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#143 - 14 Fitness "Hacks" & Lessons For Faster Progress
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In this episode, I’m sharing the simple life hacks and mindset lessons that helped me lose 100 pounds, run a marathon, and stay in great shape in a way that felt doable and sustainable.
What you’ll get from this episode
- Simple ways to make the healthy decision the default, even on busy days
- Small habit upgrades that create outsized results without needing perfection
- A better way to think about goals and consistency, so you stop starting over
- The mindset shift that helps you handle setbacks and keep moving forward with a 1% better approach
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Transcript
Introduction to Fit-ish Project
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, Lathan Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We have the weekly episode for you this week. Before I get into that, if you can leave a review, continue to share this with the people you think could get some value out of this, I appreciate that.
Year-End Reflection and Inspirations
00:00:23
Speaker
2025 has come to a close. The year seems like it flew by. And now at the time that you are listening to this, it is 2026. We have a brand new year. And I thought that it would be a Cool idea to just review a little bit on 2025. I personally like to listen to podcasts and one of the shows that I listen to, they will periodically go through and do a life lessons or life hacks episode where they just think back to the previous six months or a year and just share some things that they have found to be super, super useful within their everyday life. And then also just some life lessons that they have
00:00:59
Speaker
either learn through different experiences or just things that they've been thinking about or looking back on certain things that they've gone through, just some lessons that they can pull out and things that they think might help people.
00:01:11
Speaker
So I thought it would kind of be cool to do something similar to that, but do it more so in like a fitness way. So I have some life hacks that I know have really helped me throughout my fitness journey over the last decade and things that have just really stuck really well for me for a long period of time. Because as I said, I've been doing this pretty consistently for the last 10 to 11
Prioritizing Health in a Busy Life
00:01:31
Speaker
years. Like I've been pretty heavy into fitness and my whole story of losing a bunch of weight and getting into running and just building a body that I want, all these different things. And so I always try to think about what are the things that have stuck, but also what are the things that I have done, like the small habits or the small changes or the little nuggets here or there that I've picked up
00:01:51
Speaker
that I know have helped me a ton that I can share with you guys to help you because I'm all for finding the smallest or simplest habits or skills that we can add to our day in order to make that healthy choice the easy choice. I understand that we all have things going on. We all have busy lives. Life is hard sometimes. Life is stressful. And I know that it can be hard to make health a priority. At the end of the day, we still have to make it a priority, but I want to do it in a way where it fits into your lifestyle and allows you to be healthy, be fit, feel good in your body, but also be able to live a normal life outside of that. And so looking back on just my whole journey, and especially more specifically this last year, I'm going to share with you some of these things that I would consider life hacks that have helped me a ton, helped some of my clients,
00:02:37
Speaker
and hopefully can help you as well. And then I have a couple of just life lessons that I have learned over the last year that I'm goingnna also share that can maybe just give you a slight perspective shift on your fitness journey and how you approach things in 2026. So without further ado, let's get into this episode.
Organizing Meal Planning
00:02:54
Speaker
I'm going to start with the life hacks. I think I have 10 of these total and then four little lessons towards the end of this. So starting with number one,
00:03:04
Speaker
have a grocery notes app. And within this groceries notes app, there's a couple things that you're going to want to have. This is something I've been doing for a really long time and I never really even thought about it. But once I started just seeing how often people struggle with knowing what to buy, knowing what meals to prepare and those sorts of things. i just found this simple little strategy, this little method that I use and something that I've been doing for multiple years that you can do and it'll save you time, save you money. And it just makes being healthy and like eating the right things easier. So All you do is on your phone, on your on your notes app, going to open that up and just title that grocery list.
00:03:41
Speaker
Underneath this grocery list, you're just going to list out the things that you buy on a regular basis. Because if you look at the things that you buy, it's going to be fairly similar week to week or every couple of weeks or however often that you go to the grocery store. That list doesn't change a whole lot.
00:03:56
Speaker
Get those staples down on your list and you're going to want to make sure that this is a bulleted list that you can check and uncheck. That way you can go and when you need things or when you run out of things, you can uncheck the things on this list. And that way, you know, every week when you go to the grocery store, okay, these are the items that I need to buy.
00:04:12
Speaker
As you go through, if there are certain things that you add to the list where you're buying more often or things that maybe you don't buy anymore, you can always adjust and edit this list. But having this list will save you some time. And it's also going to help you to not buy things that you don't really need. So if the things that you are tending to buy aren't on this list, you probably don't need those things. Or maybe you need to update your list.
00:04:35
Speaker
Once you have that list, the second part of this, and you can create a different notes app for this, or just scroll down to the bottom. And after you have your grocery list, create another section for meals. So these are going to be meals that you use for breakfast, lunch, dinner. And these are just going to be easy, simple things that you enjoy eating. And that also fits your macros. Because one of the things that I have found is so many people will be like, I don't know what to eat or I don't like this, or I don't know what things are going to help me meet my goals. And a lot of times, When I'm having these conversations with clients, they have found multiple meals or snacks or different foods that they really enjoy, but they just forget about them. So like maybe they stopped eating this certain thing or they stopped eating this meal. And so they just forget that they used to have this really good meal that hit all their macros. They really enjoyed it and it was easy to make, saved them a bunch of time, but they just kind of forgot about it. So when you have this running list of meals that you can refer back to for breakfast, lunch, dinner, You're not always asking yourself at the end of the day or at the start of the week when you're doing your meal prep, what should I be making this week? You have this running list. So you just open this list. You look at it. You have five to 10 meals on there that you really like. And you just decide, OK, this week I'm going have this for my breakfast. This week I'm going to have this for my lunch, this for my dinner. And it just saves you a bunch of time, makes making that healthier choice the easy choice. And it's just something that's just super simple.
00:06:00
Speaker
One bonus thing that I would add to this groceries notes app little life hack is if you can use grocery pickup for your grocery orders. And again, this is one of those things that's going to save you time. You don't have to go into the grocery store. You're not worried about buying a bunch of extra stuff or maybe some things that you don't need. And it's going save you a little bit of money, too.
00:06:20
Speaker
If you're going in there and you're buying a bunch of extra stuff or you're wasting a bunch of time, like it's just not as easy as it is to just go online, click that order, pick it up, save yourself a bunch of time and energy and different things like that.
00:06:34
Speaker
Plus, once you have done your grocery order from your typical grocery store that you go to, it's super easy to just go back and click the items that you need. And a lot of times, like if you're like me and you buy the same things every single week, you can just go in and you don't even have to go through and like find different items or like browse through the website or anything like that. It's already just saved in there. So you just go to your last order, see the things that you need to restock on, get those things. And again, it just saves you even more time that way. So huge fan of grocery pickup just for a multitude of different reasons, but I thought that I would share that thing there because again, it sounds super simple.
00:07:10
Speaker
But one of the things that I have noticed that helps lots of people is just the simple act of planning. And so having these things just ready for you to go and having some sort of system that you can refer back to is going to make making and eating and consuming healthier meals and foods that much easier.
Improving Sleep and Fitness Tracking
00:07:26
Speaker
Number two on the list is plug your phone in outside of your bedroom. This is one that I know that I've shared on at least one or two other podcasts, but it's something that I've been doing now for at least a year, maybe a couple years now, and it will improve your sleep almost instantly. A lot of people, myself included, used to go into bed with my phone and plug it in right next to my bed. And before I would go to bed, I would scroll on my phone, get on the social media apps and just scroll until I got tired and then fall asleep.
00:07:54
Speaker
If you're anything like me, sometimes that can turn into you only think it's going to be five minutes and then all of a sudden 45 minutes later, you're still on your phone scrolling or you went down this YouTube rabbit hole or you're on TikTok and you're just scrolling through different things, looking at things that you're not even going to remember in the morning. And now you just wasted 45 minutes that you could have added to your sleep. You just wasted on scrolling and not to mention from scrolling. Now you have all that light going into your eyes. Your brain's a little wired up because you've been watching something that was entertaining or funny or whatever. And going to harder to even fall asleep.
00:08:26
Speaker
But if you can just do this simple thing of plugging your phone in outside of the bedroom, now you don't even have to worry about that. plug your phone in before you go into your bedroom, whether it's in different room or in your kitchen or in your bathroom or something like that. You're not worried about scrolling on your phone and wasting a bunch of time. So this is a way to add a good 30 minutes to your sleep right away.
00:08:48
Speaker
Not only adding some sleep to the amount that you're getting, you're also going to be improving the quality of your sleep as well. This is also kind of helpful if you're the person who jumps on your phone right in the morning and you're scrolling and you're just like answering to a bunch of different things or you hop on social media. This is a way for you to not do that as well. So if your phone isn't right next to your bed, you don't roll over and start scrolling and start looking at all these different things to start your day. You'll also notice that you feel a little bit differently if you can just stay off your phone for the first 30 minutes, if possible. When you wake up, just eat breakfast or stretch or meditate or work out or whatever your morning routine consists of.
00:09:25
Speaker
Just staying off your phone for a good 30 minutes and not wasting time scrolling is a much better way to start your day than doing that. So super simple. Highly recommend it. Just give it a week. Just try it for a week if you've never done this before and you will notice a significant difference in your sleep if you do this consistently.
00:09:42
Speaker
Number three on the list is using workout apps. Again, I know this sounds super simple, but I have found a ton of benefit with myself and also clients with using workout apps. So three of my favorite ones that I use, I use Strava quite a bit since I've gotten into running. It's just a really easy way to track your runs. And from a motivation and progress perspective, it's really easy to track over time and see if you are making progress.
00:10:07
Speaker
And one thing that I know with myself and just with humans in general is we want to see progress. It is super motivating to see this progress. And when you see that you're improving, whether it be on how much time you're working out, whether it be on your pace, if you're running, whether it be on like different things and different metrics that you can track over time and seeing yourself improve and seeing that trajectory that you're on. being a positive and beneficial one will make you more likely to just stay consistent. We love to see progress. And this is a super easy way to track this. Another one of the fitness apps that I use is Whoop.
00:10:41
Speaker
This is just a fitness tracker that i wear on my wrist and it tracks tons of different metrics. So resting heart rate, it tracks sleep, it tracks my workouts, it tracks my steps, it tracks all different types of things. Like there's endless metrics that I can track on my fitness tracker. And Other people will wear like four rings and Apple watches and things. And it doesn't really matter as much what everything you're wearing. It's just a matter of.
00:11:05
Speaker
The fact that you're tracking those things and paying attention to those things and just making sure that those things are top of mind is going to help you with improving your health and your fitness overall. And the last one that I use is called TrainerEyes. And this is what I use for my workouts.
00:11:18
Speaker
There are so many workout apps out there and there's tons of good ones. The main thing that I would say about using a workout app is this is just going to help to ensure that you are focusing on progressive overload.
00:11:29
Speaker
I personally have made probably some of the best progress as far as strength goes and just changes in my physique and building muscle that I've made probably in the last five years. And that is just a simple fact of I am just being more consistent about tracking my numbers in my workouts.
00:11:45
Speaker
If you want to look better and look strong and look more toned, you need to build muscle. And in order to do that, you need to be focusing on progressive overload. So lifting more weight for more reps with better technique over time. And the way that you know that you're doing this is by looking at your numbers. So if you go in on month one and you're lifting 50 pounds for five reps, when you go in on month three, you want to be lifting 50 pounds for 10 reps or you want to be using 60 pounds for eight reps. You want to make sure that you are going upward on these numbers or on the weights that you're using in order to make sure that you are getting stronger and in turn building muscle.
00:12:20
Speaker
So many times I will see people are consistent in the gym, but then they're not actually really pushing themselves and making sure that they are focusing on this progressive overload and they don't really see changes in their body from year to year.
00:12:33
Speaker
if that's not your goal and you're not worried about getting stronger or changing your physique, then it's not really that big of a deal. You're still going to get a ton of benefits by going and moving your body and lifting and just doing different kinds of exercise.
00:12:44
Speaker
But I know from having tons of conversations with people that at least part of your goal is to look better. And if you want to look better, you need to get stronger. Best way to do that, follow good structured program and make sure that you are increasing on weight, reps, those sorts of things over time.
00:13:00
Speaker
Find a workout app. Get a good program and track your numbers. It will make a massive difference, I promise. Number four on the list is get a walking treadmill. I've had mine for, i think, two years now.
00:13:13
Speaker
And especially if you were somebody who works remotely or if maybe you live in a colder climate place where sometimes going outside just sucks and the freaking weather hurts your face. Like I live in Iowa and some days when it's like negative 10, I don't want to go outside. So it's nice to have this alternative of a walking treadmill where I can just go hop on that thing for 30 minutes and get some steps in.
00:13:33
Speaker
Having something convenient like this at your disposal is a game changer. Humans love convenience. Yes, it'd be nice if we could go outside and walk every day and the weather was perfect and it would fit perfectly into our schedule, but sometimes that's not possible. So having something like this to rely on or as a backup plan, or if you're just like working remotely to just hop on that thing a couple of times a day and get some steps in, will increase the amount of steps and just increase your activity and reduce how sedentary you are over time it's such a simple thing like you buy it once they're not crazy expensive i think the one that i got i got it on sale and it was about 150 bucks but it is so worth it because walking acts as one of those foundational habits where if you're focusing on walking and you're getting good steps and you're getting all the benefits of walking physically and mentally But also just the fact that you're thinking about getting more steps throughout your day. Now you're going to start to think about other healthy habits that you want to do as well. So you want to drink water, you want to eat healthy meals, you want to get your workouts and you want to get better sleep all because you're thinking about getting steps in throughout the day. So every time you check that
00:14:38
Speaker
fitness app or you check that app on your phone, seeing how many steps you have to see where you're at for that day. You're also reminded that health is something that you're prioritizing and that you also want to make other healthy choices throughout your day.
Enhancing Nutrition and Workout Efficiency
00:14:50
Speaker
Number, I think this is five on the list, using protein in your meals. When I say protein, I mean protein powder in your meals. Lots of people struggle to hit their total protein goal. And this is something that I also struggled with when I first started, because if you've never tracked your protein and got the optimal amount of protein, it's a lot.
00:15:10
Speaker
Almost every single person that I work with, when we start working on hitting protein goals, they struggle to hit that total protein number because it is a lot of protein. Most people are severely under eating enough protein in order to get all the benefits that we want to get protein. muscle building perspective from not being hungry all the time and all those different things.
00:15:27
Speaker
And protein powder is one of the simplest things that you can start to add to your day in order to hit those goals. I like to get real foods as much as possible. But at the same time, like having something that's convenient as protein powder to throw in some of your meals like with breakfast is a really good one. Because a lot of people struggle to get enough protein at breakfast, whether if you're not eating like eggs or something like that, that's higher in protein, it's really hard to get enough protein to start your day. And there's a number of reasons why you want to start your day with protein. There's a lot of studies that show if you start your day with protein, you're less likely to have cravings and less likely to be hungry. And it's just going to make hitting your total protein goal for the day that much easier. So especially for breakfast, like adding some protein powder and some yogurt or some oatmeal or so just a protein shake is a really easy way to start to up that protein over time.
00:16:19
Speaker
There's lots of different recipes out there where you can bake protein powder into different like cookies or brownies or different things like that. And there's lots of ways that you can start to use it. But it's just one of those simple things that you can add in that makes hitting that protein that much simpler.
00:16:33
Speaker
Me personally, I have protein powder just about every single day. And I'll have anywhere between one to two scoops, which is an easy 25 to 50 grams of protein that I'm adding to my protein. daily total, just super simple. So if you don't use protein powder, and you really struggle to get your protein goals, that might be a simple solution is to start using that in more of your meals and specifically in your breakfast meals.
00:16:57
Speaker
Number five on the list is another very simple one, but if you don't have a ton of time to work out or you just need to be more efficient in the gym, like you find yourself wasting time in the gym or maybe you're getting on your phone and scrolling and different things, or you just find that your workouts don't feel as good and maybe they're kind of flat and they just don't feel very productive, you don't feel like you're making good progress, this is a simple way to just stay on top of things throughout your workout and just get more out of your workouts. And if you're pushing yourself and getting more out of your workouts and you're more efficient within your workouts, you're most likely going to see better results over time. And this simple little thing is just to get some sort of timer. You can use your phone. i myself use a timer that I have that just sticks on my wall. And when I go in there, I set that timer for a specific amount of time that I want to stay in the gym and be out of the gym in that time. And most times that's about an hour, sometimes a little longer, sometimes it's 75 minutes, but maybe you only have 45 minutes to be in the gym. Set yourself a 45 minute timer.
00:17:55
Speaker
That way you're actually paying attention and making sure that you're staying on task and keeping the tempo up so that you can make sure you get your entire workout in and you're just pushing yourself a little bit more. I know it sounds super simple, but so many times I've seen people, especially in public gyms, where they just get to scrolling on their phone in between sets and then three minutes, four minutes, five minutes has passed and now they're not getting their entire workout in. They're not working as hard. They're not really as focused or engaged in the workout. So using a timer to just remind you to stay on task and like really pay attention to your rest times and things like that is going to make sure that you are staying engaged and making sure that you're getting the most out of your workouts.
00:18:31
Speaker
Sounds simple, but it does make a difference. Number six on the list, using homemade electrolyte mixes. This is just something that I've been doing for probably a good year now.
00:18:42
Speaker
Those electrolyte packets or tablets or things like that have gotten super popular for a lot of different reasons, just helping with hydration. The biggest thing that I think people use these for is it just makes water taste better. And they're just more likely to drink more water when they're drinking these things. And so if you don't let necessarily need like the electrolytes, like if you don't sweat a ton, you don't work out a ton, you're not somebody that eats super clean, like you have some processed foods, you're probably getting a decent amount of salt in your diet or you don't need this excess salt. So just finding like some flavor packets or those little tubes that you can squeeze into your water to make it taste better is another thing that you could do if you don't necessarily need
00:19:19
Speaker
all the salt and the electrolytes and things like that but if you do sweat a lot like myself or you run a bunch or you're just very active or you live in a hot climate having some electrolytes could help which is hydration and how you feel and workouts and things like that so rather than buying these tablets or buying the element packets or things like that i just buy all the ingredients in bulk off amazon and i make my own in my morning water that i chug every single morning So in these packets, it's just salt, it's magnesium and it's potassium. And you can buy these things in bulk on Amazon. And then I just mix all these things together, pour a little bit of flavoring in there, and then I just make my own electrolyte mix. So it's a little bit cheaper save yourself a little bit of money. And again, it just makes the water taste good. So thoughts, that would be something that I would share just in case you are one of those people who buys those things and maybe you want to try something else.
00:20:10
Speaker
Number, I think seven. Learn something daily. When I was making this list, I started thinking about what are some of the things that I have been doing for a really long time. And I try to learn something new at least every single day. And I do this through different mediums. So a lot of it comes through reading or podcasts.
00:20:27
Speaker
But you can even use social media as long as you're not, you know, finding yourself just looking at a bunch of dumb stuff or memes or different things like that where you're wasting your time and not really learning. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but like for this purpose of just learning something daily, I'm a big fan of having some sort of practice, whether it be. Like I said, reading podcasts are probably the two most common ones. Just finding something where you can learn, especially like health things. And obviously you listening to this podcast lets me know that you're interested in learning more about these things. And having this sort of practice, I think does a couple of things for you. It reminds you of just the things that you're trying to
Learning and Motivation
00:21:04
Speaker
prioritize. So if you're listening to health podcasts or reading books about health or fitness or different things like that, it just reminds becomes part of your identity. And it's also just reminds you that this is something that you're prioritizing and you're wanting to learn more about.
00:21:16
Speaker
And if it's something that you are prioritizing, you're going to get better at it, you're going to learn new things here or there, you're going to be able to apply new things and just be fitter and healthier over time.
00:21:27
Speaker
It also does other things too, because it can be very difficult to start to live a healthier lifestyle when you don't have those people in your life. And the fact of the matter is most people don't exercise regularly or prioritize their diet or focus on their sleep or get their steps. And so it can be hard to find those groups of people in person who do those things. And When you can't get around those people, sometimes it makes it more difficult just to live that lifestyle. But now through technology, we have the luxury of being able to get around those people. Like you can get those people in your ears through podcasts and hear those people. You can read books of people who are doing the things that you want to do or have the habits that you want to have or the skills that you want to have.
00:22:08
Speaker
And so if you can't physically get around those people, you can start to cultivate this group of people virtually through the things you read and the things you listen to. And that can make developing this more fit and healthy lifestyle a little bit easier. And so I'm a huge fan of finding some way that you can learn something daily, especially around health and fitness.
00:22:27
Speaker
I think back to like when I started this and I was reflecting on that a little bit because when I started this whole process, it started with a new year's resolution. And I didn't know a whole lot about health and fitness. Like I was always active. I was always an athlete.
00:22:41
Speaker
I knew some of the like real basic stuff. But when it came to like actually figuring out like macros and calories and what to eat and how much to eat and even like putting workouts together, like I've looked back, I found my notebook that had all the workouts from my very first year. And I was just making my own workouts just based on like YouTube videos and like articles that I was finding online and some of the stuff that I had learned in college and football and things like that. And like my workouts were not that great. Like I was doing too much.
00:23:09
Speaker
They weren't as structured as they should have been there. Sometimes there wasn't really a rhyme or a reason, but I figured it out over time because I was able to find people who knew more than me. I was reading books. I was listening to podcasts. I was watching YouTube videos. And now so much of the things that I share with you guys are things that I'm able to share with clients. I have learned through either reading books, listening to podcasts, and then like putting those things into practice and just from my own personal experience of lifting weights and then also just like working with so many different people as a personal trainer.
00:23:41
Speaker
And I wouldn't have a tenth of the knowledge that I have without these things and just without this practice of reading every day and listening to podcasts. So I'm a huge fan. If there's like things that you want to accomplish, if there's skills that you want to gain, if there's habits that you really want to add to your lifestyle, find people that can help teach you those things and it will make a big difference over time.
00:24:05
Speaker
I can't remember what number this is, but the next one on the list is to find a form of cardio that doesn't feel like cardio. I was always a cardio hater outside of doing things like playing sports. Like if you asked me to just go do regular cardio and run when I first started this stuff or really any time in my life of before the last couple of years when I got into running, i would have told you that's stupid. And I was a hater of cardio. I didn't like doing cardio. I would avoid it. But there's no denying the fact that like having a good cardio practice, something where you're getting your heart rate up, sweating a little bit, you're working those different systems within your body is a huge benefit.
00:24:41
Speaker
Having a high VO2 max, which is basically just being good at cardio is one of the best predictors that we have for living a long life. Like if you have a good... cardio level, if your heart is very healthy, there's a good chance that you are going to live longer than people who don't have that. And so finding some sort of cardio to add to your routine, whether that's once a week or a couple times a week is very, very beneficial.
00:25:04
Speaker
But I also understand that lots of people hate traditional cardio. So there's ways around that where you can find cardio that doesn't feel like cardio. And so for example, I play in a rec league basketball league where I play pickup basketball Quite often. And when I'm playing basketball, I don't I'm not really thinking about like all this cardio activity I'm getting, but it's honestly the best workout that I do above anything else. Like my heart rate gets crazy elevated and I'm getting tons of really good cardio benefits, but it doesn't really feel like cardio. Like when I first got into running and I went out for a long run. that was hard and like even just running for like 30 minutes just seemed very hard and it felt very monotonous and now i've gotten to a place where i actually enjoy those things but if you're not that person who likes to do traditional cardio find some other form of cardio whether that be a basketball league or going and playing pickleball or tennis or it's some sort of like pickup sports league or maybe you have kids and so it's out and doing things with your kids going on a bike ride going on hikes
00:26:03
Speaker
going swimming, doing different things like that. Like there's lots of ways that you can do cardio where you're just getting your heart rate up, you're breathing kind of heavy, you're sweating a little bit. There's lots of ways that you can do that. And it doesn't just have to be the old fashioned traditional cardio. You can find something that checks those boxes. You're going to get a lot of good health benefits over time.
Community and Goal Setting
00:26:22
Speaker
Next on the list, and this is the last one for the life hack session, is to schedule workouts with other people. I'm typically a person who works out alone. I've spent a lot of time, especially after I got out of sports, just working out by myself, mostly just because it's convenient. I sort of like that alone time, just throw my headphones in put some music on and just like think a little bit, relax and just do my thing. And I kind of like it that way. But I've started to implement more workouts with friends and buddies and things like that.
00:26:53
Speaker
And especially if you're somebody who just needs a little bit more accountability and you are struggling with consistency, like having other people that expect you to show up, whether that be a friend or a group or a class that you go to or a coach or a trainer or whatever is super helpful when it comes to just creating better consistency and just being more accountable because it's a lot harder to not show up when there's other people involved and when they're counting on you than it is to just not do it for yourself so if you are that person i would highly recommend just getting some workouts on your calendar with other people because it is going to help quite a bit with that consistency another thing that i've noticed is it just allows you to push a little bit harder to work a little bit harder with running i've started running sometimes with buddies or with groups and things like that especially like on harder tougher runs
00:27:40
Speaker
And I can always push myself a little bit harder when I have other people there with me and we push each other a little bit. Maybe there's a little bit of competition when we're running or even with lifting, like I'm able to push myself a little bit more or i end up doing a little bit more. And then on top of that, the last thing just about with working out with other people is you get that relational aspect of it. So you just get the social connection, you get to talk to somebody. And that's super important too for health. And if that's something that's lacking in your life, maybe you don't have tons of time to spend outside of your job and kids and all your other things that you have going on with life, scheduling some time where you're killing these two birds with one stone, you're like you're getting some exercise in, working out, you're getting all those benefits, but you're also getting to hang out with somebody or talk with somebody that you enjoy being around is definitely a positive.
00:28:28
Speaker
So that is it for the life hacks session for the lessons. I just have four of these. Just, I was thinking about this a little bit and I tried to gear these a little bit more towards like the beginning of the year type of theme or type of feel. And so the first one that I had is when setting goals, decide what you are willing to struggle for, not just what you want.
00:28:46
Speaker
Over the years, I have heard so many people that have come to me because they've seen what I've been able to do with my like fitness transformation and just losing a bunch of weight and different things like that. And So many people tell me like, I want to lose weight or I want to really get or I want to get in really good shape. I want to do this certain goal. I want to do that. I want to run a marathon. And all those things are awesome. Like if you really want to do those things and you absolutely can do those things. But it's much different when you start thinking in terms of like, once you have these goals, what are the things that I'm actually willing to struggle for? Because you might want to lose 50 pounds. But is that something that you're willing to struggle for?
00:29:24
Speaker
You might want to run a marathon, but are you willing to dedicate four or five hours a week to training for that marathon? You might want to build a bunch of muscle, but are you willing to work out three or four times per week consistently for two years straight?
00:29:39
Speaker
These are the things that I think about when I try to create goals because having these certain goals, like all goals sound awesome. Like it's motivating and it's exciting and it's cool to have really high goals and to shoot for these high aspirations. And that's great. And I think that having those are beneficial. But when you're doing those things, just ask yourself the simple question like, what are the things that I'm willing to give up or what are the things that I'm willing to struggle for in order to achieve these goals?
00:30:06
Speaker
I think when you're really honest with yourself about those things, you will find, is this a meaningful goal for me? Like, is this something that I'm willing to do right now at this time in my life? And sometimes the answer is yes. And sometimes the answer is no. And if the answer is no, it's probably not a good goal for you at this moment, because that's going to just be a goal that when things get difficult, When life gets busy, when you get stressed, when things get hard, when you're not motivated, when you feel like things aren't really working, that's when you're going to fall off. But if you have a strong why as to why you're doing this and you've really gone over in your head, OK, I um know this is going to get hard at some point and I'm willing to struggle for this, like then you're going to stick with those things. And those are a good goal to have.
00:30:43
Speaker
Second on the list is right along with this goal theme, set up systems to accomplish your goals. And what I mean by that is taking this a step further. If you have decided that, okay, this is a goal that I'm willing to struggle for. This is something that means a lot to me.
00:30:59
Speaker
What are the systems that you're going to use to accomplish this goal? Too often I'll see things like I'll ask somebody, okay, they tell me their goal, but then I'll be like, what is your plan to accomplish this goal? And they can't really tell me in good detail or they can't really tell me the steps on how they plan to achieve this goal. And if you don't have a plan, if you don't have steps, if you don't have like a clear, concise way to explain to me the steps that you are going to take to get to this goal, the likelihood that you accomplish that is about slim to zero.
00:31:29
Speaker
You need to have a system in order to get you to whatever goal that you have. And so, for example, I read this book quite a while back. It was one of the very first books that I read and I've read it multiple times since then because it is so simple and basic and easy to read, but it makes so much sense. And if you follow the advice in the book,
00:31:46
Speaker
it will help you a ton. So the book was called Slight Edge. And one of the things that it talked about was having these daily or weekly disciplines. If you have this goal of, I want to lose 50 pounds in the next year, what are your daily or weekly disciplines that you need to hit on a consistent basis in order to get you to that goal? and so these are things these are small actionable steps that you can do day in and day out that aren't too difficult that don't take crazy amounts of effort to do things that you can do on a tough day on a busy day on a stress day that are going to help move you to that goal so for the example of i want to lose 50 pounds my daily discipline is i need to track my calories and i need to hit my daily target it's not 17 other things that I need to do in order to lose weight. It's that simple goal right there. And I need to do that most days, or maybe it's, I want to build 10 pounds of muscle this year. And so my weekly discipline is I need to get in three strength training sessions per week. And so that is my system in order to get me there.
00:32:48
Speaker
When you take some time to really break these things down into small parts, it does a couple things for you. So now you have an actionable plan that you can actually work on and that you can actually work towards rather than this big, audacious goal that you don't really know how to get to. You have some things that you can do on a daily or weekly basis that are helping you move the needle towards that goal.
00:33:07
Speaker
And the second thing that this does is that it makes it feel possible. So many people struggle when starting with a big goal. Like a lot of people will ask me about losing weight who have a lot of weight to lose because I've lost 100 pounds and that's a really big daunting goal and very hard to start.
00:33:22
Speaker
But when you really break it down, it's just a lot of little things done for a long period of time to get you to that goal. But starting that and really figuring out what that process looked like can be so intimidating that people never start. They never take that first step. And so when you can take some time to really step back and break it down and really think about it, it makes this big goal so much more manageable. And it actually gives you that motivation to get started and to work towards that goal.
Consistency and Growth
00:33:46
Speaker
Number three on the list, I think I have two more of these lessons is established consistency before intensity. In an ideal world, you would have both of these at the same time all the time. Like you would be super consistent and you would be very intense all the time.
00:34:03
Speaker
But The most important thing is to establish that consistency. And once you have established that consistency, once you have built the right habit, once you have gotten really good at showing up all the time, even when you're busy, even when you don't want to, even when you're stressed, even when things aren't perfect.
00:34:20
Speaker
Then you can start to build on those things. But before you have that consistency, if you're super locked in or focused on intensity or just going as hard as possible, you're not really going to see the results that you want to see and you're just going to struggle. going to spin your wheels. So if you're only working out one time per week, but you go in the gym and you just crush it that one time per week, that's not nearly as good as showing up three times per week, getting in the gym and getting a solid workout in.
00:34:45
Speaker
Or if you're only eating super clean two days out of the week, and then the other five days, you're just completely blowing it out of the water like it's terrible, you're not really going to see any progress. And so the goal here is you're not trying to be perfect. You're trying to establish a good habit. And then once you have those habits, you can build on those things.
00:35:02
Speaker
I think about running for me, for example, like when I first got into it, I didn't enjoy running and it was very hard to show up and it was just hard. Like I didn't enjoy it. It was difficult at times. Like I wasn't very good at it, but I just focused on showing up four times per week and then getting my miles in. I wasn't making crazy progress on my time or pace or anything like that. And I wasn't super focused on that. I was just focused on establishing that habit of showing up and just running. And then eventually, Once that became the norm, once showing up and just getting those runs and became normal, now I could start to really lock in on, let's start to push a little bit.
00:35:38
Speaker
Let's start to add some different workouts and let's start to add longer runs and let's start to add some more intense runs and so I can start to see better times and start to see my pace improve and start to get better at running. And then you can build on top of that. But if you go in too hot and you're just focused on doing everything perfectly and just working super hard, the burnout rate of that is very high. And also just the fact that you're probably going to just be spinning your wheels because you're not as consistent as you need to be and you don't really have anything established. It just leads to people not being able to stick with the things that they want to stick with. So establish consistency before you focus on intensity.
00:36:16
Speaker
And the last one that I have, just as far as lessons go, looking back on these things is the challenges do not stop. You just get better at dealing with them. When I think about big goals and accomplishing different things, I think a lot of us think that we're going to hop into whatever challenge or we're going to hit the goal or going to get to this certain result and then that's it. Like we're good to go and we don't have to ever worry about these things again. And the fact of the matter is like when it comes to health, when it comes to fitness, when it comes to all these habits and things, these are not finish line goals. These are things that you're going to continue to do for a very long time. So the goal isn't just to like get in good shape and then fall off or build a bunch of muscle and then never lift weights again. The goal is to stay in the game and just continue to keep those good habits in line and just to feel good and look the way you want to look and be able to do all the things you need to do.
00:37:07
Speaker
And in order to do that, you need to keep showing up. And so it's not about like being perfect or trying to get rid of all the challenges or trying to solve all the problems. Again, it's about that 1% better mindset, which is why I talk about that so often. We're not trying to be perfect here. We're not trying to never make a mistake. We're not trying to never have another challenge again. We're just trying to get better at dealing with these things. And you do that by showing up, by growing, by doing hard things. And then when you have these challenges, they start to become easier over time and you're able to take on bigger things and you're able to get better in certain ways and you're able to grow. And that's the whole goal of it. It's not to completely get rid of these things or to be perfect or anything like that. And I think shifting away from that,
00:37:50
Speaker
and shifting more to this growth mindset or this 1% better mindset, it's a much better place to be because you don't feel this pressure to solve these issues and be perfect all the time and do a bunch of things that just aren't sustainable. You're focused on growth. You're focused on getting just a tiny bit better. And then when you do that for multiple months, multiple years, a decade, the things that you're able to do and the person that you become in that process is It's crazy. Like the amount of progress that you can make the things that you can do from a fitness and health perspective in a year or in five years or in 10 years is insane.
00:38:23
Speaker
But if you're trying to be perfect, if you're trying to like solve these issues or think that once you hit this goal, like it's all over, that's the wrong approach. And so If you're thinking about how you can be better about just accomplishing things in this next year, i would say drop that perfection mindset and just start focusing more on that 1% better. And who you're becoming in that process is going to be just as important as hitting that goal over time. With that, that is all I have for this episode. As always, hopefully you were able to gather a thing or two from this episode that you can apply.
00:38:58
Speaker
Try to make, especially the life hacks, just things that you can start trying or start implementing right away. Again, these are things that I've been doing for the last year, but a lot of these are things that I've been doing for multiple years that have helped me a ton. And so if you can even just implement one thing, over this next year, like some sort of habit that sticks for the entire year and that you continue to carry throughout your lifetime, that would be a success. A lot of people have this idea, especially at the beginning of the year, that they're going to change like 10 things all at once or add all these habits or change all these different things. And when you think back to how many habits that you have added over time that have actually stuck for multiple years, it's probably not very many. And most people don't even add one habit in a single year. So if you can just Pick one thing, maybe two things that you're going to do better this year and like really, really focus in and lock in on that thing. And you can add that and and really make that a part of your lifestyle and a part of your identity.
00:39:51
Speaker
That would be a success. And so hopefully this gives you some ideas about maybe where you can start to think about those things and what you might want to add. and Hope you get some value out of this and you make 2026 a positive year. It's another year for opportunities to grow and get better. And hopefully you had a good New Year's and you're starting this year off on the right note.
00:40:13
Speaker
As always in the show notes, there is the link to the one-on-one coaching app. If you are the one-on-one coaching link, excuse me, if you have some goals this year that you want some help with, maybe you've tried in the past on your own and it just has never stuck.
00:40:27
Speaker
Knowing is part of the battle, which is why I do these podcasts and try to give away as much free content and free help and free game as possible. But I also know a lot of people need a little bit of guidance. They need a little bit of accountability. They need some help with this stuff. And they just have a lot of other things going on in their life. And they want help in actually making this stuff stick. And that is what I do within one-on-one coaching. So if that's you, if you have some goals, if you really want to make things stick this year and you want a little help doing it from somebody who's been in your shoes and has done a lot of the things that you want to do, that is exactly why I'm here. You can check out that link and we'll have a conversation, see if you're a good fit. But that being said, i appreciate you listening as always looking to make it another good year of just growth. And i appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.