329: Creating Macro-Friendly Recipes with Danielle Lima

Introduction 

You're listening to Biceps After Babies Radio Episode 329.

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 PR's. 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 experience 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.

Hey, hey, hey! Welcome back to another episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke. And today we are going a little bit behind the scenes of what it takes to make a macro friendly cookbook. I have on the podcast Danielle Lima. You may also know her as Oh Snap Macros on Instagram. She had her first cookbook come out in January of this year and has another one coming out in 2025 and so I wanted to invite her on the podcast to talk a little bit about her own journey, going through finding macro counting her own journey, how many you know, cuts she's been through and how she cycles through those. We talked a little bit about her philosophy with food and how that translates into the recipe creation process for her. And if you're looking for some good recipes to try out, some good macro friendly recipes. She mentions a couple of her favorites in the episode, so that would be if you're looking for some places to start, that's where I would start on her website is those those specific recipes that she mentioned in the episode. So without further ado, let's go behind the scenes on making a macro friendly cookbook with Danielle Lima.  

Amber B 01:53 

I am so excited to welcome to the podcast and yell, maybe you know her better as Oh Snap Macros, but welcome to the podcast. 

Danielle Lima 02:01 

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. 

Amber B 02:02 

Yes. I'm really excited. I was just chatting beforehand, saying I'm just excited for her to be able to share a little bit about her story and about her site and what's coming and some of the big things that you have in the works, so let's start a little bit with just a little bit of an introduction of you, you know a little bit about your story and then specifically I would love to like lead into what made you start Oh Snap Macros. Like, what was that kind of this is something I want to do and kind of that taking off for you. 

Danielle Lima 02:29 

OK, so it was my macros when I was actually. It's kind of a crazy story. When I was pregnant with my second daughter, I was on maternity leave and I came back and I had started tracking my macros and my job completely changed, so I was in upper management for a construction company and when I got back to work they had changed management completely and demoted me right after my maternity leave. So I don't know if I should legally say this on here but I started working on my website while I was at work and I just thought I thought to myself, I am going to make this something and I am going to, you know, go off on my own and make those that macro something that I wanted to be. And I did it and I was able to quit my job and yeah, so I thought I had already been posting things online and recipes online, and I thought if Instagram goes down, there is nowhere where all my recipes live, and so I started the website and that's kind of how I came to was I really had like a fire lit under me by my old job and. And it I took that and ran with it. 

Amber B 03:38 

I love, I love those kind of experiences where on one hand you're like, this is terrible. This is awful. Like this awful experience of being demoted. But what it forced you to do was like it forced you to take a leap that you might not have taken before because it felt too frisky or it felt like you know, you got something that you wanted to like put the effort into. But then it was kind of like your hand was forced. And like what came out of it. 

Danielle Lima 04:01 

Yeah, I pivoted and I pivoted right. 

Amber B 04:04 

Yeah. Yeah. And it's and it's great. Something awesome. How did you discover Macro Counting like, when? When did you find that? Like, what was that experience like for you? 

Danielle Lima 04:13 

So when I was pregnant with my second, I gained 80 lbs and postpartum. I was like, what am I going to do? How am I going to lose this weight? I couldn't believe I gained so much weight and I was scrolling Instagram and I came across Macros and just people posting before and afters and knowing what the heck are macros, right? 

Amber B 04:33 

Do you remember what you, you remember what year that was? I'm so curious. 

Danielle Lima 04:36 

2021.

Amber B 04:37 

2021, OK, awesome.

Danielle Lima 04:38 

Yeah. And what are these you know, how do I do this? How do I get these results? Yeah. And so I joined the program and I started tracking my macros. And I started seeing results not, you know, instantaneous, you know, dream body type stuff. But seeing the results of my body changing. Me eating more protein than I ever thought was it. I never knew I needed to eat that much protein back in the day and just seeing how much better I felt I was sleeping good, I was able to, you know, get in a 30-minute workout with my little tiny baby next to me and it it just kind of like spiral, I was like this is awesome. What am I doing this is great and he was like what am I gonna eat? Ohh, you know it, it kind of all just got together that way. 

Amber B 05:18 

Yeah. Did you have a history of like dieting before that or was this really, like, the first time you were intentionally trying to lose weight. 

Danielle Lima 05:26 

I have had a history with whole 30 many, many, many rounds paleo for a very long time, I was strictly Paleo for call it three years back in the day, and when I when I was pregnant, when I came out of my second pregnancy and I thought, how am I going to lose all this weight? I immediately thought, OK, we'll have to do Paleo again. We're going to have to do whole 30. And then I saw macros, I saw people eating things that they wanted to eat. They weren't eliminating food groups and I had no medical reasons to eliminate. Yeah, and I thought. I'm going to try this. You know it's too good to be true. Right, I could make things fit in my macros and I can lose weight. But that's when I discovered that it wasn't too good to be true. It you just got to make it work for you. 

Amber B 06:12 

Yeah, that's so super awesome. Looking back, you know, you've you've been counting macros for a while, you know, creating a lot of recipes and things. And I'm sure you've learned a ton, right. I feel like when we first dive into macros, it can feel really overwhelming. It can feel confusing. There is a lot to learn. What do you, what do you wish you had known back like, right when you were starting? 

Danielle Lima 06:35 

That you can eat different things. You don't have to eat the same thing every day for every meal. You know, I think a lot of times. Well, that's good, right? That's a good thing. Like, especially when you're getting started having the same thing. So you can figure out logging and tracking and what what a serving size of something looks like. But once you get it down and you realize that you can mix and match or you can, you know, switch it up every week, I think that is kind of eye opening. Because I think a lot of people think Macros they think bodybuilders. They think chicken, rice, broccoli and also what am I going to do with my family when I'm just eating chicken, rice and broccoli? 

Amber B 07:19 

Yeah. Yeah, I think there's a big concern for a lot of women, especially the moms, is that I'm not only feeding myself, but I'm feeding maybe a partner. I'm feeding these kids. And I I one of the biggest things I hear Mom say is like I don't want to make two meals and I'm like girlfriend. I am right there with you. I don't want to make two meals either. That sounds terrible. So what does that look like for you, like during this period of time were you making your own meals, were you making meals for family? Is that kind of the origin of like having to feed you and your family is where the you like, you know, created Oh Snap Macros but tell us a little bit about that. 

Danielle Lima 07:50 

Yeah, that really sparked it because starting to track my macros, how am I going to feed my family? How am I going to hit X amount of protein and also give them what they want. So think of some of my recipes like taco mac and cheese, lazy lasagna. Those are all things that like I can eat and hit protein goals or you know any macro goals. And my husband loves them. My kids love them and they're also getting more protein than they probably were before all that. 

Amber B 08:16 

Which is important for everybody, right? Like everybody needs a little protein. 

Danielle Lima 08:19 

Right. So I kind of set out to solve that problem of how do I feed myself, tracking macros and how do I feed my family? And I married the two because they're not only macro friendly and high protein, moderate low carbs and fats. They're family tested. 

Amber B 08:33 

Have you always been like a chef? Do you always like to cook, or is this something that's been more of a new passion for you? 

Danielle Lima 08:40 

I've always like to cook. I am self-trained. My mom was a great cook growing up and so I kind of learned from her once I got out of college and was on my own. You know, college was a lot of drive thru. And what can we just like piece together and eat and go. But once I got out of college and I was on my own, I I cooked a lot and I kind of just learned from, you know people's recipes online and trying things and seeing what things taste like and. 

Amber B 09:05 

That's awesome. What? What would you say is your philosophy with food or like, how do you approach food and and specifically if someone's like following you or trying your recipes like what is the philosophy that they're buying into when it comes to food? 

Danielle Lima 09:19 

So I think for me the big one is making your macros work for you, not against you. So fitting in things that you enjoy. Yeah, it might not be every day, you know, but fitting that in and not not going to get the ice cream with your kids because it doesn't fit in your day. Maybe planning for that the next day. Just make it work for you. Don't fight it, or else it's miserable. 

Amber B 09:42 

Yeah, I totally agree and I I I call that like treating macro kind of like a diet where I still see people bring that idea of like I have to hit my macros and if I don't hit my macros and I did it wrong and you just bring some of that guilt and shame that comes from other diets into macro counting and it's like you’ve just brought all the worst parts of, like, all of the diets into this thing that doesn't have to be that way, right? How can I work for you? How can it be something that you enjoy, something that fits the foods that you actually like to eat? Yeah. So what would you say, like balance looks like for you now versus maybe when you were starting? 

Danielle Lima 10:17 

I think now, especially because I cook so much, I have a little less of a I'm less stringent with my tracking. I'm able to really build a plate and know, you know, that's about four ounces of chicken or that's a cup of rice, that sort of thing. I think when I first started everything I had to really weigh and track if I'm in a deficit phase, I'm much better at tracking, but once I get out then I'm much more lenient and I can kind of just build it and figure it out. Like throughout the day. I could go back and be like, OK, I think that was about 400 calories and that was this. And I can figure out what I had, but letting go of it a little bit has been really good. 

Amber B 10:57 

Yes, it's so good. Yeah. I talked to my clients a lot about what I call the three stages and like, stage one is where a lot of women come to me. I think that's probably where you started, where you, like, feel really out of control of food. You feel out of control with your body. You don't know how to. You don't know what to eat in order to, like, get to the goals that you want to get to. So it's just like feeling of out of control. And then a lot of people, they come into macro counting, and it gives them finally, that feeling control like Ohh I have a plan. I know how to eat. I know how to track and log my food and I know what I'm supposed to hit right? So it's it. It is a big hurdle for a lot of women to be like. I felt so out of control and I feel so much more in control. But what I love that you just pointed out Danielle is that I always tell my clients that's not the final step. Like that's Step 2. Step three is where we're getting to a place of trust, right instead of holding tightly and controlling everything. We're getting this place of trust where we have built the reps of measuring out the things and knowing how much 4 ounces of chicken is and knowing approximately how many calories are a plate. And you've built that trust with yourself that you don't have to be so strict or rigid. You can utilize that and really start to build that trust with yourself. So it's really cool to hear that you've really moved through those phases and you get to the place where I think a lot of women want to get is like. Most of us don't want to to track every single thing that we eat for the rest of our lives. We want to get to that place where we can build that trust. Will you speak a little bit to how you move maybe from that like control or like tracking more intensely to a place of trust, because this bridge is one that a lot of women struggle to you know, go over. So what did that, that bridge look like for you? What you know, advice would you have from someone who's like I'm really good at tracking. I'm really good at being exact. I have a lot harder time of letting that go and that trust element. 

Danielle Lima 12:37 

Maybe starting with one meal at a time, you know, letting go of breakfast, starting there and then just kind of gradually making your way through. I sometimes, you know, logging breakfast might actually be more important for you. And letting go of the rest of the day. So you can make sure that you actually hit some bigger protein goals in the morning. I think a lot of us when we, when we let like you know, let back the control a little bit. Breakfast kind of starts to slip, you know, it ends up being a piece of sourdough with, you know, just very basic and running off. So maybe letting control go of one meal at a time and then a day and then a couple. And then I think over time you kind of get there and you start to see the patterns.  

Amber B 13:17 

Yeah. And see that, like, I can. I can do this you know, I don't have to be so strict and so stringent. I think that's really great. I I often think of the idea of like holding sand in your hand and if you hold that sand too loosely like it all falls out, but if you grip it super, super, super, super tight, it also falls out. It's kind of like we want to just have that nice soft grip on it. And that's I think that relates to macro counting as well. I see people really gripping really hard to their macros just trying to get full hyper control everything, but then we also don't want to just like not care all, it's like that balance in between.  

Danielle Lima 13:50 

Well, it's also hard because a lot of women track their macros and we're all kind of like control freaks in a way, you know. 

Amber B 13:54 

Yeah, tend to like attract a certain type of person.  

Danielle Lima 13:59 

Yeah, for sure.  

Amber B 14:00 

Touch me a little bit about cuz I know you said you like when you're at maintenance, you're maybe not tracking quite as intensely and then when you go into a fat loss period. You'll be a little bit more strict, which is to, you know, really normal. What has that those phases look like for you? Like, have you gone through a maintenance phase? Have you gone through, have you done any bulking? Have you, how many you know cut cycles have you been through like kind of just walk me through what that looks like over the last couple years? 

Danielle Lima 14:25

Okay. So 2021 started with a cut and then I went into maintenance in like October 2021. So that was my first experience reversing to maintenance, it went really well. I continued to have body re-composition and thought, OK, let's try it again in January. Everyone January 1, let's do it again. Yeah, tried it for a week. And then I realized I am not ready to be back there again. And I just stayed in maintenance. I was there for, I think, a solid year after that in maintenance. I've never bulked intentionally.

Amber B 14:57 

Yeah, unintentional bulk. I feel like that’s more comfortable. 

Danielle Lima 15:00 

Yes. And then in 2023, I did another cut. What year are we in 2024. And then I just did another cut. So I've done three since June 2021 and, you know, I started my journey at like 208 lbs, something like that postpartum, you know, doing 30-minute workouts. And when I could fit it and now I'm in the gym and I'm lifting heavy. And that for me it's like the maintenance compared to your deficit when you're lifting weight. 

Amber B 15:33 

Yes. 

Danielle Lima 15:34 

Oh, I now don't hate the deficit because the food, I hate the deficit because I can't lift heavy. I can't keep going up and up and up. I just. And I'm like oh. 

Amber B 15:40 

Yeah. Yes. 

Danielle Lima 15:43 

I got to get out of this because I want to you know lift heavy again. So my mindset has changed a lot where before it was always trying to be thinner, trying to be “skinny” and now that's how strong can I be you know, I started. I started like a hip thrust challenge with myself last year and I think it was last year, maybe at the beginning of this year. And I got up over 400 lbs. And that to me was just like what in the world, you know, that's more than twice my body weight. And it just is so cool to me that I'm doing that. And that has rubbed off on my children because I come home and tell my husband you know I'm doing what I'm doing and he's like, oh, you're so strong. And so everything now with my kids is flexing their muscles and showing us how strong they are and they're two little girls, so it's really cool to see. 

Amber B 16:28 

That is super cool. Yeah. I mean, one of my favorite things to hear from women who, who have consistently in their life always been trying to eat less and always been in a deficit, right? There's so many women who just are chronically in that low calorie mentality when I can get them to increase their calories and get them to reverse and get them up to maintenance, and then they go to the gym feeling that way inevitably, I get a text or a messaging Ohh my gosh, my mind is blown at like how different I feel at the gym when I'm well fueled and eating that maintenance versus how crappy I felt the gym when I was under eating and that's one of my favorite things to hear because it is vastly different of just how you feel and how much energy you can put out and the things you can accomplish when you are well fueled. 

Danielle Lima 17:14 

Even just eating before the gym. 

Amber B 17:16 

Yes. Yeah.  

Danielle Lima 17:17 

I think we all probably can relate and struggle with that. You know, it's like drop off the kids. I go to the gym. But if I don't have something night and day difference between my lives tell. 

Amber B 17:26 

Yeah, you can tell. Yeah. And that's awesome. So during, over the last, you know, three years or so you've done 3 cuts. So about how long will each of those cuts? 

Danielle Lima 17:37 

My first one was June to October, OK with like some breaks in between like holiday breaks and. 

Amber B 17:43 

So like three or four months, OK. 

Danielle Lima 17:44 

Yeah, my second one I think was June, July, August. So call it, call it 11 weeks and then this past one was about 12 weeks. But this past one was it started off good, it ended not great, but the other reasons I can tell you, yeah. 

Amber B 18:05

OK. We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about that. OK. But the point I want to make is that out of three years, right. So with that 36 months, you've been in a deficit for less than 10 and I think it's just such a good reminder for people who are listening who have weight to lose that like going in cycles taking that time to like reset your your body, your metabolism be able to have the energy back, reset your cortisol during those maintenance periods like we really should be spending a lot of time at maintenance and I think that's one of the hardest things for people to buy into, especially when they have more weight to lose because there is this pull to being like you need to be in a deficit for, you know as much as possible to be able to get the weight off. And I think when we can have examples of this where it's like. So you you spent so much time at maintenance and yeah, you spent these little blocks of time at in a deficit, but the majority of your time really is spent fueling your body, not probably being in the deficit.

Danielle Lima 18:58 

Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy when you put it into perspective like that, the months. Yeah. 

Amber B 19:05 

Yeah. OK. So tell us about this last cut. I'm super curious here. 

Danielle Lima 19:09 

Ugh. OK, so there's two things that do not go hand in hand, writing a cookbook and being in a deficit. 

Amber B 19:14 

Or we can even just like blanket say that like any stressful life event, like more energy is required from you. 

Danielle Lima 19:22 

Yeah, so I started it off, you know, going great and then signed this cookbook deal. And so I started working on it in a deficit, so it ended up being you know, I I worked with the coach and she basically was holding my hand where we were trying to make it so I was in like a very small, little deficit, so that way I could, I was logging everything and hitting my goals that I was doing taste testing and you know, bites, licks, taste all that. So I was just in a little tiny deficit and just squeaking by right at that. And I just kept going because I knew it was good for me in this phase of my life to be there and doing that so we'll call it like a 10% deficit, probably. 

Amber B 20:01 

Hmm. Yeah. So was it more because of like the stress of creating the cookbook or was it more because of like in creating a cookbook, you're you're tasting all these things, you're you're trying all these foods like. 

Danielle Lima 20:11 

Both.  

Amber B 20:12 

Oh, both? Yeah. 

Danielle Lima 20:12 

Both for sure. Like very stressful, but also so much food goes down in a day. You know, you're just always tasting and changing and then you're not really finding out what the calories of something are until you create and you put it all together. So I really have no idea right there in that. 

Amber B 20:29 

Yeah. Walk me through. I'm. I'm always curious of, like the the back end of recipe creation. Like what does recipe creation look like for you? Where does the ideas come from? How many times are you testing it out? Who's trying it out? Like, I’m just so curious of, like, what it looks like on the back end of that. 

Danielle Lima 20:46 

So there's multiple different things, there's there's the what I want to make, what sounds good aspect. There's also Google comes into play. Yeah. So there's a lot of like, keyword research and SEO. And so once I decide on a general like what we want to make, so let's call it Big Mac wraps right that I just released that today. That's the keyword I'm going after. That's the recipe we want to create. I then kind of always start with like a general outline of how I would make it if I walked into the kitchen right now. So I usually just like on paper like list out my ingredients. What I would do. And then I'd just go into the kitchen and I start playing around most of the time I've had, you know, some one time wonders where it's like I'm like. Oh, this. This is good to go. 

Amber B 21:29 

Nailed it, yeah. 

Danielle Lima 21:30 

Right here, but most of the time, at least two book recipes, there's a lot of testing, me I'm doing like two or three. And then the photographer does one. So there's a lot of testing that goes on. 

Amber B 21:45 

And then do you have like, who tries the recipe? Obviously like you taste it, but do you have like your family? Do you have friends who you like and like what's the tasting of it look like? 

Danielle Lima 21:53 

The majority is me. Then there's my husband, my kids. A lot of neighbors get recipes. Some of the moms at school. I tell them to open up your daughters backpack and they'll be like stuff in there for them. You know, the teachers have tasted stuff at school, but most of the time it's just me.  

Amber B 22:10 

That’s awesome. That's super cool. Yeah, I'm always. I'm always just curious is like, how much time does it take? How many times are you making these? Do you get sick of it sometimes where you're like, it's still not quite right. But like, I've made this four times. 

Danielle Lima 22:22 

Most of the time. Then I would give up and I feel like that's something like we're going to put off to the side and maybe I'll come back to it someday, but not today. 

Amber B 22:30 

Yeah. It's so interesting to me. And this. I mean, it makes sense but I had never thought of that. You start with the keywords. I mean, from a blogging perspective from like an SEO perspective, it makes sense. But I would have never thought to like start with the what do I want to make from a title standpoint.  

Danielle Lima 22:44 

Yeah, king Google, king Google.  

Amber B 22:47 

How is it different? You kind of said a little bit about this, but how is it different creating recipes for say, your blog or Instagram versus creating for a cookbook? 

Danielle Lima 22:56 

There's no SEO involved for cookbook.  

Amber B 22:58 

Oh, that's true. Yeah, yeah. 

Danielle Lima 23:00 

Yes, it is just me and my creativity and I get to come up with whatever I want. And it is so amazing. And I like thrive with it, you know, like I just. I'm on my second one and my first one just came out in January and we turned around the day after it published and they were like you want to sign your next contract. And I was like, yeah, I guess so. And like I started doing it again. And I just thrive in that, that atmosphere. And like that, you know, you you're in a crunch for time and things have to be perfect. And I just, I thrive under pressure. 

Amber B 23:33 

So cool, again, this is just like a question. I'm just curious about, you said that the photographer makes it. So is it like a food photographer who they like food style it, is like like they're they are good at both like food styling and the photography or how's it work? 

Danielle Lima 23:49 

Yeah. She does it all. So she she makes the recipes, she styles it, she shoots it. All of my photography is her. She's great. 

Amber B 23:57 

That’s so cool. It's it's so fun.  

Danielle Lima 23:58 

Sierra, I love you. 

Amber B 24:00 

So fun to hear. Like the back, the back end. What are some? OK, well, so this question came from I was like browsing through your site and you even said it earlier here where you're like, you know, the term macro friendly obviously means something a little bit different to everybody. But you were like to me it means high protein, moderate to low carbs and fat. And so I wonder like I'm I'm sure you get people who have all sorts of things to say, nice and and whatever, on your stuff, but are there some like misconceptions that you get around macro counting about what it is that you do, or about what macro counting is and you know, how do you clear up those misconceptions with your followers or people who are are curious about starting macros? 

Danielle Lima 24:40 

I don't think I understand. 

Amber B 24:42 

Sorry, so what I was thinking was like you probably have gotten a bunch of people who are like, this isn't macro friendly and that's where it came from of like, OK, here's my definition of macro friendly. To me that would be like a misconception of someone being like, this isn't what it's supposed to be. And you're like, OK, so I obviously need to clarify that in my message. Has there anything else like that where you get people who are like. I don't know mean about something or don't quite understand why it is that you're doing something. If that's been a common experience, maybe maybe you don't experience it. 

Danielle Lima 25:11 

Anytime I have cookies or any sort of like baked or sweet treat. If I don't have protein powder in it, people lose their ever loving minds. 

Amber B 25:23 

Like exactly what I was thinking. Yeah, something like that. Like this. It's like, so funny. 

Danielle Lima 25:26 

It's like whoa, it's always like can I add protein powder or this doesn't have a lot of protein or things like that or is this just a good cookie like or is this a, is this just a good cookie or these macro target cookies? I was like, well, what's your macro target? Because for me, I want this one gram of protein cookie because it's absolutely delicious. So this is in my target right now. You know, like. So I think there is a this big misconception of macro friendly, the the phrase macro friendly. 

Amber B 25:42 

Absolutely. Well. And I think when you really start to understand, because I think again, in my view, this is someone who's bringing that past dieting experience into macro counting of like, you know, if something is Weight Watchers friendly, it's going to be like low points, whereas macro friendly is much of a lighter term because like you're saying, you can be bulking. And counting macros you can be cutting and counting macros. You can be in maintenance like you're. I've counted macros with my carbs as high as 320, right? Like. Yeah, that my what I need to be able to hit my macros may be different than if your carbs are set at 150. So that term macro friendly is very relative to whatever your macros are. And people don't quite always understand. 

Danielle Lima 26:36 

Exactly, when sometimes at the end of the day. And you have, you know that trunk.  

Amber B 26:40 

You gotta fill it.  

Danielle Lima 26:41 

Yeah, make a great cookie. 

Amber B 26:44 

Yeah, you're like, if you have carbs and fat leftover and not a lot of protein. 

Danielle Lima 26:45 

It’s in MyFitnessPal and MacrosFirst for you. So in my opinion that means it's macro friendly. They can, they can fit in your macros. 

Amber B 26:54 

Do you love MacrosFirst? I have been such a big fan of like changes. 

Danielle Lima 26:57 

I do. I don't use it day-to-day because I'm all my stuff is in MyFitnessPal and it's like that'd be a huge change for me, so. 

Amber B 27:07 

I get it. We actually. I interviewed Jacob from MacrosFirst on my podcast and he was even saying that he's like, the biggest hurdle is like, people have just been using MyFitnessPal for so long that it's just like having to transfer everything over, so he's like, we're trying to figure out ways to make it so much easier. But I mean like I got it.  

Danielle Lima 27:25 

If he can figure out how to transfer all of my all of my back end stuff over, yeah. 

Amber B 27:29 

You're like I'm in. I'm in. 

Danielle Lima 27:31 

I'll never talk about them again. 

Amber B 27:34 

Talk to me a little bit about your kids. I mean, you mentioned that how beneficial has been for them to see you going to the gym, getting strong, like really focusing on what your body can do, but how do you talk to your kids about counting macros and weighing food and the different phases that you've been through? 

Danielle Lima 27:50 

So they're three and five. I have two little girls. They don't understand you know, like, if I'm weighing something, they don't get it. So really, it's, I don't think they even really notice if I'm weighing something right now. But for us it's they've never heard me say I'm on a diet. They've never heard me say I'm dieting. I don't even think they've ever noticed when I was in a deficit by any means, we talked a lot about they need to eat protein, it builds your muscles. They talk a lot about how strong Mommy and Dad are. And it's because we eat protein and we're strong and there's a lot of protein talk. I'm pretty sure, like my kid goes to kindergarten and talks about protein like daily. Like strong and strength. 

Amber B 28:34 

I love it. 

Danielle Lima 28:35 

So yeah, I don't think. I think choosing your words is the biggest thing when it comes to that with your kids. Like you don't need to tell them you're on a diet. You know, if you're in a deficit you don't need to. I think it's easier to just say I don't want ice cream tonight. You know, rather than make them think that it's bad if you were to have the ice cream. 

Amber B 28:55 

Yeah. Or that I can't have it or whatever, right. Like coming back to that like choice of what it is that you're choosing that you're choosing to eat. I think really good. Does your husband count macros too? Or is that, like, where does he have? 

Danielle Lima 29:08 

Loosely. Yeah. Yeah. He was in a build for quite a while, so he was tracking, and he's always trying to hit his protein and stuff, but you know, men. 

Amber B 29:18 

Yeah, it's a different, it's a different world. 

Danielle Lima 29:21 

It’s like he sneezed and he lost weight. 

Amber B 29:25 

What are some of your favorite recipes from your site? So if someone's like I want her site like make some, are there any that you'd be like? OK, these are the first two that I want you to do because they're like so good or they're like crowd favorites.  

Danielle Lima 29:38 

OK, so crowd favorite, the one that everybody loves and I'm well known for, is Big Mac casserole. I would say go with lazy lasagna or cottage cheese lasagna. I could eat cottage cheese lasagna every single day of my life and be happy.  

Amber B 29:54 

Nice. 

Danielle Lima 29:55 

And then my kids love lazy lasagna, which is like a deconstructed version. They asked for that over regular layered lasagna and then Taco Mac and Cheese, that's another like family favorite. 

Amber B 30:06 

Awesome. Fantastic. That gives me a good place to start. I think if you're listening a good place to start. What advice you have someone who is interested in starting to count macros but they feel overwhelmed by the whole process? 

Danielle Lima 30:19 

I would start with your protein. Start tracking your protein and see how much you're eating and you're going to be shocked. More than likely. And then try to build on your protein and then you'll kind of like get an idea for logging and then kind of graduate yourself into the full shipping. 

Amber B 30:37 

Yeah. No, I think that's that's fantastic advice. I do think some people try to, like, do it all from the very get go and it can be really overwhelming to try and hit your protein and your calories and your carbs and right fiber. And like all the things so that's that's fantastic advice. Touch us a little bit about like where Oh Snap Macros is going like what are some of your plans? I know you've talked about a little bit about your cookbook, but even beyond that. What do you have plans for? 

Danielle Lima 31:02 

So, I have an app coming out in the near future.  

Amber B 31:03 

Yay! 

Danielle Lima 31:04 

I’m not going to put a date on it because we keep having to like redo you know like actual app stuff. 

Amber B 31:07 

Yeah. 

Danielle Lima 31:10 

But in the near future I'll have an app in the App Store that'll be for meal planning, and then my second cookbook will come out in April 2025. 

Amber B 31:20 

That's so exciting. So what is it? How long does it take? I mean, you said you you said January was when you got started on this. Is it like a year? A year and a half? Is that kind of the lag time? 

Danielle Lima 31:30 

Yeah, January of this year 2024, I signed my contract and then it'll be published April 2025. 

Amber B 31:36

Okay. And then how like if you broke down that time frame into like what percentage of time do you spend planning, what time spend the time you spend like testing versus refining or like I'm just so curious as to that process?

Danielle Lima 31:50 

So like day one and they want your table of contents like sign the contract and they want to see like what you're thinking. 

Amber B 31:56 

Can it change?  

Danielle Lima 31:57 

It can change. Yeah 

Amber B 31:59 

OK, phew! I'm like, that's like a lot of pressure to like nail it. 

Danielle Lima 32:01 

So kind of like I have ideas, right? And like I don't even know if it looks remotely the same to what I turned in or what's gonna come in and then with the second one, I got six months to create and make the recipes and then Sierra has a couple months extra than me for shooting the recipes and then we have a couple months like back and forth editing and they circulate it with editors and then it starts going into design and production. 

Amber B 32:31 

And then are you in charge of all the marketing, or does it you're like editor, participate in the marketing of it as well? 

Danielle Lima 32:36 

So for the first book I was in charge of majority of the marketing. I did work later on with the marketing team and then for the second one I have a marketing and PR team. 

Amber B 32:45 

Oh that's nice. I'm sure that's nice to like, give a little bit over to somebody else take that off your plate. That's. Yeah, it's just fascinating me to like yeah, that would be really good. Yes, yes. That'll be amazing. Yeah to the back end of of all the and, I think in general most of us who like pick up a cookbook have no idea like what has gone into the creation of that or download that. I mean, I've had lots of friends who've created apps that is a big project, yes, so big. 

Danielle Lima 33:04 

I have no idea.  

Amber B 33:11 

So big that most people don't even really understand. Yes, it's really cool to see the back end of that a little bit. All right, well, let's. This has been so fun to like, hear your story and to hear where you're going, like how fast you've grown and where you're going and the awesome things you have for the future. Is there anything else that you want to share with my audience? Any words of advice or any like any things that you have to was not in the interview. 

Danielle Lima 33:37 

I think the one thing I just I didn't say that I think is huge. When you're starting tracking, tracking macros is keep in mind that the scale won't always go down, but you won't look the same. You know, like the inches lost is going to make such a huge difference even when the scale stays stagnant the same. That was always something for me. You can get on the scale every day and it's like, oh, I'm up 5 lbs like. Oh, actually well. I'm not doing the cycle and you just you spiral and if you can get rid of that mentality, it helps them a lot. 

Amber B 34:08 

And how do you feel like you were able to get rid of that mentality cause people will be like, OK, yeah, I hear that. But like how? How do I get there? 

Danielle Lima 34:14 

I think by using that app, happy scale and pulling back and seeing the you know the trends going down, you realize like OK that one day when I was up 5 lbs then you see the dot below where you were down like 7 you know it's like it's just ever fluctuating trending down. 

Amber B 34:18 

That is one thing I like about MacrosFirst is they have the same like trend data I'm like, oh, this is so much better to have, like a trend data versus just day-to-day, right? Because it really is I mean, that's normal. Normal human bodies fluctuate on a day-to-day basis and and. 

Danielle Lima 34:45 

So much. It's kind of cool once you see it and you realize. Like I could step on this scale now and be like, oh man, I need to check my app. I must be, you know, getting closer to my cycle. Now I can, like, look at my weight and know, you know. 

Amber B 34:55 

Yeah, I know how it correlates to like different parts of your site. Yeah. I mean, it's one of the things I love most about macro counting is, like the ability to get to know your body, right. So many women have just never, like, gotten to with their bodies and even knowing, like, hey, when I'm up, like, I'm probably in this phase of mind cycle, it's so cool to be able to know yourself just a little bit. You know, your body a little bit better.  

Danielle Lima 35:13 

It is. It really is. 

Amber B  35:16 

So really awesome. Well, thank you so much, Danielle. This is so fun. We will link everything up in the show notes of this episode. You can go check out her website and her cookbook. And all the things that she has to offer. So thanks so much for coming on the podcast.  

Danielle Lima 35:28 

Thank you so much.  

Amber B 35:30 

I hope it was fun to see a little behind the scenes of what it takes to make a cookbook. I didn't know a lot of that stuff. And I'm always fascinated learning the behind the scenes of things that we just kind of take for granted, right. I just like pull a cookbook off the shelf. And I'm like, oh, this is cool, but it's really cool to hear the behind the scenes of what it takes to, you know, what it takes to get to that level, what it takes to make that, how long it takes to make it. How many parts there are and how many people are involved in that process. I always find that really fascinating.  

So again, if you're looking for some good macro friendly recipes, go check out Oh Snap Macros. Go check out her, her first cookbook that will be linked up on the show notes of this page, which are bicepsafterbabies.com/329. Just the number of the episode. And we've linked all that up there. So it would make it really easy find. That wraps up this episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm Amber, now go out and be strong because remember my friend, you can do anything.  

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