Hey friend,

As we get into the last stretch of 2026, I just want to remind you that there is still PLENTY of time to make significant progress on your goals for the year.  

Whether you've been crushing it all year, or fell completely off track and have been powerfully screwing off for a bit...there's still time to do some great things. 

What kind of goals do you have in mind and what would you like to accomplish with your health between now and the end of the year?  

Hit reply to this email and let me know I'd love to hear!

But, for now here's this week's newsletter 👇🏻

My 5 Go-To Sweet Tooth Fixes

That Won't Wreck Your Diet

Here’s what nobody tells you about a sweet tooth: trying to white-knuckle your way past it almost never works.

What works is having better options ready before the craving hits.

So when I want something sweet and don’t want to blow up my day, these are my five go-to’s:

1️⃣ Built Puff Bar`
Marshmallowy goodness under 150 calories with 17-18g protein. A perfect low-cal sweet treat. Peanut Butter Cup is my favorite flavor. 🥜🍫

2️⃣ Legendary Protein Pastry (aka the Protein PopTart)
200 calories with 20g protein. Great on the run — even better toasted or microwaved for a few seconds. Chocolate Cake and Frosted Strawberry are my favorite flavors.

3️⃣ Legendary Cinnamon Protein Sweet Roll
200 calories with 20g protein. Throw it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and it tastes like cheating. This one’s my current favorite. 🥐

4️⃣ Protein Coffee
Pour your coffee, then add a ready-to-drink Premier Protein shake as your creamer — not the whole shake, just what you’d normally pour in. Add 2-4 packets of stevia or Splenda to make it extra sweet. ☕️

5️⃣ Elephant Ear Cinnamon Keto Toast
Season 2 slices of zero carb keto bread with Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cinnadust seasoning, spray lightly with cooking spray, and toast. Around 100 calories and it tastes like heaven. 🍞

Give these a try and you can crush the sweet tooth with your fat loss fully intact. 🔥

Want the full list? I put together my Guilt Free Sweet Tooth Favorites Guide with 10 protein-packed sweet treats you can make at home or grab on the go. Get it free here.

10 Things NOT To Do On A Calorie Deficit

If you’re eating less and the scale still won’t budge, there’s a good chance you’re doing at least one of these.

1. Don’t drink your calories (unless it’s protein).
Solid food keeps you fuller than liquid calories. Use protein shakes — or protein as coffee creamer — to hit your protein, and keep everything else low or no-cal. And yes, your Diet Coke and energy drinks are fine.

2. Don’t drink alcohol.
Your body pauses fat burning to clear the alcohol first, and it lowers your inhibitions, so overeating the wrong things becomes much more likely. Can you technically budget it in? Sure. But it makes fat loss a LOT harder.

3. Don’t under-eat protein.
Low protein = muscle loss = metabolism loss. You get smaller, but also softer, weaker, and with more loose skin. AKA “skinny fat.” Aim for 0.7-1g per pound of goal bodyweight every single day. It’s the fat loss cheat code.

4. Don’t walk less than 8K steps.
Fewer steps means eating less food to stay in a deficit. Less food means more hunger, more cravings, more restriction — and eventually burnout. Average 8K a day (56K a week).

5. Don’t skip the gym.
Eat less without lifting and a lot of what you lose is precious muscle. Lose muscle and you lose your metabolism, your strength, and your tone all at once. Strength train 3x a week, 30-45 minutes, with progressive overload.

6. Don’t do high-intensity cardio.
Running intervals, spin classes, CrossFit, etc. — those kinds of things spike your hunger hormones and kick in the “I earned this” eating. Walk and lift during your fat loss phase, and save the high intensity stuff for maintenance. (Easy Zone 2 cardio is fine — it’s the high intensity stuff that backfires.)

7. Don’t eat boring food.
You don’t just need to feel FULL. You need to feel SATISFIED. Eat boring food long enough and the cravings will eventually drive you to binge. Every meal should hit your calories and protein AND taste amazing.

8. Don’t focus on the daily scale number.
Even while burning fat, your weight can jump 1-5 pounds day to day from hormones, water, stored carbs, and what’s sitting in your bowels. Weigh in and log it every day — but judge your progress by the WEEKLY AVERAGE.

9. Don’t neglect your sleep.
Poor sleep raises hunger and cravings, makes you more prone to stress and emotional eating, and causes water retention that hides your progress on the scale. Set a consistent bedtime and wake time and do your best to stick to it. If you’re a parent it won’t be perfect — just make it the best you can.

10. Don’t blame it on “building muscle.”
If your weekly average scale weight hasn’t dropped in 4+ weeks, you’re not in a calorie deficit. You’re at maintenance. It's not your hormones...it's either an accuracy problem with your tracking or a consistency problem with your food or exercise (or both).  Fix the accuracy and the consistency, and the scale will start moving again.

Bookmark this one for the next time the scale stalls. 💪🏻

Want some plug and play options for the food side of things? Grab My Personal Fat Loss Favorites Menu — 12 of my favorite low-cal, high-protein recipes, plus drive-thru orders, gas station grabs, and more. Get it free here.