TAKING ACTION: ✅Share your weekly win and encourage the person who comments above you today! Let’s lean into our community and celebrate one another! 🎉 ✅Don’t forget to share your nutrition today, and make a plan for your weekend! With tomorrow being a holiday, make sure you have a plan! Here are some healthy July 4th recipes 👉 4th of July Menu: Easy, Healthy Recipes for Your Holiday BBQ - Rachael's Good Eats It’s Friday, and you know what that means! It’s time to celebrate our wins and celebrate one another! 🎉 Obviously, celebrating your personal wins is important. I often explain the science behind why it’s important just as a reminder. But why is it important to celebrate one another? Glad you asked… It really comes down to one thing—the importance of COMMUNITY. You’ve probably heard just how important community is. This isn’t said just to blow smoke. It’s true. We were made to thrive in communities. Belonging is a core human need. When it comes to reaching your health & wellness goals, the importance is no different. Being a part of a community has numerous advantages, according to studies. You can read about some of the benefits in the article attached below. ⬇️ In the meantime, let’s share our weekly wins and celebrate one another—and celebrate our community! 🎉 The Role of Support in Weight Loss

TAKING ACTION: ✅What are your holiday plans today? Feel free to ask any lingering questions about navigating the holiday below! Happy 4th of July—and Happy 250th Birthday, America! 🥳 *peep my veteran husband making an appearance in today’s video* 😆 Today is likely a day of celebration for you and your friends/family. With it being a holiday that many celebrate, I encourage you to enjoy it while also being intentional with your choices. 📌Take a protein-first approach. 📌Choose side dishes with healthy carbohydrates, like broccoli salad, green bean salad, etc. 📌Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. 📌Take your own healthy dishes. 📌And of course, crush your workout to fire up your metabolism this morning! Many online resources offer tips for a healthy holiday weekend. Feel free to scan some and pick the tips that work for you! 🧠Mindset tip: Do not allow yourself to think about food all day. This keeps you in a negative feedback loop and keeps you from enjoying a day that’s meant to be enjoyed. If you crush it, great. If you don’t? That’s okay, too. Really, it’s okay. Life isn’t meant to be lived perfectly. It’s simply meant to be lived—as healthy as possible, but certainly not perfectly.

TAKING ACTION: ✅Be honest—is hitting your protein goal difficult or easy for you? Has it always been this way? Let’s share below! You may be wondering why we’re talking so much about protein this week. Trust me, there’s a good reason for it ⬇️ Beginning next week, we’re embarking on a new challenge—Strength + Metabolic Reset. 🔥 If you’re going to reap the benefits of this challenge—if you’re going to build strength and support your metabolic health, protein has to be your priority. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. 💯 Generally speaking, women often have a hard time consuming enough protein. This isn’t my opinion. Let’s just be honest—yummy carbs and fats are just more fun to eat…until they aren’t (if you know what I mean 😉 ). With that said, learning to love protein is possible. Once you trust that it can help you curb sugar cravings, satiate you for longer, and help you build lean muscle tissue, it becomes way more attractive to consume. Trust me on this one…😉 I encourage you to start thinking about how you’re going to meet your protein goals every single day during the challenge. It’s critical. If you struggle with consuming enough protein, here are some great ways to get it in ⬇️ 15 Ways To Increase Protein Intake, According to a Dietitian

“Your quality of life correlates directly with your muscle health.” —Dr. Gabrielle Lyon TAKING ACTION: ✅Do you hit your protein goal most days? Why or why not? Let’s share below and talk about it! We started talking about protein yesterday, but just how important is protein in the grand scheme of things? It’s not just important. It’s critical. Your muscle mass affects everything (and I do mean everything!), including how well you recover from illness. Did you know that during times of illness (infection, physical trauma, and even cancer), the human body requires an influx of amino acids (the building blocks of protein). Altogether, there are 20 amino acids, and 9 of them are considered essential. Essential amino acids aren’t produced by the body, yet are essential for life. Because the human body can’t make the essential amino acids, we must obtain them from our diet. Again, there are a few plant-based foods that contain all the essential amino acids (like quinoa, tofu, soybeans, chia seeds, hemp seeds, and cashews), but you also get them through animal sources (meat, eggs, and poultry). Even when you’re not trying to heal from illness, the fact is that our bodies are always trying to heal and cope with stress. When your muscles have plenty of amino acids to pull from, you have a much better chance of staying healthy, healing, and coping with the stressors of life. 💯 And to think we used to believe that hitting our protein goals was only beneficial for muscle growth…😉

TAKING ACTION: ✅What’s your favorite protein source? And what’s your go-to protein when you need to meet your goal? Let’s swap ideas below and share! As we mentioned yesterday, next week we are going to begin our Strength + Metabolic Reset. I have so much great material headed your way, but in the meantime, we’re going to go ahead and discuss some things this week that will help set you up for a successful month ahead. We’re going to talk a lot about the importance of building lean muscle tissue in the coming weeks—and it’s no secret that your protein intake is a critical piece of the metabolic + muscle building puzzle. 🧩 Studies suggest that around 1 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight is a good starting point. In short, protein is always your anchor. ⚓️ If you’re eating well rounded diet (protein, vegetables, fruits, beans, etc.) you’re hitting your goals! As we begin our Strength + Metabolic Reset next week, I encourage you to focus on your protein intake. Don’t skimp on it. It is the secret sauce when it comes to both strength and metabolism. 💯 Gluten-Free Teriyaki Chicken Casserole - Cotter Crunch