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Weight LossChange Your Body – Protein and Reverse Dieting with Sarah Granetz
January 25, 2025 By
Leanne Vogel
January 25, 2025
Transcript
Sarah Granetz
Eating gave me my life back. Eating in a certain way has allowed me to reach my goals and continue to work, right, as kind of a coach and hopefully an inspiration, right, for other women to say, you don’t have to eat as much as I do, but you do have to eat more than you currently are, especially if you are serious, right, about wanting to change how you look.
Leanne Vogel
So I was scrolling on social media probably, I don’t know, like nine months ago and I found Sarah Granites and I love her content. She’s known on Instagram as strong.buy.sarah and she shares such valuable tools and information all for free on how to upregulate your body. And I just, I love what she’s putting out there. I think more and more women are starting to wake up to the fact that protein is not bad. Reverse dieting is the way to go and we’re ready to lift heavy things. And so if you’re ready for that conversation, I highly recommend checking out Sarah’s page at Strong Buy dot. Sarah Now Sarah Granitz is a strength, fitness and nutrition coach known for her holistic approach to wellness. Her passion is to empower women to achieve their goals in sustainable and realistic ways.
Leanne Vogel
She focuses on building knowledge, excitement and discipline with her clients to ensure that their progress will be maintained long term. Her training programs are meticulously designed to improve strength, muscle definition and cardiovascular endurance, while her nutrition plans ensure optimal health sustainability and top performance. Sarah’s commitment to evidence based practices and her passion for empowering women make her a sought after expert in the field. She holds an mba, state records in competitive, powerlifting and diverse experience across wellness disciplines. Across every interaction she brings a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm, which is absolutely true. Today’s episode we’re talking about eating more and strength goals, reverse dieting. Her personal experience with this, like what lights her up within this space, which I love asking our guests, if we’re not seeing change in the first four weeks, the reaction to most people is to quit. I know that myself personally being on this workout, kind of self improvement, physical journey, oh my goodness, I’ve wanted to quit so many times because oftentimes you don’t see the progress and a lot of stuff is happening that you’re not totally aware of.
Leanne Vogel
And so we’re chatting with Sarah about what’s happening here and how to have motivation during those moments. We really dial into the dieting aspect of things and what we should be doing from a macro standpoint, what she’s seen worked and what motivates people to change and so much more. I’m really excited about this conversation. I’m so glad that we got to have Sarah on to share her perspective and I agree with her on so many points. So I’m so curious to see what you think of today’s episode. If you want to hit me up on Instagram at Leanne Vogel and let me know what you thought, what challenged you, what spoke to you, I would love to know. And Sarah’s website is strong by-Sarah.com okay, let’s cut over to today’s interview with Sarah. Hey, my name is Leanne and I’m fascinated with helping women navigate how to eat, move and care for their bodies.
Leanne Vogel
This has taken me on a journey from vegan keto high protein to everything in between. I’m a small town holistic nutritionist turned three time international bestselling author turned functional medicine practitioner offering telemedicine services around the globe to women looking to better their health and stop second guessing themselves. I’m here to teach you how to wade through the wellness noise to get to the good stuff that’ll help you achieve your goals. Whether you’re seeking relief from chronic ailments, striving for peak performance, or simply eager to live a more vibrant life, the this podcast is your go to resource for actionable advice and inspiration. Together we’ll uncover the interconnectedness of nutrition, movement, sleep, stress management and mindset, empowering you to make informed choices that support your unique health journey. Think of it as quality time with your bestie mixed with a little med school so you’re empowered at your next doctor visit. Get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn about your body and how to care for it healthy. Join me as we embrace vitality, reclaim our innate potential, and discover what it truly means to pursue healthfulness.
Leanne Vogel
Hey Sarah, how’s it going?
Sarah Granetz
It’s going well. How are you doing?
Leanne Vogel
I am so good. I am so good. I’m so glad to have you on the show. It’s quite surreal because I’ve been following you on Instagram for quite some time. I know your voice so well and here you are.
Sarah Granetz
Thank you. Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to speak with you. I know we have. We like to talk about a lot of the same things, so I think it’s going to be fun.
Leanne Vogel
Yes. So what are some of your favorite things that you love talking about? Like what lights you up in the space that you’re in? Like what? What’s the thing?
Sarah Granetz
I would have to say that I’m definitely more passionate about helping women eat more to reach their strength goals. Right. So there are a lot of coaches in the world who help women focus more on losing fat, Others who focus on body recomp. I really like to work with women who are either on the recomp journey or are more focused on building muscle, because that’s really where we can learn to love ourselves, to eat more without guilt, without shame, and actually really start to understand what a balanced lifestyle looks like with exercise, nutrition, sleep, sleep quality, healthy relationships, really bringing it all together, right? Having a more holistic look. And I know for you kind of those extra pieces, right, the benefits of eating more protein and having gorgeous hair like you do, right? And like finding these wins in other areas besides just aesthetically or, you know, about the percent of body fat that we have, that’s where the sustainability comes along. But reverse dieting is a big one for me right now. It’s something that everyone can do at any core, any time in their journey. And definitely focusing on the healthy, sustainable wins.
Leanne Vogel
So you said, like, a bunch of different things in there that we’ve talked about on the show, but maybe it would be helpful to kind of delve a little bit deeper into specifically what you mean by reverse dieting. You said that it was more sustainable. Can you talk a little bit about what reverse dieting is?
Sarah Granetz
Of course, absolutely. So reverse dieting is a tool that can be used, like I said, at any point in someone’s journey to wellness, but there are specific, specific points where we actually truly need it. So, for example, if someone, especially a woman, has been consuming low calories for a long period of time, low calories being for her, for her height, for her weight, for her age, for her activity level. If we’ve been doing that for a long time, we can have things happen, such as metabolic adaptation. We can lower our bmr, but we can also essentially just really decrease our quality of life by learning to acclimate to not enough food. That’s quite simply what a calorie deficit it is, Right? It’s literally not consuming as much food as your body needs to keep you alive for your activity. You know, inside the gym, outside the gym, all of that. So in the process of reverse dieting, what we do is we very slowly and carefully, strategically bring up calories.
Sarah Granetz
This is not a bulk, this is not a surplus. We are bringing someone, once again, we’re looking at their specific data points. Age, height, weight, activity level, but also their fitness goals or aesthetic goals. And we’re very slowly bringing their calories up to what maintenance should be for that person. Right? So someone who’s 5ft tall and someone who’s 6ft tall, even if they’re both active, they’re Both in their 40s, they will have different kind of expected calorie maintenance. So whatever a more realistic number is for that person, we want to reverse to that point. This allows the body to very slowly get more calories, to improve things like digestion, sleep, while also allowing us to put on some muscle mass while strength training and essentially allowing us to bring our BMR back to where really where it should be. And I think sometimes what we don’t understand is that, once again, this can be used at any point in someone’s journey, right? So it can be used after a cut or a diet.
Sarah Granetz
It can be used after a prolonged dieting period. It can be used after we’ve been injured and maybe even potentially on bed rest. Right now we’re getting right back into activity. Or it can be used if you’re more kind of advanced in your journey and you just want to be able to eat more calories and maintenance. So, you know, I have some girls on my team who are sustaining their weight. That’s what maintenance means at almost 3,000 calories a day. And that’s, you know, that’s where the magic can really start to happen. That’s obviously a more advanced goal, and not everyone wants to eat 3,000 calories a day.
Sarah Granetz
But essentially, reverse dieting is a really valuable tool, and it’s just super important to understand that it is not a surplus. It’s getting you. Getting someone to the point of a normal maintenance range.
Leanne Vogel
Right.
Sarah Granetz
There is no. No specific set number. Even if a calorie calculator tells you there is. There’s always a range to really optimize your performance, your recovery, your sleep, but also help make sure that you’re not thinking about food all the time.
Leanne Vogel
That is such a big piece to it, isn’t it? Like the not thinking about food all the time. I know for myself, even an adjustment of a couple like maybe 100 to 200 calories makes such a big difference to how I approach the day and whether I obsess about food or not. And so because you seem so passionate about this, I have to ask, did you have a personal experience with all of this, or do you find the passion comes from connecting with ladies? Or can you tell us a little bit about how you got into these things that light you up now?
Sarah Granetz
Oh, yeah. No, of course. So, yeah, I do have a Very real connection to this. I had treatment for an eating disorder when I was about 25. So nine years ago, I was a runner. I was runner for most of my life. I was always athletic in school. I went to prep schools.
Sarah Granetz
Where you played sports. That was just, you know, something you did for two hours every day after school. I was vegan in high school, so I was massively under fueled. I barely consumed any protein. I mean, the amount of lucky charms that I consumed is just horrifying to me now. But I kind of used the vegan, the vegan choice as a way to undereat. And that just kind of unfortunately projected me into a not eating enough, running too much cycle. And I, I eventually hit a point where I became quite injured and I was told I couldn’t run.
Sarah Granetz
And that’s where I found strength training. And once I found strength training because I was. And after I got treatment, I was such a lean, little tiny, I’m a very short person. I was just this teeny tiny person. And putting on muscle was very easy. But at a certain point it started to cap out, right, because it still, I still wasn’t consuming enough. And I ended up working with a bodybuilding coach who, you know, had her pros and cons, we’ll say. But the most fundamental thing that she taught me was that if I wanted to look a certain way, I had to eat more.
Sarah Granetz
And if I was really this serious about these goals that I had, that that was literally the only way and I was the only one standing in my own way. You know, she was really great at kind of being like, I’ve given you the plan, you know, you’re the one who has to sit down and do it. So while I was still getting kind of the last few bits of treatment, right, and moving forward with all of this, eating more really was what gave me my life back. And it wasn’t just that, it wasn’t just eating more, right? It was eating nutrient dense quality food sources that doesn’t necessarily mean expensive or organic, but literally putting away the junk, putting away things that came in bags that have flavors and you know, millions of other things that we could dive into. But I had this massive kind of coming back to myself when I was just, I was exercising again, I was eating well, I was taking more rest days, you know, and I really just felt like I came back to myself. But eating more was the integral part of that because it also helped me speed up my results in the beginning and to be perfectly frank, like aesthetic results keep us on the Path, right. Not seeing change within the first four weeks is why a lot of people quit. So, you know, there are certain things that we can do to optimize those results.
Sarah Granetz
Right. You know, not everyone is going to see more muscle definition in two or four weeks, but I know you’re passionate about this as well. Eating more protein is a really great win and. But so essentially I. Eating gave me my life back. Eating in a certain way has allowed me to reach my goals and continue to work, right. As kind of a coach and hopefully an inspiration, right, for other women to say, you don’t have to eat as much as I do, but you do have to eat more. More than you currently are.
Sarah Granetz
Especially if you are serious, right, about wanting to change how you look. If we want to change, we have to change everything. And that shouldn’t sound scary. It should be invigorating, right? Like we don’t. You don’t have to accept the reality that you’re currently in. And I think that that was just huge for me and realizing that food affects so much more, right, than just our aesthetic appearance.
Leanne Vogel
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Leanne Vogel
All orders made come with a no questions asked refund policy. Try it totally risk free and if you don’t like it, they will give you your money back, no questions asked. Go to drinklmnt.comkdp for your free sample pack with any order. Yes. And something I really appreciate, especially about your Instagram, you have a free. I don’t exactly know what to call it. That chat that you upload your food logs to, I love taking a look at what you eat on a daily basis. As a coach, I can appreciate that.
Leanne Vogel
Coach to coach, but also just your dedication to food quality. And I think you would agree with me in that there’s not a lot of that in the space of lifting and body recomp. It’s all about, you know, does it fit your macros and less about what is this doing to your gut? How is your digestion as a result of this? And so thank you for putting that content out there. If people want to see what I’m talking about, how can they see what you’re eating and your dedication to food quality?
Sarah Granetz
Yeah, absolutely. So it’s a channel, I think this feature is available to everyone, but you know, I’m not sure, but it’s a channel. So it’s a channel on my profile, it’s called MyFitnessPal meal ideas. So that’s actually, it’s a mix of what I’m eating, but also the meal plans that I make for clients. So, you know, essentially anything, anytime I complete a macro guide, macro coaching guide for someone, anytime I onboard a new one on one that I create meals like that for that specific person based on the food diary that they share with me, right? So, you know, maybe they’re eating deli turkey and I say, you know, let’s reach for some 100% ground turkey or those Genio 7% fat patties that you can find in most supermarkets kind of thing. But showing people how you can eat a diverse range of foods, not necessarily without spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars a week. But you know, I think to your point, I just saw a reel yesterday about from an influencer with a very large following and she was posting all, you know, what she eats when she travels, what snacks she brings, and everything was low calorie, low carb, high protein. And you know, she made a comment about making sure that the protein bars weren’t just candy bars with added sugar.
Sarah Granetz
And I was like, well, okay, there’s merit there, right? But the amount of chemicals, colors, flavors, chemical thickeners, right? And everything else, it was really frustrating because I know once again, like how big her audience is. And you know, even just having one of those could send me into a digestive issue that could last days, right. Let alone having all of them over the course of a seven hour flight. And so I do think that unfortunately, I think that sometimes there’s only so much space for so much at one time, right. I hear from some clients like, either I’m going to follow my macros or I’m going to focus on food. They don’t necessarily have the food quality. They don’t necessarily have the mental capacity to do both at once. And that’s okay.
Sarah Granetz
We can take baby steps. But to your point, I would rather have someone eating high quality, single ingredient, nutrient dense food sources and having their macros be a little inconsistent, they don’t have, like, chronic illness or chronic pain, than having them be like, to a T hitting their macros every time. It’s almost harder, right? When I have those clients who are like, on the nose with their macros within 2 to 5 grams every single day. But, you know, when I look at their diary, I’m seeing popeyes, I’m seeing soda, I’m seeing wine. I’m seeing things that, you know, when they tell me that I don’t feel well, I say, well, I know you’re hitting your macros, but this might be why. So, you know, sometimes that can be a hard conversation to have.
Leanne Vogel
And I think too, the combo of not hitting your macros and not having high good food quality and saying, I don’t feel well. And so there’s so much to it. And I really loved your point on if you’re not seeing change in the first four weeks, this is why people quit. Can we talk a little bit about that conundrum that I think so many ladies go through because they’re hearing our conversation, they’re like, okay, I understand what Sarah’s saying is that I need to pay attention to my macros, I need to pay attention to my food quality. But I do these things for four weeks. I go to the gym, I push as hard as I can, and I’m just not seeing results. And so here we go again. I’m just gonna, like, fall off the wagon yet again.
Leanne Vogel
Do you have any advice for those ladies?
Sarah Granetz
Yeah, for sure. So I think, first of all, it’s really important to remind ourselves that results can mean a lot of different things to a lot of people. I’m getting more and more women on the team who have severe or chronic migraines. Them not having migraines two or four weeks right after a full menstrual cycle of us working together, that’s a massive result. But I also think that sometimes we can. Well, I know we can be our own worst enemies. I had a call with a client yesterday, and her face was so. Was so much thinner than it’s been.
Sarah Granetz
And this was a key area of lacking of confidence for her. Very concerned about her face, which is, you know, not something that most people train. And she said, you’re the third person to say that to me today. Right. So sometimes it’s about saying, okay, well you came to me with these five issues. We’ve solved two of them, right? That’s a win or two of have seen major progress. But I think the other thing is, is that sometimes we are not doing the right thing for our goals. Right.
Sarah Granetz
We’re pushing really hard in the gym. Okay, what does that mean? Well, I went on the elliptical for 65 minutes. Okay, you went on the elliptical for 65 minutes, which is so good for your heart. That’s really great. You know, ellipticals have resistance, they have incline. But you know, you say you want to grow muscle and you’re actually, your body fat’s fairly low so that’s not going to create more muscle definition necessarily. Right? Or I hear, I work so hard in the gym and I say, okay, so you’ve been implementing progressive overload. And they say, well what’s that? Or they’re not tracking the weights.
Sarah Granetz
And so unfortunately our bodies are smart and they’re not going to fully adapt, right? They’re not going to change if they don’t have to. So sometimes it’s a, you know, a technique thing, other times it’s the vehicle in which we’re working. But other times, usually what I see is that we’re not doing the two most important things. We’re not eating enough protein and we’re not taking enough steps. So you can have the most workout of your life. If you are sitting in a chair for the rest of the day, you’re just not as active, right? Your neat, your non exercise activity thermogenesis, which is the second largest contributor to your tdee, your total daily energy expenditure, AKA your total daily calorie needs, your NEAT will be lower than someone who gets up and goes for a five minute walk every hour or you know, stands up and stretches and goes for a 20 minute walk every. Whatever makes is actually realistic, right? Every 30 minutes or excuse me, three hours. So unfortunately having a super tunnel vision approach, like my workouts are fire.
Sarah Granetz
Okay, but how’s your food? Or my steps are amazing, but I’m not really lifting very much because I only have two pounds at home and I don’t really want to use those, those little weights. So usually we need to tweak the approach a bit or we need to say, you know what, for this specific outcome that you’re looking for, we need to focus almost Exclusively on X, Y or Z. Right. If you really want to see more muscle definition, you need to be lifting heavier in the gym and we need to figure out what will make you more comfortable to do. So if you are super overwhelmed with tracking your food, let’s make sure that you’re hitting your protein no matter what every single day from super high quality sources. Sources. If your sleep is awful, let’s focus on that and do everything we can to make that better. Sometimes we do have to kind of take these goals and separate them and say, let’s go all in on this and kind of habit stack in that.
Leanne Vogel
Way with all the things you’re talking about are there. You know, you were chatting about the lady that was just self conscious about her face. When it comes to like the common outcomes or goals, are there common things that you’re working with time and time again just so that the lady listening can maybe hear themselves in that of like, oh yeah, those are my goals too. That’s what I want. This conversation is for me.
Sarah Granetz
Yeah, absolutely. So improving quality of life, right? Being able to bend over and pick up something heavy without a man offering to help you, right. Putting your own bag in the overhead luggage compartment, playing with your kids, having enough energy for that, but also more, more aestheticals, right? I have a lot of women who say I want to look more toned. I want someone to look at me and know that I work hard in the gym and know that I am strong. I have women who want, you know, they want that six pack, they want that defined core without starving themselves. You know, I have women who are, have been sensitive about the shape of their legs for years. They’ve been runners, you know, maybe their entire lives. They’ve been very self conscious.
Sarah Granetz
They’ve never worn shorts. Strength training is the perfect antidote to that, right? Like we all have a little cellulite and you know, for some of us we might need maybe a dermatologist consult for actual, you know, more intense kind of skin concerns. But strength training, getting strong, feeling strong, but also looking strong. You know, I have a lot of women who come to me and say, I’ve been doing this for years and nothing’s changed. Or, you know, I spoke with someone yesterday who said, you know, I lost 30 pounds, but I don’t think I look any different. And that was because she lost, she lost a lot of muscle. She crash dieted and she didn’t become more toned or shredded or whatever your word is, right? Because she lost muscle in that, that, in that fat loss process. So Recomp.
Sarah Granetz
Truly. But most of the time, the women that I work with are. They want to feel better. They want their clothes to fit differently, and they want more confidence, whether that’s in their shoulders, their core, their, you know, their lower body, and that daily kind of confidence and feeling of waking up and being. Being excited to hit new PRs, to reach their potential in the gym. And, you know, we don’t go to the gym every single day to be like, you know, crushing super heavy weights and giving ourselves risk for injury, but we go and we remember how strong we are, and we support ourselves mentally in that way, too. So we leave feeling like we could do anything and that the rest of the day is easy peasy. Right.
Sarah Granetz
Because we’ve just deadlifted 300 pounds and we know how strong we are, and if Becky and accounting is giving us the runaround, it’s okay. And so that’s. That’s tend to be where I focus, the recomp. The muscle growth. But really, women who want to be strong is where I really have the most. The most fun.
Leanne Vogel
Yeah. I went on a trip recently, and there were a lot of flights, and I was lifted. I was doing the overhead luggage compartment day in and day out. And, you know, you step back and you’re like, wow, I didn’t realize how challenging this was for me before until I could easily lift my bag over my head, no problem. Like, didn’t even think about it. Or when I go to, you know, I’m carrying. I was carrying a huge load of laundry in a basket, and I squatted down to pick up a sock that I had dropped holding the laundry basket and stood back up. I’m like, I couldn’t have done that a year ago.
Leanne Vogel
And I think that those wins outside of how does my clothing look and what am I looking like on a daily basis? Because sometimes those changes take time. How do we kind of hold both in that maybe we hate how we look and we’re not feeling confident in our clothing, and sometimes would you say that that’s not a positive catalyst for change? How do we kind of balance out both worlds of wanting to change how we look, wanting to have that confidence, but also understanding that these things are going to take time. Any. Any words of advice there?
Sarah Granetz
So I think, you know, like, any motivation, I think the best thing that we can do is use it to our advantage. So instead of saying, I look terrible, these pants don’t fit, I have nothing to wear, we say, I’m not going to keep allowing myself to feel this way from an article of clothing or I’m not going to keep letting myself off the hook of not tracking or not going for my daily walk. Right. Using that as a way to change behavior in a way that has a positive outcome. Right. So we’re not saying, okay, I’m going to stop eating. Right. It’s very distinctly.
Sarah Granetz
We’re going to use this appropriately. You don’t want to feel this way every day. Awesome. These are three things you can do to make it better. And using that as a reminder that you deserve a higher quality of life. Because that’s essentially what we’re talking about, right? Being more confident, being more able, being more mobile, especially as we age. It’s about having a higher level of self, love, self acceptance, but also understanding that we are the ones who are responsible for most of what happens to us. Right.
Sarah Granetz
So I really like to say, okay, you know, sometimes I have these moments with myself and I’m like, sarah, you said this yesterday. Do you want to do this again tomorrow? No. So we’re going to go do this, right? We’re going to go do that thing and we’re going to keep doing that thing until that is no longer a concern. And I think a lot of my clients have had unlocks when I’ve been a little tough love with them about things like that. You know, it’s very easy in the one on one coaching space to have the same conversation with someone over and over again. And sometimes you just have to say, do you want to continue in this way? Right. Is this something you want? I want more for you. I know deep down you want more from you.
Sarah Granetz
And then we kind of need to unpack. What’s stopping us? Is it fear? Is it boredom? Is it laziness? Right. Have we gotten a little complacent? Is it maybe our partner is affecting our, affecting us more than we realize. Maybe our dog’s been sick and all of a sudden our walks have been slashed in half and we need to stay in the house. Right. So sometimes it’s about pivoting, sometimes it’s about understanding what’s actually happening deep down. And then sometimes it’s just about getting in out of our own way and saying, you’re making more drama around this than there needs to be.
Leanne Vogel
Yes. Like the nothing’s going to change if something doesn’t change. Is what you said before of just like, you can’t expect a different outcome doing the exact same thing over and over and over again in this conversation. It’s a lot to do with what we think we want versus what we actually want. Can we talk a little bit about some of the benefits outside of your body changing and being stronger? Like you mentioned sleep before. I know you talk about mood often and hair. Like in my case, like eating a whole bunch and really focusing on protein. I have this crazy mane of hair I never had before.
Leanne Vogel
So can we talk something about the benefits outside of the shifts that we’re seeing in the mirror?
Sarah Granetz
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think poor sleep quality is more common than I ever realized. I mean, I would say 90% of the clients I onboard or work with for Macro Coaching, they tell me their sleep quality sucks. And it’s not always like for a completely understandable reason. Right. Like a newborn or a sick partner or a sick pet. Right. It’s usually just daily stress lack, kind of lack of stress management, but also lack of understanding of how to optimize sleep.
Sarah Granetz
Right. So maybe taking magnesium at night or glycine, a powder, maybe it’s having a nighttime routine. But essentially, once we can improve sleep quality, that’s when the real magic starts happening, right? You wake up in the morning and you’re excited for what you’re about to do. You have the energy for your workout. There are studies that show for every hour of sleep lost, we eat like up to 200 extra calories, you know, and it’s not about the calories, it’s about the effect of lack of sleep on our hormones, on ghrelin and leptin. Right. That control our daily hunger. So.
Sarah Granetz
So it’s not that these things are happening in isolation, which I know you talk a lot about as well. Like it’s not just, okay, you didn’t sleep as well, so tomorrow your workout’s gonna suck. It’s like you might be hungrier, you might be more tired, you might be angrier, you might have a shorter fuse, you might have be more prone to migraine, you know, and being super realistic that we don’t have to be perfect. And of course we all have bad nights of sleep, but for the most part, I’m getting better. Sleep will change your life. And what I see sometimes is that once we start to really reach our potential in the gym, whether that’s lifting weights, whether that’s maybe sprinting, if we’re physically capable of doing that in, you know, on the bike, on the road, in a pool, actually learning to really hit our true potential is so, so important and can really help kind of manage that sleep and make it so that once again our quality of life is better. Our day to day Is better.
Leanne Vogel
Yeah, I would agree with you. I think since starting lifting about two years ago, my sleep has gotten so good. I think also for those that get motivated by things like CGMs and like data points and blood work, I, I love my aura ring. I actually bought it as a step counter, but it’s a terrible step counter. It’s like the worst step counter. It’s so off.
Sarah Granetz
Oh, that’s so interesting.
Leanne Vogel
It’s so off. It’s about 30% off. I would say overall it’s about 30% off. But I love my OURA ring and it has helped my sleep so much. Like I’m actually motivated to get better sleep so I can see my score go up. So it really does make a difference. Like I have better performance, my brain is quicker. Like I notice when I get a worse sleep score.
Leanne Vogel
I can tell throughout the day. Just like you said, with the hunger, with like shortness, with inability to process information quickly, it really does make a big impact yet like you need to focus on your sleep, but you also need to do things that are going to help the sleep. And I find of course like eating enough is so key. I onboarded a client recently and she was saying like, I’m having the worst sleep. I’m waking up around 2 or 3 in the morning hungry, like just so hungry. And so I looked at her logs. I’m like, well, yeah, because like you’re literally hungry.
Sarah Granetz
Right? Right. You’re not literally not enough. Yeah, there’s not enough.
Leanne Vogel
So you’re waking up hungry because you’re hungry. And just those little shifts can make such a big difference just overall. But I would agree with you, I didn’t know how big sleep was an issue until I started working with clients one on one and asking about their sleep. It is, it is a problem.
Sarah Granetz
Yeah, for sure. And you know, I think to your point, right. Sometimes we are so in it. We don’t see, we don’t see why we can’t connect these dots. Just like the second you or I look at a food diary and we say, of course you’re hungry, of course you’re weight, waking up at 3:00. Right. The other day I had someone who was eating. She, her dinner was at 10:30 at night.
Sarah Granetz
And she’s not European, she’s not, she’s not waking up late. And I was like, well you’re actively digesting and you just ate your largest meal of the day. Like so, you know, I think sometimes not everyone will want a coach. Not everyone will want that consistent 24, 7, right. Help. But sometimes it can be really helpful for a outsider to look in and say, you know, I know we both offer macro coaching and say, this is what I see. And actually be that light bulb to say, even if that maybe for whatever reason, that person, you know, can’t have dinner any earlier because of their job, because of their life. Okay, but maybe that meal becomes smaller.
Sarah Granetz
Right? Maybe we front load the calories a bit more. Maybe we make. We can still make changes. And sometimes just having that voice and having someone say, this is what I’m seeing can actually be really valuable. And I hear a lot from women like, oh, I’m taking this, I’m taking that. I don’t need to take something else. And I say, I understand that, but your sleep is really crappy. You tell me you’re fatigued every day in the gym.
Sarah Granetz
Your calories are great. Right? So we actually, we know it’s not that. And simply adding magnesium might just be the massive game changer for you that it was for me. And literally like 99% of my clients. So can we just try it? And sometimes there’s just a hesitation too, around supplements. And I’m not sure if you get this as well. Well, it’s so important to get nutrients from food, but at a certain point, it’s like no one’s eating enough spinach to get. To get everything they need from, you know, so supplements can just be so, such, so massively helpful for certain conditions.
Sarah Granetz
And I definitely get a lot of fear sometimes or hesitation around them. Obviously, they’re not fully regulated by the fda, and there’s concerns in that realm too. But, you know, for the most, the most part, we do consider some things generally safe. And if someone isn’t capable. Right. Of making more substantial changes at a specific time, sometimes a supplement can really go a long way.
Leanne Vogel
Yeah. Like in the case of creatine, I saw a real yesterday, I think it was. And they compared 5 grams of creatine in a powder that you just add to water. I really like taking it with my electrolytes about an hour and a half before my workout compared to creatine in all the meals that you would have to eat at 5 grams. And it was like, I think like 3 gallons of milk and like 5 big meals with ginormous amounts of meat that I, I mean, I, I pound the protein and I couldn’t eat all of those. I could not eat that. So, like, in some cases, it’s like the necessary supplements go a really long way, like you said, Sarah the, the magnesium. Absolutely, absolutely.
Leanne Vogel
Like without a doubt.
Sarah Granetz
Yeah. Now creatine is. And I think I’m pretty sure, anyway, we both speak to women. We work almost exclusively with females. And creatine, if I had a dime for every DM I get about. Won’t creatine turn me into a man or make me bulky? And I’m like, well, what did you eat last night? Oh, I had a burger. Okay, well, there’s creatine in that burger and not as much as the supplement, like you just said. But also our bodies naturally make it.
Sarah Granetz
I think the lack of, unfortunately, the lack of education on some of these compounds, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, is just so lacking and allows. It really allows us to kind of underserve ourselves and not reach our full potential. Right. Most, most women don’t need to be taking six or seven different supplements to optimize their workouts a day. Right? But something like creatine could actually be a massive, massive difference, especially when it comes to focus. You know, muscle size, muscle power, muscle definition. Right. And, and by kind of continuing to listen to the myths and not actually start to uncover the realities of things can just really kind of keep us where we’re going and keep us where we’re at instead of allowing us to go where we want to be.
Leanne Vogel
And creatine especially, I use it on a lot of clients having methylation issues. So, like if you have MTHFR or you know that your B12 is really, really high and you can’t get a handle on it, chances are you need creatine. And it makes a big difference for that energy and focus because it’s a co factor for methyl. And so it goes far more than just muscles, though. Like, I really notice when I take my creatine before my workout versus not, I can tell most certainly that I didn’t take it like today. I just totally forgot. And I’m like, why did I do that? So a couple of times you’ve said enough protein and super high quality sources. And I’m sure that there were ladies listening, like Leanne, Leanne, ask her what she means by that.
Leanne Vogel
What do you mean, enough protein? Like, like, I think unfortunately there are a lot of. There’s a lot of information out there right now. Have you seen all those high protein recipes? And you’re like, that is not a high prot. No, that’s. That ain’t it. That ain’t it. What’s your approach to protein intake? And what are you referring to when you talk about high quality sources?
Sarah Granetz
Absolutely. So Protein, once again is relative to the individual. What works for me might not necessarily work for you and vice versa. We, you know, we can look at medical research. Sometimes we have to take that with a grain of salt, right? Most medical studies are done with men for the most part. Any person who is not on bed rest should be consuming their body weight in pounds, in grams of protein per day. If we look at kind of the RDA standards, that’s going to be slightly lower, right? Minimum accepted dose is 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. Some people look specifically at lean mass, but actually when it comes to my clients and actually, you know, when we talk about results and speeding results up, that actually translates usually to much more.
Sarah Granetz
Right? So maybe 35 to 40% of our diet is protein initially for a short term. That term period will be dependent on a lot of factors, right? Do we have more than 30 pounds of body fat to lose? Do we, are we newbies in the gym? Have we been undereating for so long? Do we have, have osteoporosis? Do we have other medical concerns? Have we been very sick? Are we just sick all the time? Right. Those can be reasons why we might want to have protein on that higher end of the spectrum, at least to start to keep things really, really moving and to make sure that we’re fully optimizing everything that protein does in the body. Also along with strength training, once we kind of end that initial ramp up period, if you will, protein can drop down, you know, if you want to think about it in terms of your body weight. Right. So when my clients are kind of in that ramp up, it’s 1 point grams times body weight pound, maybe all the way up to 1.5 temporarily. And then once we start to think more about like maintaining more like realistic macros, right, for everyday life, that protein might be more between the 25 and 35% range, right. Instead of that 30 to 40%.
Sarah Granetz
But I think it’s super important to understand what you feel best on because a lot of the times we don’t give ourselves a chance to figure that out. I have some clients who feel their best where proteins at 30. I have some like me, where protein is much higher, you know, 200 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbs, and they’re like on cloud nine. Do they need to consume 200 grams of protein for the rest of their lives? No, but right now it’s okay and it’s working and their labs are healthy and they don’t have kidney issues, right? So it’s going to be relative to what we’re our current reality is, as I know you talk about this protein is the most expensive macro meaning your body body needs more calories to properly digest, absorb and transport it within the body. So if we do have more than 30 pounds to lose, eating more protein is like literally the easiest win, right? Because we create a very small calorie deficit if protein is high enough, essentially creating the net calories in lower than what we’re consuming. So to your point about what someone could like actually do today and if they’re scared to eat, eat more. Eating protein is the is the best bang for your buck because you can eat more, you can still reach your goals and you can start to very slowly show yourself that eating more is the key, but also that more protein will help you look, feel, perform, sleep, just be better. Right? So obviously that is also we need to take people’s activity levels into account, right? 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight if someone is not very active is way too much.
Sarah Granetz
And if someone hasn’t been consuming more than 60 grams a day, we don’t go from 60 to 150 overnight. Very slowly ramp up, give your body a chance but for mo and then once you play around with those kind of those different values then you say okay, well let’s bring it down a bit. Let’s see how I feel on more fat, let’s see how I feel on more carbs and kind of let protein even out a bit and find what actually makes sense for you on a daily basis.
Leanne Vogel
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Leanne Vogel
The difference was undeniable. I felt more fatigued, my workout suffered and my overall energy levels just weren’t the same. For me, taking mitopure is all about investing in my long term health and muscle strength. I want to be able to hike, run, lift, play even into my 90s and Mitopure helps make that possible. Now, here are a few things you should know about Mitopure and why it’s so effective. Timeline the company behind Mitopure is a Swiss based life science company and a global leader in Urolithin A research. They spent 10 years developing this product. Urolithin A is a powerful postbiotic that you can’t get from your diet alone.
Leanne Vogel
Mitopure is the first product to offer a Precise dose of Urolithin 8. Upgrade your mitochondrial function, increase cellular health and improve muscle strength and endurance. Endurance. Think of Mitopure as a little pac man in your cells, chomping up damaged mitochondria that make you feel old and tired and recycling them into new healthy ones. Whether you prefer the convenient soft gels or the berry powder that you can mix into your yogurt or smoothie, Mitopure has a form that fits your lifestyle. And the best part, timeline is offering 10% off your first order of Mitopure. Just go to timeline.comkdp that’s T I M E L I N.comkdp for 10% off your first order. Yes, and I think the protein conversation is so needed, especially for women because we’re just hungry and we’re reaching for the wrong things and what could really be solved is eating a little bit more protein.
Leanne Vogel
But when we talk about protein, oftentimes I know a lot for my clients I’ll say, okay, we’re going to ramp up protein. This is how we’re going to do it. And the next log I look over is like three Fair Life shakes and in a day. And it’s just the default to the quick, easy quote unquote protein sources. What are your healthier options or suggestions when it comes to hitting those protein goals and slowly ramping it up? But not with Fair Life protein shakes, which have a time and a place for sure, but three a day?
Sarah Granetz
Yeah, actually I have a real stick with a real beef with their, their prepackaged core power ones. The Fairlight milk. Fair Life milk is fine. Um, but yeah, when we think about high quality sources. Right. So it’s not a. We don’t mean quality like price or organic or expensive. When we think about quality protein, that means is something of complete protein.
Sarah Granetz
So complete proteins mean that they have all nine essential amino acids. Right. So this is almost exclusively animal products. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Right. For those vegan and vegetarians out there or that we can’t also add, you know, like an EEAA Supplement to our tempeh lunch kind of thing. But typically turkey, beef, fish, egg whites. Eggs are not a high protein food, but they are extremely nutrient dense.
Sarah Granetz
You know, I do a cup of egg whites every morning. Sometimes I add an egg if I want a little more fat. But a cup of egg whites every morning. I am the turkey burger queen. There are so many turkey burgers in this house at any given time. Seriously, like the 10 cooked turkey burgers. I think half of it is having food on hand that makes these things easier, right. If you feel like you have to cook every day, you, it’s going, you’re going to struggle to reach your goals.
Sarah Granetz
If on Monday you have 10 extra minutes, make 10 extra patties, steam three extra pieces of fish, right? Make a few extra burgers, what have you for or ground meat for tacos later in the week. And for people like me who maybe would actually prefer to be vegan and not eat animals, but recognize that animals are, are going to serve their health better, right now makes more sense, right? Right now for me to consume more versus less. Really lean into the things that you like, right? Like I don’t eat chicken. I have the chicken. Ick. I’ve had it for some time. That’s okay. So I go hard on the turkey.
Sarah Granetz
I go through phases with beef. If it’s a week where I’m okay with beef, right? And it’s going down, okay, have more of it. I think a lot of times we’re scared of having too much in one sitting. And I say, well, what’s too much? Right? You’re nervous to eat two pieces of tilapia. Why? Well, because a serving is four. Okay. But you have goals and four isn’t enough for you, right? So really, really doing your best to diversify your diet. We see better health outcomes, better microbiome balance, gut bacteria, right? The more food we diverse foods we consume.
Sarah Granetz
But you don’t have to be eating 8,000 new things a week, right? Focus on what you like and then once you get sick of it, then you can start swapping things out. But you know, having things on hand is so important. I have a new client that I just onboarded. She uses a company called Just Meats. I’ve never used it, I know nothing about it, but essentially they just ship meat to you and it’s cooked. So it’s not like a butcher block where you still have to make it yourself, you know, And I was thinking, oh my gosh, so many of my super busy clients should have this because then it’s There and they can’t say it’s not ready or. Or that takeout is faster or you live in Manhattan. Oh, it was easier to pop out and buy whatever.
Sarah Granetz
If it’s in the house, you can eat it. And leaning into frozen options, right? Frozen edamame is an amazing snack. Equal parts protein, carbs, fat and fiber. Frozen shrimp fries up really fast in a wok, right? With some, you can even have microwavable frozen rice. Really leaning into the easy wins and trying not to stress so much about the diversity in the beginning. If you like salmon, great. Let’s not get the color added salmon, but let’s go all in on that salmon, right? You know, wild sockeye, whatever. Whatever is actually realistic for where you live.
Sarah Granetz
Not everyone has access to every variation of salmon. But really leaning into what works for you, whether that’s a canned tuna salad every day or that’s, you know, homemade beef burgers every night, you can kind of construct this, oh, I shouldn’t eat that. I shouldn’t eat this. It’s fairly common for male bodybuilders now to post about the steak and eggs that they’re eating and how nutrient dense it is. You know, turkey burgers and egg whites is my version of steak and eggs. And it’s savory and it’s delicious. And then, you know, I basically eat an entire pint of strawberries or a purple potato, and I am good for hours. But it’s not just that I’m satisfied.
Sarah Granetz
Right. Those are super nutrient dense foods, and it’s very easy to change the flavor of any of them. Right. You can add. Add spices to the eggs. You could cook the turkey burgers in old bay seasoning if you want. You know, like, there’s. It doesn’t have to be plain and boring.
Sarah Granetz
I am plain and boring. But you don’t need to be plain and boring. But I’m, as I’m sure you know, right. When we have high protein goals, leaning into the easy wins and having things on repeat. Just like in the gym, right. If we want to get good at something, we have to do it a lot.
Leanne Vogel
Ugh. Like those thrusts. I could. I would. I would literally pay somebody to take hip thrusts away from my program and never have to do them again. And I would be a happy camper. Probably. How you feel about chicken? Okay, Probably.
Sarah Granetz
Probably.
Leanne Vogel
Ick. Whereas my go to is definitely chicken. Like, I love putting a whole bunch of chicken in my instant pot, cooking on two hours and then shredding it. And I. I just always have shredded chicken on Hand. That is my turkey burger. Like, I love shredded chicken.
Sarah Granetz
That’s such a good point. Right? Like, we don’t all need to eat the same foods, but we do all need to have that thing that we can always have around that we will always enjoy and not feel like we’re literally being deprived if we eat it.
Leanne Vogel
Yes, completely. To wrap up our conversation, I would love for you to share maybe one or two things that you feel like we didn’t cover. A word of encouragement for the listener out there based on our conversation. Just something to help them get started to feel more motivated with all of this.
Sarah Granetz
Yeah, for sure. So I think, you know, we spoke a bit about the people who aren’t seeing results. I would take a few minutes today or over the weekend and I would sit down and I would write down everything that I think I’m doing well and everything that I think I’m not doing well and try to be super, super honest with myself. Because sometimes right when we do that, we see what’s missing or we see what maybe we have an opportunity to improve. And it’s not about being perfect, but if we have goals, we deserve to reach them. And this is something that I’ve been saying to my clients more recently. If you want this, you can have it, but let’s be super honest about what we are and aren’t doing so you can get there and so I can help you. Right.
Sarah Granetz
And once again, you don’t need a coach necessarily, but so you’re, you can tell your partner, I want this. Can you help me do this? Or you can tell your roommate, this is a goal of mine. Can you not do that? That being so it’s not about having tunnel vision or being hyper focused on our goals that we can’t live our lives. We’re bad friends, we’re bad partners. But it’s about saying, I deserve to get this and I’m going to do what I can in a healthy and sustainable way to get there. So be super honest about what you’re doing. And then, you know what, if you are lacking on protein, figure out what your chicken or your turkey, your shredded chicken or your turkey burger is and play with it this week. Right? Right.
Sarah Granetz
Do an experiment, see what works for you and don’t be afraid of it not working out. What you do next week doesn’t need to be what you do for the rest of your life. Just like, you know, if taking 12,000 steps is a really big ask of you, but you don’t. You hate cardio and maybe you don’t have cardio equipment at home, right? And your heart health is maybe something that’s important to you or you’re looking to improve fat loss without high impact activity. Taking 12,000 steps for the next few weeks doesn’t need to be what you do for the rest of your life, but it might help you feel better, see faster results and get you to where you want to be and where you deserve to be, right? So zooming out a bit and saying, this might be what I do now, it doesn’t have to be what I do in the future. And for anyone who’s afraid of eating more, I would say go slowly, but don’t let yourself off the hook either. If you are constantly using food as a reward, as a punishment, as a reinforcement for exercise, denying yourself it because you didn’t get to work out, it’s only going to continue in that fashion. And if you can, try to be more food neutral, which is really hard, but try to be more food neutral and say, my body needs this fuel.
Sarah Granetz
It needed it yesterday, it needs it today and it needs it tomorrow, whether or not I’m doing burpees and all this, you know, that crazy workout or whether I’m doing yoga or whether it’s my sauna massage day, right? Learning how to eat more slowly, carefully, methodically, without letting that noise of, should this be, Is this wrong? Am I going to gain weight? Am I going, you know, is this not going to help me? You have to learn how to quiet the noise a bit. That journey will be different for everyone. But the easiest win, like we talked about, is eating more protein. Because protein will serve you in more ways than one. It’s extremely satisfying. It will help create a higher diet induced thermogenesis, so calorie burn need. But it will also allow you to build more muscle, to sleep better, to have better hormonal balance, better cognitive function, right? If you’re sick, it helps your cells turn over faster. Protein steps and honesty with yourself, right? And being honest, like if you’re doing something really well, congratulate yourself on it.
Sarah Granetz
And if you feel like that, you know, maybe you’re injured, maybe you’re sick, maybe you’re living somewhere this summer that doesn’t have access to a great gym. Be grateful for what you can do. Because constantly obsessing about what you can’t do or what you don’t have is just a recipe for frustration and sadness. Gratitude. You don’t have to be walking around saying, I’m so grateful for this broken foot, but you can walk around and say I’m so grateful I can do this. And acknowledging that you are doing some things well and that it’s only going to get better from here if you’re. If you keep putting as much effort in as you deserve, right? Once again, you deserve this. You deserve to feel better reminding yourself that every day.
Leanne Vogel
Sarah, that was such a great summary of our conversation today. Where can people find more from you and connect with you?
Sarah Granetz
So I’m on social media as Strong Period Buy by Period Sarah so Strong by Sarah. I work with women one on one. I do macro coaching. I have some pre made workout programs. If you have the food dialed in. I have home and gym programs available on my website. So that’s strong dash by dash Sarah but also accessible on my social media. And I really just genuinely want to help women feel as amazing as they can.
Sarah Granetz
I want everyone to feel as confident and happy and strong as I do now. And yeah, it took years of work, but it’s you. We are worth the project, right? We’re worth it every day. And it’s so nice to connect with someone who clearly also feels that way.
Leanne Vogel
Thanks again for coming on. I will include all the links in the show notes so if those listening aren’t sure where to go, check out the show notes and that’s how you can connect with Sarah. Thanks again for coming on Sarah.
Sarah Granetz
Thank you so much Leanne.
Leanne Vogel
I hope you enjoyed our time with Sarah Granites again. You can find her on Instagram at Strong Buy Sarah or her website Strong Dash by Dash Sarah and if that’s just a lot of dashes and dots, no problem. Got you covered. Check out today’s show notes for all the links so you can connect with Sarah and see what else we got for you there. Okay, we’ll see you back here next week. Another episode. See you then. Bye.
Leanne Vogel
Thanks for listening to the Helpful Pursuit podcast. Join us next Tuesday for another episode of the show. If you’re looking for free resources, there are a couple of places you can go. The first to my blog, healthfulpursuit.com where you’re going to find loads of recipes. The second is a free parasite protocol that I’ve put together for you that outlines simply victims, testing and resources to determine whether or not you have a parasite, plus a full protocol to follow to eradicate them from your life if you need to. That’s available at healthfulpursuit.com parasites and last but certainly not least, a full list of blood work markers to ask your doctor for so that you can get a full picture of your health. You can grab that free resource by going to healthfulpursuit.com the Helpful Pursuit Podcast, including show notes and links, provides information in respect to healthy living recipes, nutrition and diet and is intended for informational purposes only. The information provided is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, nor is it to be construed as such.
Leanne Vogel
We cannot guarantee that the information provided on the Helpful Pursuit Podcast reflects the most up to date medical research information. Nutrition is provided without any representation or warranties of any kind. Please consult a qualified health practitioner with any questions you may have regarding your health and nutrition program.
Hi! I'm Leanne (RHN FBCS)
a Functional Medicine Practitioner, host of the Healthful Pursuit Podcast, and best-selling author of The Keto Diet & Keto for Women. I want to live in a world where every woman has access to knowledge to better her health.
