningful or motivating, the ‘A’ for achievable or agreed upon, the ‘R’ for realistic or results-based, and the ‘T’ for time-sensitive or time-based.
Examples of SMART Goals
Want a better night’s sleep? Your SMART goal might be:
S: To get 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
M: I’ll use a sleep tracking app to measure my progress.
A: I’ll wear my blue blockers for any screen time in the evenings.
R: Being in bed by 9:30pm is doable for me.
T: Every night until my vacation in the fall.
Want to work out more? Try:
S: I will walk 3 miles every morning.
M: I’ll track it with my Garmin.
A: GPS watch? Check. New sneakers? Check.
R: I have to walk my dog in the morning anyway, so this works.
T: For the next 4 weeks.
Remember, SMART goals are designed to be quantifiable and have a defined end point, which helps you get clear about what you’re doing to reach that goal and how you’ll know if you’re successful or not. For example, in a 2005 study,1 researchers worked with 1785 obese men and women seeking treatment for weight loss. Using different goal setting approaches, they found that nearly 52% of participants with unrealistic and unattainable weight loss expectations had discontinue treatment after one year.
The truth is, it’s easy to get discouraged, especially with things that are more long-term. That’s why I always use SMART goals with my clients. But you don’t have to work with a health coach to take advantage of this approach. Follow my How to Write a SMART Goal guide below to get started on your own.
How to Write a SMART Goal
Here’s a sample of the goal setting worksheets I use with my clients. You can highlight this section, right-click, and print to fill out your own SMART Goals, or you can opt to follow the format on a blank sheet in your journal.
SMART Goals
1. Make it Specific. This is the time to get as clear as possible. The more you define your goal, the easier it will be to understand what it will take to get there. Also, be aware of using non-committal phrases like “I want to” or “I think I can”. Get concrete with your goals, describing them in a percentage, frequency, or number.
Write your S here: _____________________________________________________
2. Make it measurable. Adding quantifiable criteria to your goal allows you to measure your success in a tangible way. How else will you know if you’re making progress? Having a goal that’s measurable gives you the evidence that what you’re doing is working, and it’s an easy way to ward off feeling overwhelmed by larger goals. Plus, there are tons of apps for measuring everything from macros to miles.
Write your M here: ______________________________________________________ 3. Make it attainable. Keep in mind that your goal should also be doable. It’s okay to push the boundaries here and there, but if you’re thinking you want to run a marathon in 3 weeks or drop 50 pounds in a month, you might want to revisit your goal so that it’s in the realm of what’s possible. The idea is to choose something that feels attainable with the right effort, commitment, and available resources.
Write your A here: _______________________________________________________
4. Make it relevant. Relevance means that it aligns with other aspects or longer-term goals of your life. How does it fit within the big picture? How does it impact or contribute to your household, your work environment, or your family responsibilities? Think about why you’re setting this goal now and why it’s important to you.
Write your R here: _______________________________________________________
5. Make it timely. While I’m not a fan of dropping pounds for an event or summer or bikini body or whatever, having a deadline can set you up for success. An end-date provides the motivation to stick with it. It also keeps you from being too unrealistic with your goal. Even if you plan on eating paleo or sleeping 8 hours a night forever, choosing an end date will give you the parameters to know if you were successful or not.
Write your T here: _______________________________________________________
Why Use SMART Goals?
Think back on the health goals you’ve had in the past. Maybe you weren’t as successful as you would have liked. Or maybe you’re a pro goal setter and knocked it out of the park. For those of you who feel like you’re working super hard and seeing zero progress, I want you to know that there’s a way to be smarter about reaching your goals. And it starts with these five steps:
• Make it specific. • Make it measurable. • Make it attainable. • Make it relevant. • Make it timely.
The diet and lifestyle choices we make have a significant impact on aging. Read on to learn how nutrition and aging are connected and the steps you can take to control the aging process.
As great as back squats are for strength, general fitness, and body composition, sometimes they just don’t work for a person. Maybe they cause knee, shoulder, or wrist pain. Maybe someone’s body proportions aren’t conducive to proper back squatting. Maybe their legs are too long to achieve good depth without compromising position. While there are dozens of articles imploring you to mobilize this or that joint and work out the kinks in this or that muscle so that the back squat will work, and those can be very informative and helpful, some people just don’t want to back squat. For whatever reason, it doesn’t work for them.
Especially now, when gyms are closed and it’s difficult to get your hands on a barbell, you might be looking for alternatives to back squats that will keep your legs just as strong.
Plenty of other knee flexion exercises are worth doing. Let’s take a look at some of the best alternatives.
9 Worthy Alternatives to the Back Squat
Air squats
Goblet squats
Front squats
Band Zercher squats
Bulgarian split squats
Resistance band split squats
Step ups
Walking lunges and Reverse Lunges
Tempo squat jumps
1. Air Squats
Don’t underestimate the efficacy of the simple bodyweight air squat. It’s great for mobility and surprisingly metabolically demanding.
To do air squats, start with your feet shoulder width apart. Bend at the knee, and come to a low “seat” in an imaginary chair. Keep a straight line between your tailbone and your head. Don’t think you can work your quads without heavy weights? Do a few high-rep sets of air squats and you’ll feel it. If you’d like an extra challenge, wearing a weighted vest or holding weights at your sides will add some extra oomph.
2. Goblet Squats
Goblet squats are easier on most bodies than back squats for two reasons: less weight is used (because you have to hold it in your hands at chin level) and they promote a more “natural” squatting technique. To perform a goblet squat, you hold a weight (kettlebell, weight plate, dumbbell, small child) at chin level, stay tall, and squat down between your legs while maintaining an upright torso. Many seasoned strength coaches use the goblet squat to teach beginners how to squat because it’s so intuitive.
That said, there are some extra details to keep in mind:
Tuck your elbows against your body. This creates a more stable “shelf” of support for the weight.
Keep your chest up.
Push your knees out.
Since you won’t be pushing heavy weights with the goblet squat, focus on higher reps and more overall volume. If things get dicey, dropping the weight in a goblet squat is way easier than dropping a barbell sitting on your back.
3. Front Squats
To me, front squats have always felt more natural than back squats. There’s less thinking about what your joints are doing and which muscle groups you’re supposed to be activating. You just squat with a weight in the front rack position and the rest follows. It’s hard to mess up and round your lower back because if you lean too far forward during a front squat, you’ll just dump the weight.
According to a 2009 study on front and back squats in trained individuals, front squats exert fewer compressive forces on the knee and “may be advantageous compared with back squats for individuals with knee problems such as meniscus tears, and for long-term joint health.”1 Furthermore, front squatting less weight resulted in identical muscle activation as back squatting more weight.
The more upright posture inherent to front squats is also good for people with lower back pain by creating less shear stress on the vertebrae. An important cue to keep in mind during the front squat is “elbows up.” This creates a strong, stable shelf for the bar and cues the torso to stay firm and unyielding to forward tilt. If your elbows dip, the rest will soon follow.
No bar? No problem. Grab two weights and hold them just above your shoulders, or hold a sandbag at chest level.
4. Band Zercher Squats
For resistance band Zercher squats, hold the band just below your chin, just as you would with a goblet squat. The difference here is that the hardest part is at the top of the movement.
If you have a bar, you can do a traditional bar Zercher squat, where the bar sits in the crook of your inner elbows about belly-high as you squat. This places more emphasis on the core and glutes. Anecdotally, people with knee pain during normal squats seem to do well with Zercher squats. As for the weight resting on the arms, it hurts at first, but you get used to it. And if you don’t, you can always use a pad or a rolled up towel to dampen the pain.
They kind of force good form, too. As you squat down with the bar in the crook of your arm, your elbows fit neatly between your knees and prevent them from buckling inward. As you come up, be sure to thrust your hips fully forward at the top and stand up straight.
Initiate bar Zerchers in one of two ways:
The more involved method – Deadlift the bar to just above the knee. Squat down, carefully letting the bar rest on your lower quads. Slip your inner elbows underneath the bar and stand back up.
The easier method – Place the bar on a squat rack set to about waist height or a bit higher. Slip your inner elbows underneath the bar and stand back up.
5. Bulgarian Split Squats
Several years ago, a strength coach named Mike Boyle made waves across the Internet by recommending against back squats and promoting Bulgarian split squats in their place. The split squat, he said, allows fuller loading of the legs being worked by removing the back from the equation. In a Bulgarian split squat, you place one foot behind you on an elevated surface and squat down until the back knee touches the floor (or a pad resting on the floor), keeping the weight on the foot in front of you. Getting your balance right can be tricky at first but once you’re comfortable it’s a great way to isolate individual legs without taxing your back. Many a trainee has woken up with throbbing glutes after a day of split squats.
Play with the height of the surface your back foot is resting on. If it’s too high, you’ll place stress your back. Lower the height if you find your back arching or your torso tilting too far forward. Stacking a few weight plates about six to eight inches high is good enough for most people.
6. Resistance Band Split Squats
As with weighted split squats, resistance band split squats start by placing one foot behind you on an elevated surface and squatting down until the back knee touches the floor (or a pad resting on the floor), keeping the weight on the foot in front of you. Instead of weights, you’ll grip a resistance band at chest height.
7. Step-ups
Step-ups are fun. And they’re different than every other exercise in this post because they begin with the concentric portion of the lift. Most exercises begin with the eccentric portion. When you start with the eccentric portion, you’re dreading the concentric portion the whole way down. When you start with the concentric portion, the hard part is over right away and you just have to control the descent. There’s also no bounce to use as a crutch — just like the first deadlift of the set. Some people hate them, some love them. They’re definitely worth a shot and are a fantastic way to hit the glutes.2
To target quads, hamstrings, and glutes, use a surface high enough that your knee is at 90° when you step onto it. The higher the box, the more glute and hamstring you’ll hit. Lower boxes will focus more on the quads. Try not to push with the off foot. If you find yourself pushing off despite best efforts, dorsiflex the off foot and touch down only with the heel.
8. Walking Lunges and Reverse Lunges
My go-to exercise when dealing with substandard hotel gyms is a few sets of walking lunges while carrying the heaviest dumbbells they’ve got. There’s something special about the combination of moving through space and lifting that adds a whiff of complexity and increases the training adaptations.
Lunges are relatively easy on the knees for many people who get knee pain during back squats. For others, it’s the opposite (but this post isn’t really intended for them). If you have problems with lunges, play around with the torso angles. Turning the movement into more of a single leg hip hinge by slightly leaning forward (shoulders over knees) can alleviate unpleasant forces to the knee.
To make them easier, forego the weights. To make them more challenging, add hand weights and a weighted vest if you feel like you need to ramp it up.
Walking lunges are awesome, but they require magnificent balance. And if you’re pushing heavy weight, any minor mistake during the initial descent can send you and the weight tumbling. They also require a lot of room. Reverse lunges are generally safer, more stable, and they don’t require much space (because you do them in place).
Instead of taking steps forward, you will step backward into your lunge and return to standing for each rep.
9. Tempo Squat Jumps
Start as you would an air squat, feet shoulder-width apart. Over a count of four, lower into a squat position. Explosively jump up, land soft, and lower your body back into a squat position, taking a full count of four to get there. You can watch Brian demonstrate this and all of the above squat alternative movements in this video.
That’s it for today, everyone. If you feel like you’re missing out on the barbells at the gym, I hope you’ve found at least a couple exercises in today’s post to fill the void — and get you a fantastic workout in the process.
Thanks for reading. What are your favorite alternatives to the back squat?
What Is the Flexitarian Diet? (Exploring “Semi-Vegetarians”)
The Flexitarian Diet is a plant-based or vegetarian style of eating that allows for some animal products in moderation.
“Flex” comes from “flexible” and “tarian” comes from “vegetarian,” so a flexitarian is more or less a “flexible vegetarian.”
In 2012, the term “flexitarian” actually entered the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “one whose normally meatless diet occasionally includes meat or fish.”
Another way to think of flexitarians would be as “semi-vegetarians.”
This version of semi-vegetarianism was first formulated by dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, in her book The Flexitarian Diet.
In Blanter’s word:
“You can think of this diet as a ‘vegetarian-ish’ way of eating since this plan touts the basic principles and benefits of a plant-based diet, along with the inclusion of some animal proteins to a lesser extent.”
The goal of the Flexitarian Diet would be to minimize or reduce the frequency of eating meat, without removing it completely.
This is what separates flexitarians from normal omnivores: the former are actively trying to limit meat consumption.
Flexitarians just don’t want to eliminate meat 100% (for health or personal reasons), so they allow some into their diet.
What Do Flexitarians Eat? (The Flexitarian Diet Plan)
Since the Flexitarian Diet actively tries to reduce the consumption of meat, the meal plan will be predominantly plant-based.
Your plant-based food choices on the Flexitarian Diet plan will include:
Whole grains. Rice, oats, barley, and buckwheat would all be examples of whole grains. Most plant-based diets include a sizable amount of whole grains as their base.
Vegetables. Of course, even semi-vegetarian diets are going to include lots of vegetables! And they should because vegetables are great for you! They’re packed full of nutrients, fiber, and generally low in calories. Most people could stand to eat more veggies. If you find yourself not being able to stomach greens, I got you. Check out this post for tips on how to turn around any vegetable hater.
Legumes. Beans, lentils, and soy make up the legume family. When cutting out meat, legumes would be a great way to get protein (more on this to follow).
Fruit. Bananas, apples, and oranges all come from plants, so all are vegetarian-friendly. While high in fructose (sugar), they are also nutrient-dense. Our general stance on fruit around these parts is to eat “stick to whole fruit, avoid fruit juices.”
Nuts and seeds. Again, they come from plants, so almonds, cashews, and pumpkin seeds are good to go on any vegetarian plan you pick. So is quinoa, which although is often thought of as a grain, is actually a seed. Mind=blown.
Nuts and seeds, although high in fat and calories, are another great way to get protein on a semi-vegetarian diet.
I know you’re curious about meat consumption and the Flexitarian Diet
We’ll devote our entire next section to it.
Before we get there, let’s talk about foods that you might NOT want to build your flexitarian meal plan around.
Since the Flexitarian Diet is an attempt to eat nutritiously, it not only encourages the consumption of whole plants but also discourages the consumption of certain foods too.
When following a Flexitarian Diet, try to minimize:
Processed meat: bacon, sausage, and bologna. Proponents of flexitarianism advocate for unprocessed meat like grass-fed beef, pasture-raised chicken, fresh fish, etc. More on this next section.
Refined carbs: white bread, bagels, pasta, etc. These foods have much of their fiber destroyed during the refinement process, making them more like sugar during digestion.
Added sugar: soda, donuts, cookies, etc. Also known as “junk food.” Delicious, of course. But these foods are high in calories and low on nutrients, so they belong in the “rare treat” category.
The above list likely isn’t too shocking. Most health sites (and us in our healthy eating guide) recommend these foods be eaten sparingly.
Now, it’s time to talk meat!
How Often Do Flexitarians Eat Meat? (The “Flex” in “Flexitarian”)
The answer to “How much meat can you eat on a flexitarian diet?” depends on who you ask.
There are lots of variations of semi-vegetarianism, meaning there are a lot of different answers to this question.
Dawn Blatner discusses different levels of meat restriction in her book The Flexitarian Diet, which we’ll review below.
Here’s the progression plan for The Flexitarian Diet:
Beginner Flexitarian:
Two meat-free days a week
No more than 26 ounces of meat the remainder of the week
Advanced Flexitarian:
Three to four meat-free days a week
No more than 18 ounces of meat the remainder of the week
Expert Flexitarian:
Meat-free five days a week
9 ounces of meat allowed the remaining two days
For reference, a three-ounce piece of chicken breast is about the size of your palm:
Another popular form of flexitarianism comes from VB6 (Vegan Before 6:00) which is exactly what it sounds like: follow a vegan meal plan until dinnertime.
Like Blatner, Bittman encourages the consumption of whole plants and discourages the consumption of junk food.
That’s not too surprising, because every diet encourages the consumption of whole plants and discourages junk food (well, not the Carnivore Diet or the Military Diet).
Other than following a 100% plant-based diet until 6pm, Bittman offers no specific rules for VB6.
You do you.
This is going to lead us to a larger point: “flexitarian” is up to interpretation.
Since there are multiple plans for semi-vegetarianism, how much meat you eat will really depend on your goals and motives.
Does Cutting out Meat Help You Lose Weight? (The Flexitarian Diet and Weight Loss)
Many proponents of flexitarianism will claim it can help with weight loss:
Mark Bittman created VB6 (Vegan before 6) after his doctor told him to lose some weight.
Dawn Jackson claims her Flexitarian Diet can help those struggling with obesity.
However, anyone selling a diet book is gonna tell you it can help with weight loss.
What does the science say?
Since there’s no set in stone interpretation of what makes a “flexitarian” a flexitarian, it can be hard to prescribe any specific benefits to the diet.
This is a concern Emma J. Derbyshire brought up in a review of semi-vegetarian diets in Frontiers of Nutrition.[1] Derbyshire states that before any formal recommendations can be done on flexitarians, “official definitions of these diets are needed.”
You need to know exactly what you’re researching before you can make heads or tails of what’s going on.
However, weight loss itself has been studied a lot, so we aren’t completely stumbling in the dark here.
To lose weight, we need to burn more calories than we consume regularly.
It’s about as close to fact as we can get in nutrition science.[2]
Here’s the thing about meat: it’s actually pretty calorically dense, especially when you compare it to fruits and vegetables.
This is 200 calories worth of sliced turkey (thanks to wiseGEEK):
Here is 200 calories worth of Saltine crackers (which are vegan):
When comparing a plate of meat to a handful of crackers, you might think: “Steve, there’s no way those crackers will satisfy me, I’ll need to eat more food,” then you’d be right.
It’s why focusing on foods that fill you up without being overloaded with calories can help with weight loss.
Let me share one more example:
This is what 200 calories worth of broccoli looks like:
So, YES, if you replace your meat lovers pizza, chicken parm with pasta, and bacon cheeseburgers with mostly fruits, vegetables, and other whole plants, you’ll most likely lose weight.
It comes down to total energy (calories) consumed!
This is something we bring up throughout our Guide for Plant-Based Diets: be careful about replacing calorie bomb meat products with heavily processed junk food.
You might end up with the same amount of calories (if not more), which means you’ll have no weight loss.
Because from a protein perspective, meat can be a great source of nutrients.
Let’s compare chicken against black beans, since legumes (beans) are some of the most protein-dense plants you can eat:
100 grams of black beans:22 grams of protein, 339 calories, 63 grams of carbohydrates (16 grams of which are fiber).
100 grams of chicken breast:30 grams of protein, 165 calories, 0 grams of carbohydrates.
The same size serving of black beans has less protein, twice as many calories, and more carbs compared to chicken.
This isn’t to say you can’t get adequate protein from plants (we tell you exactly how to do it in our guide to vegetarianism), it’s just something you have to appropriately plan for!
All this to say: you can lose weight on a flexitarian diet as long as you burn more calories than you eat consistently.
If semi-vegetarianism actually helps with that, great! If not, no biggie, just try another path (here’s what I personally do).
Let me just say that if you’re trying to lose weight and wondering if a flexitarian diet is the solution, I’m proud of you for at least THINKING about different nutritional strategies that might align with your lifestyle and goals.
Lots of our coaching clients come to us with all sorts of different fitness questions, like what to eat and how to exercise, proving we all start from unique situations. The important thing is that you’re beginning to ask questions and looking for answers.
If you want help on your journey, we’re here for you. Our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program partners busy people just like you with a coach who will get to know you better than you know yourself.
What Are the Benefits of Being a Flexitarian?
There are all sorts of benefits from eating lots of plants.
Now granted, I’m on the record for stating I don’t buy into the claim that meat is inherently bad for you (we dig into it in this article).
However, I’m also on the record for stating you should eat your fruits and veggies (scope out our Guide to Healthy Eating).
Let’s rap about the good things found in the plant kingdom:
Fiber: studies have shown that eating dietary fiber (found in plants) can have loads of health benefits. Fiber from plants can help lower raised blood pressure, improve insulin sensitivity, and help with digestive issues.[3]
Vitamins and minerals: plants contain vitamins E, C, K2, and calcium, to name just a few. You need these things to survive.
Antioxidants:there are all sorts of toxins in the modern world (air pollution, BPA in plastic, etc). Plants, and the antioxidants in them, can help defend against some of these pollutants.[4]
When you start to factor this together, it makes sense to eat a lot of plants.
It also makes sense that people who eat a lot of plants, like flexitarians, tend to be in good shape.[5]
Whole plants are high in nutrients and low in calories, making them ideal for creating an energy deficiency.[6] Again, this is needed for weight loss.
Here’s where the debate rages on the internet: are people who follow a plant-based diet generally healthier than omnivores because meat is bad for you, or because vegetarians tend to eat more fruits and vegetables and less processed foods?[7]
It’s hard to say.
More studies are rolling in every day, so I’m not going to declare a winner over the other.
I will say that I actually resonate with a “flexitarian” lifestyle, though I just call it “mostly healthy eating” = eat mostly plants, healthy sources of protein, and keeping total calorie intake under control.
The moral of the story: eat lots of plants…and maybe a little meat.
Should I Try the Flexitarian Diet? (Next Steps)
Sure!
Why not?
There are worse ways to eat than tons of plants with a little bit of meat.
Being a flexitarian is actually not too different than following the Mediterranean Diet.
It’s the same way of eating, just with a new name.
Author Michael Pollan summed it up years ago with “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”
Truth be told, healthy eating is more or less the same no matter what you call it.
They just label it with different names to sell books.
Minimize the consumption of processed food or junk food
We lay all this out in our Guide to Healthy Eating, which I would encourage you to check out.
If this is the first time you’ve tried to “eat right,” or the 17th, it’ll help you make small lifestyle changes towards a healthy diet.
This is our preferred approach here at Nerd Fitness.
That will bring me to my one concern on adopting The Flexitarian Diet or any other strict form of semi-vegetarianism: if you change too much at once, it might be overly difficult and you’ll grow frustrated.
Frustration can lead to abandoning a new way of eating.
We see it all the time here: people go Paleo or Keto for 21 days, hate it, then go right back to where they started.
Since they’re now demoralized from the experience, they don’t even try anymore, which is where the real harm comes in.
So try a small step today:
Make dinner this week.
Try eating one new vegetable.
Hell, make it exercise-related and just go for a walk.
This might be better than changing everything at once giving up meat for most of the week.
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Alright, I think that about does it for this article.
Now, your turn:
What are your thoughts on the Flexitarian Diet?
If you follow it, when do you eat meat?
Any tips or tricks to make it sustainable?
Let me know in the comments!
-Steve
PS: If you’re just starting to explore vegetarianism, make sure you read our Beginner’s Guide to Plant-Based Diets so you do it safely and effectively!
Read, “Health benefits of dietary fiber.” Source, PubMed.
Read, “The Protective Role of Antioxidants in the Defence against ROS/RNS-Mediated Environmental Pollution” Source, PubMed.
Read, “Comparison of nutritional quality of the vegan, vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian and omnivorous diet.” Source, PubMed.
As this study references, fully plant-based diets tend to come in the lowest for energy provided, compared to omnivores. This makes sense, since meat can contain a decent amount of calories.
Here’s another indicator following a semi-plant-based diet would be good for you: “Vegetarian dietary patterns are associated with a lower risk of metabolic syndrome: the adventist health study 2.” Source, PubMed.
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A lot of people are having a hard time staying motivated to work out while fitness centers and studios are closed. Perhaps you enjoy the social aspect of workout classes or you have a standing appointment to meet your lifting buddy at the gym. Maybe you lost access to your favorite activities as a result of temporary Crossfit box or pool closures. Or, you finally found a coach or trainer you connect with, and regulations mean sessions are on hold.
Avoid inflammatory, processed foods. Get plenty of sleep. Move your body on a regular basis. It’s the trifecta of good health. But if this was everything you needed to know, we’d all be metabolically flexible with rock-hard abs and proper blood sugar levels.
As great as back squats are for strength, general fitness, and body composition, sometimes they just don’t work for a person. Maybe they cause knee, shoulder, or wrist pain. Maybe someone’s body proportions aren’t conducive to proper back squatting. Maybe their legs are too long to achieve good depth without compromising position. While there are dozens of articles imploring you to mobilize this or that joint and work out the kinks in this or that muscle so that the back squat will work, and those can be very informative and helpful, some people just don’t want to back squat. For whatever reason, it doesn’t work for them.
Goblet squats are easier on most bodies than back squats for two reasons: less weight is used (because you have to hold it in your hands at chin level) and they promote a more “natural” squatting technique. To perform a goblet squat, you hold a weight (kettlebell, weight plate, dumbbell, small child) at chin level, stay tall, and squat down between your legs while maintaining an upright torso. Many seasoned strength coaches use the goblet squat to teach beginners how to squat because it’s so intuitive.
To me, front squats have always felt more natural than back squats. There’s less thinking about what your joints are doing and which muscle groups you’re supposed to be activating. You just squat with a weight in the front rack position and the rest follows. It’s hard to mess up and round your lower back because if you lean too far forward during a front squat, you’ll just dump the weight.
For resistance band Zercher squats, hold the band just below your chin, just as you would with a goblet squat. The difference here is that the hardest part is at the top of the movement.
Several years ago, a strength coach named Mike Boyle made waves across the Internet by recommending against back squats and promoting Bulgarian split squats in their place. The split squat, he said, allows fuller loading of the legs being worked by removing the back from the equation. In a Bulgarian split squat, you place one foot behind you on an elevated surface and squat down until the back knee touches the floor (or a pad resting on the floor), keeping the weight on the foot in front of you. Getting your balance right can be tricky at first but once you’re comfortable it’s a great way to isolate individual legs without taxing your back. Many a trainee has woken up with throbbing glutes after a day of split squats.
Step-ups are fun. And they’re different than every other exercise in this post because they begin with the concentric portion of the lift. Most exercises begin with the eccentric portion. When you start with the eccentric portion, you’re dreading the concentric portion the whole way down. When you start with the concentric portion, the hard part is over right away and you just have to control the descent. There’s also no bounce to use as a crutch — just like the first deadlift of the set. Some people hate them, some love them. They’re definitely worth a shot and are a fantastic way to hit the glutes.
My go-to exercise when dealing with substandard hotel gyms is a few sets of walking lunges while carrying the heaviest dumbbells they’ve got. There’s something special about the combination of moving through space and lifting that adds a whiff of complexity and increases the training adaptations.
Walking lunges are awesome, but they require magnificent balance. And if you’re pushing heavy weight, any minor mistake during the initial descent can send you and the weight tumbling. They also require a lot of room. Reverse lunges are generally safer, more stable, and they don’t require much space (because you do them in place).
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
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