89: Nutrition Q&A: Tracking, Protein Goals, Alcohol-Free Tips & Food Freedom
Your Nutrition Questions Answered: Protein Goals, Food Tracking, and Finding Food Freedom
Get answers to your biggest nutrition questions: how much protein you really need, whether you should track your food, how to heal your relationship with eating, and tips for staying alcohol-free when your partner drinks.
For years, nutrition felt like an all-or-nothing game. Either you were perfectly tracking every bite, following some strict diet plan, or you were "failing." Every meal became an opportunity to overthink, second-guess, and stress about whether you were doing it "right."
Sound exhausting? That's because it is.
Here's the truth that took way too long to learn: nutrition should be about fueling your body, building strength, and creating habits that support your life, not controlling every bite or living in constant guilt about food choices.
In this Q&A episode, Tara tackles your most pressing nutrition questions, from intermittent fasting and protein goals to healing your relationship with food and navigating sobriety in social situations. If you've ever felt confused, overwhelmed, or exhausted by nutrition advice, this one's for you.
The Nutrition Myths You Still Believe (And What Actually Works)
Let's start by clearing up some of the most persistent nutrition myths that keep women stuck in cycles of confusion and frustration.
Myth: You need to eat perfectly clean to see results. Reality? There's no such thing as "clean" eating, and trying to achieve it will drive you crazy. What matters is consistency with whole, nutrient-dense foods most of the time, not perfection all of the time.
Myth: Intermittent fasting is the secret to fat loss. Reality? Intermittent fasting is just a tool that helps some people control their calorie intake. It's not magic, and it's definitely not necessary for fat loss. If skipping breakfast makes you ravenous and leads to overeating later, it's not the right approach for you.
Myth: Carbs make you fat. Reality? Eating more calories than your body needs makes you gain fat, regardless of whether those calories come from carbs, protein, or fat. Carbs are fuel, especially important for women who are strength training and want to perform well in the gym.
Myth: You need supplements to hit your nutrition goals. Reality? Supplements are called supplements for a reason, they supplement a solid nutrition foundation. If your diet is a mess, no amount of powders and pills will fix it. Focus on whole foods first, and use supplements strategically to fill specific gaps.
The conversation emphasizes that nutrition doesn't have to be complicated. The basics, adequate protein, enough calories to support your activity level, plenty of vegetables, and staying hydrated, will get you 90% of the way there. All the rest is just noise.
How Much Protein You REALLY Need (Without Going Crazy)
Protein is arguably the most important macronutrient for women who are strength training, but there's also a ton of confusion about how much you actually need and how to hit your goals without it taking over your life.
The real numbers: For women who are strength training and want to build muscle or maintain muscle while losing fat, aim for roughly 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight (or target bodyweight if you have significant fat to lose). So if you weigh 150 pounds, you're looking at 120-150 grams of protein per day.
Yes, that probably feels like a lot, especially if you're used to eating way less. But here's why it matters: protein supports muscle growth and repair, keeps you full and satisfied, helps maintain your metabolic rate, and makes it easier to stick to your nutrition plan without feeling deprived.
Practical tips for hitting your protein goals:
Make protein the star of every meal. Don't just add a little chicken to your salad or have a few eggs on the side. Build your meals around a substantial protein source, 4-6 ounces of meat, fish, or tofu, or a large serving of Greek yogurt or cottage cheese.
Use protein powder strategically. A protein shake is an easy way to add 20-30 grams of protein without a lot of prep or cooking. But don't rely on shakes exclusively, whole food sources provide other important nutrients and keep you more satisfied.
Prep your protein in advance. Batch cook chicken, ground turkey, hard-boiled eggs, or whatever protein sources you prefer. When protein is ready to go, you're way more likely to actually eat it.
Track for a few weeks to learn. You don't need to track your food forever, but tracking for 2-3 weeks will give you a realistic sense of how much protein is actually in your meals and where you might need to adjust. Most women are shocked to discover they're only eating 50-70 grams per day when they think they're eating "enough."
The key is finding an approach that works for your lifestyle. You don't need to obsess over every gram, but you do need to be generally aware and intentional about including protein in most of your meals.
Healing Your Relationship With Food (Without Strict Diets)
One of the most powerful parts of this episode is the discussion about healing your relationship with food. Because here's the reality: years of dieting, restriction, and food rules create psychological damage that needs to be addressed before you can have a healthy, sustainable approach to nutrition.
Signs your relationship with food needs work:
You feel guilty or anxious after eating certain foods
You label foods as "good" or "bad" and beat yourself up when you eat the "bad" ones
You oscillate between strict restriction and out-of-control binge eating
You can't enjoy social events or vacations because you're worried about food
You think about food constantly, what you should eat, shouldn't eat, when you'll eat next
You use exercise as punishment for eating "too much"
If any of this resonates, you're not alone. Diet culture has conditioned us to see food as the enemy and our bodies as problems to be solved. Breaking free from that mindset is crucial for long-term health, both physical and mental.
How to start rebuilding trust with food:
Stop labeling foods as good or bad. Food is food. Some foods are more nutrient-dense than others, but eating cake doesn't make you a bad person and eating kale doesn't make you virtuous.
Practice eating without distraction. Put your phone away, sit down at a table, and actually taste your food. This helps you reconnect with hunger and fullness cues that dieting has probably disrupted.
Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. When you stop restricting foods completely, they lose their power over you. You're way more likely to binge on cookies when you've told yourself you can never have them again.
Focus on adding, not subtracting. Instead of constantly taking foods away, focus on adding more protein, vegetables, water, and nutrient-dense foods to your diet. This shifts the mindset from deprivation to abundance.
Work with a professional if needed. If you're struggling with disordered eating patterns, working with a registered dietitian who specializes in intuitive eating or eating disorder recovery can be incredibly helpful.
The goal isn't to stop caring about nutrition, it's to approach it from a place of self-care and respect for your body rather than punishment and control.
Navigating Sobriety When Your Partner Still Drinks
This question comes up more often than you might think: how do you navigate staying alcohol-free when your partner or the people you live with still drink regularly?
First, it's worth acknowledging that alcohol has significant negative effects on your fitness goals. It disrupts sleep quality, interferes with muscle recovery, impacts your hormones, and adds empty calories to your diet. For many women, cutting back on alcohol or going alcohol-free leads to better energy, improved body composition, and better overall health.
But making that choice in a household where others are still drinking can feel isolating and challenging.
Tips for staying alcohol-free when your partner drinks:
Have an honest conversation. Explain why this choice matters to you and what support would be helpful. They don't need to quit drinking too, but they do need to respect your decision and not undermine it.
Create your own alternative. Stock the house with drinks you enjoy, fancy sparkling water, kombucha, herbal tea, whatever makes you feel like you're still participating in the ritual of having a drink without the alcohol.
Don't make a big deal out of it. The more you focus on what you're "missing," the harder it feels. Reframe it as a choice you're making for yourself, not a deprivation.
Find other ways to connect. If drinking was a bonding activity with your partner, find other things to do together that don't center around alcohol, walks, cooking together, game nights, whatever works for you.
Remember your why. When it feels hard, reconnect with the reasons you made this choice. Better sleep, clearer skin, more energy, improved workouts, whatever your personal motivators are.
The conversation emphasizes that you're allowed to make choices for your health even when they're different from what the people around you are doing. Your body, your choice, your priorities.
Why Broads Is Different: Strength Over Scale
The episode closes with a powerful reminder of what makes the Broads approach to fitness and nutrition different: the focus is on strength, capability, and long-term health, not the number on the scale.
Too many programs and coaches still center everything around weight loss, body transformation, and aesthetic goals. But when you make the scale the only measure of success, you miss out on all the other incredible things your body is capable of.
What Broads prioritizes instead:
Building muscle and getting stronger
Improving performance in the gym
Developing sustainable habits that last
Healing your relationship with food and your body
Creating a supportive community of women doing the same thing
When you shift your focus from "what do I look like?" to "what can I do?", everything changes. You start measuring progress by PRs in the gym, by how you feel in your daily life, by your energy levels and mood and confidence, not just by your pants size.
And ironically, when you stop obsessing over the scale, the body composition changes you want often happen naturally as a result of getting stronger and building healthy habits.
The Bottom Line
Nutrition doesn't have to be complicated, restrictive, or exhausting. It's about finding an approach that supports your strength training, fuels your body adequately, and allows you to actually enjoy your life.
Hit your protein goals. Eat enough food. Focus on whole, nutrient-dense options most of the time. And let go of the guilt, the rules, and the all-or-nothing mentality that keeps you stuck.
Because when you stop fighting your body and start fueling it properly, that's when real, sustainable progress happens.
What's your biggest nutrition struggle right now? Share with us on Instagram@broads.podcast, your questions might be featured in a future episode!
