Episode #300: An EASY Way to Burn More Calories (Without Much Effort)

Intro:

Welcome to The Healthy Catholic Moms Podcast where we make moving and nourishing our bodies the priority, so that we not only fulfill our vocations, but excel in our callings. I’m Brittany Pearson, a Catholic wife, mom, personal trainer, and I’m here to help you build healthy habits that actually fit your life. I am here to teach you how to get the results that you want and maintain the results that you want. Without spending hours at the gym, or meal prepping all weekend long. I understand I am right here with you getting my workouts done in the nooks and crannies of time, looking up recipes, while nursing babies and trying to prioritize my own health amidst everything else going on. But I have really good news for you, you can get the results you want. In less time without doing hours of cardio and restrictive dieting, I’m going to teach you how to use strength training and eating in a macro balanced way to get you feeling so good and your skin full of energy, and strong to carry out your life. Okay, on this podcast, we’ll delve into how to lose fat in a simple, sustainable way. What your workouts and nutrition should look like during different seasons of life, like during pregnancy and postpartum times. We’ll also discuss healthy quick meals, and how to get them on the table, make foods that kids will actually want to eat, mom hacks for making your day run more smoothly, and so much more. All the while with continuous encouragement to stay the course and live with discipline. This is a place where we’re striving to steward our bodies. Well, in order to joyfully serve. I am so happy you’re here. Let’s dive in.

Main Episode:
Hello there, I hope you’re having a great day. And I’m so happy that you’re here to spend some time with me today. Thanks for being here. If you’re here, every single week, twice a week, or if you’re just popping in. I’m excited you’re here.

Today is a fun topic, in my opinion. Because of course, I think that things related to health and fitness in general are fun. But you know many of you are probably coming from backgrounds where you’re in a really healthy place. And hopefully those of you who have been around here for a while that you know you’ve gleaned a lot from this podcast and from making your own lifestyle changes that you’re in general, pretty movin and groovin with your health and fitness, your workouts are good, your nutrition is pretty on point. And if you’re in the camp that is not at all on this show like Brittany, I’m not relating to this at all. I’m actually a newer listener, and I’m trying to get a lot of information and I’m not there. That is great, too.

Okay, this is what we’re talking about today. And this topic is like the icing on the cake. So if you are newer to health and fitness, there’s going to be some principles you’ll hear me talk about all the time. And I encourage you to go back and kind of get those down in previous episodes.

I am loving strength training, I’ve always loved strength training, this is not a trend. This is scientifically based research that shows you that shows how wonderful strength training is for the body for the metabolism for injury prevention for so many things. So strength training is going to be what I’m going to recommend in the workout department. And obviously, there’s a lot of nuance to that. What do I mean? What does that look like? What are the frequency what, you know, when and where does cardio fit in? There’s a lot that we talked about through all these apps. So that’s why there’s almost are probably past 300 episodes of this podcast, right? Then nutrition, same thing, you can really boil it down and be like it’s mostly whole clean foods. 80% of the time. 20% of the time is treats. And then there’s a lot of nuance to that, right. That’s how we get into that. This is another little step of what can help you just live a healthy, active life. And this is so interesting to me that this study came out. This is what gave me the idea for this episode.

There was a study at the Mayo Clinic that tracks the movement and calorie intake of 10 obese people and 10 non obese or thin study participants. Now this information I got from NPR was reporting on this. Okay, so researchers at the Mayo Clinic are the ones who actually did this study and then this is NPRs take on it. So they took 10 obese people 10,000 people, and it was very controlled, like they made all their meals. Everybody was kept at this specific calorie intake like it was very monitored. Then they tracked this by I think it was actually sensors in their underwear that actually tracked this. They found that overweight people burn 350 fewer calories a day, because they sat for 150 more minutes a day than the thin people did who tended to be more fidgety during their daily activities. Now the very next thing that this article went on to discuss was about meat, and how beneficial meat can be for your body. Now if you’re new around here, NEAT stands for Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis if you’re not new around here, you’re going to know I’ve talked about this for years, literally years, you go back, I think like the fourth podcast episode and I’m talking about neat, okay, or I think on the three keys to fat loss, I mentioned NEET as one of them. Need is basically all activity that is not exercise. So this looks like when you park your car a little bit farther, and you take a little farther to walk into grocery shopping, or when you take the stairs instead of an elevator, it’s not planned exercise, because you should still have that. And a lot of research still shows that you need vigorous exercise for your heart for your body. In general, your hearts your body, but you know what I mean, your muscles, your heart, etc. But it’s all these little opportunities to just move to just be active, that are going to be a real difference maker. And that’s so interesting that 350 calories is what we’re talking about per day. Now you need to burn 500 calories to lose a pound of weight. Now that’s not necessarily a fat, but in general, that’s always been the math is 500 calories will get rid of a pound of weight, whether that’s muscle or fat, or whatever. And that’s water weight, etc. So I don’t go too much by that like about the crazy calorie burning. But that I mean, if you’re taking in an extra 350 calories a day, just think about if your life has become more sedentary lately, and this is not a shaming thing. This is I think, so important to say, people, ladies clients, ladies I’ve worked with before who have gotten very defensive and sensitive and a little touchy, a little offended. If I have suggested that they live a more sedentary lifestyle. Or I will ask the question like Well, have you become more sedentary lately. And I think that the knee jerk reaction is always no, especially if we’ve thought of ourselves or have truly been active people before. Like you have in your head, you’re an active person, maybe you were an athlete in college, or maybe you really enjoy active activities like hiking like biking like you enjoy that stuff you like working out, etc. you it might be hard to come to terms with the fact that you actually sit at a desk eight hours a day, where you actually do have kids that are draining your energy, but you’re sitting a lot playing with them. You’re sitting in nursing, you’re sitting at the park because somebody needs to be held and whatever. And if you were to actually look at a tracker and see you are not moving around as much as you think you are now this is totally from experience. I first of all, I don’t get offended about the fact that I’m more sedentary because I understand it’s my lifestyle. But this is 100% me, I remember saying this to my husband, I think when had my second baby, the first baby, I was still probably just as active. I was still teaching classes at the gym. Oh schlepping that kid around who was Kersey carrier went literally everywhere. It was like, oh, Mom’s going to your mom’s going there. You’re now you know, he would be in the room with me while I taught classes and stuff. It was just a different thing. By the time of the second baby, I was not doing that stuff anymore. I was it was also November, I hit him in November. We were very home based. I was sitting in nursing him a lot. I was sitting playing with my three year old. That is when I realized been talking to my husband, I had become very sedentary. He’s like, No, you’re active. You’re this app like no, if I track my steps. In the winter, I’m probably getting 500 steps a day like I don’t know, we live in 1000 square foot house. I’m walking to the kitchen, I’m walking to the couch, I might walk upstairs a few times. And you know, it’s just the reality. You don’t have to be like ashamed of it embarrassed about it. Oh, I’m sedentary like, Yeah, our world is very setup for us to be sedentary. So let’s just be realistic with that. Because most people when I asked them to rank, how active they are, rank themselves very high on the active scale. And I don’t think that’s the case for a lot of us. So now getting seasonally totally different. Yesterday, I just told my husband we were doing yard work. And I don’t usually have my phone on me, but I had leggings with a pocket in it. So I stuck my phone in the pocket of my leggings. And we were outside for three hours, doing different stuff, raking the kids were all out with us. We were doing, you know, I ran to the store in between. And I looked at my phone at like 2pm and I hit 11,000 steps. It’s like man, I don’t think I paid 11,000 steps in a very long time. And it’s like not even my phone wasn’t even in my pocket in the morning until we went outside. And then it was only two o’clock. So I was like, wow, I forget how spring and summer. It’s just so much more active. Okay.

So be realistic about how active you think you are, first and foremost. Highlight again, that that study was from Mayo Clinic, but then the New York Times was talking about it as well. So in the New York Times reporting on the same article, they said this is a direct quote in an environment that allows people to be sedentary, those with a biological predisposition to sit still. Dr. Levine but in contrast, the restless ones will still find a way to burn calories, even if it means walking around their desks. People with obesity are tremendously efficient. Dr. Levine says, Any opportunity not to waste energy they take, if you think about it that way, it all makes sense. As soon as they have an opportunity to sit down and not waste those calories they do. This is huge when we think about things. So think about that. I mean, are you the person that as soon as you, like you get to a restaurant instead of standing wait for table, you sit down as soon as there’s a spot? Or you are at your kids T ball game or whatever? And you’re immediately parking it on a bench? Or are you standing up walking around, doing different things, these little tendencies that just, they might look like, Okay, why is the person always fidgeting? Or why can that person not sit still? Well, they’re probably having an easier time maintaining their body fat and their body weight because of these habits. Now, that’s not to say that every person who likes sitting and stuff like you can like sitting and still be at a healthy weight. Like there is a difference. You know what I mean? I hope you don’t think that I think you need to be on the go doing something all the time. It’s just interesting with this study is literally showing people that even fidget like tapping your pencil tapping your foot, you’re burning calories with all that. So no, do I think you need to run around like a nut case all the time. But I think you do need to be cognizant of how much am I the person that as soon as there’s an opportunity to sit I set the closest parking spots, always the one I’m looking for, if you can change a couple of these habits like this is the stuff that is going to make the difference for your longevity for the long term.
This is not a quick fix, like I just need to lose some weight No, no maintain it, that these kind of habits are why people who maybe have a significant amount of weight to lose can lose it and then gain it right back. Because maybe they’ve done a quick thing they are working out for a while and maybe even maintain workouts. But there’s these other little habits like I talked about the beginning icing on the cake, that now there’s a lot there’s you know, a lot of other habits in nutrition and things that might creep in. But just even this example, if you know you were are or were an overweight person, and you are looking for these opportunities to sit to take the easiest way. And like this is again, we as humans tend to head toward the easiest option. We want the easy button, and our life. Our environment is so set up for us to be sedentary. Like I said, I don’t know when I realized it for myself, like wow, I am so much more sedentary. I realized it was also very hard to do something about that. Like right, I’m sitting in nursing a lot. And then I’m sitting when I’m writing programs for clients, I’m sitting when I’m recording this podcast right now, like there’s a lot of sitting time. So what can I do about that? And it’s those other things have? Okay, can I park further away Can I did this was years ago, got a $100 treadmill off Facebook marketplace, I brought my laptop about my laptop up on it, talking too fast. And I will walk in a very slow pace. While I’m answering email check ins for the eight week challenge and for my one on one clients or whatever, who’s gonna do the same thing I’m gonna do seated, I just tried to take it to the treadmill. So not everyone I know has the space or luxury or resource for treading on that thing. Everybody can do their job either like walking on a treadmill, but it’s just finding little ways that we can try to combat this sedentary lifestyle because it’s really hard to do. So we need to move around more right we just talked about last episode, how something that can be helpful is to think what would a fit and healthy person do not what do I always do? What am I prone to do? What is easiest, what’s like the first thing that pops into your head right now is probably going to be if you are a sedentary person is going to be the easiest way to do something right and that’s normal. Again, we’re in a very sedentary culture with an easy button for everything.

So it’s about finding the ways that we can work movement in general into our days. I’ve shared before goofy things I do in my own house like I will never switch I will never take the clothes out of the dryer and put the wet clothes from the washer into the dryer all at once. I will instead take the clothes out of the dryer walk them up the stairs go put them on my bed which is where I fold laundry come back down then switch it can goofy little things I’ll try to catch myself doing this too. In the backyard as my kids are at the park where no it’s not like you always have to be doing something you always have to be productive but rather than if my tendency is just to park it on a bench or park it on a chair in my yard that can be my tendency a lot. I think a lot of these habits come from our lifestyle like actually needing to sit and feed babies or sit and do things to again think like why am I sitting just walk around instead and how much better that is for overall health and this just goes so far for our longevity like we are building these habits this comes down to habits you know that are going to help us to keep ourselves active and strong and it’s very much to that if you don’t you know move it you lose We don’t want to be that person that if you’re 20 years old, and you’re starting to sit all the time, you’re 30 years old or you’re 40 years old, like you’re going to start losing the agility and the ability to move. So we need to move while we are able to so now another thing that this article talks about, the New York Times article talked about a book called The fidget factor, which I have not read. So this is just according to the article. But I think it’s really interesting. And I am going to read it is written by brothers who one is a professor of exercise science, and the other is a Professor of Kinesiology. And according to this article, it says the authors discuss all the different movements that burn calories and stress that it’s just a matter of looking at your environment and daily activities, to find opportunities to add useful and flexible activities to your daily routine. So that after a while, you’ll hardly notice that you are doing anything. Now, this is why I mentioned the beginning of the episode that it’s really an icing on the cake issue, because if right now you’re doing zero designated workouts, and you’re nutritions kind of all processed food and really like standard American diet, then are you going to notice that much change in your life just by moving around more or walking? couple extra steps? Yes, no, maybe, you know, you might then feel like, well, I’m doing all these extra things, I’m not seeing any changes. However, these are great things to layer on top of that, if you’ve got the bones in place, or getting the bones in place, this is that step further, really changing your behavior from being sedentary to being active and feeling really good. I listen to podcast ones, I don’t remember who it was. But it was somebody who was talking about how their parent was somebody who was very active. Like, I just thought it was normal to see my dad like stretching on the sidelines before my soccer games, or walking up and down the field, just like then I kind of realized like, other parents don’t do that. And the different sedentary and fast food, kinda lifestyles of other, you know, families of kids who are aged now, think there’s a fine line, I am not that person that’s like doing pull ups over in the corner. And my kids games, like I do have a sense of like, oh, that’s a little embarrassing, or not wanting to be that person that thinks they’re super healthy. You know, there’s a lot of things that can be associated with that, that, you know, we can not care about, that’s one route or, you know, I try to kind of ride that line of not being the person like running sprints in between innings on my kids T ball game, but also not being the person that just parks it in the chair and sits there because really, these little come like these tiny habits and things that we’re doing all day every day. Don’t we don’t notice their compound effect. So you might think, well, I don’t sit that much. But the hours are cumulative sitting there. There is a lot of research to show that sitting can be associated with heart disease and things like that, because it just accompanies which I think is what this study did a really good job of pointing out is it accompanies the tendencies. It’s not necessarily the fact that someone is sitting, but that even the tendency is if there’s an option to sit or to take an easy button. Some people will do it more than others. So don’t take that out either or thinking like Well, I’m just probably genetically inclined to do that. Well, you are in control of a lot of things. And one of those things can be to change that habit to start standing instead of sitting when sitting is an option and to move around more than you would like to. And it’s just going to, you know, help us to achieve and maintain the healthy body weight that we’re after. So I helped
defaulting to being sedentary and this, I thought I’d share that study with you today. So hope you enjoyed. Thank you so much for being here.

Next time we’re going to talk about the four main movement patterns that you need to be doing in your workouts. So if you’re looking to enhance your workout routine, or establish one, definitely tune in next episode. Alright ladies, I hope you have a great rest of your day and I’ll talk to you next time.

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