“I don’t care what you know, I care what you do,” Revolutionary You Podcast, episode #311: Sohee Lee: Diet Troubleshooting (3 of 4)

CW: Lots of talk of macros, calories and fat loss in this one

Revolutionary You! (libsyn.com)

I’m new to Jason Leenaart’s Revolutionary You podcast, but I’ve really enjoyed the few guests I’ve listened to so far. I remember Sohee Lee from back in the early Sohee Fit days, and it’s fun to hear from her again after all these years. I’d heard her referenced a few times by Eric Helms, who I believe she’s working with as she gets her PhD. Very excited to hear what thinking that collaboration generates in the future!

Pretty much right off the bat, Sohee gets into some really good stuff about knowledge vs. behavior when it comes to seeing results. Most of the conversation later is about dietary change, but I think much of what they discuss is applicable to training, too. The gist is that it isn’t what we know, it’s what we do that matters. Sometimes a certain amount of knowledge helps us shift our perspective, but we still need to actually put that knowledge into action to see changes. I don’t disagree with this, however I do wonder about folks like myself who learn by understanding the big picture. In understanding why I’m doing something, I am more likely to be adherent to it. This has been true about me from very early in my life, and the remarks on my report card about asking lots of questions in class are there to prove it! So, yes, I still need to do the damn thing to get results, but by knowing more, I am more likely to actually take action. I’m willing to accept that I may be in the minority on this one, though.

The conversation that follows makes me want to find a really great trainer. Jason and Sohee talk about the importance of asking lots of questions to get at the underlying assumptions behind a client’s choices rather assuming they’re lying or not serious about reaching their goals. The kind of in-depth questioning Jason describes sounds wonderful to me! I’ve never had that kind of detailed conversation with a coach or trainer, but I think I would learn a lot about myself if I had them regularly.

My only concern/complaint about all of this is that I wish there was more discussion of mindset and behavior-based tools for physique management rather than calorie and macro counting. I recognize that at the end of the day, if you’re trying to change your body mass, you have to add or remove energy from what you eat. But we don’t eat macros, we eat food, and talking about food thinking and choices is both easier to apply and seems to me to be less likely to lead to the unhealthy scarcity mindset they discuss. Sohee gets to this point late in the conversation, talking about a client shifting her dinner out to meet her goals and appreciating what she has rather than what she’s removing; however, as a mindset and behavior-based approach is so much less common in the health and fitness realm, I think it needs to be illustrated even more often in order to counteract the dominant, and often less healthful, mathy advice. As the episode stands, I’m not sure that someone struggling with scarcity thinking and other diet culture challenges would walk away from it with actionable tools to move towards a healthier approach.

Overall, I thought this was a great conversation, though, and I am looking forward to hearing more from Sohee and Jason!

Give the episode a listen and tell me what you think! Yes, we have a comment policy.