Running Lean

Probably the number one issue people struggle with when it comes to healthy eating is sticking with it! They do great for a few weeks or a few months but then eventually find themselves elbow-deep in the edible cookie dough and have no clue how they got there. Here’s the thing…we all have the ability to make healthy eating a way of life, and for some people, it’s no problem. For others, thou...

Some of the most often-asked questions I get from runners revolve around the topic of carbohydrates. Most runners I talk to are either straight-up addicted to carbs or at the very least obsessed with them. So when I come in and start talking about a low-carb approach to running and weight loss, they freak out a little bit. They just can’t imagine a world where carbs are not the main focus of their...

I think we can all agree that in order to lose weight, you have to be able to burn fat. This is one of the main reasons why I spend so much time talking about how to turn your body into a fat-burning machine. Becoming an efficient fat-burner also provides several other benefits besides weight loss. For example, it’s a great source of fuel for running, it gives you all-day energy, and it improves y...

I get a lot of questions over in the Running Lean Community Facebook Group about fat-adaptation. What does it really mean to be a fat-adapted runner? How do I go about becoming fat-adapted? What are the benefits of being a fat-adapted runner? How do I know if I’m fat-adapted? These are all such great questions! So today on the podcast, I’m taking a deep dive into the topic of fat-adaptation for ru...

Self-sabotage is when you say you want to lose 30 lbs but you find yourself eating chocolate cake every day. What is happening here? By eating the cake, you are completely undermining what you say you really want for yourself! Why do we do this? If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. This is something we’ve all experienced, I don’t think anyone is immune to some form of self-sabotage. T...

Contrary to what I see plastered all over social media, I don’t think 2020 was that bad of a year, at least it wasn’t for me. I accomplished more in my life this year than in the last 5 years combined! Yes, a lot of that had to do with me overcoming personal struggles and blowing past my own limitations. Regardless, I’m not choosing to look at this past year as the worst year ever. In fact, I thin...

Last weekend I ran the Sloppy Hog 50k. This wasn’t an organized event, and since most of the ultras have been canceled this year, I decided I would just do one on my own. So I picked a date, mapped out a course on some local trails, and BAM! the Sloppy Hog 50k was born. What makes this particular event unique though, is not just the amazing name I chose for it, it’s that I did the whole thing with...

One of the most common issues I hear from clients is they’ve lost their motivation to keep going. They’re doing fine for a while, sticking to their food plan, losing weight, feeling great, and then all of a sudden, their motivation just disappears. They no longer feel motivated to stick with it, they find themselves eating off-plan, and a lot of times they end up quitting on themselves. If this so...

This is the final episode in the Running Lean Manifesto series. The Running Lean Manifesto is a set of guiding principles that, when you practice them each day, you can create the life you’ve always wanted for yourself. And when you create an amazing life for yourself, you inspire others to do the same. In this episode of the podcast, I share my thoughts about what it means to live your life in su...

The only things you have control over in this world are your own thoughts, feelings, and actions. No matter how hard you try, you cannot control what other people think, how they feel, or what they do. The problem is that most people don’t understand how all of this works. Most people just feel terrible all the time and blame it on everything and everyone except themselves. But here’s the th...

Next week is Thanksgiving and that marks the beginning of the holiday season here in the U.S. The holidays are a time to gather with loved ones, give thanks for all that we have, and of course, eat and drink ourselves into oblivion…right? OK, maybe that’s just me! In this episode of the podcast, I’m going to offer some practical tips to help you handle the holidays so you don’t roll into 202...

If you’re anything like me and you’ve struggled with your weight, then you probably know what it feels like to kind of hate yourself. You hate how you look, you hate how you feel, you hate how you’ve let yourself go, you hate who you’ve become. Wow, this is a very negative and very sad place to be. You can’t accomplish anything positive from such a negative state of mind. When you feel this crappy...

The way you make big changes is by consistently doing new things – showing up day after day with drive, determination, and perseverance. In other words…creating new habits. Breaking old habits and creating new ones just might be the single most important thing you can do for yourself. It’s the only way you can make meaningful, lasting changes in your life. It’s how you become anything...

I think we’d all agree that running is hard. But for a lot of us, running can also be a very stressful, anxiety-inducing activity. I fell in love with running early on but then something happened that made me almost break up with running…for good. In this episode, I’m talking about running simply for the love of running, without any other hidden agenda. I believe you should run because you l...

Most people are afraid of being uncomfortable. I think this is a real shame since getting uncomfortable is the only way to achieve anything worthwhile in this life. But it happens all the time! People willingly trade away their big goals and dreams just so they can avoid any discomfort. Here’s the thing: The only thing standing between you and your goals is the discomfort of getting them. In this...

I used to treat my body like a garbage dump. I ate a terrible diet, I smoked cigarettes, I drank way too much alcohol, and I never exercised at all. Then one day something happened that changed my whole outlook on my life, and I made a decision to change everything. I decided to become the healthiest person I could be. I haven’t done it perfectly, and I’ve certainly made plenty of mistakes along t...

If you ask most people how they feel about their life, they’ll probably tell you their life is pretty dull, pretty ordinary, maybe even dreary. Today, I’m here to tell you that this is NOT how you are supposed to live this one, very short life that you have! Do you really want to settle for a life that can only be described as dull, ordinary, or dreary? Because here’s the thing: you get to c...

The diet that most of us have been eating for the last 40 years or so is just wrong. It doesn’t work. Instead of getting leaner and healthier, we just keep getting fatter and sicker. Something has to change. In this episode of the podcast, I’m talking about one of the most important principles you should adopt if you want to stop struggling with your weight and start living a healthier, happier li...

Oftentimes when we take on a big challenge like changing how we eat or training for a marathon, we don’t get the results we want fast enough. The weight isn’t coming off as quickly as you want or the training isn’t getting any easier, running is still really hard. When you’re focused solely on the end result, and you’re not there yet, you can begin to hate the process it takes to get you the...

There are basically two ways to approach any challenge. One way is to focus on all the reasons why you can’t do it. The other way is to focus on all the reasons why you can . I find it interesting that so many people choose option one when facing anything challenging in their life. They spend a lot of time and energy focusing on why they can’t do it. Today I want to talk about why we do this, why...

Here’s a fact: if you are trying to lose weight and you are hungry all the time, it is going to be a very difficult struggle. This is exactly why most people quit diets – they can’t deal with the constant, intense feelings of hunger. Today, I’m talking about the problem of hunger and how to solve it. I’ll explain the different types of hunger, how to tell if you are actually hungry, which fo...

There seems to be a lot of misleading information out there about intermittent fasting. People think it will mess up your metabolism, or it’s unsafe, or it’s just plain crazy. The truth, however, is very different. Intermittent fasting is not only safe, but it provides some pretty amazing health benefits for runners, especially when combined with a low-carb diet. Today, I’m going to separate fact...

If you have big goals and dreams for yourself, if you’re the kind of person who wants more out of life, then achieving those big goals and dreams will require you to do hard things. To get there means there will definitely be a period when things will get hard. Things are eventually going to suck. Today on the podcast, I’m talking about embracing the suck. Most people want to do the opposite, they...

For decades, we’ve been taught that saturated fat is bad, it causes all kinds of health issues like obesity and coronary heart disease, and that the solution is to replace all the “unhealthy” fats like butter and lard with “heart-healthy” fats like vegetable oil. The problem though is that ever since we’ve increased our consumption of vegetable oils, we’ve just gotten fatter and sicker. What the h...

Today, I’m talking about what happens when you commit to achieving something, and I mean really committing to it. It’s like the difference between saying you’re going to run a marathon one day and actually signing up for a race and training for it. There’s a subtle but powerful shift that happens in your brain when you decide to go all-in on a goal. Making a real commitment early on in the process...