Transcript
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. It is that time of the week. We got an episode for you before I get into this episode. Just a reminder to continue to leave reviews if you have not done so. Continue to share this with people who you think could get value. Continue to just help grow this show and get this information of people who need this to help them live better, look better, feel better, all those things that we all want from health and fitness.
Speaker: The topic for this week, we're gonna talk about building discipline. It's probably not exactly what you are thinking. And I think a lot of times when it comes to fitness, you hear the message of you just need to work harder, you need to grind more, you need to do more, you need to be more consistent, all those things. And there's some truth to those things. There's absolutely a time and a place for you to flex that willpower muscle, to grit through things, to really challenge yourself and do hard things. I am all for that.
Speaker: But with that being said, i think a lot of times people just think it's all about just training harder. And a lot of this can be boiled down to doing things in a smarter way to make this actually easier to be consistent. And I'm going to get into a bunch of practical things that you can do.
Speaker: Because when I think back to starting this whole process, there was just so many things that I didn't really know, so many things that I didn't really understand. But now through years, over a decade of experience of working out, of losing a bunch of weight, of training for different goals, running marathons, building muscle, losing fat, working with dozens of different people, both online and in person. I have now been able to just gather a lot of little nuggets, little insights, little tips and tricks that are super helpful and very practical that make this whole process easier.
Speaker: Because you can run five miles and that's going to be hard. You can also run five miles with a 20 pound. weighted vest straight uphill, and that's going to be significantly harder. You're going the same amount of distance both places, but one of those is going to be extremely difficult to do and probably not very enjoyable, where the other one is you're still getting that work and you're still getting to the same destination, but you're doing it in a more efficient way. And that's kind of the way that I look at discipline.
Speaker: Discipline isn't just about waking up at 5 a.m. to get the workouts in and grinding through an hour-long session. A lot of that discipline, or at least the way that I think about discipline, is all the things that you do to set yourself up to make that decision.
Speaker: to be able to wake up at 5 a.m. and work out and get through that hour long workout and get all the gains and build muscle and lose fat and all those different things that we want. And what I mean by that is so to make that happen, you are probably going to be going to bed at a decent time.
Speaker: You can set your clothes out so that you're ready to go when you wake up the next morning. You can have a planned workout for when you actually get in the gym so your workout is actually effective and you can continue to get stronger. You can do all these little things that help you to be consistent and to actually see the progress that you want to see. That is where I think the real discipline is built. And the cool thing about that is a lot of those things are things that you can do. It's things that everybody can do. It just takes a little bit of planning. It takes a little bit of being more intentional, a little bit of prioritizing the right things.
Speaker: And when you do those things, you start to build this discipline. Because when you look at really fit people, when you look at people who have achieved Big goals. a lot of times they have systems and these systems is what makes them appear to be super disciplined. So they stick to a really simple eating routine that they figured out for themselves. They stick to a workout routine. They have certain habits in place and they just do certain things because they built those habits and have been doing those things for so long.
Speaker: So to the outside person, it just looks like, wow, they're super disciplined. Like they're always working out. They're always being consistent. They're going to bed at a decent time. They're doing all these things. But in reality, that's just their normal everyday life because they spent time both building those habits, but also putting themselves in good positions. So setting up their environment in the right way, getting around the right people, spending some time learning the things or trying things and failing at things and figuring out which things don't work and which things do. Now it looks like they're this super disciplined person, but it's just years of compounding of them making these little decisions that were forcing them to use that discipline, but in a different way than most people think about it. So I'm going to explain to you or tell you 19 different things that I have gathered over the years that can make you more disciplined and just make fitness easier.
Speaker: Like it doesn't always have to be grind more. it doesn't always have to be super difficult because trust me, in your fitness journey, you're going to have plenty of those moments. So there's no reason to make this harder than it needs to be. So let's get into this, talk about some different hacks or some tips or practical strategies that you can use. And so I broke this down into two different sections. There is a fitness section and then there is a nutrition section. And maybe I'll do a part two on this sometime because I have so many of these little nuggets that I've just found over the years but I thought I'd boil it down to these two categories for right now give you nine fitness hacks and then 10 within the dieting space so number one have some sort of workout planned when you go into the gym you can use an app you can work out with a trainer you can work out with a group you can even make your own if you're into that but I have just seen this over the years that the people who actually have a plan When they go into the gym, they have a much better workout. They get better progress long term and they spend less time in the gym, which also typically is more enjoyable.
Speaker: I've been having tons and tons of different consults with people since I just started working in a new gym. People are coming in, they're asking questions. And one of the most common things that I keep hearing is I don't really know what to do when I come into the gym.
Speaker: In the gym that I work at, there is so much equipment. There's an abundance of equipment. And even for me, who I've been working out for 17 years now, there was stuff in there that I had never seen before. And it'd be very easy to go in there and just wander around and wonder what do I should be doing and not get as good of a workout versus if I just have some sort of workout, i have some sort of plan going in there, I'm going to have a better workout.
Speaker: It's such a simple thing that you can do. There's an abundance of different fitness apps that you can use programs, you can find tons of those for free. I've even posted those tons of programs that you can use for free, but have some sort of plan going into your workout. Because if you go into the gym without a plan, and you just wander around, it's better than doing nothing, but it's not going to be as good as you'd like it to be. And for most of us getting into the gym, we're getting in there for a particular reason. We want to feel better, maybe both mentally and physically. Probably want to build some muscle or some strength. We want to feel a little bit better, maybe reduce some of those aches and pains, all those different things. And you are going to get better within those goals by having a structured program that you can track over time. So I can't stress that one enough, but have some sort of workout when you go into the gym.
Speaker: Number two, protect your workout time like it's just as important as anything else. People who are fit, people who are active, they prioritize their fitness as a top priority. It's up there with other things like friends, like family, like all that other stuff. Because if you don't have your health, you can't really enjoy all those other things. And people who have gotten really good results, they realize this.
Speaker: This doesn't mean you need to live in the gym five or six hours a week or anything crazy like that. but you should protect that time that you have in your week to work out. I often run into this with people who have kids who are coming to me and they're wanting to get some help. And they're like I'm just ready to make this priority and have some me time. And I think that's important for all of us, especially if you have kids, especially if you're busy, especially if you're stressed. You need that time to yourself, whether that's 30 minutes a day, whether that's three hours a week, just have something planned and put that in your calendar, have a schedule. And on top of that, try to pick times for these that you're going to have a less chance of distractions. If that means that you have to wake up at 5 a.m. or 5.30 to get your early morning workout in before life gets crazy or work gets busy or people start asking you for different things and you have a bunch of different things to do, then that might be something that you have to do. Maybe if you have young kids and they go to bed at a pretty early hour, maybe that's getting your workout in at 8.15 in your basement or your garage. Maybe that's 30 minutes on your lunch break.
Speaker: You just have to find some sort of time within your schedule, or maybe I should say make the time, because if it's a priority, you're going to make that time and you're going to put that in your schedule and protect that time like it's important because it really is that important. It's something that you should prioritize just like you prioritize going to work or brushing your teeth or showering or taking care of yourself, doing all the things that you have to do. Exercise and your workout should be right up there with that.
Speaker: Number three, using 10 minute walks to get fitter. One of the most common reasons that people attribute to not being able to get in shape or look the way they want, feel the way they want, all those different things is that time is an issue. Like they just don't have enough time. And as I just said, you're gonna have to start to make time if this is something that you want to prioritize and get better at, you need to make time.
Speaker: But with that being said, there's tons of things that you can do in small little pockets of time. And the 10 minute walk is a really good one. I'm a huge proponent of walking. And if you've been listening to this podcast for a while now, you've probably heard me talk about this multiple times and maybe even you're getting sick of this. But To be fit, you need to be active.
Speaker: To be active, one of the simplest things you can do is to walk more. I love walking so much for this because it's something that we all know how to do. It's something that you don't need a lot of time to do. You don't need to schedule an extra workout in your day to do this. You can just add in little 10-minute walks here or there after your meals, on your lunch break. When you wake up, before you go to bed, there's just tons of different opportunities where you can add these in and you're starting to increase that activity overall. And it doesn't seem like a big deal, right? Like a little 10 minute walk, but 10 minute walk is roughly a thousand steps. If you're walking at a pretty good tempo, you do that three times a day, three 10 minute walks. you're adding 3,000 steps to your day.
Speaker: So for the average person who's pretty sedentary, they're getting maybe three or 4,000 steps in their day. You add three 10-minute walks, which is basically nothing, into your day. And now you're right up around 7,000 steps, which is right around that threshold that we know gets tons of benefits for being fit, being active, all those different things that you get from just walking and being more active. You're getting those now by adding this simple little thing of 10-minute walks. So Can't stress it enough. Add in some walks. Use those little 10-minute pockets of time. Park further away. Use the stairs. Go on your lunch break and go for a 10-minute walk. Like, those little things, they matter and they add up.
Speaker: Number four, have a couple of workout equipment pieces at home. You don't have to have an entire gym set up. I mean, I have that in my basement. I absolutely love it. And I would attribute that to also helping me get into really good shape is just having that at my house. But you really don't need a ton of equipment to get a really good workout. And having a few pieces of equipment at home can go a long ways.
Speaker: And one of the reasons that I really like this is because I've just noticed this over time that people really struggle when they start to fall off, like they miss a workout or two that often turns into a week or two weeks. I was just talking to a client the other day who had been off for a couple weeks and he came in for a class and I was like, man, I haven't seen you in a while. He's like yeah, I know I got sick for a week. And then basically I was just kind of out of routine, off track a little bit. And then so I let that turn into another week and It's been two weeks since I've worked worked out. Now I'm back. And you know I know this one's gonna suck, but I wish I kind of would got on track a little bit sooner. And like that version of that story is something that I've heard dozens of times at this point. I've seen it so many times. I've heard it with clients. It's just really easy to fall off track.
Speaker: Obviously, we wanna get to the point where we're not letting those little things turn into full on weeks off, two weeks off, months off, like getting right back on track as soon as we can. That's something that I always talk about. But with that being said,
Speaker: having something like a couple workout pieces of equipment at home to just keep that momentum going and doing something is so beneficial and you can buy a couple pieces of equipment for well under 50 bucks and get a good workout in so things like bands you could buy a couple of dumbbells like off a facebook marketplace or something like that you could buy a kettlebell a pull-up bar a trx strap or some mar rings a stability ball a jump rope Any of that stuff, all that stuff is under a hundred bucks and you could get a really, really good workouts with even just one or two pieces of those equipment. And you don't even need that stuff. You could do body weight workouts, but I do find it's a little bit easier to do workouts when you do have some equipment because to me, body weight workouts get old pretty quickly. So having some of this stuff at your house is super beneficial.
Speaker: I think back to when COVID happened and in that time, I didn't have access to a gym. I didn't have my own place and I didn't have a gym at that time. All I had was a jump rope. I had a kettlebell and I had a band and I just got super creative about how I was getting my workouts in, but it really didn't take a whole lot. I was getting plenty of good workouts. I was making progress. I was getting more fit by just doing things and being creative with just a couple pieces of equipment. And so having this at home, super underrated, never underestimate the power of a 20 minute workout to just keep that momentum going. And I've also noticed too, like when people start to let their workout slip, oftentimes that starts to make them slip in other areas of life. So like diet, maybe you might start to slip, you just start eating things. Maybe your sleep starts to get a little bit off, you're not drinking water. And so when you can keep that workout consistent, a lot of times people will do better with their other healthy habits that they're trying to do too. so It's not just about working out and sometimes people hear, oh, why would I do 10 minute walk? Or why would I work out for 20 minutes? That's not going to do anything.
Speaker: First of all, you can get a heck of a workout in 20 minutes, but also just for the fact that it helps to keep you accountable and helps you to keep on track with those other healthy habits is super beneficial.
Speaker: This is something that I've utilized over the years and something, it probably happens to me once a week where like I have a certain workout that I want to do like in my head, but for whatever reason, Time doesn't work out. I have to work a little bit earlier or a little bit later or for whatever reason, I just can't get that full workout in. And so many times I'd be like, I get frustrated about it because I'm like, oh, I wanted to go for this five or six mile run and I don't have time to do that.
Speaker: All right, whatever. Let me just get a two mile run in and then let me do some pull-ups or something like that This literally just happened to me a few days ago. Like I had to go to work. I kind of just mismanaged my time a little bit. I had to do some programming for a client before we were going in. So I didn't have as much time to work out before going into work as I wanted to. So I did a quick 30 minute workout. I ran two miles, did 50 pull ups and that was my workout. And I was happy with that. And when you start to think about that, if this happens to you once a week where maybe you don't get to the gym or just not able to get that workout in and you could very easily just skip it altogether, but instead you decide to do this 20 minute workout, if that happens once a week, that happens four times per month.
Speaker: And then if that happens four times per month throughout the course of a year, that's 48 workouts that you could have skipped, but instead you got in because you decided that 20 minute workout was better than nothing.
Speaker: If you did 48 extra workouts in the year, don't you think that that would have a very beneficial effect on your health, on your fitness, on your mental side of things, on how you feel about yourself, about your confidence, about your energy, about all those different things. So it's just the shows you the power of progress over perfection and having something as simple as just a few pieces of workout equipment at home can be the difference between keeping that momentum rolling and doing those things and not doing those things.
Speaker: Number five, train in a way you enjoy. way This seems extremely obvious, but not enough people do it. When I think about working out, I think there is literally something out there for everybody to find that they actually enjoy. There's just endless ways to work out. And when I think about this, there's like three main buckets, right? Like I think everybody should probably be doing some form of strength training. There's just...
Speaker: too many benefits. It's good for your bone health. It's good for your muscle mass. It's good for just so many different things. But even just within strength training, there's lots of different ways that you can do strength training. Like you could do CrossFit, you could do a bodybuilding thing, you could do some high rock stuff, you could train like an athlete, you could do just your normal traditional strength training. But even within like just traditional strength training, there's so many different styles of training you could do, you could do high reps, you could do low reps, you could do powerlifting, you could do Olympic lifting, you can use machines, you could use free weights, you could use a combination of all these things. Like there's endless types of ways to work out endless types of programs. And I've tried a lot of them. Some I hate some I like, and some are just okay. But if I tend to pick the things that I actually genuinely enjoy, I'm way more consistent at those and I work a lot harder at those. So finding things that you can do that you actually enjoy is a big thing.
Speaker: Outside of strength training, you probably want to be doing some sort of cardio and you probably want to be finding some ways to stay active outside the gym. But again, find some things that you actually enjoy. If you don't love traditional cardio, you can play sports or find other ways to do some cardio stuff. If there's ways that you can stay active outside of the gym, add those things in like walking, like hiking, like biking, like a sports league, like doing yard work, like playing with your kids. Like there's so many different ways that you can get active and get the fitness benefits.
Speaker: It doesn't just always have to be doing stuff that you hate. Now, again, there's a time to place to just do some things that you know are good for you that you don't necessarily love. I mean, I don't love to stretch, but I do it not always consistently, but it's something that I'm continually trying to get better at. And there's going be times within your fitness journey that you just have to do things that you don't necessarily enjoy, but you do it because you know how good it is for you.
Speaker: But trying to find more things that you enjoy is going to just make this process more sustainable and more enjoyable long term. Number six, work out with other people. If you struggle with showing up and you struggle with consistency, this might be at the top of the list. like This might be the one thing that you take and if you do nothing else, do this.
Speaker: Find a coach, find a group of people, find a training buddy, just find something that's going to help to hold you accountable and just provide you with a reason to show up.
Speaker: It's one of the top reasons that I hear from people about things that they're looking for, like when they ask for help or when they meet with a trainer or things like that is that they want that accountability. So if you don't absolutely love working out, it's a really good idea to work out with other people who can help hold you accountable to help push you and just to help cheer you on a little bit too. Like, I absolutely love working out and I would do it regardless of if anybody knew or if there was a coach or if anybody's watching me like I would find ways to work out. I fully understand that's not most people like most people don't want to do that. So why not find ways to get you in the gym to help you be more consistent to help hold you accountable and getting around other people who are chasing similar goals or who are a little bit further ahead than you or have maybe a little bit more knowledge than you about this area where you don't have to think about it and who can just help you is such a game changer like it's something that i think more people should take advantage of a lot of the people that i work with they would not work out if they didn't come to the classes or if they didn't come to work with a trainer so finding people that you can do this with makes this whole process easier
Speaker: Number seven is build movement into your life. Take the stairs, walk during phone calls, park a little further away, walk when you have the option to do so. Do active stuff with your friends, with your family. Prioritize being active because if you want to become a fit person, you need to start to cultivate the mindset that you are a fit individual and that you prioritize fitness.
Speaker: and as you start to just do more of these things on a daily basis and just choose to be more active obviously it's going to start to show up in those physical ways as well but it's such a big thing for your mindset as you start to just be more fit and just to start to prioritize these things over time it's one of those things that just helps you to be able to continue to move well to be able to just do all the things you want and I was having this conversation with a guy the other day who was doing a ah fitness consultation. He was in his mid to late 30s and he was talking a little bit about his fitness goals. And he said something along the lines that basically i just want to be able to do a little bit everything. And I think as I've gotten older, like into my 30s, I still have specific goals about wanting to run further, run faster, lift more weight, build more muscle, all that kind of stuff. But I think just as important as that is like I never want to feel held back by myself.
Speaker: my fitness levels like i never want to be able to have to pass up on certain things because i'm not fit enough to do those things or because i'm not healthy enough to do those things or because i'm too heavy or don't look the way i want or have low confidence low energy those things and so Just using that to your advantage and being able to just build some movement into your life is a really good way to be able to stay active and just have a better quality of life. So find ways that you can just move more and build that into your lifestyle. And over time, I think that pays off both in the mindset and just with the physical benefits that you get as well.
Speaker: Number eight, we got two more for this fitness part, use temptation bundling. So temptation bundling, I've talked about this before, it's just a fancy way to say you use something that you really like to build a habit with something that you don't necessarily really like yet.
Speaker: I hated running, now I run quite often. The way that I got hooked on running was I paired it with a lot of things that I already enjoyed. I really like being outside. i like being out in nature. i like being out in the sun. I really like listening to music or listening to podcasts. I like the fact that I can work out and run with friends.
Speaker: I like the fact that I could track all these different metrics around how far I was running, how fast I was running, my heart rate. And I just like to nerd out about that kind of stuff sometimes. So all those things made running much more appealing to me and made me start to enjoy it more because I got to do all these things while i was running.
Speaker: If I was just solely focused on running, like I didn't run with any music, I had to run on a treadmill. I never got to do it with friends. I was just doing it just to do it. Like there's no way that have stuck it out and built that habit and actually got to a point where i actually enjoyed running. But because I was able to pair it with a bunch of things that I really liked, now it's something that I do consistently. And not only do I enjoy doing the things that come with running, I actually just enjoy running for the sake of running. Like now I could just hop on a treadmill without music without anything else and run and actually find it somewhat enjoyable. Whereas like I never would have been able to do that before.
Speaker: And I think this is something that you can easily implement with so many fitness habits in just really simple ways like making really good music playlists that you enjoy listening to while you're working out.
Speaker: Awesome thing to do. It's way better to work out to music that you actually enjoy than to just like listen to no music or not have any of that. Working out with other people that you enjoy being around makes fitness way better. I work at a small group training gym. And one of the things that members really enjoy is that they get to be around other people that they like being around, who have similar goals, who help push them, hold them accountable. When you look at things like run clubs, that's a huge reason why these things are so popular.
Speaker: People like being around other people. They like that community. They like being around other people who have similar goals to them. So you can get around other people who make fitness more fun. If you like podcasts, you can listen to that while you're training or running or doing any of that kind of stuff.
Speaker: I've had clients in the past who hate cardio, but they wanted to get better shape. They wanted to do more cardio because they understood the benefits. So they would just watch shows on their phone or on their tablet while they were doing cardio, like on a bike or elliptical or something like that.
Speaker: You can find activities that you already really like that make you do things that are going to get you more fit. So for example, you could join a sports league if you really like sports pickleball or some kind of sport that you really enjoy. You can find activities that get you active that you already kind of like that are just going to help you with your fitness goals.
Speaker: It's such a great strategy for building better habits over time because there's certainly going to be times where you don't want to do things. Like, again, stretching for me is one of those things. But one of the things that I do that makes stretching a little bit easier is like I'll listen to music or I'll listen to podcasts or I'll just watch YouTube video or something while I'm stretching or doing those things. And it just makes building that habit a lot easier. It's something that I use quite often and I would highly, highly suggest it, especially if you're trying to build a habit that you don't necessarily like yet, but you want to build that into your lifestyle. Like you see the value, you want it to be something that you like. Use this strategy because it definitely does work.
Speaker: And the last one that I have for this fitness session is to have a backup plan. Every single week with myself and with clients, I try to have them think about what is my baseline? How many workouts do I need to get in this week for it to be a successful week? And this baseline should be something that you can do on your busiest week, on your most stressful week, pretty much anytime. For a lot of people, that's going to be somewhere between two to four workouts. So for a lot of clients, it'll be two workouts a week or three workouts a week. Me personally, I've got to the point where like I know that I can get four workouts in because I have a gym in my basement and I've just... spent a lot of years doing this but have some sort of baseline and then outside of that let's say you don't get your full plan in let's say you have a day out of the week that just goes nuts or a couple days where things pop up and you only got three workouts in have some sort of backup plan where you can hit that fourth workout so maybe it's a shorter version of your original workout so you're going to do an hour-long workout but now you're just going only be able to get 30 minutes in to hit that for workouts that's cool maybe it's going to be a home workout instead of getting to the gym that's also fine maybe it's just going for a run or doing a bodyweight workout that's also fine too but have some sort of way where you can always be hitting that target and plan for that because those things are going to happen sometimes like things aren't always going to be perfect there's going to be times where you can only get half the workout in or where you can't get to the gym or things like that so have some sort of backup plan within your week and
Speaker: Also, it'd be nice if you had some sort of day as well that you could also get into the gym. So like if you're planning on getting your workouts in Monday, Wednesday, Friday, have some sort of backup plan on the weekend.
Speaker: I know that if something comes up on Wednesday, that's a really busy day for me and I can't get it in. okay I'm going to save a little bit of time on Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon where I can get that third workout. Just have that planned ahead because when you have that, you're just going be much more likely to be consistent.
Speaker: Part two, this is the nutrition side of things. So I have 10 of these. Number one, fix your food environment. A lot of people make eating the right things harder than it needs to be.
Speaker: Lots of times people will talk about using willpower or like I can't stop myself from eating things. Like I don't know why it's so difficult for me to make healthy choices. So much of that can be solved by just setting up yourself in a good environment when it comes to food.
Speaker: You spend a lot of time at work and you spend a lot of time at home. So having good quality options around you is going to make that so much easier. One thing that I had to realize when I was losing a lot of weight, because I also used to struggle with this, like if there was sweets around, if there was cookies, if there was like pizza, if there was just different things like around, then I always wanted to have those things. But eventually I got to the point where I was like, that stuff isn't going anywhere. Like there's always going to be pizza. There's always going to be sweets. There's always going to be desserts. Like I'm a grown adult. I can go buy that stuff at the store anytime I want to. So just because it's in a setting doesn't necessarily mean that I need to eat those things. And the fact of the matter is those things are going to be around like at social events. Those are going to be around. Go to a tailgate, you go to a convenience store, you go to a grocery store, you go to somebody else's house. Like those options are always going to be around. That doesn't mean that you need to bring those things into your home or bring them into your work and have those things. By all means, if you want to have that stuff sometimes, then do it. But keeping that in your house, it just doesn't make a lot of sense because why would you need to, or why would you want to use extra willpower to try to not have those things because they're sitting in your house?
Speaker: So much of our food choices are just based on convenience and proximity. And so keeping that stuff out of your house is just going to reduce the amount of willpower that you have to use. And you'll find that you don't even really want those things a lot of times. Like again, if you have...
Speaker: the option to have those things and you really want them, then you can have them. But just keeping them out of your house solves so many of those issues. Number two on this list is meal prep, which is not going to be a surprise to anybody, but it's such a simple thing for people to do that makes all the difference. I know people say I don't want a meal prep because I don't want to have meals that are like three or four days old or different stuff like that. But meal prepping is such an easy thing to do that helps you hit your fitness goals. Like if you think about it like this, if you have the same thing for breakfast Monday through Friday. Let's say you have some sort of five minute easy recipe like I use quite often for breakfast. So it could be like oats. It could be some fruit with some protein in there, maybe a Greek yogurt bowl, something that takes five minutes. And I have that every single day, Monday through Friday. That right there is five meals taken care of.
Speaker: Now let's say I prep my lunches for the week. I have some chicken, I have some rice, i have some veggies, I throw some sauce on there. That's another five meals that are done. Just right there with two single decisions and a little bit of meal prep, I now have half of my meals taken care of for the week. 10 out of my 20 meals for the week are now taken care of. That's 50% of my meals taken care of with two single decisions. And now I'm going to be consistent. I'm going to eat meals that help me hit my goals. I'm going to be full. I'm going to be satiated. And I'm just taking out the guesswork. So now I don't have to try to figure things out on the fly when I'm tired, when I'm stressed, when I'm busy, because there are going to be a lot of times like that. And if you don't have anything prepared, a lot of times that's when people do end up eating more. They end up going to the options that probably aren't as good for their goals and just eating more, eating more of the things that just don't make you feel great or help you hit your goal. So having some of these options, having a little meal prep can go a really long way.
Speaker: Number three, if you're not going meal prep, at least meal plan. Very similar to meal prepping, but the whole idea here is that you're just planning ahead. So you can have some sort of plan to follow before life starts happening because it's going to happen. So if you track food, this could be as simple as putting your meals in the night before into your tracking tool that you use or your tracking app.
Speaker: Maybe you could write your meals down in a little notes app. Or at the very least, when you're laying in bed before you go to sleep, just think about it. Like what am going to have for breakfast tomorrow? What am I going to have for lunch? What am I going to have for dinner? Am I going have some snacks? Am I going to have dessert? Just have some sort of plan going into the day so you're not making those decisions on the fly when you're busy, when you're stressed, when something happens, when your routine goes out the window because you're just not going to be as consistent when you don't have some sort of plan going in.
Speaker: Number four, have some food rules. I know people hear rules or hear food rules and they think like, oh, that's restrictive. But for me, it's the exact opposite. Again, I want to take the guesswork out as much as possible. And it doesn't mean that I stick to these things 100% of the time.
Speaker: But I have certain rules or guidelines as I look at them because, again, they're not hard rules that I follow 100% the time. But for the most part, I have some simple things that I just do now that I don't even think twice about. Like if I'm eating a snack, it's going to be fruit or it's going to be protein. That's one of my food rules. If I'm eating any sort of meal, I'm going to have protein at that meal. If I'm eating a meal, I'm going to have fruit or a vegetable at most of those meals. I don't really drink liquid calories unless it's a special occasion, like I'm having some alcohol or trying something that maybe I don't get to try a lot.
Speaker: I also make sure that I enjoy my food, my favorite foods in moderation. Like that's a food rule for me as well. You just find certain food rules that you just no longer have to think about anymore. So like I know when I'm building a plate out, I know i need to have some protein, I need to have some fiber on it. Those are just food rules. I know that if there's some sort of drink that has tons of calories in it, I just don't drink those like that's something that I just don't do anymore. I know that if I'm hungry for a snack, I don't have to think about what snack should I have. I just know that it's going to be protein, or it's going be fruit. Really simple things like this can go a super long way.
Speaker: Number five, use five minute meals. I'm a big proponent of finding things that are quick and convenient. And there's lots of ways that you can make meals that take under five minutes. For example, for breakfast, you can have protein oats, you could have a Greek yogurt bowl, you could have a protein shake, all those things take under five minutes to make their high in protein, lower in calories, they give you some good quality nutrients, and you're on your way for lunch and dinner. There's things you can use to make five minute meals. so So microwavable rice you could have some canned tuna you could have some canned chicken you could have some eggs you could have some pre-made frozen meals that you can buy ahead of time that take under five minutes to make have things ready to go when you really don't want to cook or when things get busy or again when life starts happening because those things are guaranteed to happen so have some quick some easy some convenient meals ready to go and you will be more consistent with your nutrition guaranteed Number six, right along with that, buy more convenience food.
Speaker: I buy a lot of canned and frozen veggies. I buy some frozen fruit. i buy i buy fruit quite a bit, like fresh fruit that I can just grab for snacks. I buy things like oatmeal, like cottage cheese, like Greek yogurt, like canned chicken or canned tuna, microwavable rice, pre-made beef or steak bites. There's lots of things that you can buy that are super simple that take very little preparation time. And again, just Having things like that seems like a very simple thing to do, but I can promise you with working with so many people, if you can make healthy choices more convenient, you will be more consistent with your diet. It is just as simple as that. Find ways to make eating healthy convenient and you will be consistent. You will lose more fat. You will build more muscle. You will be better are off with your food choices. Number seven,
Speaker: Always cook in bulk. Anytime you're cooking, you should be making extra meals. So don't just make one meal, make extra meals, cook multiple meals every single time you cook so that you always have leftovers. Again, you're just cutting down on that cooking time and the time you have to spend. And it's never a bad idea to have some good high quality meals ready to go.
Speaker: Anytime that I'm cooking protein, I just make a crap ton of it at the same time. So if I'm making chicken or beef or ground turkey or something like that. I'm gonna make a ton of that at one time and then I just use that throughout the week. So like on Sunday, I might just make two or three pounds worth of chicken and then I can have that all week long or I make two or three pounds worth of ground beef and then I can just use that for different dishes all throughout the week.
Speaker: If you're making big batches of sides like rice or veggies or potatoes, you can just batch cook those. Again, save yourself some time. it's Just so much easier to stay consistent when you cook things in big batches or when you cook things in bulk. Super simple thing, but again,
Speaker: can go a long way in helping you just stay consistent with better choices. Number eight, use grocery pickup or delivery. This is gonna help you buy less stuff that you don't need. So we've all gone to the grocery store and we're hungry and end up buying a bunch of stuff that we don't necessarily need. this helps to save you from that. So you save some time, you're likely going to save some money. Plus, it's just easier to stay consistent. Each week, I will just go through the staples of things that I always buy every single week. So like fruit, like vegetables, like my protein sources, like just things that I buy every single week. And I'll look to see what I need. i go in on my app, I click all those things, add it to my order. And then I pick that up. I do this one, sometimes two times a week.
Speaker: And then you're good to go. It's makes things so simple. But again, it's just one of those things. Once you find a good system like this, you're going to be more consistent with your nutrition. We got two left.
Speaker: Have go to orders when you go out to eat or when you're on the road. Now, if you don't go out to eat very often, just enjoy yourself when you go out totally fine. But if you're on the road a lot, like if you travel a lot, if you're going out to eat a lot, have some go to options that are higher in protein, lower in calorie, that'll help you just stay on track with your goal. So a lot of times for me, like if I'm eating out a bunch for whatever reason, like I'm on the road or traveling, vacation, that sort of thing. Like I'll enjoy myself, but I'll also just have some things that I know are going to be a little bit better options that I know going to be higher in protein, a little bit lower in calories, make me feel decent. So like anything that's like,
Speaker: Higher in protein like chicken, like leaner beefs, heavy in veggies. Those are always good options, but have some go-to orders, especially if you're somebody who travels or you're on the road a lot.
Speaker: Again, can go a very long way. And number 10 is to create your own ongoing food menu. How many times have you said to yourself, I don't know what to eat tonight? Or like you go to your fridge and like, I'm hungry, but I don't really know what to eat. Have a running list of breakfasts, of lunches, of dinners, of snacks that you really enjoy that are easy to make that you can refer back to. So keep a running menu of these things so that you're not wondering, oh, what should I make for dinner tonight? What should I have for this? Because People eat most of the same things. So if you can just find a group of meals that you can eat consistently to rotate through, you're going to be in pretty good shape.
Speaker: When I was preparing for this podcast and just looking up some different things, I know I had run across this stat a while back about how little variation in foods people have. And I came across a study that looked at 20,000 people and they looked at their food logs.
Speaker: 50% of their food log was made up of just nine single foods. 21 foods made up 75% of the foods they were eating. So when you think about that, if you can get 10, 15, 20 good foods that you are rotating through and just mixing and matching to make different meals,
Speaker: you're going to be in a pretty good spot as long as those foods are pretty high quality. So for example, when I think about the foods that I eat the most often, it's like chicken, beef, ground turkey, protein powder, rice, oats, potatoes, eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, fruit, vegetables, and protein ice cream, of course. Like that's 13 foods and those are things that I eat the most common. Those are all really high quality foods.
Speaker: foods that keep me full, foods that keep me satiated, foods that help hit my goals, help me lose fat, build muscle, foods that I actually enjoy. So if you can start to build out not only just a good food list, but also just a menu of recipes or different meals and different combinations that you like together, it's just a really good resource to have to refer back to when you don't know what you should be eating. So keeping an ongoing menu or food slash grocery list can be super helpful. Again, seems very simple, but again, it helps.
Speaker: That brings us to a conclusion. Again, the point is not to avoid doing hard things because you're going to need to do hard things on your fitness journey when it comes to trying to lose weight or build muscle, all that different stuff. like Those things are going to already be hard. So it doesn't make sense to make this harder than it needs to be. So use some of these tips to help yourself out, to help you get more consistent, to eat a little bit better, work out a little bit more consistently, all those different things. you're always trying to think about how can I make this healthy choice the easy choice? When you start to just think through that frame, you'll start to notice a lot of little things that you can start to do to set yourself up. And so hopefully you were able to gather one or two of those throughout this episode, put that into use this next week, see if it can help you and then just continue to get better, make this process easier over time so that eventually you get to a point where just being fit, being healthy, looking good, feeling good. It's just a natural byproduct of the life that you've built in the discipline that you've instilled. So i Hope this was helpful. As always, I appreciate you listening. The one-on-one coaching link is in the show notes and we will see you next
