Hello world! I have been wanting to introduce you to my new Four Corners Health brand for a long time but this time collective pause in quarantine was kind of the thing that pushed me over the edge to really put the keys to the board and make it happen.

I’ll be introducing you to my long-term plans soon and you can poke around the website as it stands to get an idea of who I am and what I offer. I imagine many of you already know me because we are connected through work, Tone It Up/Instagram or long-term friends. Some of you have known how passionate I have been about improving our food system for years (I even worked for an online farmer’s market in Seattle that was truly ahead of it’s time! I’ve been imagining Farmigo in the age of COVID-19 and wow — would things have been different)

Others know some of my own story around taking control of my health in my mid-20s and using that as a way to propel my purpose forward — helping you do the same, so that you can live out your life’s purpose and help contribute to making the world a better place.

I’ll be sharing and developing how to accomplish these goals over time but right now I have been doing a lot of self exploration and experimentation on my own health and wellness while we have Shelter in Place in WA state. I was promoted at my full-time job (which I love!) last March and truthfully after reaching my peak fitness in fall of 2018 right before completing my first half marathon (and finishing my 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training), I struggled to maintain balance most of 2019. Compared to what I knew I was capable of, I often felt sluggish, some pesky bloating come back,I had a hard time saying no to foods that did not serve my goals, and I did not sleep enough.

That last point I really want to hammer home because since I’ve been working from home the last 6 weeks, so much of my daily routine has changed and probably the single most impactful thing is that I’m averaging close to 9 hours of sleep a night. I knew sleep was important before, but this simple change and the overall effect it has had on my quality of life is astounding.

Despite a macro-level stress and anxiety in the world, I feel less inflamed, less bloated, and less anxious overall. My food cravings are basically non-existent and my hunger cues are real and normal. I’m getting back into running since it’s an activity we still have easy access to and it feels really great. I can see my body changing and responding well.

This has given me a lot to think about and a lot of hard truths to swallow as I start to prepare for a “return to work” or “return to normal life” in some capacity. I am probably looking at another month of this being my normal so I wanted to make sure to capture some snapshots of what I am seeing to add to my repertoire of information to share with clients. If you haven’t taken a look at my Four Corners tabs yet, they are a great place for you to get a basic understanding of my approach. I like to look at the whole person, and I like to see you for the individual that you are. Techniques and protocols that you need from a nutrition and movement perspective absolutely should be custom-tailored to fit both your life now, and where you want to go.

All of that said I decided to do a week-long macro-nutrient check in for myself. I personally don’t believe in counting calories or macros for long-term success but I do think checking in every once in a while to take a look at your energy input vs. output is very useful. It’s important to remember that even if you are tracking everything meticulously, calorie counting is never 100% accurate. Every food label has some room for error and without monitoring your energy expenditure in a lab setting, we don’t know exactly how many calories our bodies burn.

So why track? If we’re way off base in one direction or the other it can give some high level guidance into increasing/decreasing portion sizes or increasing/decreasing your activity levels to match. In addition, looking at the primary macro-nutrients, we can start to piece together how our food is making us feel and if we should make any adjustments. For example, maybe the calories are there but you’re just not feeling satisfied as you get ready for bed and you’re always craving ice cream… Perhaps not enough dietary fat for you throughout the day! Or maybe you’re limiting carbohydrates for some reason and you are really noticing a toll on your energy - dig into that.

While I don’t recommend necessary tracking the numbers to a “T” at all times, I do recommend some kind of food diary so you can start to correlate other changes in your body with what you ate (skin, hair, digestion, ease of workouts, energy levels throughout the day, etc.)

On to my findings!

To preface the whole experiment, I actually have no idea what I weigh right now because we no longer have a scale at home and with Shelter in Place I clearly don’t have access to the scale at my office gym. So rather than trying to “hit” a calorie goal to lose, maintain or gain weight, I merely wanted to check in with what I am consuming, and measure that against what my Fitbit says my energy expenditure is. This is the best estimate since I track both my exercise and I have my Fitbit on me all day as I move around.

In short, I found that over the course of the week I ate an average of 1470 calories in a day and had an average energy expenditure of 1860 calories. My weekly calculated calorie deficit was therefore 2430 calories. It takes on average a deficit of 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat so if I was looking to lose weight, this would put me at a rate of 7/10 of a lb per week or approximately 11 oz. Nothing crazy.

In this particular experiment, I am pleased to say that I did not catch myself restricting portions or limiting certain foods often labeled as “unhealthy.” This felt extremely balanced and I naturally had some higher calorie and lower calorie days based on my hunger levels. For many years this would not have been the case, and I would have relied on the numbers telling me how much to eat rather than being able to follow hunger cues — a topic for another post!

More notable however is that last week was probably my most active week in months. I was at the top of my virtual leader board of my Fitbit friends in steps, and averaged well over 10,000 a day — something that I struggled with even during a “normal” week with my commute to work. Therefore my overall energy expenditure was likely a little higher than it normally would be.

As far as the macros go, I recently had a genetic report done which gave me insights on to how to eat for my genes. With that in mind, I switched my macro split to 50% Carb/30% Fat/20% Protein. Like many people I usually hit the carb and fat metrics just fine, but even as an omnivore I didn’t always hit those protein goals.

I would like to point out that that split is much more in line with the TIU Nutrition Plan which I credit to feeling my best in the past; versus having followed some higher protein, higher fat, lower carb diets in 2019. All of my nutrition training points to have moderate protein and fat as being absolutely essential to every diet - carbohydrates are where you are going to want to experiment and fluctuate based on your natural body type, and activity type and levels.

Completely countering all of my own personal anecdotes and experiments here, I’m currently reading The Bulletproof Diet which advocates for a very high fat, minimal carbohydrate and moderate protein regimen. I understand some of the biohacking concepts in it, but I also think it’s important to keep in mind bio-individuality, that you have some say in what you actually want to eat because that will keep you on an 80/20 kind of track for longer, and that I’ve never been 300 lbs like the author Dave Asprey was at his heaviest weight. Clearly he had some underlying conditions or genetic disposition that I do not.

Overall this whole experiment and continuing to learn and adapt my own life during quarantine has been very positive. Not only was it a physical check in, but a honest look at my mental state as well, which after the initial shock of this drastic change in everyday life, is looking pretty good. I love being able to enjoy home-cooked meals without sketchy ingredients, multiple walks throughout the day in the fresh air really do add up, and enjoying a slower pace of life has done wonders for my body.

Clearly this is not possible for everyone and I am so beyond proud of my friends and grateful for every stranger on the front lines in the healthcare industry right now. My heart also goes out to those who are also in financially difficult situations and where making healthy choices seems insurmountable due to money or current state of mental health.

For those of us who can, staying home is one part of doing our part, but so is staying strong, finding the positives in the situation and nourishing ourselves so we can come out of the other side a little more aware and thoughtful. I count my own health as one of my greatest blessings which has already allowed me to do so much in life and helps me propel my dreams forward. Truly, that is all I wish for the world and so as always, I hope these narratives help you on that path.

Until next time!