Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
#95 - Upgrade Your Space, Upgrade Your Health: 13 Tips You Can Start Using Today
31 Plays1 month ago
Whether you realize it or not, everything around you constantly influences your decisions. What kind of food you eat, how often you work out, whether you go for that second dessert.
If making those healthy decisions every day seems like such a struggle, this one is for you. Improving the environment around you can quickly make the healthy choice the easy choice.
You can stop relying on pure willpower and motivation to get the results you want. In this one, you'll get 13 simple and practical tips. Many of them you can start using today!
1-on-1 Coaching: Interest Form Here
Fit(ish) Project Newsletter: Sign Up
IG: Bassbuiltfitness
Facebook: bassbuiltfitness
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Purpose
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to The Fitish Project with your host Latham Bass. As always, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We have another weekly episode coming at you this week. Before we get into that, if you could leave a review if you have not done so, I really, really appreciate that. Continue to get this out to more people.
Impact of Environment on Habits
00:00:20
Speaker
But with today's topic, I wanted to talk a little bit about habits and more specifically, how your environment influences your habits. Because I had recently reread one of my all time favorite books, Atomic Habits. It's been one of my favorite books for quite a while now. And if you follow me on any social media, you probably see me post about 1% better. And that's originally where I got this was from this book, because this book has been a really big impact on me. And it's helped me to achieve a lot of the different things that I've been able to achieve through fitness, like, you know, running a marathon, losing the weight, all that stuff, but also just other life areas as well. And I think the reason that it gelled so well with me is because I've seen just with a lot of people, like changes hard, I think for all of us changes, something that's just not easy. And especially big changes like losing a hundred pounds, running a marathon, like getting in shape, doing these big things is difficult and it can be very daunting and
00:01:17
Speaker
That is why I think a lot of people really struggle with change because it's so drastic, it's so extreme. But this approach through Atomic Habits is really based on doing small little things every single day that compound over time, you know, getting that 1% better and that allows you to get to a place where you can achieve these goals and really get those things that you really want to get within
Systems Over Willpower for Health
00:01:38
Speaker
life. and so I reread this book because a client of mine had also read it. And so I just got to thinking and I was like, I've been wanting to reread it for a while just to see if I had any new insights since I read it, you know, years ago. And so I read it recently. And one of the things that they talk about a lot within that book, obviously, it's all about habits. And so there's three different ways that you can really change your behavior. And it talks about habits, it talks about changing your identity, and then it talks about changing your environment.
00:02:05
Speaker
And I think this applies to fitness so well because when you look at fit people or people who are like pretty healthy, a lot of people will just assume that like they're extremely disciplined or they have like this crazy willpower or like they're always motivated to work out and to eat well and things like that. and I don't think most people start out that way. I know that I did not start out that way. like I struggled with this stuff a lot and it was a big learning curve for me. But like one thing that I've noticed with a lot of people who are like pretty fit and been able to like get in shape and really just sustain their results, they don't focus on like discipline or motivation or willpower or those things. They use, like they have rules for themselves. They have systems that they've developed over time. They set up their environment in a way and really like develop these habits
00:02:52
Speaker
to make all these things just kind of automatic. And obviously that takes some time, but I think when you realize that it's something that like you can actually build and make easier, I think it's much more motivating because like you realize, okay, these people aren't like, you know, they're not superhuman. They're not like special. They're not like way better than me. They just have spent time really thinking about these things and setting up these things in a way where like making the healthy choice has just become the easy choice. It's like the automatic choice.
00:03:21
Speaker
and There's a lot of ways that you can go about doing this. And one of them, as I mentioned, is changing your environment. And so I thought that this would be a really good place to talk about some of those things that you can start doing literally today to change your environment. Because the fact of the matter is like our environment isn't really doing us any favors when it comes to making health a priority for us. I mean, as humans, we really, really like convenience.
00:03:46
Speaker
and things are only getting more and more convenient which is nice like we like that you know but at the same time it's also making being healthy harder and what I mean by that is like every single corner that you go on like has fast food we have tons of just different highly processed products that are super tasty and easy to overeat in all of our grocery stores and our convenience stores We have Uber Eats where you can literally from a click of your phone get some food delivered from your favorite restaurant in like 10 minutes. We have Netflix, you know, and like all these things are nice. Like I use all these things. I'm not like trying to demonize these things. I think they're great, but I think it's important to realize that like moving more and eating less, which is your typical advice when it comes to just like being healthy is becoming harder and harder. Like our environment is being set up so that we eat more and we move way less. It's just, you know, we're more sedentary.
00:04:38
Speaker
obesity and things like that, disease and health issues are higher than they've ever been. And so obviously you can start to see how these things are playing out in our world. And so if you're not really taking some intentionality and setting up your environment in a way where like being healthy is something that you actually think about and something that you prioritize, it's going to make being healthy that much more difficult.
12 Tips for Health Improvement
00:05:00
Speaker
And with that being said, I'm going to give you 12 different things that you can start doing Most of these you can literally start doing today to start impacting your health. And one of the cool things about this is like some of these are certain things that like you make a certain purchase or you know you implement one of these things and it's something that will continue to pay off for weeks, months, sometimes years down the road. You just have to do a little work upfront, a little bit of planning, a little bit of prioritization and you do these certain things and then you're kind of set up for the long-term, which is really, really nice. And that's one thing that I think is cool about just
00:05:33
Speaker
taking some time to really think about your environment around you because it does have this compound effect down the line day after day, week after week, month after month. And I think it's something that a lot of people don't ever really think about. But if you Again, spend a little bit of time and and implement some of these things that can make being healthy, being fit, achieving all those goals that you have for yourself and just being able to feel better, look better, all those things. It makes getting to that place easier, which again, we all like things that are a little bit easier to accomplish and why make it harder on yourself if you don't have to. So I'm going to give you 12 of these things in this episode today. So hopefully by the end, you can start implementing at least a couple of these literally starting today. So number one that I have for you is
00:06:16
Speaker
Get around more fit and healthy people and it doesn't even necessarily have to be like, you know You don't have to get around like a bunch of bodybuilders or people that are like Insane about fitness or like super passionate or weird or anything like that But get around people who just make it a priority to be more fit and I think this is something that you can probably easily understand why this is important and because you become like the people you spend time with and We've all heard that saying of like you become like the five people you spend the most time around. And there's definitely some truth to that because as humans, we want to fit fit in. We want to feel like we're part of a group. We want to feel like we're part of a community. We like relationships. And so that means that as we're around these people, we try to take on similar behaviors as these people because we want to fit into that group. We won't we don't want to be like an outcast because evolutionarily, like thousands and thousands of years ago, you needed to be part of a group in a community in order to survive.
00:07:09
Speaker
And if you were an outcast, like you're doing all these weird stuff and people are like, who is this guy? like Why is he part of our group? like We don't like this dude. You're outcast and now you're on your own and the likelihood of you surviving on your own thousands of years ago, not very high. And so we still have that innate feeling, that innate ability within us to want to be part of a group. And so we typically will take on certain behaviors.
00:07:30
Speaker
around the people that we spend time around and you'll probably notice this too like if you've ever been on a sports team or you've spent time around people and like you start to kind of talk how those people talk or if you spend a lot of time around people who do certain things you'll start to do certain things or mannerisms or things like that and so you can see pretty easily how these things start to affect you and this can be a positive thing or this can be somewhat of a negative thing you know we all had her our parents probably told you, you know, when you were younger, like they were always just on you about the people that you hang around. Like they were always like, you know, if you kind of hanging around like somebody that was shady or somebody that was like, you know, a little weird or maybe not good for you. Like they were always giving you warnings about that stuff. And I think there's good reason for that because we do, we were heavily influenced by the people that we spend time around. I mean, there's some research that ah I've gone through that has kind of like really opened my eyes how crazy this goes and how deep this stuff can get. And
00:08:22
Speaker
You're probably not surprised, but like if one parent is overweight, the likelihood that the child is going to be overweight is much higher. And if both are overweight, then it's almost a guarantee that that child is going to be overweight as well. If you're a close family or friends are overweight, like you're more likely to be overweight. If your friends get divorced, you're more likely to get divorced statistically, which is kind of wild. Like that's something that I would have never really thought about even like things like your finances. So like you're spending habits will kind of be in alignment with the people that you spend the most time with, even like your income, like your typical income, if you average out the people that you spend the most time around is typically around the same. So you can see like how all this stuff starts to make sense. And like, if you're hanging around more fit people, more people who prioritize their health, you're going to start to take on some of those habits. So like, if you're hanging around people who
00:09:15
Speaker
They never work out. They eat out five, six times a week. They drink all the time. Like this health is not really on their radar. It's not a priority. You're much more likely to do those behaviors. And the opposite is also true. Like if you hang around people who go to the gym and who prioritize eating good foods and they prioritize like getting out and doing different activities and they prioritize like just healthier type behaviors, you are also going to take on those behaviors. And so.
00:09:41
Speaker
getting in a group or getting around some people hanging around with your friends that prioritize these things is going to make it much easier to make that transition and just to be healthier in general. And this is something that I've seen that is pretty prevalent with like clients that I've worked with. So like, for example, if somebody has like a partner, wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, something like that, or even like a roommate within their house, and that person is on board, like they're on board with just the healthy behaviors like Maybe they're also dieting, trying to lose weight or trying to get fit or trying to work out. like They see better results. But when you have the opposite, you have a partner who's not really on board, it just becomes much, much more difficult. And so spending a little time around some of those people can definitely be a positive thing for your health.
Improving Sleep Environment
00:10:27
Speaker
Number two, this is a much more simple one. And this is something you make it. It's a one-time purchase and it's going to improve your health. So getting some blackout curtains. If you already have blackout curtains, awesome. Like you're doing great, but getting some blackout curtains can help improve your sleep almost instantly. Because one of the things about sleep is that we know we want a cold, dark, and a quiet room. And when we say dark, like you want like really, really, really dark, like as dark as you can get is going to be better. Any kind of light within your room,
00:10:56
Speaker
Whether it's coming from a phone, whether it's coming from a light, whether it's coming from outdoors can affect the quality of your sleep and how deeply you sleep. And there's, they've even done studies on this. It doesn't even necessarily have to be like on your eyes. Like even light on your skin can affect your sleep throughout the night. They had this study where they put like this small little light on the back of somebody's knee and the rest of the room was completely dark. and that little tiny light on the back of somebody's knee was enough to disrupt their sleep. They could see in their sleeping patterns like they were being disrupted versus being completely blackout. And so buy some blackout curtains, hang them up, they're super cheap, and it will help to improve your sleep. Number three, leave your phone or other screens outside of your bedroom. So this is right on par with the last one and just improving your sleep. This is something that I've
00:11:44
Speaker
played around with at different times and it's something that I got back into at the start of this year because I just wanted to improve my sleep a little bit. My sleep was kind of taking a hit. I just was like, I'd go in my bed and I'd spend some time just scrolling as we all do. Like we get on there, we have good intentions. I'll just, you know, check social media real quick, five minutes, 10 minutes.
00:12:01
Speaker
30 minutes an hour goes by and you're like crap I just like screwed up my sleep for the next day because like obviously you're on your phone so like you're not getting to sleep right away you're spending time on this phone and now like you're also taking in that light through your eyes which also has an effect on how deeply you're gonna sleep and how quickly you fall asleep and so it's just not a it's not a good deal and if you have like you know your phone in your bed or even if you have like a tv in your bedroom and like you're spending a bunch of time watching TV or spending time on your phone in your bed, your brain starts to make associations with these things. And then you might notice like, you go up to your bed and maybe you don't even watch TV or you don't get on your phone, but it takes you forever to fall asleep. And that's because your brain starts to make these associations with locations within like your house. And if you're always like on your phone or always watching stuff, then it expects that that's gonna be the case. But if you do the reverse, whereas like the only time that you're really in your bed is like,
00:12:56
Speaker
and you get up there and you're ready to go to sleep, it makes that association and you fall asleep a little bit easier. Your sleep efficiency is a little better. Your quality of your sleep is better. So that's a really simple one. Just leave your phone outside of your room. I plug it in downstairs before I go up to my bed and then I don't check it until a couple hours after I wake up the next morning. And it just helps a lot. It's just one of those things. You just improve your environment. Don't have the temptation right there to just reach over. and check your phone on your nightstand or anything like that. Just completely get rid of it, plug it in and just be done with it. Super simple but it can make a big difference.
Healthy Eating Habits
00:13:30
Speaker
Number four, keep high quality foods available and visible in your house.
00:13:36
Speaker
So one of the common themes within the book Atomic Habits is to make habits obvious and make them easy. And one of the things that you can do when it comes to that, when it comes to like just improving your diet is to make high quality, healthy type foods, whole foods, just available and in your house. Like having a fruit bowl on your counter, you're going to be more likely to eat more fruit.
00:13:56
Speaker
having meal prep in your fridge that's already ready to go, you're gonna be more likely to eat higher quality meals, having protein or some veggies already prepared in your fridge, having high quality snacks at your work or in your cupboard, like, or even like taking them on the go, you're just going to be more likely to do those things because it's easy. It's convenient. It's right there. It's ready to go. It's like staying consistent and staying on track with those things becomes much easier when there isn't so much friction involved with those things versus like if every single night I have to cook up a healthy meal or every single
00:14:28
Speaker
meal, like I have to spend time cooking and preparing a healthy meal, I'm going to be less likely to do that when I could just order Uber Eats or go get some fast food or you know make this choice that's not quite as good as the one that I would make if I had the things around me that I want to have. And to give you a little example of this, like just having these things more readily available and making the habits that you want to do a little bit more visible. So like mobility is something that I've been trying to work on more and more over the years as I get older, getting a little stiff in my old age of 31. And so like mobility, flexibility, those sorts of things are things that I have been trying to get better at. and so like
00:15:06
Speaker
For me to get better at mobility, one thing that I do is I leave like a roller, I leave a band, I have like a lacrosse ball in my living room where I see it multiple times per day. And I can just plop down on the floor and just do some quick stuff, roll out a little bit, use the band, like do some little mobility work. A couple minutes here, a couple minutes there. But since it's there, it's like, it's something that's always like top of mind. I have that cue, like I see it and I'm like, okay, yeah, I should probably do some mobility. Even though I don't really like doing it, even though I don't really want to do it, it's right there. It's easy, it's convenient.
00:15:35
Speaker
So make it obvious, make it easy. And doing that with food becomes way easier when you can do some of these things. ah Number five. So number five is just the opposite of that. So keeping lower quality foods out of your house or at the very least just out of sight. And so if you keep certain things out of your house, it just creates this barrier where like if you want to have those things and you have to like physically get in your car, drive to the store, go get those things.
00:16:01
Speaker
And for a lot of people, that's enough to stop them. And this isn't to say that like, you can never have certain foods, but like, again, just creating some sort of barrier to like, put a little bit of distance in between you and that decision, it makes you think a little bit and makes you actually think like, okay, do I actually want this thing? And if you do, then by all means, go to the store, grab it, you know, get some whatever you have, like maybe you want some chips or whatever, like,
00:16:24
Speaker
you want some you know some sort of dessert like go get it like have it enjoy it but having that in the house like it's super easy to overeat those things when they are in the house and that's something that i've done throughout this process of just like figuring out like how to make health a little bit easier is like i don't buy a ton of stuff that like i know is going to be very easy to overeat and One of my buddies was making fun of me because we had went out one night and we came back and like I wanted a snack and I was eating cottage cheese with crackers. He was like, dude, what is wrong with you? like where's like your Where's your food, like your tasty stuff, your you know your chips, your cookies, your desserts, all that stuff. and I was like, I don't really have that stuff. like I just don't keep that stuff in my house. and Again, that's not to say that I don't eat that. because like
00:17:07
Speaker
If I go out to like a restaurant or like let's say i go you know I go get some tacos or some Mexican and they have chips and salsa there, like I'm going to smash some of that chips and salsa and I'm going to enjoy it. I don't like deprive myself of those things. I just don't keep them in my house because I know, as I said, like our environment is just set up and those things are always going to be available. I can always have those things. There's going to be social events. There's going to be times where I go out to eat where like those things are available. And if I want them,
00:17:31
Speaker
in those instances then I have those things. I just don't keep them in my house because I don't want to be eating that stuff every single day and I don't have to like test my willpower or my discipline or things like that by having a bunch of that stuff in the house. If you are gonna have some of that stuff in the house so like I don't completely like never buy anything that's like you would consider to be very easy to overeat like I'll have some snacks I'll keep like so you know some little candies I'll keep like some cookies or you know things like that in my house like from time to time.
00:17:58
Speaker
But I don't like just throw them on the counter. I keep them in the cupboard and they're not something that I'm seeing all the time and so I don't feel inclined to like grab them. I'm sure like if you've ever went home, you know spent some time maybe with your parents, grandparents, something like that and like they just make like baked goods and they're just on the counter and they're just there, like you're just more likely to grab that stuff. Every time you see it, you're just thinking to yourself, like whether you realize it or not, like subconsciously you're like, man, it'd be kind of tasty to like have one of those things.
00:18:24
Speaker
And there's studies on this, too. like They did a study where they had like a candy bowl at somebody's job. like They had it in a place where like people were at. And so they put the candy bowl right on their desk. They put it like five, seven feet away from them. And then they had it where it was like way far away. And as you could imagine, if it's right on your desk, you're more likely to eat it. If it's a little bit further away, you're less likely to eat it. And then if it's like way far away, you're just you're not even thinking about it. It's something that's not even top of mind.
00:18:52
Speaker
And so if you are going to have some of that stuff in your house, just like put in your cupboards. like You don't need to think about it every single time you walk past your counter or like walk through the kitchen. You don't want to have to be like, I don't really want to have that brownie, but like it looks super good. So like I'm just going to have a little bite here. And then like you're doing that 5, 10, 15 times a day. it's like You can see how those things start to weigh on you and how those things start to add up. so keep lower quality foods out of the house or at the very least just out of sight. Number
Consistency in Fitness Routine
00:19:20
Speaker
six is to join a gym you like and join a gym that is closer to your house. Again, this is just going to make it easier to be more consistent because if you like something, you're more likely to do it.
00:19:30
Speaker
Another one of the themes in the book is to make a certain habit attractive. If you like the gym that you go to, if you enjoy the people there, if you like it's clean and like you feel safe there and like the people there are nice people and it's enjoyable, like you're just more likely to go to that gym versus like if it's a gym that you hate, you don't like it.
00:19:49
Speaker
Like it's far away, like you're just less likely to go. And so joining a gym that you really like can be a super easy thing to do. And like, again, it's one thing like you spend some time, maybe you have to try a couple of different gyms, move around a little bit. But like once you find a good one, it can make a big difference because you're just more likely to show up. And if you show up, you're going to work out, you're going to be consistent, you're going to get all those benefits that you want to get from exercise.
00:20:12
Speaker
ah Another little thing that you can do too is just have some sort of workout equipment at home, whether it's like a pair of dumbbells, whether it's a kettlebell or even just like having some good body weight like workouts available if you can make it to the gym, just like having a little routine at home. That way, you know, if for whatever reason you don't make it to the gym, you have something that you can do at home to just stay in alignment with those goals that you have, keep that momentum going. Number seven, along with the exercise thing, along with the training thing is to get a workout partner or to get a trainer. This one's pretty obvious, but just having somebody to hold you accountable can make a big difference in how often we show up. For whatever reason, we don't really have an issue of letting ourselves down, which is kind of sad. I mean, obviously, I think the ultimate goal is to get to a point where like you don't even want to let yourself down. You show up just because it's the thing that you want to do. You know you really have a lot of that intrinsic motivation. You show up because you know it's the right thing to do. You feel better. You want to be healthy, all those certain things. but
00:21:10
Speaker
We also know that like peer pressure is real. like you know Our parents used to warn us about that as well. like Don't fall into peer pressure, but like social pressure, peer pressure, it's a real thing. And when you know there's somebody that's counting on you, like When you know your your gym partner is waiting at the gym for you to show up at 7 a.m. tomorrow, like you better be there. You know you're paying money to a trainer, like you better show up and be accountable. And so having somebody in place to just kind of hold you to that standard that you have set for yourself and help you achieve these things that you want to achieve can be super helpful.
00:21:40
Speaker
Number eight, this is again another one of those where it's just like a one-time deal and you do it and it can have a pretty big effect on just your diet in general. So I read this book. It was actually a recommendation from a client of mine. It was called Mindless Eating and it was kind of crazy. A lot of these studies that I talked about were in this book, but it was essentially all about how we eat way more than we realize.
00:22:03
Speaker
in just in so many different ways. There's just so many different things that influence how much we eat and we, most of it, we don't really realize. And one of the things that they talked about within that was like, if you use bigger dishes, like if you use a bigger plate, a bigger bowl, if you use larger silverware, you're more likely to eat more calories without even realizing it. And so like, for example, let's say you go to the movie theater and you buy a large popcorn and you buy a large drink, whether or not you finish that,
00:22:32
Speaker
you're going to end up eating more than if you were to buy like a medium or buy like a medium popcorn and a medium drink. Whether or not you finished either one of those, if you weighed those out, measured those out, you're going to end up eating more from that large bucket than you would from the medium bucket. And so simple thing that you can do with your dishes if you have these huge massive dinner plates is like just get a little bit smaller plates because you're going to dish out less food, your portion sizes are going to be a little bit smaller and you're going to end up eating less calories. And so that's a simple one that you can do. Use smaller bowls, plates, silverware, cups, things like that so that you're just not taking in as many calories as you realize. Number nine is to schedule your workouts and plan your meals ahead of time. We've all had those instances where we say we should do something like we should get in shape or we should start eating better or we should lose weight. But like until you actually put some of these things into action, it's really just a thought. It's just talk like
00:23:28
Speaker
How many times do people say these certain things, but then they don't really ever do anything about it? It's very, very often. like The amount of times that people tell me since they know I'm a fitness trainer and they know I like help people with weight loss and things like that, about talk to me about like eating and you know starting to get in shape and and working out and things, which is great. like I'm always down to have a conversation about fitness, about diet, about that kind of stuff. but like A lot of people will say they want to do these certain things, but the amount of people that actually do it is much smaller than them then the amount of people that talk to me about these things.
00:23:57
Speaker
and so You have to like do these things, you have to set these things in order, you have to do some certain action, some small action to kind of get this ball rolling to make it real. And one way that you can do this is to schedule workouts, schedule your meal plan out. Because if you do these things, again, there's more research that is behind this as well. But like you actually schedule those things out and you like put them in your calendar or you have a plan of like,
00:24:19
Speaker
when you're going to work out and where at and what day and what time and all these things, like you're much more likely to do these things. And you can do this with your workouts. You can also do this with your meals. So maybe you spend a little bit time on like a Sunday to plan out your meals or even better if you're going to meal prep those things.
00:24:35
Speaker
or like the night before, you just kind of take a minute or two to think about, okay, I'm gonna have this for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Like doing those things, it seems very simple, but it can go a very long way. And this is something that I've seen play out with clients of mine as well. Like the people who spend some time actually preparing or at the very least just planning some of their meals do much better than the people who just try to wing it. Because if you're trying to wing it, you're just gonna revert back to your default behavior. Like in for most of us,
00:25:02
Speaker
our default behavior is not the best behavior because we haven't spent time building these new habits. We haven't spent time like building this new identity around health and things like that. And so like, if you're just trying to wing these things, just trying to do them on the fly, like when you're busy, when you're stressed, when things are kind of crazy, or when you're like overwhelmed, like the likelihood of you making really solid choices in the moment are just not as high. And so taking a few minutes to just prepare or plan out like your meals or workouts can make a huge difference. And just getting in that routine habit of doing those things,
00:25:32
Speaker
is something that I would highly recommend. like It's one of the things that I talk about with clients all the time. it's like It seems so simple, but it's like, oh, if you have a plan, you're more likely to succeed. like It's obvious. like We all know that to be true, but most people don't do it. like They don't spend that time to just think about, okay, what am I going to have to eat this week? like How am I going to make sure that I'm staying within my calorie goal, getting enough protein? Like when am I going to get my workouts in this week? How can I make sure that I'm getting enough steps? And it's like, it takes literally just a couple of minutes, but it can make a huge, massive difference in your success and the progress that you see when it comes to your health and your fitness goals. Number 10, got a couple more of these left. Pack your gym bag or set your workout clothes out the night before. So basically you're just using this as a trigger to get you going. And so one of the things that.
00:26:21
Speaker
habits use are triggers or in this book in atomic habits they call them cues but basically it's something that it's just like a reminder it just reminds you to do this certain habit and so when you pack your gym bag or you set your clothes out the night before you wake up you see those things it's like okay I know I got to get to the gym like these are just little things that you can do to just help get your brain rolling to remind you that you need to do this certain habit like some people will say like when they're running they'll put their shoes by the door You lay your clothes out, you pack your gym bag, like all these little things are just little triggers to remind you to do that certain thing. And on top of that, it just creates a little bit less friction. The less friction that you can create in a certain habit, the easier that you can make it, the more likely you are to do those things. Because if I have to wake up at 5am, I have to find what clothes I want to wear, I have to go get my protein shaker ready, I have to go
00:27:09
Speaker
make something a little pre-workout snack. I have to get dressed. I have to brush my teeth and do all these different things. If I have a million things to do in the morning before I have to get up and go to the gym, it's just adding more and more friction. And the likelihood of you doing those things just becomes lower and lower the more friction that you add. And so you want to think about like, how can I make this as easy as possible to do? So when I wake up in the morning, I can just get up and I'm just ready to go. Well, doing simple things like these and planning a little bit ahead of time can go a really long way. I know again, it seems very simple.
00:27:39
Speaker
but like these little things, like they can make a pretty big difference. How many times have you like been on the couch watching something or maybe you're watching like a Netflix show and like the show ends and your remote is across the room and rather than going to get that remote, you just say, screw it. You just let whatever's on the TV just run. Cause you don't want to get up, walk 10 feet, grab the remote and change the TV channel. It's like, we're, we're just lazy people sometimes. That's just how we are. And so just understanding that, just understanding kind of how we're wired sometimes like in just using that knowledge to your advantage and setting yourself up can go a long ways. Number 11, follow a structured program that you enjoy. Just have a plan. The amount of people that go into the gym that don't follow a structured workout plan still blows my mind every day. You're going into the gym where there's dozens of different machines, you could do hundreds of different exercises like and you don't have any sort of plan. It's like
00:28:35
Speaker
All exercise, all activity is great in my opinion. Like any of that stuff is awesome. And if you just want like generally just some general health benefits that you want to get your body moving a little bit. You want to get your blood pumping a little bit like you're going to get some benefit from that. Absolutely. But if you really want to like strive for some certain goals. Like if you have body composition goals, you want to change how you look, you want to build some muscle, you want to build strength, you want to build endurance, you want to like really make some like pretty drastic changes or like really see some good progress, you have to be following the plan. If you're not, you're definitely leaving some
00:29:08
Speaker
progress on the table and you're not getting as good of results as you could be getting. So following a structured plan makes all the difference. The amount of people that like clients that I'll have, like I'll set them up on my app and they have their own personalized workout with videos and it tells them exactly what to do, it shows them exactly what to do.
00:29:25
Speaker
They just go in and they get a really good workout. And they're like, man, it was really nice having that all laid out for me. I feel like I got a really good workout. And I'm like, yeah, of course you did. Like it's way better than going in there trying to like think through like what you should be doing. And should I do this machine or this machine? How many reps should I do? Like how many sets should I do? It's like fitness is something that I really enjoy and like I actually enjoy working out. But like, even if I go into a gym and I don't have a plan, I just know that my workout is not going to be as good as if I'm following a structured plan.
00:29:54
Speaker
So if you don't have a plan, get on a plan and make sure it's even better like if you can follow a plan that you genuinely enjoy. like There's a million different ways that you can exercise and things like that. So try to find one that you actually enjoy. And I think sometimes like the fitness industry gets a bad rep and they they do a disservice to a lot of people because they just pigeonhole people into the way that they should be working out or they have to work out.
00:30:17
Speaker
And it's like, there's absolutely certain ways of working out that are going to be more beneficial to certain goals than other goals. But like, there's a lot of different ways to exercise and a lot of things that have benefits. And so if you find a form of exercise that like you really like, then do that. Like some people will sometimes like hate on like group fitness classes or things like that. I think like those things can be a really great place for people to start. And if they get people to be in the gym consistently, then by all means, like do those things like Again, is there certain things that maybe those classes can provide as far as like those people achieving certain goals? Like that could be true. But like if their overall goal is just to get in the gym, just to move a little bit, just to get their heart rate up, just to like get some exercise in, then that's awesome. Like those classes are going to be super beneficial. They're going to get a lot of benefits out of those things. it's
00:31:04
Speaker
go to help them because they show up. It's already planned for them and structured for them. They have kind of that social pressure because maybe some people in the class are expecting to show up. They know some people like they enjoy it so it has all these really good things about it and so don't be like so like I have to do this certain one way of exercising or I have to follow this exact plan or do this thing that my favorite fitness influencer was doing like If anybody tells you there's only one way to do things, then that person is probably not being honest with you. There's a lot of different ways that you can do things. And so finding a structured plan and finding a plan that you like can be super
Hydration and Activity Tracking
00:31:37
Speaker
helpful. Two more, number 12, simple one, carry a water bottle around. I mean, I don't need to say a ton about this one, but like, if you carry a water bottle around versus when you don't, you're just going to drink more water. And we know that water is beneficial for a lot of reasons. You're going to have better energy, better focus. Your brain is going to function quicker and better.
00:31:55
Speaker
Your workouts are going to be better because any type of dehydration is going to affect you physically. It's going to affect you mentally. And it really doesn't take all that much. And we're primarily made up of water. And so it's probably a good idea to be drinking quite a bit of water throughout the day. And if you don't have a water bottle around you, the likelihood of you drinking enough water is just very, very slim. And so carry a water bottle around with you, get a water bottle that you like and spend a little money on one, make that investment. Like, cause you're just going to drink more water. It's just as simple as that.
00:32:24
Speaker
And the very last one that I have for you is to consider getting an activity tracker. You don't have to get one of these, but like one thing that I know is that when people track things, they get better at them. And so these activity trackers now, they have so much data on them. Like, you know, your Apple watches, I wear a whoop band, there's Fitbits out there or rings, garments are pretty popular. Like these things can track a lot of different data. And one thing with tracking is that when you start to pay attention to these things,
00:32:54
Speaker
Almost instantly, without even like adding in a ton of effort, these behaviors that you are tracking will start to improve. so like If you track your steps, you're going to be more likely to start to increase your activity. If you track your food, you're going to start to probably make better choices. If you track your workouts, you're going to start to see better progress. and This isn't just like a like a hearsay thing. There are studies that show this stuff. like People who track their food, track their body weight, who self monitor, they do better with weight loss. like They have more success.
00:33:23
Speaker
so tracking things is a really easy way to not only just give you some information, but it can help to just keep you motivated and just keep those things top of mind. And so getting an activity tracker can be something that's, you know, it's one of those one time purchases, you get it. And then as you start to have those things, it's just something that you start to focus on. I know since I've been wearing my whoop, I've had this thing for I think over five years now. But like with sleep, especially it's helped with that a ton because I realized like I was not getting sufficient enough sleep. And It's changed my habits for the better when it comes to sleep. Um, when it came to like alcohol and just understanding like what that was doing to my body, like I have a much better just view of what alcohol does to me and like how I can better manage it and still like use it if I want to, but like I have more understanding about that. Like with tracking steps, like if I wasn't looking at how many steps I was getting daily, then I, it wouldn't be something that I focus on as much, but that's actually like a cornerstone of like one of my foundational like habits that I focus on every single day.
00:34:21
Speaker
is how many steps I'm getting. But if I didn't have something to track that, well then it wouldn't be something that I paid attention to. And so finding, you know, these ways, these activity trackers can be really nice to focus on some of those behaviors that are going to help you move you towards your goals. With that being said,
00:34:36
Speaker
Uh, that is 13 of them. I think at the beginning, I might've said there was 12 of them, but there was actually 13 of them. So like I said, these are things that you can start to implement, like take one or two of these and start to try them and see if they make a difference for you. But like, put some of this work in at the front where you can just start to.
00:34:52
Speaker
make maybe some of these purchases or start doing some of these things. And you're going to start to notice some of these benefits. Again, these things start to compound over time. And so really just taking a little bit of time to just think about like, how can I improve my environment so I don't have to always rely on willpower and motivation or discipline and just make the healthy choice the easy choice. That's all we're trying to do here. We're trying to reduce as much friction as possible, make the healthy choice the easy choice, and so that we can feel good, look good, achieve all those fitness goals that we have, and just be an overall healthier person. And so hopefully this was helpful. As I said, you know, give a couple of these things a
Coaching and Personal Support
00:35:27
Speaker
try. And with that being said, just a few more things. So one on one coaching, if you're interested with that, ah you know, you're looking to lose some weight, you want a fitness routine, you know, maybe you are looking for a coach to kind of hold you accountable and help you through this stuff, then
00:35:41
Speaker
You can click that link and check that out. But other than that, I appreciate you listening. I think we're getting pretty close to closing in on a hundred episodes, which is pretty cool. So we'll keep this thing rolling and we will see you next week.