Redefining Strength Podcast

I went through a month of your questions from social media, email and DMs, narrowed them down to the most common ones, and answered as many as I could in 10 minutes.

We'll cover...

• How many sets and reps you need to build muscle, and whether 3 sets of 10 is enough
• Lifting heavy with low reps vs. light with high reps
• How much protein you need, and why more isn’t always better
• Animal vs. plant protein for muscle growth
• Whether to lose fat or build muscle first
• Why you might be losing weight without looking more defined
• How much cardio to do, and whether to do it before or after lifting
• Rest days, overtraining, working out sore, and deload weeks
• How sleep affects muscle growth
• Lifting heavy in menopause and HIIT in perimenopause
• Whether creatine is worth it and if it makes you gain weight

Which answer helped you most? Leave a comment, and drop a question you want me to answer in the next rapid-fire episode.

We’ve been sold fat loss as a 21-day challenge, a 90-day cut, or a before-and-after with an end date. But lasting body recomp comes from what you do around those phases: the busy seasons, the stressful months, the holidays, and the vacations where going all in just isn’t realistic.

In this episode, I break down the 4 lifestyle phases of body recomp, why “push harder” keeps backfiring (hello, present bias and cognitive dissonance), and how to figure out which phase you should be in right now so you stop starting over every January, every Monday, or after every vacation.

You’ll learn:

• The 4 phases: Push, Maintain, Intentional Break, and Flex
• Why disciplined people struggle most with slowing down
• How to compare this season to the same season last year (not to January)
• Reflection questions to spot the patterns sabotaging your results
• How to set minimums you can hit even on your worst days

Hate tracking macros? These 10 macro tracking hacks make counting macros feel like food freedom instead of restriction, so you can finally see body recomposition results without feeling hungry or miserable.

I resisted macro tracking for years. Every time I tried, I felt deprived and still wasn’t seeing the recomp results I wanted. The problem wasn’t tracking. It was HOW I was tracking. In this episode, I’m sharing the 10 mindset shifts and practical strategies that made flexible dieting finally click for me long-term, whether your goal is fat loss, building muscle, fueling performance, or just feeling more energized.

You’ll learn how to track without changing anything first, how to plan in the foods you love (yes, dessert), how to eat out without being “that person on a diet,” why repeating meals can improve fat loss results, how to bounce back after an off day without overcorrecting, and how to handle “slippery slope” foods without demonizing them. By the end, macro tracking may be the thing that finally makes your recomp work.

Some of the most popular fitness advice out there sounds smart, and some of it is even true. But the way I was using it was exactly what kept me stuck.

In this episode, I'm sharing the advice I followed for years, the fitness "rules" I believed without question, and why I eventually had to ditch them or completely rethink how I used them to see real results. These are the habits and mindsets that led to injuries, kept me on the dieting roller coaster, and had me working harder without making progress, and you might be following some of them right now without realizing it.

I'm also sharing the reframes that changed everything for me and my clients, especially as we've gotten older and needed to train and eat smarter, not just harder.

Stick around to the end, because the last one is probably going to make some of you mad. It sounds great in theory, but it was the one holding me back the most.

"I leaned out eating more. I didn't have to starve."

That's a real quote from a client email. I recently asked the Redefining Strength community what advice actually made a difference for them, and the same lessons kept coming up again and again. So I pulled together the top 10 pieces of coaching advice that my clients say changed their results, from fat loss and body recomposition to strength training, metabolism, and finally breaking the yo-yo dieting cycle.

Some of these might surprise you. The #1 answer is the one clients fought me on the hardest, and it's also the one they said made the biggest impact. If you've been doing "all the right things" and still aren't seeing results, this one might be what's holding you back.

For every lesson, I'll give you one simple action step you can start this week, whether you're trying to lose fat, build muscle, fix your metabolism after years of dieting, or just stop feeling like you're starting over every Monday.

This is especially for women over 40 navigating perimenopause, menopause, and a body that doesn't respond the way it used to. What worked before may not work anymore, and it's never too late to change.

Go for a walk, meal prep, or get comfy on the couch and stay until the end for #1.

Let me know which lesson hit home for you or if there's a piece of advice you'd add to the list! 

If you've ever blamed your age for feeling weaker, gaining fat more easily, or struggling to see results in the gym, this episode is your reality check. Age is rarely the real problem, it's just the easiest excuse to reach for. In this episode, you'll learn why the fitness and dieting habits that used to work are now working against you, and why chasing the scale instead of building muscle is quietly wrecking your metabolism.

You'll hear why "eating less" often backfires after 40, how anabolic resistance changes the way your body uses protein, and why fearing intensity in your workouts might be aging you faster than the workouts themselves. This isn't about pushing harder for the sake of it. It's about training smarter, recovering better, and finally understanding what your body actually needs at this stage of life.

Whether you're dealing with a stalled metabolism, frustrating weight gain around your midsection, or just feeling like your old routines stopped working, this episode breaks down exactly what's happening and what to do about it. Age is a number. Strength is a choice.

You can have the perfect macros and the perfect training split and still fall off track because the plan was never the real problem. In this video, I'm breaking down the three things that actually determine whether your body recomp sticks this time, and none of them are a diet tweak or a new workout split.

We cover:

- Why stacking small, almost-too-easy wins builds more momentum than an all-or-nothing overhaul
- How to actually learn from past failed attempts instead of just feeling defeated by them
- Why trying to do it all alone might be the biggest thing holding you back

If you've tried body recomp before and it didn't stick, this isn't about trying harder...it's about approaching it differently. 
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Body recomp doesn’t have to be complicated. But with all the conflicting advice around fat loss, muscle building, hormones, metabolism, workouts, and nutrition, it’s easy to spend years chasing the “perfect” approach instead of focusing on what actually moves the needle.

After nearly two decades in the fitness industry...and plenty of trial and error myself...there are a few things I wish I’d understood much sooner.

In this video, I’m breaking down the 7 body recomp rules I keep coming back to again and again. These aren’t trendy hacks or quick fixes. They’re the fundamentals that can help you build a sustainable approach to losing fat, building muscle, and creating results you can actually maintain.

If you feel like you’re working hard but your results are inconsistent, or you’re overwhelmed by everything you’re supposedly “supposed” to be doing, this video will help you simplify your approach and focus on what matters most.

And yes body recomp can be slow. But when you stop chasing shiny objects and start building a system that works together, that’s when things can really start to add up.

Download The Recomp Guide: http://redefiningstrength.com/recomp

I ate so clean during my first cut that I made myself sick on vacation. One spicy sangria and some Mexican food later, it was bad news bears. Then I couldn't get back on track for weeks, because that's exactly what happens when your approach is too rigid for real life.

That was fitness flop number one. And after almost two decades in this industry, coaching thousands of women through their own body recomp journeys while also testing everything on myself, I have made just about every mistake in the book. Some of them were obvious in hindsight. Others took me years to fully understand.

In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain and sharing 10 of my biggest fitness flops. These weren't really failures, they were experiences that taught me something important, but they still cost me time, energy, and results I can't get back. Some of these lessons are about training. Some are about nutrition and tracking. A lot of them, honestly, come down to mindset, stress, and the stories we tell ourselves about what discipline is supposed to look like.

If you've ever felt like you're starting over every January, caught yourself saying "I'm not being that bad" while quietly sliding off track, or found yourself stuck in that exhausting all or nothing cycle, this episode was made for you. I'm walking through what went wrong, why it went wrong, and what I do differently now, so that you can shortcut the process and skip straight to the results.

This is almost 20 years of trial and error condensed into one conversation. Grab your headphones, go for a walk or get comfy on the couch, and let's get into it.