I have a thought to share with the group. I have struggled with personal integrity for the past 15 years or so. Let me explain. I am 37 years old. I have been a lifelong athlete and have always felt most alive when I moved my body. It was easy for me to play outside with friends from sun up to sun down. Pickup football with the neighbors, cul-de-sac hockey, creek walking, fort building. I was never accused of sitting still. I went to college, like most teens, with little direction and a huge appetite for exploration. Halfway through my 4 years, I realized that I hadn't selected a major...mostly because I was more concerned with having fun and learning about life than thinking about...internships and career trajectory (barf). I listened to parental advice (rooted in fear and scarcity) and chose to major in accounting because it was safe with guaranteed employment upon graduation. This led me down a path of inner turmoil. I finished my degree (barely and with low grades cuz I had no passion or inherent skill regarding Excel & accounting in general), but I said "no" to any and all opportunities in the field that came my way. Instead, I traveled the world and surfed...working gigs here and there to pay the bills (and completely ignored my student loans piling up). I got married in 2016 and decided I should stop living like Peter Pan and accept my situation. I could no longer be "selfish" and ignore my financial responsibilities and a college degree that I wasn't crazy about. As Jordan Peterson would recommend...I chose the darkest part of my forest (a job in accounting and tackling my student loans) and dove in head first. After floundering a bit, I secured a corporate tax accounting job. The job itself wasn't horrible, but I had to wear a disguise when going into the office everyday. I smiled to cover the numbness inside. I lied in my performance reviews about being fulfilled and wanting to advance my accounting career. I would do push-ups and pullups in the handicap bathroom stall to connect with my body. I would go on my lunch break and run for miles in order to feel alive. I had my own cubicle, so I wasn't so concerned about the sweat seeping through my button up shirt when my lunch break was over.

Nutrition is a heavily debated topic all across the internet. While I am not a nutritionist or dietitian, I have been coaching people on optimizing their nutrition practices for years to help them create healthy, sustainable eating habits that will serve them for a lifetime. And there are a few key principles that tend to help just about everyone, regardless of their eating preferences, allergies, or health goals. Here are those principles: 1. Eating plenty of protein to increase muscle mass & density 2. Consuming the calculated calories to match your energy demands (TDEE) 3. Matching your energy demands to your goals (weight loss, maintenance, weight gain) That being said, the most common issue I have found people run into is that they don't eat enough protein in their diet to optimize their overall health and wellness. I always talk about how I consume 150g + of protein every day on my social media, and how that has been the #1 health and wellness hack for me over the years (and by the way, 150g is not random - it's the number I calculated when I did the free FLOLYFE nutrition assessment + worksheet inside module 1 of the free Lvl 1 course). But the naysayers are always asking me how the heck I get that much protein in a day.. So, instead of explaining it to you, here are 5x sample days of eating for me (snacks included!) that help me hit my ideal numbers. This is what works for me, and isn't meant to be a one-size-fits-all way to eat. Just a springboard to help you discover a repeatable, flexible, and consistent way to eat. Hope this helps. Drop your questions on this below! 👇 Cheers, Dr. C