242: Why Macro Counting With Me Is Different

Introduction:

You're listening to Biceps After Babies Radio Episode 242.

Hello and welcome to Biceps After Babies Radio, a podcast for ladies who know that fitness is about so much more than pounds lost or PRs. It's about feeling confident in your skin and empowered in your life. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke, a registered nurse, personal trainer, wife and mom of four. Each week my guests and I will excite and motivate you to take action in your own personal fitness as we talk about nutrition, exercise, mindset, personal development, and executing life with conscious intention. If your goal is to look, feel and be strong, and experienced transformation from the inside out, you my friend, are in the right place. Thank you for tuning in. Now let's jump into today's episode. 

 

Amber B 0:48

Hey, welcome back to another episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke. And it is like Christmas over here. Because if you have been paying attention, doors are currently open to MACROS 101. It's a big deal, we only do it two times a year, and so when we open doors, it really does feel like Christmas, for us and for the new clients that we're welcoming into MACROS 101. We opened doors yesterday on August 29th, and we will be closing doors on Thursday, September 1st. So, if joining macros one on one has been something in the back of your mind, now is the time to make the decision. If you want to understand how to create a customized plan, how to be successful utilizing the tool of macro counting, and how to really become a macro scientist so that you can understand and look at how your body is responding, look at the feedback, be able to analyze that and figure out how to make adjustments, so that this process can be customized to you. To you, your unique body, your unique goals and and the unique lifestyle that you wish to live. If that's something that interests you, then that is exactly what we do inside of MACROS 101. And if you are ready to join, or you want to read more about the details of exactly what is inside of the program, you can head to bicepsafterbabies.com/join for all that information. If you try to go to that link when doors are not open, you will be redirected to the waitlist. So if you're listening to this not in real-time, you can still head to that linkbicepsafterbabies.com/join, and you'll be able to get on the waitlist for the next round of MACROS 101. But if you're listening to in real-time, that will take you straight to the information page and will give you the whole rundown of the program and what you get when you enroll in MACROS 101. Now, as we open doors, one of the most common questions that I get and it's incredibly valid question. There are lots of macro coaches, there are lots of macro programs out there. And the question very nicely is asked, “Amber, what makes your program different?” “Like why should I join your program?” Which I think is a fantastic question, I think you should be asking yourself that question. We always want to join the best we want. We want the best, we want to get the best out there, and so of course, you're going to be comparing me and my coaching and my teaching to other people who are offering what may feel like similar products. And so, I thought I would record a podcast episode today about why macro counting with me is so different. And why when you're doing that comparison, why you can't even really compare me with some of the other coaches. Because the way that we approach macro counting, the way we approach coaching, the way I teach is entirely different. It's completely different. And you may not know that. You may not know that there is a huge difference in the way that I approach things. And so I thought this would be a great podcast episode to record, Why Macro Counting With Me Is Different?

 

Amber B  3:44  

Now I've been doing this for quite a long time. I started coaching in 2016, which, you know, it's all relative, but in internet years, that's a long time ago. I feel like the internet years are a little bit like dog years. So if you've been coaching on the internet since 2016, like you're kind of an OG, you've been around for a really long time. And I've learned a lot. I learned a lot during my during my tenure. And I remember when I first started coaching, I really thought that the key to results was just knowledge. And that was great because I love teaching. I taught all the way through college, in fact, I put myself through college, the the only job that I ever had during college was teacher's assistant. I TA’ed for anatomy, I TAed for physiology, I TAed for pathophysiology, I TAed for some of my nursing courses, I TAed like multiple classes every single semester. I just loved it. I loved teaching. I found that I was really good at it that I enjoyed it and that I liked taking complex topics and being able to break them down into like a step-by-step. Which funny this is like total sidenote, but we're gonna go off a little side tangent. I had an experience, must have been two years ago. It was yeah, it was in February of 2020. I was at a business retreat, and we had a personality expert come to this business retreat. And he was talking about different personalities and kind of grouping us into these categories. And the categories he had used were related to the seasons. So there was summer and there was fall, and there was winter, there was spring. And then you could also kind of be in between seasons, like a summer fall or a fall winter. And anyway, long story short, I was in this group of what was called the “summer falls”. And as he was going through and talking about the summer falls, it was blowing my mind because he talked about how summer falls are really linear thinkers, and they are really good at taking really complex topics and breaking them into like a step by step. They're definitely those people who were like, 1234, I do this and this and this and this. And they're very concrete, and they're very logical, linear, forward-thinking. And as I was listening to him talk about this, I just had this like this thought in the back of my head, and I raised my hand, and I said something to the effect of, okay, but like, it's like, that's how everybody that's like, that's not very special, I guess, was kind of my point is like, that's not very special. It's kind of like, what is what is great about that? And it was so funny, because I remember, like the whole room like turned to me, as if I had like five eyes. And everybody in the room started saying “No, no, no, that's not how we think, that's not how our brain works. That's not our go to, to go into like sequence and 1234”. And I had this realization that something that I just took for granted, was one of my superpowers. And I think we do this a lot, we devalue the things that come very easily to us. And we don't see them as anything great, because they come very easily to us. Anyway, that was a really long side tangent to share with you that I learned a couple years ago that one of my superpowers is my ability to be able to take really complex, seemingly hard, you know, to understand topics, and break them down into simple bite-sized pieces, make them a step by step and help people to be able to go through them to understand and grasp, you know, generally complex objects. That's something that's my superpower. So when I got into coaching, I knew that I was really good at teaching. And I knew that I really love teaching. And I had this thought that the key to people getting results, the key to people being able to change their physique was just knowledge, right? They lacked knowledge, they didn't understand macros, they didn't understand how to track them, they didn't understand what that did to their physique. They didn't understand calories, they didn't understand nutrition. And if I could just educate people, then Bada Bing, Bada Boom, done! Like, you know, wave the magic wand and like, once they understand these things, then they will be able to get all the results that they want. And I learned very quickly that that was not in fact, the case, that learning about macros was very different from when I was teaching in anatomy and teaching people the different muscle structures, it was a completely different topic. And in a completely different integration of the topic. It's one thing to be able to recite and identify different muscular structures in a cadaver.

 

Amber B  8:31  

That's very different book knowledge, understanding knowledge, then when you need to understand macros and nutrition, and then we're the piece that breaks down for most people is that application, it's not that you don't understand what a macro is, or how to track it, or even why you should track it. There gets to be something in between the understanding and the knowledge of that and actually doing it. So, when I first started out, you know, my quote, unquote, coaching really consisted of like, setting people's macros, and adjusting it for them, when I saw what was how their body was responding, like making adjustments to their macros for them. And I would, you know, provide a customized workout plan, you know, “What do you want to do? Okay, let me write you a customized workout plan”, and then providing accountability. So I would like check in on them and send them like random texts, “Hey, how you doing? I haven't heard from you”. Those type thing, you know, email check-in, so you have that feeling of accountability. Like they were accountable to somebody outside of themselves. And then of course, teaching them right. So I love teaching. And so I was like, “Let me teach you about fiber, really teach you about saturated fat. Let me teach you about diet fatigue and reverse dieting.” And let me dump all of this education into your brains. And if you're listening to that, and you're starting to compare, that's what a lot of coaches offer, is that that litany of things that I just listed off. “I'm gonna set your macros”, “I'm gonna adjust them for you”, “I'm gonna give you a custom plan”, “I'm gonna teach you a little bit about it and I'm gonna provide accountability for it for you”. And while that's not inherently bad, it just isn't what the key is for 90 plus percent of the population. And I learned that very fast as a coach, because I realized I could give all the great information, I could provide all the accountability in the world, I could give my clients these beautiful macros, I can, you know, try to adjust them for them, I can have this amazing workout plan. But if they didn't actually do it, nothing changed. And so, it was this conundrum of like, “How I'm giving you these great plans, and yet you're not executing on them. What's up?” And what a lot of coaches will do is they will take the blame, and they'll put it on the client. And they'll be like, “Well, the client didn't do it. You can lead a horse to water but can't make him drink. Like, that's the clients job, they need to execute on him, I gave them a great plan, they need to execute on it.” And that just never sat well with me, I feel like it's a little bit of like victim blaming, of where you're supposed to be the coach, and you're supposed to be helping this person, and you're just writing them off as like, “Well, they just they're not doing it, they're not following it through, I can't force them to do it. So I'm just gonna rinse my hands of it.” Now, that is not to say that I am responsible for my clients outcomes. You know, I'm very clear as a coach of what my responsibility is, as a coach, and you know, the client has responsibilities. Well, I can't do the whole process for them. However, I'd never sat well with me to just like, wash my hands and say, “Well, client didn't do it, not my deal. That's their problem.” And so I dove deep into studying and trying to figure out and testing and messing around with it both myself with my clients, I'm trying to figure out what is the linchpin? Why do so many people know what to do? Or have a plan for what to do? And not execute on it?

 

Amber B  11:51  

Why do people not feel motivated? Why do people not, you know, even if they have a very strict like, “do this”, they don't? Why is that? And why is it so large a majority of the population? We're not talking about like five that fight this affects 5% of the population. We're talking about this affects 90 to 95% of the population. There are some people who are like,”Yeah, once I have the knowledge, I just go off and I like do it. And it's no big deal.” There are some of those people out there. But you're probably not the same people who are listening to this podcast. If you're listening to this podcast, you're probably like the 90 to 95% of the people who struggles with self-sabotage, who struggles to even though you know something, you don't actually put it into action. You're one of those people who struggles to stay motivated, who struggles to stay in action, you're on that cycle of starting and stopping and recommitting and restarting and then quitting and feeling like you're spinning your wheels. You're on that cycle where you feel like, “I'm going to do it this week, I'm going to eat healthy.” I'm laughing because like this was the cycle I was on. It's like Monday morning, eat healthy, eat no sugar, totally do good. By Thursday or Friday, all of my reserves had, you know, I'd wasted all my reserves for the week of saying no to everybody. And I couldn't do it anymore. And my roommate said they wanted to go out for ice cream. And I'm like, Screw it. Screw this, this sucks. Go over ice cream, eat all the things over the weekend, Monday comes recommit. This week is going to be different. Why? I don't know. Because I said it was going to be different. You know, that was always just like, “Well, I'm just gonna try harder this week, I'm just going to do more this week, I'm just going to, you know, be more firm in my resolve, have more motivation have more willpower.” And you probably know the ending of that story, it never actually ever worked. And the reason you probably know the end of that story is because it may be the story you're currently living as well. So what I realized was that so many women, they feel like they're the problem. They lack motivation, they lack willpower. And they feel like they are a problem that needs to be fixed. And the solution to fix a problem is to hire someone to fix it for them. And I understand where that comes from this idea that like someone else is going to do the work for me, someone else is going to tell me what to do. “Just tell me what to do, Amber. Just tell me what to do.” So, so many people think that they want is they just want someone to tell them to do but what you don't realize is that even when someone's telling you what to do, we don't often do it. And so now where are you? You know, where are you at that point? So one of the reasons that my coaching is so different is because I build on an entirely different premise. I build on the premise that you aren't the problem. I build on the premise that yes, having a customized plan is one of the best things that you can do. And I think on some level, most women know that, it's why they seek out customized plants, right? You go and you have someone write a workout plan for you, or you go and you want someone to set your macros for you, or you go and you like buy a meal plan because on some level you understand that you are not like your friend or your sister or your mother or your like you know roommate. Your body is unique and different. And those like, quote-unquote, “one size fits all plans” actually don't fit anybody. And so you understand that on some levels, why we seek out customized plans. But I build my coaching on the premise that yes, you need a customized plan. But you think someone else needs to create it for you? And that's what we get wrong. Because our brains are wired so that when somebody tells us to do something, we tend to rebel. Our brains are kind of like teenagers. You know, you think back to like Romeo and Juliet, and, like, the whole reason that they wanted to be together was because they were forbidden from being together. It's like, as soon as you tell a teenage kid, “No, you can't date that kid”, the teenage kids, like, “Watch me.” Guess what our brains are like,  so you say, you know, a diet tells you you can't eat sugar, guess what the first thing you want to do is you want to eat sugar. And I experienced that where it's like, “This week, I'm not gonna eat sugar”. It's like Monday, don't eat sugar. Can't do any sugar. Tuesday, don't eat sugar. Wednesday, hoah, I want sugar, but I'm not gonna eat it. Thursday. Oh, there was all sorts of ways. And then it's like Fridays, like “Screw it. I mean, all the sugar, stop telling me I can't have sugar, I want to have it.” So I built on the premise that yes, you need a customized plan, but you don't need someone else making it for you. In fact, that's actually the problem. The problem is when someone else gives you a meal plan, it's like somebody else telling you what to do. And that will work for a while. It will. It will work for a while for most people. But at the end, your brain is always stronger. Your desire to to rebel is usually stronger, and most people will rebel and you won't stick to that plan long-term. So what's the key? The key is that you need to be creating the plan. That's the key. Because

 

Amber B  16:49  

when you create the plan, you're much more likely to follow through with it. When you understand it, when you're in charge, when it's you telling yourself to do something, it's a different experience. Now, of course, there still is. And some of you may be saying this in your brain, “Yeah, ever, but I still struggle with self-integrity.” Like when I tell myself to do something, I still don't do it. Yeah, I know. I know, that will come up. And that's something that will coach you through. But it's still infinitely better to be having you create the plan, because you have buy in, because it's your idea. Because you're making the choices for yourself moving forward. And that is a powerful place to be, rather than someone having somebody else be in control of your plan and of your life. I also build from a very unique perspective, and one of the reasons my coaching is so different from so many other coaches is that I want you to be able to coach yourself. Most of the coaches don't really want that actually because they aren't incentivized to do that. If you know how to coach yourself, why the heck would you keep paying them? So, they have no incentive to teach you how to do this process on your own, they have no incentive to help you learn how to set and adjust your macros and read the feedback from your body, they don't have any incentive to teach you how to be your own coach because then you don't need them and you're not paying them anymore. I was just DMing with a girl on Instagram recently and she was telling me that she was paying her coach $600 a month and had been for like the last almost year 600 dollars a month, every month. And there was no end in sight. It was like she was just either gonna continue paying this person $600 a month for like the rest of her life. I don't I don't know, what's what's the exit strategy here. And I realized that that's one of the things that's so different about my my coaching is I want to work myself out of a job, I don't want you to be with me six months. I want to give you all that information and that knowledge and that power, and I want you to run with it. I want you to take it and go be able to coach yourself and that is very, very unique in this industry. There are very few coaches who that's their goal. And that's their desire is to teach you everything you need to know, I want to dump everything I know into your brain. I want to teach you how to look at things and how to analyze things and how to figure out things so that you can read your body and you can go coach yourself. And that is unique. We talk a lot in MACROS 101 about becoming a macro scientist. And that's another thing that makes macro code coaching, macro coaching or macro counting with me different is the fact that my goal is to teach you to become a macro scientist. A lot of programs I notice really encourage what I call the Macro Dieter mentality. And that Macro Dieter mentality looks like a black-and-white way to count macros. Most programs tell you exactly how to count macros, like you have to hit all of your macros within XYZ, you know numbers, and you have to do it every day. And if you don't do it, well then that's problem. That's the problem. We got to figure that out. We got to like get you on track. We got to like, get you hitting all those numbers. And it's very regimented of like, you have to have your fat set between here and here and you have to have your protein. So if your protein goes lower than that, oh my gosh, now you're not doing it right. And you need to fix that. And it's very regimented in in a right and a wrong way approach. And it's one of the reasons that counting with me, coaching with me is so different, is because I don't approach macro counting from a right or wrong way. I approach macro counting as as it being a tool. And how you wield that tool will will determine the results you get. And so we got to figure out how to wield that tool for you, for your body, for your results that you want to get, for your lifestyle. And how you wield the tool of macro counting will likely look different than the way that I do it. And that doesn't make it wrong. It makes it customized, it makes it enjoyable. How many of you have tried to count macros in the in the past, and it's been miserable, and you'd like hated it, it's been hard and you like end up quitting cuz you're like, “Ugh, it's so much work, it's too hard!” Consider that that is not what macro counting is that is simply your relationship to macro counting. And it often is because you went into it with like, “This is how I have to do it. I have to track it this way. I have to weigh my food this way, I have to log my food this way, I have to log all of these foods, I can't skip anything.” And going into it with a mindset like that, of course, it's going to feel like prison, of course, it's going to feel the opposite of freedom. But when you can approach macro counting as being a tool and figure out how to best use that tool, then everything changes. And that's what I call being a macro scientist, becoming a macro scientist. And you can look out there, ain't nobody else teaching you how to become a macro scientist. It's not out there. If you

 

Amber B  21:46  

want to learn how to become macro scientists come and work with me. Because that's what I do is I train and teach and coach and rear up macro scientists. People who can coach themselves, people who understand here's the other. Here's the next thing that's different about me. I talked about the beginning about how, you know, I first started coaching, I thought was all about knowledge. And I realized that there was this big piece that was missing. And that was the self-sabotage piece. And so that's what I really dove into the last couple of years is cracking that cracking the self-sabotage, figuring out why people self-sabotage. Why do you tell yourself, “I'm not going to do that”, and then you do it? Why do you tell yourself, “I'm going to hit my macros,” and then you don't? Why do you tell yourself, “I'm gonna go the gym”, and then you don't? Why is that? I've spent the last several years really figuring that out, and then figuring out how to solve it. How to help and coach clients through that. And I will tell you, from experience in being in this industry, there aren't very many coaches who are really good at that. There are very many coaches who that a lot of them know how to identify self-sabotage, but when it comes to solving self-sabotage, or fixing self-sabotage, sabotage, they don't have any tools or knowledge of how to do that. It's something I've spent a lot of time training, and learning how to do and practicing and perfecting with my clients. And if you talk to any of my past clients, they will tell you that coaching is my superpower. I guess, I have two superpowers. Making things really simple like taking complex topics and making them really simple. And then also coaching. And deep dive coaching through self-sabotage. You see self-sabotage, that things that we label as self-sabotage are actually symptoms. So when you say something like, “Oh, I just stress eat.” That's a symptom. Okay, or I self-sabotage by not going to the gym. Symptom. I self-sabotage by I stopped tracking. Symptom. And the problem is, is that most people try to solve the symptoms. So they say, “Oh, you're not tracking? Okay, let's solve that. Let's solve the not tracking. Let's address that. Oh, you're you're stress eating? Okay, let's let's address that.” When in reality, when you understand that what you're identifying as a self-sabotaging behavior is actually a symptom, not a root cause. And then we can figure out we can reverse engineer work backwards and figure out what the root cause is, and will now when you can solve the root cause the symptom goes away. Just like if you have a headache, right? If you have a headache, the symptom is that my head hurts. But we can't just solve my head hurts because it could be a million different reasons why your head hurts. But we can figure out, “Oh, your head hurts because you're dehydrated. Great, now we can solve the underlying problem and the symptom goes away.” It's the same thing with self-sabotage. The behaviors that you are seeing and manifesting as self-sabotaging behaviors are not the real problem, the real problem is at the root, what is causing that. And when we can as a coach, one of the things that I'm really good at is helping people to uncover what is the root cause and then helping to solve and fix and heal the root cause and then the symptoms, the self-sabotaging behavior goes away. So, as I wrap this up, some of the things that you are probably understanding now by the end of this episode is that my coaching looks very different because I approach it from a totally different paradigm than most coaches. And honestly, this comes from a lot of experience. And it comes from coaching thousands and thousands and thousands of women through this process, and being able to see what works, see what doesn't practice with people and get that real time feedback of knowing, “Oh, okay, this actually works with clients”, “This actually gets them to make progresses.” This is how you identify the self sabotage, this is how you coach past it. And if you want somebody who has tried and trued and tested and has coached thousands and thousands of people through this through a program, MACROS 101 is going to be for you. My coaching is different than any other coach out there. You are going to come out of MACROS 101, as a macro scientist, understanding the process, feeling confident in your ability to be able to coach yourself and be able to fly on your own. One of the the words that a lot of women use as they come out of macros one on one is the word empowered. They feel empowered. And I want you to think about what that could feel like if instead of feeling frustrated, or stuck or discouraged in your journey. What if you felt empowered? And how would that start to shift things for you. If that's something that you want to feel, MACROS 101 is for you.

 

Amber B  26:36  

Doors are open through Thursday, September 1s, bicepsafterbabies.com/join, we'll have all the information about the ins and outs of the program. But the overarching theme is if you want to become a macro scientist, if you want to learn to be able to coach yourself, if you want to break past some of the barriers that you have, if you want to break past that self-sabotage. If you want to be successful and move forward in your journey and you want to feel empowered, instead of frustrated and stuck and discouraged, MACROS 101 is for you. And for those of you who are a right fit for the program, I can't wait to get started with you. I can't wait to coach you through the breakthroughs that I know that you're going to have. We're gonna have a good time together. That wraps up this episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm Amber, now go out and be strong because remember, my friend can do anything. 

 

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