behind the scenes: how our team dynamic enhances your macro coaching experience

Emily Field 00:00:00  Today, I am excited to introduce Emily Morris, a registered dietitian who has become an integral part of our team, bringing a truly collaborative and insightful approach to client coaching. Emily joined us in 2020, initially in an administrative capacity, but her natural talent for client support and her deep understanding of nutrition quickly led her to a more pivotal coaching role. Emily’s approach is unique. She has a remarkable ability to dive deep into the details like food diary analysis and supplement management, while also considering the big picture of each client’s health. Her background in lifestyle medicine and disease prevention, combined with her experience at Metabolism Makeover, where she helped clients break free from restrictive dieting, makes her exceptionally equipped to guide clients towards sustainable change. One of Emily’s greatest strengths is her intuitive ability to meet clients where they are. She brings a level of personalization and care to every interaction, ensuring clients feel supported, understood, and empowered. Together, we form a coaching partnership that blends her analytical eye I and my focus on health behavior change.

 

Emily Field 00:01:02  And that creates a seamless process for helping our clients achieve their goals. Emily lives in Dell Rapids, South Dakota with her husband Tyler and their son Miles. Her dedication to our clients and her thoughtful, innovative approach to coaching makes her an invaluable part of the team, and I’m so excited to get to introduce her today to you on the podcast. Welcome to Macros Made Easy, the podcast that takes the confusion out of tracking macros. I’m your host, Emily Field, a registered dietitian that specializes in a macros approach. In each episode, I help you learn how to eat in a way that supports your health, body composition, and athletic performance goals. We’ll cover the basics of macronutrients how to track for various goals, the role of macros in your health, and how to make sustainable changes to your habits. I’ve helped hundreds of people experience more food freedom and flexibility while navigating their nutrition. So whether you’ve tried macros and it just didn’t stick or you just heard the word macros yesterday, I can’t wait to help you too.

 

Emily Field 00:01:57  All right, so I really just want to start with how you came to work for me. I’m going to set the stage. This is 2019 before the pandemic. Kind of just seems like a lifetime ago. And I remember that I was ready to have my first hire. And I was thinking that the best way to have my first hire was to quite literally copy and paste myself. If I could just have a coach that was doing the same exact things as me, we could have double the people in the program. And to me that felt like the best move. So I asked my Instagram audience if there were any dieticians available, any nutritionist available that would like to coach in this role. And you were one of them. Emily. So tell me a little bit about I was I’m wondering like how you started Follow Me or like how you kind of came into my circle, at least to be.

 

Emily Morris 00:02:41  Honest with you. I don’t think I remember how I started following you, but we had our friend Krista Bigler was like the connection.

 

Emily Morris 00:02:47  And so I think it was probably through Krista. I ended up following you on Instagram. I think I’ve been following you for quite a while when you posted about that job, and I actually didn’t even initially see it myself. Krista knew that I was kind of on the hunt for something different, and she saw it first and like, immediately texted me and was like, hey Emily, just post a job. I think you should apply for it. That’s so funny. Yeah, that was actually how I ended up seeing the application. I mean, I probably would have came across it eventually since I was following you, but she was on it that day, and so I applied for the position and I think we did a phone interview, if I remember correctly.

 

Emily Field 00:03:19  You definitely made it to like another cut. I definitely I interviewed about maybe five people and I really enjoyed talking to you, but ultimately I ended up going with a different coach. And I think back at the time it was more because that coach had already like had some experience working with clients and that was kind of the like clinical role I was looking for.

 

Emily Field 00:03:39  And you had experience working with like clients in the lifestyle kind of aspects. I think prediabetes, diabetes, kidney disease, that kind of stuff. But ultimately, I didn’t end up going with you and that ended up burning me. So I learned my lesson. I was working with this coach for a little while and unfortunately, Covid, along with other circumstances, kind of forced her to, you know, rapidly quit. And so I felt pretty burned by that decision. And I was kind of solopreneur ING again there for a few months. And then you circled back around and inquired about helping out again. So what made you do that? I’m curious about what made you kind of poke back in.

 

Emily Morris 00:04:17  You know, I just I knew I was looking for something different from the job that I had been working in, and I wasn’t in a rush to find any job, but I was always kind of just like poking around, trying to find the right fit. And I remembered when we did our phone interview, something we talked about.

 

Emily Morris 00:04:30  You had mentioned it on the phone interview that maybe in the future we could do some sort of contract work together where I could help with a project or something like that. And so that was always in the back of my mind. And so I think it had been, you know, several months and I was like, I’m just gonna circle back and see what happens if she doesn’t work. You know, I’m still kind of looking for a new job. I had actually started working for Megan with Metabolism Makeover, and I think I was only doing maybe 5 to 10 hours a week for her on the side of my full time job, but I was like, If I’m going to leave this other job, I really need to find something more. And so I was always like looking for something else, and I was dipping my toes into that private practice role with Megan. And I was really enjoying it. And so I felt like that was the direction I thought I wanted to go. And then that solidified it working for her, that I was like, okay, I need to kind of reach out to Emily again and see if there’s something more that we can do and see what happens.

 

Emily Field 00:05:12  And there was, you know, I think at the it was kind of like perfect place, perfect time. I was like, what am I trying to do if I’m going to be growing, I need help and would I really loved was your just like, enthusiastic attitude to just do whatever. And so what started as like a lot of like admin email answering kind of like getting contracts ready and like looking up and billing and Instagram posts and like just random stuff. We really were able over the next couple months and years because now that’s been about almost five years away, like five years since we’ve been working together. You are in a what I would think, because we have great communication, a role that feels really great for you. So you’re doing a lot more coaching and clinical work, but you also have some hands in like the admin side like you used to to. But no more social media that’s off your plate. And a couple other things have kind of completely come off. So I’ve really enjoyed growing together.

 

Emily Field 00:06:04  And that’s what I attribute our great working relationship because we have great open communication. I’m want to be a great boss and you are able to communicate with me like what you like and what you don’t like. And so I really do appreciate our work dynamic so much.

 

Emily Morris 00:06:17  For sure. I’d have to agree. We have a good relationship and I think things have really ebbed and flowed over the years where I’ve done more admin stuff at times, more clinical stuff at times. We definitely had a transition over this last year when I came back from maternity leave and figuring out what was going to work, and it’s just the flexibility that we’re both able to have in being able to do the things that we really like and we really love on our team, and that’s made it work.

 

Emily Field 00:06:38  Yeah, totally. I mean, that’s the point, right? If you’re going to own your own business, you might as well work it the way you want to and allow the people that are on your team enjoy themselves as well and have the flexibility that you get to enjoy.

 

Emily Field 00:06:48  I mean, we’re not in corporate America for a reason. So you quit your job for a reason. So I want to make sure it’s a great, awesome place to work and you enjoy your time. So I want to talk a little bit about our team dynamic, because I think most people that are listening to this podcast might not realize that there are multiple people working with every single client that comes through our coaching program. Ettlin. So you’re not just getting me, you’re getting Emily. You’re also getting a bit of Kristen. And that is part of I think the magic of coaching is that it’s not just one lens. You’re getting multiple coaches, one of which is a dietician. And that’s even just putting completely aside the fact that you’re working alongside other women in this group coaching program, which also can help improve your learning and push you along and things like that. So I want to talk a little bit about that dynamic here. So just for anyone who doesn’t know, my group coaching program is called E to lean, and we hold about 30 to 40 women at any one point in that program.

 

Emily Field 00:07:48  And because we want to provide such a robust experience and have individual care for each person within that group coaching program, we need multiple eyes on each client, so we need them to pick up patterns. We need them to anticipate the client challenges. We need to provide great nutrition education and counseling, and I cannot do that by myself. I would never want to do that by myself. So it has been awesome to have Emily and Kristen kind of in the clinical roles behind the scene, really touching on every single client. So can you share a little bit about how the journey from the client, from when they first apply to when they graduate coaching, maybe four, sometimes eight months later, how we are ebbing and flowing with that coaching.

 

Emily Morris 00:08:31  Yeah, well, it all starts when they apply for coaching. And usually you and I are both seeing their coaching application come in via email. You know we’re tag teaming those. You’re replying to some I’m replying to some. And that’s kind of our initial touchpoint of seeing that application and thinking, oh, this could be a really good client.

 

Emily Morris 00:08:46  I think they’re going to be a really good fit for the program based on what they’re telling us. So that’s kind of our initial introduction to the client and some of the key things that we tend to remember about them throughout coaching. So it starts there. If they end up being a good fit, we offer them the option to join coaching. Once they sign up, we then create their personalized plan where they’re filling out an initial health assessment. And you know, that’s again giving us even more detail about them. And so that’s one of the main things that I do is I’m kind of drafting that personalized plan in the macros, and I’m kind of writing up the health recommendations part to say, here’s some of the things you need to work on. You know, obviously we’re going to be working on your macros throughout all coaching. That’s why you’re in this program. But there’s all these other lifestyle things that we can work on as well. And so I’m pulling that out of their health assessment to say these are the things that stood out to me, and this is what I think will work on there.

 

Emily Morris 00:09:30  We go into our weekly check ins, and clients are submitting a digital form every week, and we’re reviewing that, writing recommendations, answering questions, adjusting macros if it’s needed, phasing through the macro cycles, all those things, and then by the time they get to the end of their cycle, either if they do a four month cycle or a second cycle and do eight months, then we draft their end of cycle notes. And again, you know, it’s a tag team between you and I of picking up all the things that they accomplished during coaching, the challenges they had, the things they overcame, and ultimately what their success looked like in the program. And so throughout all of that, it’s really they’re getting both of us, you know, I’m doing part of it. I have my strengths in all of that. And then you have your other strengths and I, I think we kind of wrap it up nicely together.

 

Emily Field 00:10:10  Yeah, it’s really nice. Bow. We get to put on it when the client graduates.

 

Emily Field 00:10:13  It’s so fun to be able to look at their initial assessment, even their application, and say what they were struggling with and where they were in that journey then and then be able to kind of flip through some of their notes across the next several months and see where their mindset has really changed, where their habits have changed, how good they’re feeling potentially, you know, their body composition changes, their performance changes, things like that. And we wrap it all up in that end of cycle note. And it’s just like, really? I feel like it’s a great, almost gift for a client to be like, you know what? Yeah, that was a good time. Like, you know, I really did accomplish a lot because sometimes Times in a coaching relationship. You’re so in it. Like as the client, you’re focusing on hitting your macros every day. You’re focusing on like getting your strength training workouts at. You’re not an exercise activity you’re really like in it on a daily basis. So you lack that bigger bird’s eye vision.

 

Emily Field 00:11:00  And that’s what I think having two coaches or more than two coaches can really help remind you of, like how far you’ve come. This happens on a monthly basis sometimes, sometimes on a every couple of months. We just kind of have to remind clients like, look at where you were and look at where you are right now, because unfortunately, many people think either they’re not making enough progress or they’re comparing their progress to other people that they see online, or their friends or family that are making incredibly restrictive or depriving choices in their nutrition, in their habits. And they might be seeing more drastic change. So we have to kind of remind them of what their values are and what we’re trying to accomplish there, and why we’re going at things in a more gentle manner. That’s probably going to last a lot longer and be a true lifestyle change. So again, like if I was the only one touching these client files, that would be really difficult to do.

 

Emily Morris 00:11:50  Something you touched on was, you know, every couple of months or weeks were like pulling them out and saying, look at the bird’s eye view of what you’ve accomplished.

 

Emily Morris 00:11:56  That’s probably one of my favorite things. And one of my strengths in coaching is that I love to take the data and say, hey, look at that scale weight, look at your body measurements. I’m pulling their progress pictures and, you know, doing side by sides of those. And I very much have that. I like the data to say we can see it right here. We have the facts of what you’ve accomplished. And I love doing that for clients because as a coach it’s rewarding to see that as well. But then it’s also like, hey, here’s the evidence of what you did. I hope you’re proud of this as well.

 

Emily Field 00:12:21  Yeah. So that probably is a great segue to kind of talk a little bit about what are some of your strengths that you bring to the table when it comes to client check in? So like we mentioned, we have a four month group coaching program. But every single week you’re checking in on an individual basis. So while there is group coaching aspects where we come together on a zoom call, and we are in a chat together and all these different things.

 

Emily Field 00:12:44  There is an individual component to this group coaching program and that’s where you get to check in. That’s where you’re reviewing your week and you’re sharing your highs and lows and you’re asking questions. You’re getting macro adjustments there. And that is where you’re getting multiple touch points from us. While you may not realize it as a client, you are getting multiple touch points from each person, which provides a very robust experience. So tell me, Emily, what are some of the things that you do in those notes that might be, you know, just different than what I do?

 

Emily Morris 00:13:12  I think you kind of mentioned some of your notes about this episode. I’m very bold in my communication. It’s probably a strength and weakness depending how you talk about it. But when clients come with a struggle they’re having or a challenge or something that’s going on with them, I tend to be bold in saying, hey, listen, these are the goals you had when you said you were joining this program. These were the goals you wanted to accomplish.

 

Emily Morris 00:13:32  These are the behaviors you’re doing. The action you’re taking doesn’t line up with the goals you’re telling us you want to achieve. And I like to pull that stuff out and kind of call clients out on it. It’s like, hey, you’re telling us you want one thing, but what you’re doing isn’t lining up with that. And so we need to make an adjustment here. So I like to make sure people are all on the same page. But then oftentimes, if I feel like I’m being too bold, I often send you a message and I’m like, hey, you might need to clean up this or, you know, make it a little like, you know, you need to come in behind me. And you’re much better at that, too, being empathetic with clients as well. So that and then as I mentioned, I really like the data stuff. So looking at their weekly weight averages, their body measurements, their progress photos, I like to pull all that information and compare their data over time.

 

Emily Morris 00:14:11  Also data in their food diaries. So that’s one of the things I actually really do enjoy is, you know, if a client has a specific complaint and we might be able to find the answer looking in their food diary, I like to go digging. So some common ones are alcohol is a big one. I love to go pull out alcohol and be like, hey look, here’s all the alcohol that added up throughout your week and it was x number of calories. And can you see how this might be impacting your journey towards that loss? So I like to do that one. Blood sugar balance is a big part of macro tracking. You know, we’re trying to eat meals that are balanced with protein, fat and carb. We know that impacts blood sugar balance. That’s an entire module that we talked about in this program. It’s really the foundation of what we talk about. And so if we ever have clients struggling with, you know, hunger or we had a client just a few weeks ago, she was feeling like lightheaded during workouts or something.

 

Emily Morris 00:14:53  I can’t remember if you remember that. That was one where, like I went to gain her diary and it ended up being like she was eating meals that were not macro balanced like her breakfast and have any carbohydrates. So she was doing a workout sometimes in the morning and then having a lot of protein after her workout, which is great. We do need that protein, but she was lacking the carbohydrates in her breakfast to kind of refuel after that workout and get her blood sugar set for the day. So I like to pull out little things like that if we can find them. When clients go into a deficit, they can often complain about hunger. That can be a normal thing. In a deficit, you’re intentionally eating less than you need. But there are some things that we can do with your food as far as like increasing your food volume and making sure you’re getting as much fiber and volume as you kind of stay full. So looking at diaries and seeing where they might make some adjustments, there is another one that I like to do.

 

Emily Field 00:15:35  I would just pause and say, like, I think that’s what people are looking for from a dietitian versus a just general macro coach. Like if you’re somebody that has in your Instagram bio just like macro coach, macro trainer or something like that, I have to roll my eyes and I worry about the client that goes to them who’s really looking for that deeper dive. That’s what we’re trying to say is like, we’re looking at a very detailed level of the balance of your meals, where those meals are in your day compared to your workouts. How much of that food that you’re eating is real whole foods versus refined processed package, and then giving you a swap for that to encourage you to have more high quality and like, nutrient rich foods. So yeah, I mean, that is the edge, right, of being a dietitian, knowing a lot more about like, the food environment and the timing and the frequency. And then obviously macros is a whole entire nother level. So I hope you’re kind of like hearing that as Emily speaks about like the deep dives in the diary.

 

Emily Morris 00:16:30  Yeah, I think another big one that I just thought of as you were saying that too, was accuracy with tracking, because that can be a big one for clients, even if they’ve been a veteran tracker and they’ve been tracking for a while, they’re still mistakes. This happens more with clients that are newer to tracking, where maybe they’re using a lot of those generic entries in chronometer, and they could be breaking that down to be more accurate. Little things like that where it’s a good start. Like they, you know, it’s like they’re learning as they go and we’re there to say, hey, this is something you could change to do it better, to be more accurate in your tracking. And maybe you’re getting this entry views wasn’t as accurate or whatever it might be. So that comes into play too.

 

Emily Field 00:17:02  Right there where you’re saying like for somebody who’s been tracking for a long time and still not seeing the results that they want, like that’s what they’re looking for from a dietitian relationship is like okay tell me what I’m not seeing.

 

Emily Field 00:17:13  Like I’m clearly blind about this. And so we have to pick out those details. So yes, the accuracy and tracking is one. But then I think another one is like probably the specific supplements or maybe how stress and sleep and exercise really play big roles here. You’ve got the nutrition part mostly down. But now we got to tease out something else about your lifestyle. One of the things that we offer for clients is a supplement review and this can be really helpful, especially if you’re somebody who has got like a ton of supplements that you’re taking. You don’t exactly know why. Or you heard they were good at one point, but you’re not sure if they’re serving you anymore. So that’s one of my favorite things that you do in Client Diaries as well. Can you share a little bit about that?

 

Emily Morris 00:17:51  Yeah. Clients will usually, you know, submit a list of supplements and say, I’m taking XYZ. What do you think? And so I just break that down supplement by supplement. And we look at the dosage, the form of the nutrient they’re taking, how often they’re taking it, the reason that they’re taking it.

 

Emily Morris 00:18:05  You know, we want to get all that information and then kind of provide a review of like, hey, this is the dose you’re taking. Seems really high, you know, is there a reason that you’re taking such a high dose or this dose is really low, and I don’t know that it’s really doing anything, or you could be taking this form of magnesium instead of this other form of magnesium, based on the thing you’re wanting to improve by taking the supplement. So all of that and then I will sometimes pull swaps as well to say this supplement could be a better option. You know, it’s going to be a more absorbable form, it’s going to be a higher quality supplement. And so we can pull out swaps for them as well in their supplement list.

 

Emily Field 00:18:36  Yeah, I mean, that makes it a lot more effective.

 

Emily Morris 00:18:38  Yeah, and we didn’t say to like, you don’t need to be taking all these supplements like some of these are really unnecessary, or they might even be doing more harm than good.

 

Emily Morris 00:18:44  That’s another big one that we see is people taking too many supplements in really high doses. Just because one time, five years ago, their doctor said they needed vitamin D, you know, and they just like started taking it and never stopped. And I’m not saying that vitamin D or whatever supplement is bad. You know, there’s a time and a place for things, but it doesn’t always need to be forever. And it doesn’t always need to be a really, really high dose because it can be snowball downstream effects to taking high doses of supplements in isolation.

 

Emily Field 00:19:10  Yeah. And one of the things that we offer in coaching can be a hair mineral tissue analysis and TMA test. And this can be really insightful for that client specifically who’s like, I do not feel well and I’m not making progress. I don’t understand why I eat really well. I exercise regularly. And so this is just a one next level deeper to be able to say what is your stress response like? And how is your mineral status? And it takes a long time to improve your mineral status.

 

Emily Field 00:19:39  But at least we have a little validation for how we’re feeling, right? It can sometimes feel really, really good to know. Like it’s not my fault. It’s nothing that I’ve really been doing, but I do need to be paying more attention on my food quality. Maybe adding more sodium, adding more potassium, adding more calcium to my diet, or specifically looking at how stress is playing a role in my life because that is the biggest driver of our mineral status. So, you know, I need Emily on that because, you know, even though I’m running the test, I’m doing the interpretation. I’m providing the recommendations. After that recommendation is provided, we have weeks of follow up. We are still doing our weekly check in. So we want to see where those mineral rich foods are coming in the diet. And that might be where Emily kind of goes and does a dive and says, look, you know, you could swap for this, for this to get more mineral rich foods. And I, I love that offering as well.

 

Emily Field 00:20:27  It’s not just the one interpretation. You’re saying, how can we implement this longer term. So Emily did say, I mean, I would agree that she tends to be pretty bold in her communication. She really tells it like it is, and depending on the client, that can be exactly what they need to hear, you know, in order to feel inspired. But there are other people that need a bit of a gentler approach. And because I have, I might have a deeper understanding of the client journey from maybe a phone conversation before we start working together, doing their personalized plan, like jumping on our coaching calls every other week. So I get a lot more touch points with each client, so I might know a little bit more about what’s going on and have more context. That’s why I’m always going to be the final last touch on these coaching touch points. So Emily might start bold and I might leave it right as it is, or add more because that’s exactly what the client needs to hear.

 

Emily Field 00:21:16  And that’s exactly what they wanted when they came to coaching. Other times I might soften it just a little bit with a little bit of empathy, a little bit more context. And so it’s that constant conversation within the team that we’re kind of sharing about a client’s journey and just making sure that we’re all on the same page. Ultimately, by the end of four months, we have a really good idea of what these clients need and when, because it’s sometimes about pushing them a little bit at certain times, maybe laying back on others, teaching them how to have grace with themselves. It’s that kind of like ebb and flow. You can’t always have a hard ass coach, and you can’t always have a soft cheerleader coach. You kind of need a little bit of both at different times, especially across four months or even longer.

 

Emily Morris 00:21:55  I think something I would add there about our kind of co coaching relationship is I’m very open about what I think a client might need, or just my opinion on a client. And it’s my opinion.

 

Emily Morris 00:22:07  It’s one view because I’m seeing the client mostly through their digital check ins. I’m seeing them in a digital written communication forum. That’s how I know clients I rarely would have like a over the phone or in-person touchpoint, like on a zoom call like you do. So I know them in a different way. And so I often I’ll ramble on a voxer message to you for three minutes about a client saying, I think they need this based on what we know. This is what they said. This is what they’ve done. Here’s my opinion on what we might need to do with them. And you might take some of that and be like, yeah, I totally agree. And there’s other times where you’re like, actually, I think it might be totally different. And I’m not offended by that. I’m just sharing my opinion. You know, I’m willing to open about it. But I know that you ultimately know the client a little bit better than I do, and you’re willing to, you know, take my advice when you think it’s needed and also say, I’m gonna I’m gonna change it up a little bit.

 

Emily Morris 00:22:52  I don’t think that’s the route we’re going to go. And we’re very respectful in that. Yeah.

 

Emily Field 00:22:55  I mean, if you were the type of person that I had to soften my communication with at all times, like I would be an exhausting role for both of us to be in. And so, I mean, obviously we’ve grown together. It was kind of like a magical match, and I’m lucky to have that. But I think it comes with working with each other for a long period of time, just knowing what the other one needs to hear. And you know, I appreciate the three minute rambles because I get where your head’s at and there are details that I may not have seen, and then we can kind of all marinate in it and give the client the best experience they can have. I mean, obviously we’ve been talking about this like collaboration and like the team dynamic. I want to talk a little bit about some success stories and client wins. And two examples that I kind of wanted to share about are here and why.

 

Emily Field 00:23:41  If I was the only person working with these clients, I might have missed key details. And this is not me saying like I am regretful of my coaching or like I think I have way more work to do. Obviously this is a practice that I own and I’m continuing to learn at all times, but because there are multiple eyes on each client, there is a different view and it can be so valuable. Across the course of four months, I probably would not have been able to see some of these holes, especially if I tried to hold 30 to 40 clients at any one time. I would love for people to be a little bit critical about the people that they hire, because if they’re saying they have hundreds of clients, I’m like, well, how detailed can they really be? And how strong can they really be in their coaching? How much can you really grow from that experience when you’re spreading yourself so thin across like hundreds of clients. So I’m not trying to, like, Pooh Pooh on anybody else’s coaching business, but I truly don’t understand how that works.

 

Emily Field 00:24:35  And 30 to 40 clients is a perfect balance for us. And so I want to share about two clients that are most recent kind of graduates as of 2024. The first is Becca, and she was unique. I think you probably remember this, Emily. When she came into coaching, she had lost a significant amount of weight already and she was feeling really good. This was as a finding macro tracking, starting CrossFit. She had pretty good eating habits already. She’s very active, but she really just wanted to push herself a little bit more, not necessarily in weight loss or fat loss. She wanted to find maintenance. She wanted to see how many calories she could truly eat and just maintain her weight because she had been losing for a fair amount of time, some many months before coming to coaching. So she wanted to find that balance of enjoying food freedom without being overly restrictive. And in short, we know that maintenance can be pretty challenging for people. So we agreed that she would probably be a great fit for coaching when she applied because we were like, look, most people need some hand-holding and maintenance, especially women, because we really only get messaging about weight loss and fat loss and like how to be smaller and lighter.

 

Emily Field 00:25:43  We don’t really ever get a messaging about how to fuel for an active lifestyle to be strong, to be fit, things like that. So anything else you remember from that initial assessment? When we’re thinking about Becca and like what she said she wanted, I think.

 

Emily Morris 00:25:55  We had planned maybe for saying that we say it to clients often where your goals might be. They’re opposing each other. Because she did. She was very clear that she wanted to find maintenance. She wanted to get strong, all of that. But I think she still had like this little bit of like, fat loss goal in the back of her mind. Or maybe she listed my weight is this. But I’d like to be this. There was a little bit mention of fat loss, and we had to kind of call her out and say, hey, you know, you’re saying you want to find maintenance, you’re saying you want to be strong, but you’re also kind of mentioning fat loss here. And we just need to be clear that these things, these are opposites, like to lose fat, you have to be in deficit to get strong and eat enough.

 

Emily Morris 00:26:27  You have to be at maintenance. And so that was the one thing that stout was like kind of from the get go, we had to say, hey, we just need to get clear on what you really want because that’s what we think you want. We just want to double check on it.

 

Emily Field 00:26:36  And she was able to verbalize like, oh wow, when you put it that way, I definitely don’t want to be giving up calories and macros. I don’t want to be sacrificing my strength and fitness in the gym. I really want to have. I want to eat at maintenance. I want to feel full and satisfied. I’m gonna be well fueled. I want to recover well and we’re like, perfect, amazing. Let’s go. And as the cycle progressed, unfortunately, Becca experienced some life events and family drama that put a lot of pressure on her. And in the midst of those challenges, she started to be a really critical of her body, and she had this really strong urge to take control and restrict.

 

Emily Field 00:27:11  I mean, that is the default pattern for a lot of women is it’s with food and exercise. When life feels chaotic, we want to pull the reins on something, and that can be food. And it’s typically food and exercise. So, you know, that’s what kind of was bubbling up for Becca was, you know, she wanted to jump into a deficit and see fat loss use all of a sudden supercritical of her body. I’ve been in coaching for this long and like, I’m not seeing this change. And I’m like, we had to be like, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa, stop the brakes. Like, that’s not exactly what you that’s not what you said you wanted here. Let’s dig a little bit deeper. Like, why are you all of a sudden coming into this restrictive mindset? And because both you and I were co coaching, we saw that pattern emerge. And I’m wondering like if I was only coaching Becca or if you were only coaching Becca, we might have fallen for that.

 

Emily Field 00:27:59  Like oh my gosh, this client’s unhappy. We need to meet them where they’re at and we need to drop calories. You know what I’m saying?

 

Emily Morris 00:28:06  Yeah, it can very easily happen because you only have one set of eyes and you’re not getting a second opinion or a second take on it.

 

Emily Field 00:28:11  Yeah. So we, you know, in working together, we kind of offered Becca, we showed her like here’s what I think might be happening. Like this is a common reaction when life gets stressful and chaotic. And she really took the feedback while she was like, wow, I never realized that. I typically do that. You’re right. I need to be well fueled, especially in a time of high stress. So she stayed with her maintenance macros. We took the pressure off from tracking, like there’s a lot of things that we can do when somebody feels like life is feeling too chaotic, you don’t have to track your macros and be in coaching with me, so just know that. So we kind of took the pressure off in that way, and we challenged her to kind of just stay true to that goal.

 

Emily Field 00:28:47  And what are some habits and behaviors that you can engage in that will support you through this challenging time, but maybe not necessarily track macros super diligently? So I think that throughout her journey, we kind of just use that coaching technique we both love to use, which is cognitive dissonance, really showing somebody where they say they want to be and showing them where their actions are, and kind of empowering us to like, why do you think that is? Where do you think this disconnect is coming from? And then we can work at those challenges. So, you know, we said things like, you say you want food freedom and maintenance, but then when things get hard, you slip back into that restrictive mindset like, why do you think that is? And those kinds of questions are part of the coaching process. She’s able to kind of take that rhetorical question, think to herself over the week, maybe do some journaling and some thinking and discussing with the people in her life. And that’s when the true change.

 

Emily Field 00:29:35  That’s when the true growth starts to happen. And when people can examine their own behaviors and like, choose to do things differently.

 

Emily Morris 00:29:41  Yeah. I think one other thing I would add about Becca is that because there was two of us working on this, we were able to consistently be really firm with her in this process. Like when those times when she came and was freaking out about not making progress or wanting to drop a new deficit and have that control. When life got crazy, we were both, you know, as a single coach, like you said, it might be easy to say, oh my gosh, this client is unhappy. I’m going to quick change directions. But like we had the support of each other to say no, this is what she said she wanted. We need to challenge her on this. We need to be firm. And we were able to do that consistently throughout her coaching cycle. And I’m sure it was hard for her at times. Sometimes it’s hard as the coach to be firm like that when you know a client is struggling.

 

Emily Morris 00:30:19  But ultimately it was what she needed and she came out on the other side of that and, you know, a better place.

 

Emily Field 00:30:25  And I want to be clear, if somebody wants to change directions in the middle of their coaching cycle and go after a different goal, we will so support them in that. But the reason for Becca’s wanting to change directions was not coming from a place of like, I have truly changed what I want to be doing. She was being reactive. We want people to be very like, mindful when they decide to move into a deficit. Be very clear about the reasons is not just a flippant decision. I want you to execute in a really great way, and I want you to do it differently than you’ve done before. It should not be a reactive decision because life feels chaotic and this is where you’re going to execute control. That’s not a great way to start a deficit at all.

 

Emily Morris 00:31:04  Exactly.

 

Emily Field 00:31:04  So yeah, I mean, Becca’s story really is a testament of that collaborative coaching.

 

Emily Field 00:31:08  You know, again, when we were coaching her alone, we might have missed some of those nuances of her experience and maybe have offered her some quick fix solutions just to make her feel better. I’m so glad that we didn’t do that, but because we work together, we were able to have that perspective support the patients in order to help her grow so that she was really moving far past like physical results, even though she did experience fat loss and lean muscle gain and better fitness throughout her time in coaching, she really got that mindset coaching, which is probably what was missing the first time around when she did weight loss and fat loss coaching. So I’m really proud about that. And that’s something that I know we feel very strongly that we offer with our program.

 

Emily Morris 00:31:45  Yeah, definitely.

 

Emily Field 00:31:47  Okay, so the second client I really want to talk about today is Angela. And Angela was with us for eight months. So I want to be clear that our coaching program is four months long. That is considered one cycle.

 

Emily Field 00:31:57  We can accomplish a lot in those four months, but sometimes people re up for two cycles and they want that extra support. They feel like they’re just getting started with their journey, and they really want to continue it and have that weekly support. So Angela was a client who came to us after years of dieting and restriction. So in her application, she was really sharing that she was used to a very low calorie eating pattern. But she’s starting to hear messages from people around her that she needed to start eating more. So she started eating about 500 to 700 calories more per day, and she still just didn’t feel comfortable in her body. She felt like, I’m feeling a little bit better, right? I’m sleeping better. My cravings are down. I’m feeling a little bit stronger in the gym, but I still do not feel comfortable in my body. She really just dreamed of a future where she was leaner, stronger, fitter and she was also preventing chronic issues like diabetes because that was something that worried her.

 

Emily Field 00:32:53  It’s something that ran her family, but she was really struggling with understanding if that was actually possible without restriction. So in that initial health assessment, Angela was sharing, like I added these calories back. I’m feeling better with my sleep. I have more energy, but I’m really discouraged because I feel like I’m gaining weight, especially around my Midsection, and she just described herself as feeling like bigger overall. Her doctor had mentioned that she was seeing early signs of type two diabetes, and that is scary to her. She’s already a very active woman. She was cycling. She was teaching cycling classes, I believe. So she was I think it was like more like it was like 5 to 6 days a week. She was very, very active. And she’s like, how am I struggling with type two diabetes or pre-diabetes? How am I going down this path? And it was just really clear that she just saw herself as an athlete, but really struggled to be able to eat like one. And I know that you and I, Emily, have a lot of experience saying that exact line.

 

Emily Field 00:33:49  So anything you want to elaborate on there?

 

Emily Morris 00:33:51  I think I remember in the very beginning of Angela’s cycle, it was hard. It was really hard for her because, you know, she was doing these good things. She had started eating more. She was very active. And so those were things that we were proud of her for. But at the same time, we had to kind of come in and be a little bit critical in the beginning and say, yeah, you’re saying you want to be an athlete and you feel like one, you are not feeling like one. So we had to kind of be shoot it to her straight in the beginning and say, like, you have to eat more, you have to eat more. And we really had to kind of get on her about her activity because she was so active. And we had to explain how being more active was a form of stress on the body, and that was impacting her results as well. We know that, you know, too much stress can impact that midsection weight gain.

 

Emily Morris 00:34:34  It can impact your risk for diabetes, all these things. And so that was what I remember in the beginning of Angela cycle was it was really hard for her and for us, I think, because we don’t always want to be the bearer of bad news. That’s not always fun as a coach. But at the same time, we really want our clients to be successful. And we felt so confident, like we’ve seen this case a million times, where the person is overtraining and under eating and has years of restrictive dieting like this is not uncommon for us to see. So we were super confident in our recommendations to her. But being the client in that situation, for Angela to for us to say these are some pretty big changes you need to make. I think that was really hard for her, but ultimately she took it with stride.

 

Emily Field 00:35:08  Yeah. You know, when there’s that moment right where you’re like, in order to be the athlete you want to be, you have to eat more. You continually choose not to.

 

Emily Field 00:35:18  So what’s going on there? Right. So we see that gap between your actions and your wants. And we ask what is going on there. We ask clients to really do the work and dig at that. And sometimes that comes in the form of like journal prompts. Sometimes it’s like reflection, sometimes it’s mantras, sometimes it’s like talking to a counselor or a therapist. And one of the things we asked Angela to do was reflect on her earliest memories of feeling big or feeling fat, because she really did share with us that she was so afraid of eating more because that was the deeper issue. It was like, I cannot be fat, I cannot be big. It was just really, really rocking her world. And she discovered that when she did some digging there, that her feelings were really tied to her upbringing. As a child, her dad had often commented on her body, and Angela really internalized that idea that being thin was the only way to really gain his respect. And so that conditioning had left her feeling like in order to be worthy to him or worthy to her family, I must be thin.

 

Emily Field 00:36:15  I must stay in control of my weight. So that’s not something that, as dietitians, we are equipped to work on with somebody, but we can certainly shed light on it. I want to be clear here that we did not enter into a therapy session with Angela on this, but we were able to help her connect with somebody who would be able to hold space and care for her in that way, because it’s clear that in order to make movement on your health journey and eating more clearly, it was like kind of standing in her way of seeing better health outcomes. She had to work on this mindset piece in this like really uncomfortable and vulnerable stuff. So I’m so proud of her for seeking out counseling. She was able to do therapy while also working with us. And that, I think, is what really accelerated her success.

 

Emily Morris 00:36:58  I don’t know if you remember it, but I do remember the note when she kind of wrote that whole story out about her upbringing and her dad, and how she finally made this connection of like, this is why I’m having so much struggle with this.

 

Emily Morris 00:37:11  And I remembered, like you and Kristen and I chatting on Voxer and we all were like, we were so proud of her because it’s like, as a coach, that’s such a breakthrough moment for a client, because once we can figure out that, why? For why you’re struggling, even if she’s going to go somewhere else and work with a therapist to get through that, we know what the underlying issue is, and that is so informative as we go forward in our coaching relationship. And so I remember, like the day or the note when we were just like, oh my gosh, this is it. Like she had a breakthrough. This is what we’ve been struggling with. And I think, yeah, had she not uncovered that our coaching cycle could have looked so differently. So yeah, all really proud of her for doing that work and being open and honest with us about it. Because sometimes clients, they don’t have to share that information with us. It’s not nutrition related, but in her case, it was really, really valuable for us to know that.

 

Emily Field 00:37:56  So somewhere along the cycle we did TMA, we talked about this the hair tissue mineral analysis and that really revealed some critical deficiency. She was pretty depleted on many minerals, and we tied this to her long history of dieting, her chronic stress under eating, years of pushing herself hard and workouts and not really giving herself enough recovery so that like data right there was super helpful as well. And so we do an interpretation. We get on a phone call. Again, a really big testament to the collaboration we have as coaches is I get to have that touch point with Angela and she’s like, you know what? You know, some of these patterns are kind of looking like you have been under stress for a very long time, and you’ve really just been pushing yourself to a place that your body can’t go. And she kind of revealed to me, you know, she’s held herself to such a high athletic standard, and I love that about her. But she was always kind of like in the back of her mind, feeling like inadequate.

 

Emily Field 00:38:49  And so in uncovering that detail, we are able to be like, okay, so, you know, what would you tell your daughters? Like, what would you tell them if they were also in this space? And so she really liked to operate out of that mindset as well in sharing with my coaches like that story and kind of like where her mind is at in the context of all this stuff. We were able to really, like use a different form of coaching, and through the lens of like, I would never want my daughters to think about their body the way that I do. And so, okay, talk to yourself that way. That was kind of one of the coaching angles we decided to take with her.

 

Emily Morris 00:39:20  Yeah, she did a really good job with that too. I think she was always very open when we made those suggestions. And I feel like after that initial few weeks and once she kind of hit that breakthrough of uncovering this all, she came to all of her check ins with a really positive mindset.

 

Emily Morris 00:39:33  She was very upbeat. She felt confident in what she was doing, and you could just tell it made such a difference when she had those mindset shifts.

 

Emily Field 00:39:40  Yeah, I mean, today she’s in a completely different spot than she was when she came to coaching. She is really living in that maintenance period. She started a deficit and she ended up ditching it almost right away. She’s like, I hate the way I feel. I miss eating more. And I was like, I never thought you would be the person that.

 

Emily Field 00:39:57  Would say this.

 

Emily Field 00:39:58  It’s so awesome. So she’s eating enough to fuel her active lifestyle. She’s kind of really ditched that, like endless cardio and cycling. She still likes to do it, but she’s really focusing on lifting heavy and as a result, she’s leaner, stronger, fitter than she was before. She’s just so much more powerful. She has that like flexibility and freedom. With her eating no longer really restricting and putting foods and goods and bad categories, things like that.

 

Emily Field 00:40:20  And she’s chosen instead of a weekly check in, we’re doing monthly check ins, which is something that we offer to clients who have graduated the program, and they want to have a little bit of a tether. They want to check in with the team, but they don’t need a lot of that assistance and really more in-depth coaching. And we love that. We love being able to check in with people on a monthly basis and see how far they’ve come, even just in four weeks, and where their mindsets at and things like that. So I’m just so proud of Angela. I mean, obviously I’m proud of Becca too, and all of our clients, but those are two great examples of like how co collaborating and like having two coaches and two eyes on each of these two or more because Kristen’s here to to really help us be the best coaches that we can be and really move people through that transformation in 4 to 8 months. So I want to end this episode, Emily, with your personal story about macros, because I think there are several people that might come through my DMs or even an email and say like, what is your training? Like, how did you get started? And I always feel a little bit embarrassed to say that.

 

Emily Field 00:41:16  It’s like it is a practice for a reason. Now, while I’ve read books and I’ve had my own macro journey, like, a lot of this comes from working with clients and seeing how macros work in the real world. Because you may know this too. It’s, you know, macros really belong to the bodybuilders for a very long time. And that is not a world where normal, average, active people can live and, you know, weigh and measure out every single herb and spice and lettuce leaf that they have. And so I felt like there was a missing piece there, a real big gap when we started with macro coaching several years ago. Just for the average person, you can use this method to and have precision and personalization and move your way towards your goals, whatever they might be, without being, like, so restrictive and so deliberate and detailed. So I know that I started with like kind of a blood sugar stability stance. You mentioned that earlier in the episode, but that FNC at every single meal, really having that balanced blood sugar can solve a lot of problems.

 

Emily Field 00:42:16  And I think that’s what you said, really gravitated you towards my method or my approach when you started following me. But I’d love to hear more about your personal story with macros and how you kind of came to be a strength of yours.

 

Emily Morris 00:42:27  Yeah, I would love if I could remember the specific point in my dietician journey where I was like, oh, this is the method that makes sense. But I don’t remember when that was. But you know, the part I do remember is at some point in the years or months maybe, that I started following you, I was also following Megan. We mentioned I’d worked for Megan from Metabolism Makeover as well, so I was I was following accounts like that. And both of you were focused on the fancy blood sugar balance, eating enough protein. You had very similar views on things. Megan’s program did not involve any tracking. You obviously did track macros, so you had two very different takes on it. But I just remember if there’s any early dietitians or students in this listening to this episode, you’ll probably have a point in your career where you’re like, just trying to figure out what nutrition approach makes sense for you.

 

Emily Morris 00:43:11  And that was it for me when I was like, oh, Matt, like the protein, the fat, the carb, you put it together, blood sugar balance. It was like something in following you and following Megan. It all kind of click for me as dietitian. And it was like, this makes sense to me. I can explain this. You could sit me down with any patient or any client I have, and like I could explain this method to them in a very logical way and how it impacts their energy, their blood sugar, their hunger and fullness, all these things. And so I just I really resonate, you know, it just it made sense to me. It was very logical. And we always say that macros is like nutrition 101 because your body is essentially, you know, your body’s counting macros, whether you are or not is something you always say. And I think that really clicked for me. So I just got it and that was why I was following you.

 

Emily Morris 00:43:50  It’s why I was following Megan and naturally ended up working for both of you and at the same time, ironically and yours were doing two programs with really similar like foundational concepts, but they were you are using them with clients in very different ways. And I actually found that really interesting because Meghan’s program, her clients came from really long history of dieting. Typically we’re tracking wasn’t appropriate for them, but understanding the and she still was, they still needed to understand that nutrition wasn’t what is in your food and how you want to put it on your plate, but they didn’t need to be counting or tracking macros because that wasn’t the appropriate method for them based on their history. But also in that journey and in my journey, a natural question at some point is like, well, how much fancy do you need? And I think that’s where I kind of landed. And part of your method that resonated with me as well was like, oh, okay, well, you actually could track macros and then you know how much of these you should be eating.

 

Emily Morris 00:44:39  And so I actually prior to working with you, I had never tracked macros. I remember my husband and I had had at some point a conversation. And maybe it was when I started working for you and I was like, I really like this method, but I just don’t think that I’ll ever track macros. Like, I don’t think I want to do it myself. I understand it, I like teaching it to other people, but I don’t think I want to track macros. And then at some point I changed my mind and, well, it’s probably we were leading up to my wedding and I had decided I wanted to do a fat loss phase. And I also had started doing Paragon training weapons, and I had really started getting into strength training and my appetite, like, went through the roof. Went through the roof? Yeah, through the roof, like literally through the roof. And so then I think I got curious about like, okay, let’s just like see how much I’m eating. And so I started tracking.

 

Emily Morris 00:45:21  I didn’t even really set macros from the beginning. I just like started tracking to see how.

 

Emily Field 00:45:25  Much that’s what we recommend. We say, you know, just track your food and then see where you’re at first instead of like having the the ranges set for you.

 

Emily Morris 00:45:33  Right. And I as most people will find out, I was under eating protein. I was it was really easy to go over fat. I think my carbs were like pretty and I liked carbs. So I was like, that was not really an issue for me, but over protein under fat, which we hear from people all the time. So that was really a common thing for me. So I was able to make some swaps there. And then, you know, eventually I did set my macros, I think I eventually you and I actually sat down and like, we set them together. I did like a custom macro calculation with you, and I always fell in like the 2000, at least 2000 into like 2200 range, like when I was working out.

 

Emily Morris 00:46:03  And there was I remember at one point I was eating like 300g of carb when I was doing that four days a week. And I was like, and for context, I’m five foot three. Like, I’m not a very big person, just a very petite person in general. And I was like, how am I putting away this many calories in this way? But like, I legit needed the food. I was so hungry. I put on muscle mass really easily when I started eating enough and start eating all those carbs, and prior to that, I wasn’t intentionally under eating. I was like eating to my appetite. If I was hungry, I ate. I did focus on that PFC balance, but I just wasn’t tracking it. So in general, I think I was always falling around 2000 and then I ended up kind of working up to 22, 2300 when I started tracking, just realizing that I needed more calories to feel my training. And then we did a really short only like eight week, maybe fat loss before my fat loss phase before my wedding.

 

Emily Morris 00:46:49  And I remember like 2 to 3 days into it, texting you and being like, I hate this.

 

Emily Field 00:46:55  I miss my 300 car.

 

Emily Morris 00:46:57  Like, I don’t like not eating enough. That is not fun. And anyway, I stuck it out for eight weeks. I did see really good fat loss, but I had a lot of muscle mass in my frame from training really hard at that point. So, you know, lost the fat, revealed the muscle. I was really happy with the body composition changes that I saw, and I think I kind of off and on tracks after that. And then eventually I got pregnant and I tracked a little bit in pregnancy just to kind of like here or there. I would do it for like a week or two, and then I’d stop for a couple of months and I do it for a week or two just to see how much I was eating. And again, I always fell in that like 20, 20, 200 calories. It was just like, I just knew.

 

Emily Morris 00:47:29  We see this was planned for you with clients all the time. Like once you’ve tracked for so long, you kind of just know how to eat the amount of calories that you need, like you’re used to what it looks like on a plate, and you’re used to the number of meals and snacks you need in a day to do that. So that’s always where I ended up falling. And then I didn’t track for months after I had miles, and it was probably just within the last like 2 or 3 months I have. I’ll track for like a week or so at a time, or even just a couple days just to check in. And it’s I’m still like around 2200 is I feel like where I fall now, maybe it’s a little bit less now that I’m done breastfeeding and my appetite’s a little bit lower. But yeah, it’s just it’s been a really useful tool to always come back to, to know, hey, I’m just going to check in, make sure I’m eating enough, because in my case, I always wanna make sure I’m eating enough.

 

Emily Morris 00:48:09  Like when I was trying to get pregnant and when I was in pregnancy and when I was postpartum, I was really worried about eating enough to support my body in a stressful time like that and in healing and everything. And so that was kind of always my reason for checking in. And so I think that’s.

 

Emily Field 00:48:22  A really great message to the people that are listening who might think, like, how can I ever give up tracking? I feel so dedicated to this approach. I feel like I need it, maybe they even feel like it’s a crutch. But there is a especially with the right mindset, especially with like the vision of where you want to go with this. It can be just like that for you, where you dip in and out and you just kind of like, let me just check in. I don’t feel my total best. And so you might check in and you’ll see that you’re drastically low in protein or like you’ve been neglecting your carbs or something like that, and that flexible mindset.

 

Emily Field 00:48:53  So helpful. You’re basically treating it like riding a bike. You already know how to do the method, you don’t already know how to do the approach, but you choose to ride the bike just a lot less frequently than you did before.

 

Emily Morris 00:49:04  Yeah, and I think another way that I use it now is not even to track for a whole day, but I will like, hey, this is what I want to eat for breakfast this week. I’m just going to log it quick and chronometer and see where the macros fall. And I don’t have a problem getting, you know, that 30 ish grams of protein for breakfast and creating those macros macro balanced meals. But sometimes I just want to see the numbers and see where it falls and really know the total calorie content. So that’s another way that I still use tracking is to just track a meal or a recipe. Here the macros fall. I do like like a protein coffee or like a protein latte that I make at home a lot. And so I’ve like figured out the recipe for that so I can get a good balance of fancy and that as well.

 

Emily Morris 00:49:40  So that’s another way that I use it. Yeah. I mean.

 

Emily Field 00:49:41  Even if you’re only tracking two meals a day, but, you know, you’ve knocked off like 60g of protein for the day, you know, like it’s not going to be very hard for you to make up that last bit of gap with a balanced dinner and a snack. So that’s a really great point as well, is like you don’t have to track necessarily the whole day, but like even just like half your meals, you’ll know if you’re drastically falling short of that protein, which is the hardest one for most people to get. You have to really think forward about that one. So it sounds like that’s what you’re doing.

 

Emily Morris 00:50:05  Yeah, definitely. And I think, yeah, proteins always want to check in on. And I’ve really found I don’t have a problem hitting at least 100g like minimum, which I think I’d like to get more. I like to sit around like 130, but if I can hit a minimum 100, I’m pretty happy with that.

 

Emily Morris 00:50:19  You know, there’s where I’m dropping around there. That’s fine. But yeah, it’s been really helpful to see those details.

 

Emily Field 00:50:26  I’d be curious, you know, in the future when Miles starts to pay a lot more attention to what you’re doing in the kitchen and like, at the table and with your phone, I’m sure he’s like grabbing out of your hand at this point. But a conversation that we oftentimes have with parents is like, how do you talk about tracking with your kids? Or if they see it, do they automatically? If you have negative thoughts about tracking and what you’re doing it for, your kids are going to pick up on that too. But the way that you’re talking about fueling yourself and eating enough for the active lifestyle that you want to have, and make sure you’re feeling your best and have the energy and sleep well. That sounds like a very positive reason to track. And even if your kid inquired about it, I don’t think that you wouldn’t be that confident to say it exactly as you just told us now.

 

Emily Field 00:51:06  Have you given any thought to that about how you might talk about tracking to your kids?

 

Emily Field 00:51:10  Yeah, I.

 

Emily Morris 00:51:11  Think he’s too little and I think he’s too young yet. But also, maybe if I had a daughter that I wonder if those thoughts would be different in thinking about sometimes with the daughter, it’s different. No, I haven’t given it much thought. I think at this point I don’t think he’s seen me do it enough to even make an impact. And going forward, I don’t know what tracking will look like for me. If it will, I’ll do it consistently for a long time and he’ll have more exposure to it in the way that I’m doing it now. Or it’s a meal here and there or a week here and there. I don’t think that would be enough for him to maybe notice. Yeah, but I wouldn’t. I don’t feel scared about talking to him about it. I’d feel confident in saying, you know, this is data, this is information I want to make sure my main message would be, I want to make sure I’m eating enough.

 

Emily Morris 00:51:51  Like that’s I want him to understand that we need to fuel and we don’t want to under him.

 

Emily Field 00:51:56  A lot of times we have a conversation about clients or even just about content in the sense that, what are you making it mean? What are you making macro tracking mean? If in your head you’re making it mean something restrictive and like depriving, and I have to do this because I’m overweight or like whatever it might be like, that’s going to change the way you view the rest of the world and the way that you eat. So, you know, if you have a completely different attitude, like it seems like you do and like I do, and we try to encourage our clients to have it can be a completely different world opening experience instead of like world closing experience. So it might be an interesting question for you to ponder. If you’re listening to this, what are you making it mean? What grade or meaning are you trying to macro tracking? Because it really could just simply be a budgeting system, like a really goal neutral budgeting system.

 

Emily Field 00:52:37  It does not have to mean something super serious or even scary. Like, definitely not scary. No.

 

Emily Morris 00:52:42  I think the other thing with kids and I can’t claim to be an expert here. I only have one kid. But, you know, I think it matters that they, like. He sees me eat a lot. I think that’s the difference is I’m not trying to hide it from him. I’m not trying to pretend to eat, like, sneak bites. So he’s not seeing it. Like I’m not afraid to eat in front of him. I eat plenty of food in his day. I’m always worried about eating enough, and so I think that’s a really valuable thing for him to have that exposure to. Like mom eats in a regular basis. She’s not going all day without eating. We sit down. That’s normal.

 

Emily Field 00:53:10  But he’s learning that that’s normal.

 

Emily Morris 00:53:11  Yeah. So I think to me, like that’s more important than worrying about if you would ever ask me the question about tracking.

 

Emily Field 00:53:17  It’s a really good point.

 

Emily Field 00:53:18  Thank you so much for sharing. I love that candid conversation at the end. There really a lot of good stuff to ponder. But you know, obviously you’re a dietitian. You’re doing the best that you can. You’re going to make mistakes along the way. But it sounds like you have a really good you know, the example is there, the foundation is there. Miles is obviously going to learn from a great example.

 

Emily Morris 00:53:35  Hopefully.

 

Emily Field 00:53:37  All right.

 

Emily Field 00:53:37  Well, thank you so much for being here Emily. It was really awesome to kind of connect and really share about our strengths and what we bring to the table. Hopefully people that are listening can get like a much better view of how we collaborate on each and every single one of our client journeys, and it just makes for a robust and complete cycle for them, a transformation that’s really, really valuable versus somebody who might have to spread their time across a ton of people and really only have one lens to operate from. So I’m so thankful that you’re on my team, and I just really thank you for being here today.

 

Emily Morris 00:54:09  Thanks for having me.

 

Emily Field 00:54:10  Thank you so much for listening to the Macros Made Easy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the one you’re listening to right now to share it on your Instagram Stories, and tag me at Emily Field so that more people can find this podcast and learn how to use a macros approach in a stress free way. If you love the podcast, head over to iTunes and leave me a rating and a review. Remember, you can always find more free health and nutrition content on Instagram and on my website at emilyfieldRD.com. Thanks for listening and I’ll catch you on the next episode.