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#80 - Make This One Change For Results That Last
27 Plays4 months ago
Are you setting yourself up for success or failure? Many people make this critical mistake before even starting their fitness journey. If you've struggled with comparing yourself to others or constantly feeling like you're not doing enough, this episode is for you. Learn how to shift your mindset and make lasting progress.
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Transcript
Introduction to Long-Term Fitness Success
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to The Fit Dish Project with your host, as always, Latham Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We have another weekly episode coming at you, staying strong with these weekly episodes, trying to get one of those out to you every single week on a new topic.
00:00:20
Speaker
and if you could leave a review if you have not done so again that just gets this out to more people helps the show grow and just get it out to the people who need this information the most so if you haven't done that if you could take just 20 seconds to do that I really appreciate you for everyone who has done that also really appreciate you ah but getting on to the topic for the day so I wanted to talk a little bit about a topic that is going to set yourself up for success versus setting yourself up for failure because one of my big things that I think about a lot is how do we get people to incorporate fitness in their life for the
Sustainable Fitness Habits for Quality of Life
00:00:56
Speaker
long term? Because the fact of the matter is if you can do a lot of these very simple behaviors for the long term, you're going to be so much better off. You're going to be happier. You're going to be healthier. You're going to live longer. You're going to have a better quality of life.
00:01:10
Speaker
And I think a lot of people really struggle with this idea of doing fitness and just being healthy because they have the wrong expectations of what that actually looks like. And when you start to break it down on a smaller level and break it into easier to manage pieces and things that you can actually do and see yourself performing for not just you know a few weeks or a few months but actually incorporating into your life for the long term.
00:01:34
Speaker
you realize that it's really not that difficult like it's a pretty simple it's simple things that we need to be doing. But when you think about the big picture and you think about how many different things go into that. Or maybe you don't know where to start or maybe you just neglected your health for a really long time and you're just kind of overwhelmed in.
00:01:52
Speaker
you know There's so much information out there that you have to try to dig through and you have people telling you to do this and other people telling you to do this. So it can just make the whole thing very, very overwhelming, which causes a lot of people to never even start. And I think when people do, maybe they hit some sort of breaking point or maybe they just get to a point where they just really know that they need to make health a priority because it's important. And if you
Setting Realistic Fitness Expectations
00:02:16
Speaker
don't have your health, you really don't have anything.
00:02:18
Speaker
You get to this point where you want to get into it and a lot of people enter into this health space and start their fitness journey with really, really skewed expectations of what to expect. And that often leads people to getting disappointed, getting discouraged, being unmotivated, and then ultimately they just quit.
00:02:35
Speaker
And so I wanted to make an episode talking about this because I've had several conversations with some clients that I'm working with right now who have some weight loss goals and have some fitness goals and they're just struggling a little bit with just expectations and not feeling like they're making fast enough progress and just being a little discouraged. And I think that's something that's very, very common. I know that was something that I struggled with myself at times, although I feel like I had a little bit more long-term outlook with it. But I definitely did have days where I felt a little bit down and maybe felt like I wanted to make faster progress. And if I'm being honest, I still have those instances, maybe not so much in fitness, but in other areas of my life where I feel like I want to be making faster progress. And I have these certain expectations around
00:03:20
Speaker
what I should be doing and how quickly things should be happening and that really just sets you up for failure because you can't necessarily control the timelines and putting those timelines on yourself is typically a pretty good way to set yourself up to not be happy because you can control all the actions you can do all the right things but sometimes things just take longer than we want and I think as humans we want things faster and that's only getting more prevalent as we Get advances in technology and we have things like uber eats and we have things like netflix and we have a super high functioning computer in our pocket at our disposal at all times and so understanding that these things that we really want.
00:04:03
Speaker
take time in understanding the expectations that you need to have around those things, I think can help set you up for success versus going into these fitness journeys or any other parts of your life and having the wrong expectations and being disappointed and then just quitting. so That's kind of what I wanted to talk about today. And I wanted to start with just a story.
Personal Weight Loss Journey
00:04:24
Speaker
So a lot of you guys know my personal story about losing 100 pounds. And it took me quite a while. Like when people ask me how long it took, it took me roughly about 15 months to lose my first 75 pounds, which if you break that down,
00:04:38
Speaker
That's about five pounds a month. Like if you think about, you know, 15 months, that's over a year of time to lose 75 pounds. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it's really not that much time. And that's pretty good progress, five pounds per month. But that's just a decent amount of time, like a year over a year to do something to work towards a goal to work out consistently to eat really well and eat healthy and you know, work on getting more protein and improving my mindset and getting my steps in and just exercising regularly and building all these good habits that I need. Like that's a long time to pursue a goal. But I had a goal, like I had an end goal. I wanted to lose 75 pounds. That was my very first goal that I had when I went into this weight loss. I wanted to get to 225 pounds. That was my goal.
00:05:25
Speaker
but i did not set any sort of timeline around this goal because i really didn't know how long it was going to take and i think if i would have done that it would have been very easy to get discouraged because again 15 months like that's a pretty good chunk of time and to work towards a goal for that long you really have to just be really process focused. You can't just focus on the end goal because that's a long ways away and it could be really overwhelming to think I need to lose 75 pounds like that's going to take me forever. Like I don't know if I have the ability to do that but when you just focus on the process and you think about okay I just need to focus on the actions that's going to get me there. I don't really care how long it takes.
00:06:02
Speaker
you're entering this goal with a whole different mindset because I know a lot of people will get into weight loss goals and they'll be like I need to lose 30 pounds by this date or I need to lose 50 pounds by the end of the year or I need to lose 60 pounds by this certain event or this social outing or whatever the case may be and again that's just setting yourself up because you can't necessarily control those things and when you get into this mindset of like I need to lose this by this it leads you to doing things that aren't very sustainable and when you do things that aren't sustainable, well, obviously you're gonna have a tough time keeping those results. And at the same time, when you're doing these things and trying to incorporate things that maybe you can't sustain, well, now you're also setting yourself up for failure because you could be making really, really good progress. Like, let's say you have the goal that you need to lose 50 pounds in six months. You go through the six months, you do a lot of good stuff and you lose 30 pounds.
00:06:59
Speaker
Well, now you look back and you're like, I lost 30 pounds, but I didn't hit my 50 pound goal. 30 pounds is a huge amount of weight. And if you lose 30 pounds, like you're increasing your health in so many different ways. You're going to look different. You're going to feel better. You're going to be more mobile. like You're improving all these different ways, but because you had these certain expectations going into this goal, well now you're not even really happy about the progress that you made.
00:07:22
Speaker
And so having these expectations, again, it's just it's not very conducive to setting you up for the right mindset. And it's also very, very tough to get to a point where like you actually appreciate the work that you're putting in because you have this standard that's so high that you may never even meet. And it takes away from the process and it makes the experience just that much more difficult and less enjoyable as well.
00:07:48
Speaker
And so circling back to my whole experience of losing my first 75 pounds, one of the things that I think helped me a lot was that I first, I didn't have a timeline in which I was like, I need to lose this 75 pounds by this time. Like, I think that was a really big proponent of making the fitness journey a little bit more enjoyable and helping me to just stick with it and stay motivated. But the other thing is is that I had multiple different ways that I could see progress and track progress and that ultimately kept me really motivated because the more ways that you have to win, the more ways that you have to make progress and see all the things that you're doing is paying off, the more motivated and engaged you're going to stay within this experience.
00:08:30
Speaker
And as humans, we just like to see progress, right? Like Tony Robbins has this quote that just says, progress is happiness. I think all of us enjoy making progress. We like to feel competent in different areas. We like to know that we're growing. We like to feel like we're getting better at certain things. Like nobody wants to suck at certain things. Nobody wants to put in a ton of time and never really see any progress. Like we wanna see that growth. I think as humans, we really like that.
00:08:55
Speaker
growth experience and that growth feeling that we get when we know that we're progressing. And so when it comes to like your fitness journey or weight loss journey, have multiple ways that you
Tracking Progress Beyond the Scale
00:09:05
Speaker
can win. Don't just focus on solely the scale because that's not a very good way to go about it. And again, that's what a lot of people do, they'll get into a fitness journey or a weight loss journey. And their only measure of success is whether or not that scale is trending downwards in Obviously, like if your goal is to lose weight, you want to see that scale go down over time. But the scale never tells the whole story. And if you're solely just focusing on that, you could be making progress in dozens of other different ways that's going to make you be a healthier person, a happier person. But if you're just focused on the scale, well, now you're not even seeing that. like Your blinders are on and you can't see all these different ways that you're making progress. so
00:09:44
Speaker
like For me, I was focused on different things outside of the scale. like Yes, the scale was definitely part of the way that I measured and tracked progress, but I tried to focus on other things as well throughout the progress process, and that helped me a lot. so like I was lifting weights quite a bit. I was working out six to seven days a week, which like I don't necessarily recommend that, but I was just really invested in this, and I was just focusing on how much strength gains I was having in the weight room so like I remember making my own training program and I was I was doing way too much looking back at it now but like I was just going crazy in the weight room like I was really focused on
00:10:20
Speaker
gaining a lot of strength and gaining muscle and really changing my body in that way, I would take progress pictures every couple of months and compare them. So that would that was always really motivating because I could see a lot of progress that was happening from a physical standpoint. I was having to buy new clothes because i was as I was losing the weight, my old clothes, when I was 300 pounds, obviously they weren't fitting me anymore. So as I was dropping weight,
00:10:43
Speaker
I was having to buy new clothes so i knew like my body was turning into ah different shape and i was building muscle and losing fat which felt really good had outside people giving me compliments like who but just ask me about like how much weight i hadd lost or you know tell me i was looking good or whatever the case may be and i don't think you know you want to just measure your, you know, your self worth or rely on those as your sole focus of motivation. But it feels good when somebody gives you a compliment, like when you've been working really hard, and you know, you've been really pushing yourself and working on these goals that you have, and then somebody else recognizes that it's really good validation to
00:11:20
Speaker
just feel and know that you're doing the right things and that what you're doing is paying off and that other people are kind of noticing those things. So that was kind of cool. And then at the same time, like I was also rehabbing my knee. So like I had had ACL surgery, my MCL, PCL, meniscus, tore all that stuff in my knee. So like I was focused on building that up, getting that stronger, getting back to being able to do all the things that I wanted to do. like run and play basketball and play different sports and lift the way that I wanted to lift so I had all these different focuses and all these different ways that I could see progress and ultimately see small wins along the way and that kept me super motivated so it got me really engaged in the process of like
00:11:58
Speaker
Every single day that I went into the weight room, I was like, okay, what's one exercise that I can get a little bit stronger at today? ah When I took a progress picture, I was like, okay, let me see the differences in this progress picture from the last progress picture. So like there was just little things like that along the way that I thought about a lot that helped to keep me very motivated. So have multiple ways to win when it comes to your weight loss journey or just your fitness journey in general. And the more ways that you have to win,
00:12:25
Speaker
The more motivation you're gonna have, the better experience it's gonna be, and the more enjoyable it's gonna be. Because again, circling back to my main point of like making fitness a part of your lifestyle,
00:12:35
Speaker
you need to keep it engaging and you need to make sure that you have different ways that you can see progress and stay motivated in having multiple different ways where you can see this progress is one super simple thing that you can do. And it's something that I don't see enough people take advantage of because again, they just get super hyper focused on one singular thing. And a lot of times that singular thing happens to be the scale. So find different ways to measure progress. And later in the episode, I'll actually mention a bunch of different ways that you can start to track as well.
00:13:05
Speaker
And then the second part of this that I wanted to talk a little bit about, so I'd mentioned that I'd had some clients who have been working on some weight loss and they'd ran into some people who had lost some weight and they seem to be doing really well and seem to have lost the weight fairly quickly.
Sustainable Weight Loss Methods
00:13:20
Speaker
And So this client was a little bit, was a little bit discouraged because they've been working at this weight loss for a while and they've made some really good progress in some areas. Like they're starting to be more consistent with workouts, increasing steps, diet is improving, working on getting more protein. The mindset in a lot of ways has improved a lot, but I think it's normal to have these certain times where like you do get a little bit discouraged and
00:13:46
Speaker
I think that's very, very common. Like I see that and I hear that a lot, which I think is why a lot of people hop from diet to diet or program to program thinking that it's going to be the thing that gets them the results the fastest because we all want to get results faster. We all want to get to our goals sooner, but there's really not like a one best thing. Like there's not a best diet. There's not a best training program. There's not these certain like hacks or fats that's going to get you these really fast results because What I've come to realize after being in this fitness space, this weight loss space for about a decade now, I've been like kind of working on this different stuff and now helping other people with this stuff is that fast results, they just don't last for most people. like You see people doing these unsustainable things, but they can't do those things forever. So like you see people that do these really, really strict diets where they cut out all their favorite foods, they never drink, they never have any kind of sweets, they don't go out to eat, they don't do those things at first.
00:14:43
Speaker
99% of the population, that's just not sustainable. like You have some people out there who can do that, and that's great for them to have more power to them. like That's awesome, and if they enjoy that lifestyle, then that's really cool, and I'm happy for them. But that is not me, and that is not most of the people that I work with. And that's just not most of the population in general. And so I think finding a more realistic way to go about these things, and then also realizing that that realistic way is going to take some time. like those These things don't just happen overnight. like you need to find ways and methods that you can use that are not only going to help you get results now, but they're going to help you get results in the future and be able to actually sustain those results. So when you start to think about, okay, what's the quickest way that I can lose this way? What's the best
00:15:27
Speaker
Exercise program that I can lose weight the fastest like I need to lose this 10 pounds this month like Stop right there because you're already on the wrong track. You're going into this with the wrong mindset So think about using sustainable methods leads to sustainable results So before you think about I need to try this new diet or try this or try that or I need to change things up like Think about that idea first because again fast results don't necessarily lead to the best long-term results So that's just something that you have to keep in mind The other thing that you need to keep in mind too when it comes to like comparing yourself to other people is that people have different genetics, they have different lifestyles, we all have different preferences, we have different metabolisms, we have different body styles, like all these different things that go into
00:16:13
Speaker
making up what we are. And so like me and you could do the exact same routine. We could eat the exact same diet, the same amount of calories, the same amount of protein, and we could have very different results. like And we could also have results that happen at a different rate. So like you might make faster progress than I make, or I might make faster progress than you make. I might lose a little bit more weight than you or vice versa. Like we could do the exact same thing and still have different results. So it doesn't really make a lot of sense to be comparing yourself to other people because we're just different. The bodies react a little bit differently. like Things just happen at a different rate. And so understanding that and just realizing you know like I'm a little bit different than this person. And even if this worked for them, that might not necessarily work the same exact way for me, I think is important to realize. like Yes, there's definitely some guiding principles that we want to understand. you know Things like progressive overload and energy balance and how diets work and things like that. like It's important to know the principles
00:17:13
Speaker
but understanding that the individual results are going to vary a little bit because I've worked with quite a few clients at this point and like I'll have some clients who like we get them on a diet, they start exercising and they drop weight like crazy. Like those drop, I have a client right now who's dropped 20 pounds in his first 10 weeks and he's not a super big guy. So like 20 pounds for him is almost 10% of his body weight, which is a lot.
00:17:35
Speaker
And like, we're not doing anything crazy. We're not doing anything extreme. He works out three times per week. He runs a couple of times per week and he's eating around 2000 calories or so. So nothing real crazy at all. But he's just dropped this weight super quickly. So like his body responded really well and he hopped into this diet and things are going really well. He feels great. He looks great. Like his transformation picture that he sent me the other day was just like mind boggling. Like it's one of the best transformations I've seen that quickly.
00:18:03
Speaker
And so for him, like things went really quickly and like his body responded really well. But I've also had clients in the past who like, they're super consistent as well. And they're eating in a calorie deficit. They're focusing on protein, they're getting some steps in, they're focusing on their workouts and things like that. And they lose five pounds in their first 10 weeks. And like you think about that, and you're like, man, that's like, that doesn't seem like very much. But like, there's also other things going on that you can't necessarily see. So like,
00:18:30
Speaker
this person may be gaining a little bit more muscle because they're more of a beginner and their body is responding in that way and they have more weight to lose. Like they're putting on muscle as they're losing weight. So now we're not seeing quite as big of a difference in the scale. Whereas this other person, maybe they're just losing more fat and just more so maintaining muscle. And so there's so many different like small little nuances or little differences like that to where it makes it hard to compare yourself to somebody else. And that's again, where it goes back to having multiple different ways to track.
00:18:59
Speaker
You know, like having these other areas to look at versus just looking at is the scale going down and how much is the scale going down as your only way to measure progress is not the best alternative.
Healthy Comparison in Fitness
00:19:10
Speaker
And then the last thing I'll say about just comparing yourself to other people is like, I'm not a huge fan of comparing yourself to other people unless you're doing it for the right reasons. And what I mean by that is like, one thing that helps me a lot and that I still use and still helps me quite a bit that like motivates me and inspires me is I'll find examples of people doing really cool things or maybe some things that I want to do. And I'll use that to inspire or motivate me versus like you get jealous or envious or you see some people doing things and like you start comparing yourself more so in a negative way, I look at it the opposite way. So like if I see somebody doing something really cool, I'm like, oh, that's awesome. like They did this thing. They're a person just like me. like If I put in work and do these things, like I can accomplish these certain things as well. And that's been something that's always really helped me to look at it from that lens versus a more negative like comparison, like, oh, they're doing this. I need to be doing this type of thing. Because people do really amazing things out there. And I mean, like
00:20:07
Speaker
Things that have motivated me and just clients that I've worked with, there's like some things that they've accomplished where I'm like, man, that's just like that's inspiring. and like Just giving you some examples. look so like I had a you know a mom who was working a job. She had four kids and over time lost 30 pounds, like got her pre-pregnancy body back, like gained her confidence back, and like she's crazy busy. like All young kids. like doing really really cool things and like to me that was really inspiring like yes I'm busy sometimes yes you're busy sometimes like we all have really hectic schedules but if this mom who has four small children who works and has all these different things going on if she can make the time to focus on a quality diet and work out four times per week and focus on these other things that's going to help her get results well then that gives me confidence that I can do it too. You know I had a ah dad that I worked with who was super busy runs a business like
00:21:01
Speaker
had struggled for a while and ended up putting on 50 pounds. Like he decided that he was ready to lose some weight and he needed to make fitness a priority. And that's exactly what he did. Fast forward a year and a half later, he's down 50 pounds. He's absolutely crushed it. He's a better businessman, a better dad, a better husband. And like that kind of stuff is inspiring to me. You know, like I had a lady that I was working with who had a always struggled with her weight. She had some self-confidence issues and we get her on a good plan.
00:21:29
Speaker
She's really struggled in the past, tried a lot of different things, not super confident. And if this is even going to work, we get her on the right plan. She loses 30 pounds. Now she has this newfound confidence. So like seeing these different examples and hearing these stories, I think is really helpful because it gives you just another example of why you can also do these certain things that should motivate you and inspire you because every, we're all just people, right? Like these people have issues just like you do. Like they have problems, they have challenges, they have things they're trying to overcome. They have lives that are busy and stressful and they have all these things going on as well. And I think sometimes it's very easy to compare ourselves in a negative way. Like we see this person doing this thing and it's like, oh, I need to be doing more. But it's like, you don't really know their whole story. And so focusing on those people and letting those
00:22:17
Speaker
those people that do have these really cool stories and these really cool transformations inspire you, I think is a super helpful way to think about the whole comparison thing. Because as I said, like you don't really necessarily know what's going on in somebody's life. And so to compare just this one little snippet of their life and be like, Oh man, they were so much better than me and they are doing all these things and maybe I should be doing more like, you don't really know what they're doing to get those results. And even if they're happy, you don't know if they're, what they're doing is like going to be sustainable. So for example, you might look at somebody who's like, they've lost 30 pounds in four weeks and you're like, man, I wish I could do that. Or you see somebody who works out six times per week and you're like, man, maybe I should be doing that. Maybe I'm not doing enough. Or you see somebody who like never eats any desserts or never has any alcohol and they seem very, very disciplined and you're like, man, maybe I should be doing that. Like maybe I should be doing more. But like,
00:23:10
Speaker
The fact of the matter is, is like would you completely swap your life with this person? Because you can't just look at this one little snippet because you don't necessarily know why they're doing these things that they're doing. So for example, like the person who lost 30 pounds in four weeks might be starving themselves and they might be on their way to an eating disorder.
00:23:29
Speaker
Is that something that you want to do? Like, would you trade places to have this eating disorder and have this person who's going about this in a very unsustainable way, who's probably going to gain the weight back, who's probably creating a worse relationship with food and leaving themselves in a worse spot than when they started? Absolutely not. But when you only look at that little snippet of like, man, they killed it, like they crushed it, they lost 30 pounds in four weeks, like they must feel awesome. Well, like, no, you don't know the entire story. So comparing yourself to them just doesn't make a lot of sense.
00:23:58
Speaker
For that person who is working out six times per week, well, maybe you don't know that the reason they work out six times per week is because they have crippling anxiety and they're struggling with depression. And the only way that they ever feel any kind of happiness throughout the day is that hour and a half that they work out. And so like, would you trade spots with that person? Like, is that something that you need to be doing? Is that like a route that you need to take? Do you need to be working out six times per week because this person is working out? Well, no, your circumstances are completely different and your goals and your lifestyle and your preferences are all different than this person. So comparing yourself to that person just doesn't make a whole lot of sense for that person who maybe they don't eat desserts anymore, or they don't drink alcohol and they're super strict with their diet. Well, maybe that person never eats desserts or drinks alcohol anymore because they're covering alcoholic and they used to really struggle with sweets and they used to use food as a way to cope with their problems and use alcohol as a way to cope with their problems. So now they just cut all that stuff out because
00:24:54
Speaker
they mentally and physically need to do that in order to better their lives. When they have those things in their lives, well, maybe they just don't have any control and it does cause a lot of different issues. So now they don't do that. But you don't know those things as a person who's only looking from the outside in and you're just comparing yourself to this person who's doing these things that you might think you want to be doing, but you really have no reason as to why they're doing them.
00:25:18
Speaker
you don't know if it's a good thing if it's not a good thing if they're happy if they're going to be able to sustain it like what the rest of their life looks like so you can't just compare one little thing like if you're going to compare you have to compare the whole life and if you're not willing to swap complete places with this person then don't compare yourself to them like don't compare yourself to them in this negative way and if Again, if you are going to use comparison, then use the way that we talked about earlier, use it as a way to motivate you and as a way to just kind of encourage you and inspire you. And that's what I'll say about the comparison thing because it is so easy to compare yourself when it comes to fitness and especially now with social media because it's all over the place. Like you hop on social media and you see people who are just absolutely ripped, strong as hell, like
00:26:02
Speaker
huge muscles like they look great like all these different things on social media but like again you're only getting a really small snippet and you don't know the background of this person like those people that are super ripped you don't know the things that they have to go through to get to that place like you don't know if they're happy you don't know if they're not happy you don't know if they're on like steroids, if they're on drugs, if they're on other medicines, like you just don't know. So it just makes a lot more sense to focus on yourself, compare yourself to the version you were yesterday, the version you were a month ago, the version you were a year ago, and just continue to try to get a little bit better. I talk about that a lot in my post and then my
00:26:41
Speaker
you know, different content is just trying to be 1% better. If you can get a little bit better from yesterday, then you know that you're heading in the right direction. You don't need to be 1% better than anybody else. You just need to be 1% better than you were yesterday. And I think when you can do that, and we can really focus in on the right things.
00:26:57
Speaker
It's going to lead you on the right path and you're going to end up making better progress. And just the process itself just becomes so much more enjoyable. And so wrapping this thing up leaving you with a couple practical things that you can do because I always want to leave you with some things that you can do. I hate when podcasts just talk about all these different things but then they don't ever leave you with practical things to do. So I always try to do that at the end of the episodes is just give you something tangible that you can actually use. and so One of the things that I'll give you, I'll give you two things here. One of the things that you can do, as I already mentioned, is find a lot of ways that you can win on your fitness journey. So sometimes that is using the scale to measure your body weight, but use other different ways as well. So have take progress pictures every single month or every other month. Make sure you pay attention to how your clothes are fitting. Like if your clothes are fitting better, maybe they're getting a little bit more snug like in the arms and
00:27:48
Speaker
you know in the places where you want to be building muscle and they're getting a little bit looser around the waistline around the stomach like that's a good thing that means you're improving your body composition you can take measurements so measure your waist you can measure your arms your legs are you getting stronger in the gym that means that you're not only getting stronger but there's a good chance that you're building some good muscle is your energy proving both inside and outside the gym maybe you notice that you're not as tired throughout your work day anymore like that's a huge win maybe your endurance is getting better so now you can make it throughout the entire day and you don't need 18 cups of coffee to feel like you need to survive. Maybe your mobility is getting better and you notice that like getting up and down off the couch, getting up and down off the ground, getting on the ground to play with your kids is easier. like
00:28:31
Speaker
Maybe you're noticing less pain and you're having less injuries. like That's also awesome. Maybe you're able to play sports again that you haven't been able to do for years and now you feel comfortable doing that because you've been really focusing on strength training and exercising again. You're able to just do more things in life. Maybe now you can go outside and play with your kids and you're not winded. You can go on that hike that you want to go on with with your friends and not worrying about being a burden to them because you can't keep up. like Maybe there's other ways that you can win too from like a mental standpoint. like Is your mental health improving? Do you feel like your mindset is getting better around food and exercise and your body image? and Are you improving on things like your discipline and your grit and your willpower? like Those are all things that come along with a fitness journey that can be improved. is your
00:29:15
Speaker
mood getting better? Is your clarity better? like Are your habits improving? Are you becoming a more consistent person? like Are you developing more confidence? Are you talking to yourself a little bit better? like There's literally dozens and dozens of ways that you can improve, but you have to make sure that you take stock of these things because if you don't,
00:29:33
Speaker
You'll just revert back to these you know these singular focuses like just strictly focusing on the scale or strictly comparing yourself to this other person if you you know look as good as them or you lost as much weight as them or whatever. so Find ways that you can win, find ways that you can get a little bit better and again this process becomes so
Lifelong Fitness Perspective
00:29:51
Speaker
much better. and then The second thing that I'll say is to constantly remind yourself that this is a lifestyle. Fitness is supposed to be a lifestyle. So I'm reading a book right now called The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. He's the one who wrote the book, Start With Why. He's got a really, really popular TED Talk out there with like millions and millions of views.
00:30:10
Speaker
good author, a good speaker. But in this book, he talks about infinite games versus finite games. So finite games, you think about like sports, like there's a beginning, there's an end, there's rules, everything like that. But when you have an infinite game, it's just something that you continue to do. Like it's something that you don't necessarily win. It's just more so about the process. And when you think about fitness, it's an infinite game. Like just because you lose 50 pounds, that doesn't mean that you get to stop exercising forever and that you can just go and eat a bad diet. and You can stop doing all the things that got you there because you know that's going to get you back to the place where you were. And so fitness is a forever thing. It's an infinite game.
00:30:47
Speaker
And so when you start to realize that, it takes a lot of the pressure off of the things that you need to be doing and you can get rid of the timelines. You can just focus on the actions. It allows you to just give yourself a little bit more grace. So like you're going to have different times throughout your life where like you go through different seasons where maybe you're busier, you're more stressed and you're not quite as focused on your health. Like maybe it slips a little bit. Maybe you gain five, 10 pounds. Maybe you don't work out as consistently.
00:31:13
Speaker
and realizing that this is an infinite game allows you to just be a little bit more graceful with yourself and not be so harsh because you know that just because you know you struggled for this last month you can get back on track and get back to where you need to be and do all the things you want to do and get to a place where you want to be and you don't have to stress over you know one single missed workout or a bad meal or a couple of bad days or whatever the case may be, focus on the process, focus on just doing the right things and just understand that things are gonna kind of ebb and flow a little bit and that's okay. But as long as you go in with the right mindset of like, okay, this is something that I plan on doing forever and I plan on making my health a priority and I want to live a long life and live a high quality life, well, again, it's just gonna help to make this so much more enjoyable and it's gonna take the pressure off and allow this to be something that you can do for a really long time because
00:32:05
Speaker
I think we can all agree like if you do a lot of these basic things like you focus on getting seven to eight hours of sleep per night if you focus on walking eight to ten thousand steps per day you focus on eating a quality diet with a lot of whole foods and lean proteins and fruits and vegetables if you exercise regularly and lift weights a couple times a week like If you do those things consistently most of the time, you are going to be a much healthier, much happier, just better functioning human being from a physical standpoint, from a mental standpoint, from an emotional standpoint.
Focus on Basic Healthy Habits
00:32:33
Speaker
And so when you take this view, when you take this mindset and make it a lifestyle, you're automatically just guaranteeing yourself that you're going to have a better life. Like you're going to be a better human being and you don't need to put all these extra stresses and pressure on yourself by
00:32:47
Speaker
making these weird arbitrary timelines about how you need to do this by this day or how you need to lose this much weight in this little bit of time or how you need to compare yourself to this person over here or your family member over there like you don't need to have all those extra things in there you just need to focus on doing.
00:33:05
Speaker
the healthy things that you need to be doing focusing on the basics and your life will be better because of that. And so hopefully you were able to gather a little nugget or two out of this one. This was just something that I was thinking about a lot lately and so I thought that creating this one would help a few people out there because I know if you know I've had these conversations with a few clients recently and I know it's something that I struggled with too a little bit, I figure there's got to be some other people out there who need to hear this much as well.
Invitation for Personalized Coaching
00:33:30
Speaker
So If this resonated with you and you know there's somebody who could also benefit from hearing this one, do me a favor, share it with them, pass it on, help to get this to more people who need it. And then with that being said, I do have some one-on-one coaching spots open. So if this is stuff that you do struggle with, I think it is really helpful to have somebody in your corner who's been where you've been and that you can talk with and help kind of guide you through these things. Because like I said, I recently had some of these conversations with some clients that I'm working with.
00:33:58
Speaker
And it's just nice to have somebody who understands the things that you're going through and also helps to just kind of reassure you and point you in the right direction. Make sure you're doing these things and keeping you on track and helping you to make this a lifestyle. Because again, that's that's the goal at the end of the day. Make this a lifestyle so that you can be a better person, a happier person, a more confident person, person who wakes up and likes the way they feel. and so If you want some help with those specific things and just reaching some goals specifically around weight loss and just improving your overall health, you can always check out the link in the show notes. But for now, that is all that I have. I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.