Why Plan Your Macros the Night Before? Live Coaching Q&A

Nikkiey: What's up, WarriorBabes? Hey, everybody. Nikkiey here, and welcome to our WarriorBabe Live Wednesday Q&A time together. I am stoked to be here with you guys right now. I love coming out and hanging out with you guys on Wednesdays doing this Q&A. It brings fire. It brings heat. It brings motivation. It helps you get some clarity on any questions you have moving forward.

So I'm stoked to be here with you. As you're joining in, comment and say hey, what's up, and let me know you're here. The more you comment and smash the like button right now so I can see who's tuning in, the more it pushes our video to the top of the Facebook group, so anybody who's new and doesn't know how to join these live Q&As can see the video live, click on it, join in, listen and hang out with us. All right?

So smash that like button, let me know you're here by giving me the hey, what's up, and help push the video to the top of the Facebook group so everybody can see and chime in. What's up, Emily? What's up, Laura? What's up, another Laura? What's up, Carla? What's up, babes? I'm super stoked to be here with you. If you're tuning in at a later date or time, you know the drill: do the hashtag replay, and keep all of your questions here in the comment thread for this live Q&A.

We'll get started in just a few seconds. If you have any questions, start commenting them beneath this video, and we'll kick off the live Q&A shortly, because there is some lag time between Zoom and Facebook. So keep smashing that like button if you're here. Just by commenting, and the one like I got, come on, guys, it pushes our video up higher. I can see our visibility.

Our numbers are increasing. So come on, smash that like button if you're tuning in, let me know you're here, comment and say what's up, and start leaving your questions. See? There it goes. It keeps going up. So keep it up. Start leaving your questions for this Q&A, and we'll kick off in just a few seconds. But before we do, I want to give a huge welcome to all of our new WarriorBabes who joined us this week.

I am so stoked. Our community keeps getting bigger and bigger every week, and I'm excited to welcome the new babes into the community. You are part of thousands of women who are getting toned and becoming stronger, more confident versions of themselves. And I say this every week, and I'm probably biased, but I know you guys can back me up on this: our community is so amazing. The inspiration, the motivation, the support that everybody has for each other inside this community to push each other.

The posts I see, the encouragement I see, it's just fire. And to think that it's in a Facebook group. Can you imagine if we were all together? That would be so amazing. I mean, it is already, but in person, wild. So to all of the new babes, welcome. I'm stoked that you're here. If you're new, give me a little wave in the comments so I can see who's new and get used to all the new names. If you're new to WarriorBabe, if there's one thing I can say that will make a drastic difference to your journey starting off here,

it's tuning into the WarriorBabe blast-off emails. They are so important for starting your journey inside this program. They will help you transition into this lifestyle, okay? They'll help you get your mindset down, your goals down, your whys down. Why are you here, what do you want to accomplish, and why do you want to accomplish it? When you have that written down or mentally thought through, you are one step closer to reaching your goals, and also to being on that daily trek of showing up for your goals, right?

If you have a reason why you're working toward something, it's easier to show up for yourself every day, all right? So if you're new, make sure you're tuning into the blast-off emails that are coming to you, one video per day for the first 14 days you're in this program. What's up, Sandra? What's up, Carla? If you have any questions, remember, you can start leaving them beneath the video right here, and we'll kick off the live in just a few minutes.

So start leaving your questions, and that way we can start running through the Q&A. One more thing I want to say before we dive in, for anybody who is new: don't be the person who floods the community with questions that can be answered inside the application. Take the time to really go through it. There are so many golden nuggets that pertain to you starting off, to macros, to workouts. There are so many golden nuggets inside that application for you to learn,

and I'm sure your starter questions can easily be found there or on our Frequently Asked Questions resource page, which is on the home screen when you click Need Help. My team has made it really simple for you to find the common questions that get asked, or that you may have, with a full answer for you to learn from, all right? This is what it's all about. You don't come into this program expecting results yesterday. I'm helping you lay down foundations that will set you up for long-term success, okay?

So if you want instant gratification, sorry, this may not be the program for you. I'm helping you develop skills that will stop you from jumping onto the next bandwagon or into unrealistic situations or unrealistic methods, okay? So come in here, lay down your foundations, go through the blast-off emails, go through the application, go through our resources and learn this stuff. The more you learn and understand it, the more likely you are to follow through with what I'm sharing with you and the golden nuggets I'm providing, right?

What I like to say is that your journey is more than just a diet. It's more than just the macros and more than just the training. If you can get your mindset in alignment with those aspects and with the goals you want to accomplish, which is everything I'm sharing with you inside this program, you will far exceed the expectations you have for yourself and the results you're seeking, okay? So make sure you set your foundations in the first couple of days. Don't just dive in like, yes, I joined WarriorBabe yesterday, first workout today. That's awesome. That's great. But make sure you have your goal and your why and what's motivating you on a daily basis.

Because if you're someone who does that and doesn't get the other things in alignment, you're going to be two weeks in and losing motivation, okay? So I have all of this lined up for you, the questions, the programming and the blast-off, to help you lay down strong foundations. That way you're two weeks in and you're still motivated, still showing up for yourself, still following through with the whole reason you started this program two weeks ago. All right? So make sure you go through each of the resources that I and my team are providing you.

And let's say you can't find the answers to your questions in either of those, the app or the resource page. I do these calls every single Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Come be on these calls. If you can't be on them, watch the replay later. Then Kate, our community manager, comes in and answers any questions that were left behind. So you literally have unlimited support and unlimited places to get your questions answered and get clarity moving forward. Don't assume you know the answer.

And for sure, don't compare it to programs you've tried before. I can guarantee you my methods are different. My strategies are different. If you need clarification on anything, type it into the Q&A and do the hashtag replay, and Kate will come back in and answer anything left after the Q&A was live. That's your best bet to get answers to any questions about your journey if you can't make the Q&A. All right? There are so many avenues for you to get the right answer.

That's the most important thing. And if you don't make the Q&A and you don't leave a replay question, go into the community and ask. I guarantee you one of the veteran babes or somebody else will chime in within 30 seconds to a minute after you post, and somebody will have an answer for you. All right? So if you're new, make sure you use all of these avenues, because we're a community. We're here to support each other. I'm here to show up for you every week and help you along your journey. You have so many avenues of support.

Make sure you use them. All right? So let's kick off this Q&A. What's up, Angela? Angela, I am so excited for you. My team let me know, and I saw you join the Blueprint today. They were all excited, messaging in our chat, like, did you see who just signed on? I was like, oh my God, Angela joined the Blueprint. Let's go. I'm stoked for you, babe. I'm excited for the rest of your journey.

All right. Laura: "I never feel like I do the drag curls correctly. Do you have any tips?" The one thing I can definitely recommend is that you want to stay upright. You can see me; it's a little laggy. Hold on. So you're going to stand upright. It's really sunny in here. And you're going to just drag them up. You can see that my biceps are being isolated.

You see that? And I'm squeezing at the top. So you want to drag the bar up against your body. Look how I'm isolating the biceps. I'm just doing that with body weight. That's how you do drag curls. And if you're not feeling it, go a little heavier. Increase the weight. Carla: "I'm new. I set my macros." Hold on a second. Okay.

"I'm new. I set my macros, and I'll start strength training in the next two weeks. Do I need to eat a protein, carb and vegetable at each meal? How do I get all the fats in? I decreased my carbs by 25 grams each day for now. What if I've met my macros and didn't get my snack in? I've also been walking in a fasted state." So you're doing great with the fasted walking. Now, look, Carla, what I say on every single one of these Q&As: if you're new,

just keep implementing and hitting your macros every day. I talk about the breakdown inside your app. If you go to Transform and watch the WB Basics, I give you tips in those videos on how to structure your macronutrients. So I'd recommend you go into that section of the application and watch the videos I put together, because they'll easily answer the questions you have for me right now.

You'll know where they are: Transform, WB Basics. How to structure your day, pre- and post-workout, all of that is in those videos. And what I can say to anybody else who is new, as some starter tips with macronutrients, is that it's a skill. It's a skill that will serve you for the rest of your life. And the only way you'll get better at it is by doing it on a consistent, repetitive basis.

Every single day you get better and you get faster. Okay? And one other thing: you don't want to track as you go throughout the day. You all know that; I've brought it up on previous Q&As. You want to be planning your day out the night before. Okay? So you want to plan your day out the night before, and make sure your macronutrients are... sorry, I just had to pause for a second.

I am so bad at multitasking when I'm on video. You want to make sure your macros are planned out the night before. That way your day is structured, your macros are in alignment, and there's no thinking to do the next day. But if you're tracking as you go throughout the day, I guarantee you're doomed to fail, because you'll get to the end of the day with 20 grams of protein, 50 grams of carbs and 15 grams of fat left to hit, and you'll be like, I have no idea how I'm supposed to hit that. So what's really important is that you log the night before. Play around in MyFitnessPal the night before, and that will set you up for success the next day.

I highly recommend you have a protein and a carb in each of your meals. Okay? I talk about that in distribution. To put it in layman's terms, say you have 140 grams of protein. Divide that by six. 140 divided by six is about 23. That's your target number for each of your meals. It doesn't have to be exactly that number. It can be 18, it can be 25, it can be 26 or whatever.

But that's the range to aim for, and it can be a little higher in some meals. So that's distribution for protein and carbs. And with your fats, it's just about playing with it and toying with it. It's about logging the night before and setting yourself up for success, and then everything is in alignment. If you're just tracking as you go, you'll find yourself thinking, I can't fit this in, or I don't know how to get this, I'm already over on this one and now I'm left with this much of another.

So tracking the night before is going to make you better at that. Same with fats: it's about distributing them. Say you have 50 grams, and you're eating six meals, but two of those are pre- and post-workout. The other four meals would be around 12 grams of fat each, but you could even aim for 10, because your pre- and post-workout meals will have a little fat in them.

The other meals could have around 12 grams. But honestly, forget everything I just said. It's really just about logging the night before and getting better at consistently tracking. That way you see how everything pans out for you. Angela: "I love you. I'm excited." Yes. Awesome. Laura: "Got it. Thank you." You're welcome, babe. Cool. Does anybody else have any questions?

Because nothing else is showing in my queue. So if you have questions, fire away. Okay.

Where are the questions at, you guys? Come on. Jennifer: "I just restarted again. What do we do if we're full by meal four?" Keep going. Keep feeding yourself, because your metabolism will eventually get into alignment with the food you're eating. Okay? You can't eat four meals one day, two meals the next day, and then on the third day decide you're going to hit all of your macros. You're just sending your body mixed signals at that point.

So you want to keep going and keep feeding your body. I guarantee it's going to feel like a lot at first. But after a week or two of consistently eating that much food, your body will get used to it and start adapting, and you'll almost be like, okay, I need more food. That's typically what happens. I'm sure a lot of the veteran WarriorBabes can preach to that. That's how it works.

"I'm eating more protein than I'm used to. Should I still eat it anyway?" Yes. Again, you're training your body to recognize what you're doing. The more consistent you are and the more you hit it, I guarantee your body will adapt and start actually burning through the food and sending you hunger signals. I can't talk today. Hunger signals that it wants more food. Okay? So it's really important that you're just consistent.

"Are brown rice cakes considered a complex carb because they're brown rice, or simple because they're processed?" If they're processed, they're definitely more of a simple carb. But look at the ingredients and see what the number one ingredient is. Cool, Jennifer. You're welcome.

All right. Cheryl: "Best way to handle leg soreness?" It's a good thing. I'm very sore right now. I did leg day yesterday. But first, it's a good thing. Make sure you're stretching. Okay? And staying hydrated. Another recommendation is glutamine, which I've recommended before.

That helps with recovery and soreness. Make sure you're taking a multivitamin. There are so many different variables you can add in. But stretching is important. Hydration is important. Doing cardio after legs is nice because you move that lactic acid out. And what else did I say? Taking a multivitamin. Glutamine is a good thing to try. Those are all things that can help with the soreness process.

Valerie: "I just want to say that I joined Blueprint a few weeks ago and I'm still taking a lot in. I also just joined Evolution. I'm enjoying the app. Thank you." Nice, babe. Welcome. I'm stoked that you're part of the community. One thing I can definitely say about the Blueprint is that everything I provide every single one of you is a skill. It's a learning process, and that's exactly how I got started trying to understand everything. So just take it step by step.

Step by step, understand you're not going to get results yesterday, but you're teaching yourself how to be in control of your body and get results that are long-term. Laura says the first ingredient is brown rice. Anything like the caramel rice cakes from Quaker, those are definitely more simple carbs.

Cheryl: "Thank you. Leg day was brutal." Nice. Good. I like to hear that. My legs are extremely sore right now. Even just standing and walking around and moving my legs today, I just went on a walk before this, really helps filter out that lactic acid. Okay? So the worst thing you could probably do, and if you have a desk job this is probably speaking to you, if you're sitting at home doing your work from home,

it's really bad to sit the entire day after leg day. That lactic acid is just building up in there. Get up and walk around. If you work in an office, get up, walk around, get outside. Schedule little breaks throughout the day. If you're working at home, do the same thing. I got a standing desk because this is where I work, and I went out for a walk earlier because I was in my office all day. So schedule that stuff in for yourself,

so your muscles, so that lactic acid can filter out. It's so hard for me to talk today. Laura: "Loving Blueprint myself." Nice. I love hearing that. The Blueprint call is up next, too, at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, so I'm stoked to get on there with everybody. Nikita, what's up, babe? "Can you explain how the exercises work? Do we do all of them? For instance, arms.

Do we do all of them or pick some?" No, you do all of them. Every exercise programmed in the app, you are supposed to do. We wouldn't write them down if they were optional. Do them. It's in the app, y'all. Come on. If you click on Strengthen in your app,

oops, hold on. You click on Strengthen and you click on one of the exercises, and there's a whole explanation of how it all works, how the supersets work, rest time, all that. And even if you click on the weekly training schedule at the top,

if you tap on that, that also brings up more rules to follow with the weekly training schedule. And if you click on one of the days, like Monday or Tuesday, chest and triceps or back and biceps, there's an entire rules list inside of there. Narcissa: "Hi, Nikkiey. I finally went back to the gym and wow, I feel like I lost so much strength. I can't lift the same as before, but I'm there and started again, and it feels so good to be back."

Nice, babe. That's awesome. And yes, if due to COVID you've been working out from home but normally work out in the gym, there's a drastic shift when you start going back to the gym. Understand that. Don't go ham. Trust me. Don't go ham, because your body will be so sore that first week back. Take it easy. Take it light. You're definitely working your muscles. Even if you don't feel like you're sweating in the gym, you're still working your muscles.

Definitely more than you were at home. So make sure you're not going ham, and you'll notice a massive difference from getting back into the gym. I know I did. My hamstrings were so tight for about two weeks because I went too hard on them. So that's awesome. I remember getting back into it. Be kind to yourself and understand that you won't be as strong as you were before COVID started.

Know that, be aware of it, and just be happy that you're going back into the gym and able to lift. That's exciting. All right, babes. Anybody got any more questions? Whose gyms are open? Give me a one if your gym is open and a two if your gym is closed. There's such a lag with Facebook and Zoom.

Nice. One, one, two, two, 50-50. One. "I know, but I do not want to go back." Oh, okay. Oh my God, I was dying to be able to go back. Hey, to each their own, though. 50-50. Well, more twos.

Wow. There are still a lot of people whose gyms are closed. That's crazy. "One, but due to medical reasons I can't go. I have a personal gym." Nice. When you have your own personal gym, that's nice. When I was only working with 10 and 15 pounds, that was just not cool. I wasn't getting effective work. I mean, I was making it effective, but it wasn't what I liked or what I was used to. Wow, that's wild that so many people's gyms are closed. All right. Angela: "I just have to say that I had gotten really bored with the meals

I was eating, and that led to my derailment. When I finally got my head in the game and decided to try the meals in the weekly meal plan, I was surprised how good they are, and super easy prep." I think there were a couple of typos in the rest of that question, Angela, but those recipes are fire. If you follow me on Instagram, here and there I share what I eat.

Usually Instagram sees it first and eats it first before I do. Then there are times I'm just too hungry and need to scarf it down. But all my meals are literally about three ingredients and take legitimately about three minutes to prepare. If it's pre-cooked, like if you meal prep, it shouldn't take you long to prepare your food. That's why meal prep is so insane. How many of you meal prep?

Let me know: give me a one if you meal prep, and a two if you don't, if you like fresher meals and prepare as you go. "Are the recipes saved in the app after the week is over?" Oh, okay. No, they're not saved. But Kate does add them to a section inside the application

with all the swap recipes. She always adds them to the swap recipes, so you can always go back in there, and she'll add the top favorites to that swap recipe area. One, one, one. Nice. Narcissa: "Okay, I hear you, I wanted to mix it up." Nice. "Two, now, except breakfast." Fire. Yeah. One. Meal prep is a game changer. And like I said, all of my meals are three ingredients or less.

"I plan the menu for the week and cook daily." Nice, Beth. You want to come here and do that for me? All right, let me go back up here. Annemarie had one. Where are we at? There we go. "Hey, Nikkiey. I've been on the program for about four weeks now, and I've noticed that some days I'm more hungry, even after I hit my macros, and I have less stamina during my workouts. Some nights I'll wake up at three in the morning starving, and I'm wondering,

should I increase my calories? And if so, which macros and by how much? I'm currently hitting 165 carbs, 125 protein and 65 fat, working out five days a week." I would increase your carbohydrates for sure. I'd increase them by about 30 grams and see how that goes. But Annemarie, also make sure you're implementing your cheat meal. Okay? Your cheat meal will help drastically with that feeling.

Emily: "Sunday is my meal prep day. So helpful." Yes, girl. Laura: "Instant Pot shredded chicken, portioned in the freezer all the time." Yes. And I saw your question and answered it just now. Valerie: "Should I be monitoring heart rate during strength training and steady-state cardio?" No. The heart rate number is silly. Just push yourself and challenge yourself. If you're challenging yourself, your heart rate is going to be in the right zone.

With strength training, you won't get into a HIIT atmosphere or a cardio heart rate. You'll stay within your fat-burning zone. And for cardio, if you can't hold a conversation with someone, you're doing too much. You don't really have to worry about the numbers. Just gauge how you're feeling. That's the most important thing. Don't go off the numbers with that, and I say that in general about everything. Most importantly, how are you feeling, and can you hold a conversation with somebody else?

That's when it's challenging. Okay. Annemarie: "Can you also talk about time under tension when lifting?" Yeah. Time under tension is basically the time you're performing the movement of the exercise. Time under tension is the 12 reps you're doing, which will take you about 45 seconds or 30 seconds

to complete. That is your time under tension. And the way you can increase time under tension is by slowing down your reps and really focusing on the movement of the exercise you're doing. If this makes sense, smash that like button. I'm about to explain it even more. Time under tension is when you're actually doing the reps of the entire movement. When you're doing this, that takes about 30 to 45 seconds.

The way you can slow it down and put a little more time under tension is by slowing it down and squeezing, slowing it down and squeezing, slowing it down and squeezing. Okay? That's time under tension. Your muscle is under tension at that point. So that's exactly what it is. I'm glad you asked. What you should be focusing on most is the mind-muscle connection.

If you're going like this, there ain't nothing happening. Okay? Nothing's happening. Slow it down. You don't want to make it go by faster. You want to spend as much time under tension as you can to really break down the muscle fibers, but don't make it a minute-long rep where you're going super slow. Just create the mind-muscle connection.

That's your time under tension, and that's the most important aspect. Something is in my eye. "Still working out, so it doesn't matter. During the Blueprint Q&A, I typically listen and interact during rest, but I'm not sure if Blueprint works the same way." Angela, since it's your first day, and for anybody who just recently joined the Blueprint program, what I always say at the beginning of those calls is that if it's your first Q&A, just sit back and listen.

I don't recommend newbies interact on their first Blueprint Q&A, because you're going to get used to how I converse with the community and how the community converses with me. You'll hear other women talking and me game-planning their strategy. So if you're new, since you signed up today, and anybody else listening on your Blueprint call, I'd just sit back and listen. But eventually you'll want to talk to me.

You'll want to be unmuted and strategize with me for five minutes on what your game plan should be. Annemarie: "You're amazing. Thank you for being such an inspiration." Oh, thank you, babe. That warms my heart. I love seeing that. I'm grateful for you guys putting in the work and showing up for yourselves. That's fire. When I see our community lit, sharing their success stories and coming together as one,

that's my dream come true. And now helping more women be a part of that is amazing. You guys are my motivation every day. Y'all rock. All right, babes, on that note, I'm going to wrap up our Q&A right now. I've got to hop on the Blueprint call in 20 minutes, and I still need to dive into those babes' check-ins.

So I'll catch you guys later. Ashley: "For real, you changed the game for me. Forever grateful for you and this lifestyle." You guys are going to make me cry. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I love you guys so much. You rock. And I couldn't be more grateful for a group of women who just does the work, right? Because you know I've preached it before: your goals aren't going to be achieved by passive action, by taking a step back, wanting and wishing and not putting in the work, okay?

This requires work. So I'm so grateful for you guys following through, showing up and doing it. That's what I love. You're all smashing the heart buttons. I love you guys. Annemarie asked one more: "Should I put the extra 30 grams of carbs right before my workout, for more fuel during my workout?" I would put it around your workout. I'd put 15 grams of carbs before and 15 grams after. All right, guys, I love you all. Thank you for the heart buttons. They're making my night. Keep up the good work.

I'll catch you on Sunday's Rally Call, and next week we'll be here at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. All right, bye, everybody.