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#103 - Foods To Avoid For Fat Loss, Developing Real Discipline & More
27 Plays19 days ago
Q & A episode where we discuss these 5 topics
- 2 keys to developing better discipline
- If you should avoid certain foods for weight loss
- Travel tips to stay locked in during a weight loss phase
- Progressing the right way to build more muscle
- Avoiding the "fall off" trap
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Transcript
Welcome and Podcast Growth
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, Lathan Bass. We make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We got another weekly episode coming at you this week.
00:00:16
Speaker
If you have not left a review, if you could go ahead and do that, I would really appreciate that. Continue to get this out to more people. We are... Over 100 episodes now, which is awesome. Just continuing to try to get a episode out every week, continue to get this information out to the people who need it and continue to grow this show.
00:00:33
Speaker
And so if you could go ahead and leave a review, I really, really appreciate
Q&A Introduction and Weight Loss Tips
00:00:36
Speaker
that. But today's topic, it is time for another Q&A episode. Try to do these about once a month from questions that I get from Clients questions that I get from social media questions that I get from you guys who are listening anytime that I come across questions that I get multiple times and I think would be helpful to dig into a little bit more deeper and get into a little bit more detail in I like to bring those to the podcast and just expand on those a little bit so I got five questions for you today.
00:01:04
Speaker
One of the questions is about what foods to avoid if you are trying to lose weight, how to find balance between staying disciplined and being overly hard on yourself, how and when to progress when it comes to strength training,
00:01:17
Speaker
When you're trying to lose weight, how do you handle traveling? And then lastly, how to bounce back after a couple of rough days. And so five questions, let's get right into it.
Mindful Eating and Diet Balance
00:01:27
Speaker
What foods did you avoid to lose 100 pounds?
00:01:29
Speaker
This was a question that I had got from somebody after I had posted a reel on, i think it was Facebook, and showing just my progress and talking about like how I use flexible dieting.
00:01:41
Speaker
And I don't think about food the way that I used to think about it when I first got into weight loss. And so I think this is something that quite a few people struggle with. They think that they have to avoid certain type of foods or that certain type of foods are bad or if they eat certain foods, they feel guilty around it.
00:01:55
Speaker
And I noticed for me that when it came to making this long term and sustainable, I had to get rid of that mindset. And so the way that I think about food now is just completely different because I tried the strict diets.
00:02:07
Speaker
And I lost weight, but I just knew that it wasn't going to be sustainable because it always still felt like a struggle when I would have extra food or have these foods that people would say were bad, like I would feel that guilt and then I would struggle to find that balance, find that moderation around these things. And so The other part of this is like when you start to focus on the things that you can't have, those are typically the things that you think about the most. It's like if you tell a little kid like not to do something, what do they want to do?
00:02:34
Speaker
They want to do that thing. Or if I tell you not to think about a pink elephant, where does your mind go right there? Like you're thinking about that pink elephant. It's in your head. And so when you are always focused on all these things that you can't have, I just think that's the wrong way to go about this. And so For me, I like to focus on the things that I actually enjoy and the things that I want to put into my body.
00:02:54
Speaker
Now, there's no foods that are off the table. Like I'm an adult. I'm going to eat whatever I want. And I can eat ice cream if I want. I can go out to eat if I want. I can have some processed food if I want. I can have these foods that people say are terrible for you if I want to eat those things because I'm an adult.
00:03:09
Speaker
but also because I'm an adult and because I want to feel good, because I want to look the way I want to look, because I want to fuel my workouts, because I want to be healthy and hopefully live a really long life, and because I want to enjoy a diet that I eat on a daily basis, I choose to eat things that are in accordance with those goals. And so for me, that is focusing on lots of whole foods, lots of quality, high nutritious type foods at least 80% of the time.
00:03:36
Speaker
your lean proteins, your fruits, your vegetables, your healthy fats, your complex carbs, just basically real food. And then 20% of the time, if I want to throw in some other stuff, like I'll have that stuff. I'll have a drink here or there.
00:03:47
Speaker
I'll have some ice cream. I mean, I have ice cream all the time, but like I'll have some extra desserts. I'll have some things like I'll, I'll do things like I'll go on vacation. I'll have more food than I typically would have. I'll indulge. I'll,
00:03:59
Speaker
on holidays, I'll eat way more food than I should eat. I'll go out with friends and go to a buffet and smash a bunch of pizza or go to a Chinese buffet and eat two or three plates. Like I'll do those things if I want to do those things. And I don't have any guilt around those things because it's a conscious choice that I'm making.
00:04:15
Speaker
I think that people run into this issue when they make these decisions and they feel like it's not within their control. Like it's just something that they have no control over. Like they're just going and they're eating as much as possible. And they just like, they just,
00:04:29
Speaker
They lack that self-discipline or that self-control or they have these feelings that like what they're doing is not good for them and not leading them to their goals, which is true. Like if you're doing that stuff all the time, obviously it's going to be very hard to hit any kind of fitness or health goals that you have if you're just eating like crap all the time.
00:04:46
Speaker
But understanding that you can include some of those things in moderation. And if that's something that you want to do, then by all means do that. And so I think it's really important to just take stock of where you're at. Like if you're somebody who is trying to lose weight, you're probably going to have a little bit less of that flexibility in that moderation of where like you're eating out all the time or you're having extra desserts or you're indulging. Because if you're doing those things, it's going to make it very hard to hit the goals that you want to hit. That's not to say that like you follow the strict diet. Like, again, you can have these things as you're losing weight or as you're getting
00:05:20
Speaker
fit and healthy and trying to make this a lifestyle because I think it's important to diet in a very similar way that you want to continue this after you're done with it. But understanding whatever season you're in is going to change how you are going to eat at different times.
00:05:34
Speaker
Making that a conscious choice and actually thinking about like the foods that you want to eat, I think is a big part of this. And so when it comes to like foods, again, I make sure that the foods that I eat are things that I enjoy, things that make me feel better, things that make me healthy. Those are the things that I stick to.
00:05:50
Speaker
Sometimes I eat things that maybe aren't as great for me, like they don't make me feel as good or they're not necessarily fueling my health goals. And I'm totally fine with that.
00:06:01
Speaker
There's nothing that's off the table. Like there's I can eat whatever I want and I have certain things that I eat more of and I have certain things that I eat less of. And so when you can just define some of those things for yourself and figure out what that looks like for you, I think that's really helpful. So spend some time just thinking about that, like what kind of diet you actually want to follow.
00:06:21
Speaker
And I think it's important too, like a lot of people will dive into a certain diet and think like that's their answer. And I think about it a little bit differently. Like diets can be helpful to teach you certain things and from certain diets, you can gain certain skills or certain tools that you can use, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to follow that diet to an absolute T because a lot of diets out there are not really sustainable in nature. Like most people aren't going to eat keto for the rest of their life. Most people aren't going to eat carnivore for the rest of their life. Most people aren't going to eat low carb for the rest of their life, like you're going switch it up. And so learning how to actually eat and having some basic like food rules around things that you want to do can make this a little bit more simple. As I stated, the 8020 rule is something that I follow all the time.
00:07:04
Speaker
I make sure that I'm focusing on getting protein at each meal, I stick to mostly zero calorie drinks, like those are just very simple food rules that I have to where like, I don't necessarily have to think about food all the time, because I have these certain things in place.
00:07:18
Speaker
And that doesn't mean that like, I have to cut a bunch of different foods out. I just know that like these are certain things that I want to get and these are what's going to make me feel good and hit my goals and all those certain different types of things. And so it takes a little bit of trial and error. That's something that I tell my clients all the time. You're not going to figure this out overnight. Like,
00:07:36
Speaker
you've been eating since the day you were born, going eat till the day you die. And a lot of people's eating patterns are not very good because we have so many tasty foods and like, we've just been brought up in a certain way. We didn't learn these skills. And so you have to take some time to like try some different things and,
00:07:51
Speaker
figure this stuff out, get a little education around food and portion control and things that you like, things that you don't like, things that work for you, things that work for other people might not necessarily be the things that work for you. And so take some time to really figure these things out.
00:08:05
Speaker
It's definitely something that you do want to figure out because you're going to be eating for the rest of your life. And if you can really dial in a diet that you enjoy and that helps you hit your goals and helps you feel good and look good and all those things like you want. It's just a matter of time until you hit your goals if you can find that diet for you.
00:08:22
Speaker
And so spend some time on it. It'll take a little bit of time, but start to play around with just some food rules and really start to give some honest thought to the way that you want to eat in a way that feels good in a way that feels sustainable.
Balancing Discipline and Flexibility in Fitness
00:08:35
Speaker
Question number two, I struggle with knowing when to push harder and stay disciplined and when to pull back when it comes to chasing my fitness goals. Any tips on finding this balance? Yes, this is the balance that everybody talks about when it comes to your fitness goals, when it comes to like getting in the gym, when it comes to diet, like finding that balance, I think is something that everybody wants, but a lot of people really struggle to find that. And I think the first place you have to start is just having some awareness about yourself.
00:09:02
Speaker
In the past, have you been the person that has just pushed really hard. You've done too much. Sometimes maybe you get burned out. You've gotten injured because you push too hard.
00:09:13
Speaker
You're have a tendency to overdo it. Or are you the type of person who's let yourself off the hook a little bit? Sometimes you go a little bit too easy on yourself. Maybe you can easily talk yourself out of doing the things that you really want to do.
00:09:25
Speaker
You can find excuses as to why you shouldn't be doing something like know which type of person you are because If you know which type of person you are and you start to recognize those patterns, then you have a tendency to know which way you probably should start to lean.
00:09:39
Speaker
So if you're the person who has been kind of easy on yourself versus the person who's been kind of hard on yourself, like your answer is going to be a little bit different. If you've always kind of been easy on yourself, well, maybe you're the person that needs to start to try to push it a little bit so that you can start to develop more discipline.
00:09:52
Speaker
and get the results that you want to see. you're the person on the other side of the spectrum who's like has a tendency to overdo it, you do too much, you get injured, you get burnt out, you you know you just do too much, then maybe you're the person that could benefit more from pulling back a little bit.
00:10:07
Speaker
And so just knowing who you are and knowing or I should say knowing who you've been in the past because this can absolutely change. I've seen a lot of clients that I've had who have got a lot better with this over time. Like they were the person that they were a little bit easy on themselves. They would let themselves off the hook, find excuses, things like that. And as we start to work together, they start to change that mindset. They can start to cultivate who they really want to be. They start to change their identity and they start to become more this person who is more disciplined, who is the person who does push hard, who is the person that doesn't have any issues with working hard. So
00:10:40
Speaker
I'm big on not putting labels on people. So just because you were that person in the past who like maybe you were a little bit less disciplined, that doesn't mean that you can't change that in the future going forward. But knowing where you're currently at and just taking full responsibility and just being honest with yourself is that first step to creating more discipline and becoming that person that you really want to be.
00:10:59
Speaker
And the second thing that I would tell you, a question that I use a lot that has really helped me with this is just to ask yourself, how am I going to feel about this decision tomorrow? This works really well from a physical and a mental perspective.
00:11:12
Speaker
And so if you look at this from like a physical perspective, let's say you get done with work, you're a little bit tired, maybe you had a little bit of a stressful day, but other than that, like you feel okay. Like you should work out, you plan to work out, you want to work out, like you're really just dreading it and you don't know if you should do it.
00:11:30
Speaker
In that scenario, ask yourself, how are you going to feel about this decision tomorrow? Well, you've been in that position before where you skipped and you probably should have done it because there was no other reason than you were just a little tired, just a little stressed. And the next day, you don't really feel great about that decision.
00:11:45
Speaker
Like you feel a little bit guilty. You're just like, you just don't feel good about it. And so the next time knowing that it's like, okay, I look back and I don't want to feel that feeling all the time. I want to get this done because I know it's something that I should do. And so you do it.
00:11:59
Speaker
Versus let's say you have a workout scheduled, but you're feeling crazy rundown. You're exhausted. Maybe you're a little bit sick. Maybe you had something come up. You had a sick kid. You've been just dealing with a ton of stress and you go home and you're like, man, should I work out or should I take the day off?
00:12:13
Speaker
Well, ask yourself that question again. Is this going to, how is this going to make me feel tomorrow? If I push harder now, is this going to make me feel better tomorrow? Well, in that case scenario, Maybe not. Like if you push harder and you go and you just wear yourself out in this workout, maybe you run yourself down even more, burn yourself out even more.
00:12:30
Speaker
You wake up the next day and you're even more exhausted or maybe you're sick or whatever the case may be. And so having this question to ask yourself works really well because it goes both ways. And there's no like one size fits all. Like you're the person that knows yourself the best and you're the person who can make this best decision.
00:12:48
Speaker
And when you have this little question, it can be helpful. If you're looking at it from like a food perspective, this also works really well. So let's say like you go to work and you walk into the break room and there's just like snacks and cakes and cookies. There's like potluck going on, whatever. Like you weren't expecting this and maybe you're trying to dial in your diet a little bit.
00:13:06
Speaker
You're not really focused or you don't really want to eat that kind of stuff because you know it's going to kind of throw you off and you're just going to overdo it. In that case scenario, ask yourself this question. How am I going to feel about if I just go and smash 2000 calories worth of this food that I wasn't planning on eating. That's going to push me back from my goals a little bit that I'm really focused on right now.
00:13:24
Speaker
Are you going feel great about that tomorrow? In that case scenario, probably not. But let's say another situation arises. Let's say your family calls you up and they're like, hey we got to go celebrate this thing. So and so just did this thing. Let's go out to eat. Let's go have brunch. This actually just happened with a client of mine.
00:13:40
Speaker
They had a ah parent that called them up. They're like, hey, let's go out to brunch. They're currently in a fat loss phase trying to lose fat. And so they go to the brunch with their parent. And I explained to this client, I'm like, you have to learn to include these things and find that balance within this whole process because i would want you to go and do that if that's something that you want to do.
00:14:00
Speaker
I don't want you to skip out on these things. and feel like you have to miss out on certain life experiences because you're trying to lose fat or get a little bit
Logical Decision-Making in Fitness
00:14:07
Speaker
healthier. It's really important to be able to find that balance between like being disciplined with yourself and also being able to enjoy life. I'm big on that because if you're just trying to be healthy,
00:14:17
Speaker
all the time. And that's the only thing you care about, like you're missing the point of trying to get healthy, the point of being healthy, so that you feel good, but also that so that you can enjoy life, not just with yourself, but with other people and enjoy experiences and enjoy all that life has to offer.
00:14:32
Speaker
And so in that case scenario, you might look back like, they asked me to go out to eat, but I have these fat loss goals. And I want to really stick to my targets, like, should I go or should I just skip or should I just like, not go and like maybe not enjoy myself. Well, if you look back on that, ask yourself that question, how am I going to feel about this tomorrow?
00:14:48
Speaker
Well, I'm going to feel better if I go and have brunch with my parents and like we enjoy ourselves and we celebrate this moment and like we have that good experience. So ask yourself that question whenever you're wondering, like, how am I going to feel about this decision tomorrow? Because it does a really good job of taking you out of your current emotional state and getting you to think about these things logically.
00:15:08
Speaker
Because when we talk about our brain, like there's two parts going on. i actually just read a book on this and it got me thinking about this topic and it made so much sense to me because I've always struggled with, and I know a lot of people struggle with, like you want to do certain things, but then like you struggle to actually do it. And so when you think about your brain, you have like this emotional part of your brain, which they call kind of like the chimp. It's like more primal and it's very emotional and it's quick acting. And then you have like the human side, the logical side, the analytical side.
00:15:37
Speaker
And so when you get in that emotional side, a lot of times that is what takes over like when we don't make the decisions that we want to make. You look back on a situation, you're like, why did I do that? That makes no sense. But it's because you were emotional, like you were in that place where like you weren't really thinking logically. You weren't thinking from your human side of the brain. It was more emotional. It was more primal. It was quick acting.
00:15:58
Speaker
So this little question here takes you out of that emotional state and gets you to think about things logically so that you are making more decisions that you actually want to make.
Effective Strength Training Techniques
00:16:08
Speaker
And as you start to make more of those decisions, you get better at training your brain and just getting out of your head a little bit and making the decisions that you want to make because you know most of those decisions that you are making are going to get you closer to that person you want to be and get you to the results that you want to get, get you to living the life that you want to get. So hopefully that's helpful with that question there.
00:16:28
Speaker
Number three, I'm focused on building muscle and I want to know when to go up in weights and how exactly I should be progressing them. So when it comes to building muscle, two of the most important things that you want to think about, you want to make sure that you have good form and technique.
00:16:43
Speaker
And you also want to make sure that you are getting close to failure. If you do those two things, you are going to build muscle. When I say get close to failure, a lot of the studies show like getting anywhere between one to two reps shy of failure is a pretty good place to be. You can take some of your sets all the way to complete failure, but you want to be a little bit more cautious with that and be safe with that. So like if you're using machines or things like that, there's no issue with going to failure.
00:17:09
Speaker
But if you're using like barbells and dumbbells and things like that, I found that just a general rule and just being more safe, just going one to two reps a shot of failure, you're going to get all the results, but you're also just staying a little bit more safe and also maybe not crushing your recovery for the next day in the next workout. So good form and technique and getting close to muscular failure are the two things that you want to make sure that you are doing.
00:17:32
Speaker
And so when you keep those things in mind, there's a lot of different ways that you can go about progressing your weights and going up in weights and knowing when you should be adding more weights and things like that as long as you are focused on those two things.
00:17:45
Speaker
But with that being said, one of the simplest methods that I use a lot and that I use with my clients a lot is called a double progression method. And it's pretty simple. So basically, let's say but say you have bench press on your training program and it says three sets of eight.
00:18:02
Speaker
Let's say you put on a weight that you can do around eight times. You're not sure if you can get it exactly eight times, but you know that you can get around eight times. let's say you throw 135 on there. You do eight reps, you rack it, you rest, you do your second set.
00:18:14
Speaker
That's supposed to be up to eight reps. Let's say that you get eight on that set and then you do your third set. And let's say you only get six reps on your third set. So you would not go up and wait until you hit eight reps at 135 across the board. Once you have all three sets of eight reps at that top end of the rep range and you hit that at that weight, then you can increase the weight.
00:18:38
Speaker
And so that's a really easy way to progress. And again, that's called double progression method. So you're you're going to focus on hitting the reps first with the same weight. And then once you hit all the reps and all the sets, then you can up the weight. And then It might be a while before you go up and wait again. So you might you were doing 135, now you're gonna go to 145 and you're going to try to get eight reps with that.
00:19:00
Speaker
And maybe that takes you two or three weeks to get up in that. And then once you hit all three sets of eight reps at 145, now you maybe go up to 150 or 155. And so it's just a really easy way to progress over time and know that you are making progress.
00:19:15
Speaker
And just a couple of other tips that I would say, make sure that you are recording your weights. Like if you're really serious about like building muscle and making better progress, Keep track of your weights. i Keep track of your reps.
00:19:27
Speaker
Keep track of your ways because I see a lot of people like they'll be in the gym and they'll be getting workouts in. But one thing they struggle with is like, they look at their physique and they're like, I'm not really making like a lot of gains. Like, I don't feel like I'm building muscle. And it's like, well, do you know how much weight you're lifting? Do you know if you're actually getting stronger? Because if you don't know if you're getting stronger over time and you like, don't have the data to actually see, it's hard to know if you're actually building muscle. And so track your weights, number one.
00:19:53
Speaker
And the other thing I would say is like, some days you're going to come in and you won't have the strength that you normally have. And so one thing that I'll do, like, especially as I've gotten older, like, I've had to pull back a little bit and be a little bit smarter about my training.
00:20:06
Speaker
And so like, let's say you're sore or you're really stressed or like your strength just isn't there for that day. You don't need to stress about hitting those top reps and like hitting, using the same exact weight that you used last session, because you're gonna have certain sessions where you come in and like, you just aren't as fresh.
00:20:22
Speaker
You don't feel as good. You don't feel as strong. Like things are just not moving as easy as they do. So in those situations, like you can still make good progress. You can just lower the weights. You can slow your tempo down or slow your reps down a little bit, continue to focus on really good form and still work towards that one to two reps shy of failure, even if it's not with the heavy weights that you were using in your previous sessions. And you can still continue to make progress in that way.
00:20:48
Speaker
All that to say, like the golden rule is keep good form and technique and push most of your sets toward muscular failure. And you are going to build muscle over time. With that being said, like getting to that place where you can really push those sets to muscular failure and get that one to two reps shy of muscular failure.
00:21:07
Speaker
It's a skill like training really intensely is a skill. This is something that I was having a conversation with, with one of my clients. Like he was saying, like, I feel like I'm getting really strong and I'm starting to like get really good at really pushing myself in the gym. And I was like, that's super awesome. And like, I think a lot of people overlook how hard that actually is like to go in the gym and really, really push yourself.
00:21:27
Speaker
is hard to do like day after day after day after day, but you're going get the best results as you start to do that. And so learning to really push yourself and to really embrace that discomfort sometimes because as you get close to that muscular failure as you're getting one to two reps shy like as you get to those later reps in your set like you're on rep eight of a set of 10 or 12 like those last couple of reps they they hurt a little bit like there's some discomfort in there and being able to embrace that and really look forward to those things and really push yourself on those things is where a lot of the gains will start to happen especially as you get more experience within the weight room
00:22:05
Speaker
Question number four, I'm trying to lose weight, but I have to travel a lot for
Maintaining Fitness During Travel
00:22:10
Speaker
work. How do you stay on track when traveling? The first thing I would say is you got plan, just plan, plan, plan. And a lot of just being successful with fitness, with health, with weight loss, with building muscle comes down to just planning in advance, like having some sort of plan.
00:22:26
Speaker
And then number two, obviously being able to stick to that plan. But a lot of people I have noticed just, they just don't have any plan at all. They try to wing it. And as I've said so many different times, like a lot of this stuff just comes down to skills. And if you don't have the skills, trying to wing it or do it on the fly does not work. Like I'm in a place finally, like where I can just go and, and do a lot of this stuff on the fly. But that took me a really long time to get there. Like if I tried to just wing this stuff back when I first started, there is no way that I would have been successful. I would have been spinning my wheels even more than I was at the beginning and just wondering why I'm not seeing results. And so in the beginning, it takes more thought. It takes more planning. It takes more
00:23:05
Speaker
of doing the things that seem monotonous and seem boring. But as you start to do those things, you get better at those things. And so have a plan going in. Some other really simple strategies when you're traveling is you can take snacks with you. i have a client who just went on a trip, went on a work trip. And one thing that she did is she took a bunch of snacks with her.
00:23:22
Speaker
And that's an awesome strategy you can use. So take some food with you. So you're not like reaching for different things in the airport that you don't really want to have. Like you have some high protein snacks or things like that, that are a little bit better for you that are aligned with your goals. And so that you have them right there and are super convenient for it.
00:23:39
Speaker
When you go to a certain place, let's say you travel, like you have to fly somewhere or you're driving somewhere, like just go to a grocery store or go to a convenience store and just grab some, some simple convenient food or some protein snacks or some fruit, or just really easy things that you can eat. That's always an option. I've done that sometimes when I've traveled, having some sort of like fast food options that you know, you can go to that are in a lot of different areas so like if you have like an order at chick-fil-a or some sort of fast food place that like you have an order that you know is higher in protein and a little bit lower in calories and can help keep you on track having two or three of those in your back pocket to use when you need it can be super helpful
00:24:16
Speaker
Or if you don't have that option, like going to a place where you can get a lot of protein or veggie options, like heavy protein, heavy veggie options, like um some sort of like grilled chicken or like a bowl, like Mexican type of bowl, or like maybe like poke type of bowl or Mediterranean, like foods that just have a lot of protein and have a lot of vegetables are going to be a pretty good bet.
00:24:37
Speaker
Another strategy that I've used and that I've had some clients have some success with is just to use what is intermittent fasting. So basically just skip a meal rather than having all three meals within that day like you probably do right now.
00:24:50
Speaker
Just pick one meal and just skip it. So maybe it's breakfast that you skip. Maybe it's a lunch that you skip. Maybe you skip dinner. Like just have two meals rather than three because a lot of times if you are eating on the road and you're eating out,
00:25:02
Speaker
the portion sizes are going to be bigger, you're going to be taking in more calories. And so a super simple option, without having to think a whole bunch is just to skip a meal. And you're going to most likely eat a little bit less calories, or at least stay closer to a lower end or lower range of calories than you would if you were eating three meals out.
00:25:21
Speaker
And then when it comes to exercise, what I would say when you're traveling is like, it's tough sometimes because you don't have your gym, you probably don't have your equipment, you don't have all the things that you're used to having. So you're kind of out of your environment. So again, if you can plan ahead, that ah is always helpful. Like if you're in a hotel that has a gym, or you're in a place that has a gym where you can grab like a free membership or something like that and kind of plan ahead and get your workout in, that's awesome.
00:25:44
Speaker
But if that's not an option or that just doesn't happen, just remember that something is always better than nothing. You can always get in a body weight circuit or, you know, doing something is always going to be better than nothing. You don't just have to do nothing.
00:25:56
Speaker
And then i would say the other thing is when in doubt, just get your steps in. Traveling, a lot of times you're walking quite a bit. Like you're just walking in different areas. Maybe you don't have your car with you if you flew somewhere or you're just walking around seeing different things. So like Just focus on getting a ton of steps in like that's always going to be beneficial and that's something that's within your control.
Building Sustainable Fitness Habits
00:26:15
Speaker
So when in doubt, just get a bunch of steps in.
00:26:19
Speaker
Question number five. This is the last question. I feel like I do well and then find myself falling off for several days and I struggle to get back on track. What am I doing wrong?
00:26:30
Speaker
The first thing i would ask you is what does on track look like? Because if your diet or your routine or your gym program feels so strict or so difficult that you feel the need to just like go off the rails on the weekend or you need a big break or you fall off, it's probably a good time to rethink your plan.
00:26:50
Speaker
Your plan should be sustainable. It should be based around lifestyle change. And so a lot of people think that they have to like work out five, six days a week to get the results they want, or their diet has to be super strict or on point all the time.
00:27:05
Speaker
Understanding that like, that's not realistic for most people. And that's especially not where most people are going to start. You have to start small and then build on it so you can actually build up momentum and start to build the habits and build the skills that you need to make this a long-term thing.
00:27:21
Speaker
Too many people try to do things that they're just not ready for. And sometimes I run into this with clients. So like I'll start with a client and like they want to take on all these things super, super quickly. But I just know from my personal experience and from also working with a lot of other people, that approach very rarely works for people. You have to start small and you have to make this sustainable. You want to challenge yourself, but you also have to be realistic with yourself and understand that like in a perfect world, yeah, you would be able to change everything all at once, but it's not a perfect world.
00:27:52
Speaker
Life is always changing. There's things that are going to come up. Life is dynamic. Like there's going to be things that are always popping up here and there. And like, this isn't always going to be your number one focus. And so like,
00:28:03
Speaker
having a plan in place that you can hit even when those things do start to pop up when you do have to work a little bit late or you do have to do something with your family or you do have this stressful situation that popped up.
00:28:15
Speaker
Being able to stay in alignment with those goals that you have is imperative to your success down the road. And so making sure that you set that up in a way that like you can still do these things even when those situations arise is really important. So First thing I would say is just look at your plan, make sure that you're doing something that's actually sustainable. And if you're not, you need to start to break that down into a place where it does seem sustainable.
00:28:39
Speaker
It might seem a little bit smaller or might feel like a little bit less so that you should be doing more, but that's the way that you build real sustainable change. The second thing I would say is know why you're doing this. So sometimes people will ask me like, how do I stay motivated? And I think a lot of times people will be doing things without really thinking about like why they're doing the thing. So what I mean by that is like a lot of people, they want to lose weight or they come to me and they ask me like, I really want to lose weight.
00:29:07
Speaker
And then I'll ask them like, okay, why do you want to lose weight? And like, they give me the surface level answer of like, well, want to feel better. I want to have better energy. Once we start digging in and like really, really getting to the root of it, it's like so much deeper than like, I just want to lose weight or I just want to feel better. It's like,
00:29:23
Speaker
I want to lose weight because I want to be around for my kids. And I know that where my current health is, if I continue on this trajectory, I am going to die young and I'm not going to be able to take care of them or be around for all these great experiences.
00:29:35
Speaker
Or I've been in this body for so long and my confidence is so low that I'm starting to notice it affects me in my relationships. It's affecting me at work and I want to get this weight off and I want to start to feel better in my own skin. Like when you really start to dig deep on those things and you start to acknowledge like this is why I really want to do that.
00:29:52
Speaker
And you really start to like think about those things. Motivation really starts to get a little bit easier when you really dig into those things. But a lot of people, will they just keep it real surface level and they don't actually get real and honest with themselves about why they want these things.
00:30:07
Speaker
And so I would say like really dig deep and think about like why you want this. There's this exercise that is called the five whys. And so basically what I just said, like you would say, i would ask you, why do you want to lose weight? And you would tell me why.
00:30:17
Speaker
And then you would just keep digging deeper and deeper. Ask yourself that question five times until you get to the root of something that actually feels meaningful to you. Because the surface level stuff, It does not really keep you going. But when you have a deep, meaningful why, that's the stuff that's going to keep you coming back and is going to keep you going, especially when things get hard you have a period where like you fell off for a few days and you're just thinking about saying, screw it. Like think back to that why and think about, okay, this is why I want to do this. I'm doing this because I want to be a better parent for my child. I want to be a better example.
00:30:48
Speaker
I want to feel confident. I want to get this weight off so I can enjoy life to the fullest. Like really, really dig in on why you're doing this and remind yourself of that often.
Consistency Over Perfection
00:30:57
Speaker
And the last thing I would say about this is that you're always just one decision away from being back on track.
00:31:03
Speaker
I think sometimes people get in their heads about what it means to get back on track. And again, if you're following a plan that is actually sustainable and a good plan for you, like it's the right plan for you and you know that if you do these things, it's going to work, it shouldn't be such a big deal to just get back on track. You're literally one meal away from being right back on track. You're one workout away from being right back on track. You're one workout simple healthy choice away from being right back on track so it doesn't need to be this whole big thing of like it takes me weeks to get back on track it takes me weeks to get back into my workout routine or get back to my habits or get back into the way that i was eating and i know for a lot of people this is what happens like this is why people don't see the progress that they want to see because they just aren't consistent enough so like they get in this
00:31:52
Speaker
cycle of like, I'm good for a few days, or I'm good for a week or two weeks, and then I fall off for a few days or a few weeks. And if you do that, you're never really going to be able to build that momentum to start to create these habits that you need to create.
00:32:04
Speaker
And if you can't create the habits that you need to get you to where you want to get, you're never going to actually see the progress that you want to see, because it all comes down to consistency. And so understand, you're just one choice away from being right back on track.
00:32:16
Speaker
And I think one thing that people also don't really get the people that you see that they seem to have it all figured out they seem super healthy they seem fit they seem like they're always on point those people they slip up too they have challenges they fall off they miss workouts they overeat they overindulge like they make mistakes they have moments where like things are just not going well but the thing that they do really well is they just get back on track sooner than everybody else they don't allow it to turn into several weeks or months or several days it's like they have a day or two
00:32:50
Speaker
maybe even a weekend where they're like kind of off on, you know, doing their own thing or like they just went through a rough time or like whatever the case may be, they they fall off for a little bit, but they get back to it and they don't let all this time pass in between. They don't go into screw up mode where they're just like eating everything in sight and not working out and just like not doing anything because they can't be perfect. They get back on track as soon as possible.
00:33:12
Speaker
And when you do that, when you can close down that gap of how long that you were actually inconsistent and off track, you cut down on how much that you're really affecting your progress. Because the reality is like in a day, like you're really not going to do that much to your progress. Like it takes months to lose a considerable amount of weight, sometimes years.
00:33:34
Speaker
It takes months to build muscle. It takes months to lose fat. It takes months to build habits. And so one day, a couple days, even a weekend, like it's not really doing that much in the grand scheme of things when you step back and you look at it logically.
00:33:47
Speaker
And so keeping that in mind, it's like, I messed up for one day or I slipped up or whatever. Like, why would I continue to let that spiral out and hurt me? It's that old analogy of like, if you had a, you're riding in a car and the tire pops, you're not just going to step out and be like, well, that sucks. And then slash all three of the other tires. Like that's stupid, but that's a lot. That's what a lot of people do when they get into this cycle of like,
00:34:10
Speaker
well, like I messed up here or I had a stressful time here. I fell off a little bit. I might as well just say, screw it. That makes zero sense. Don't do that. Get back on track. You're always just one decision away and you're not ruining all your progress. That's not how this whole situation works. That's not how this process works.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:34:28
Speaker
And so that is the five questions. ah Hopefully you got a little bit of value out of this episode. If you did, you can always share it with someone, continue to help grow this. If you want a question answered in the future, you can always send me a message on Instagram or Facebook.
00:34:42
Speaker
ah Those are probably the two quickest ways to get ahold of me. And then lastly, i have some one-on-one coaching. If you are somebody who is interested in getting to your goals, you want a little bit of help,
00:34:54
Speaker
with losing weight, you want to get on the right plan, make sure that you're not spinning your wheels. You want some accountability. You want some guidance from somebody who has been in your situation, made all the mistakes, done all the things, then ah you can always check the link in the show notes and see if it's a good fit for you.
00:35:10
Speaker
But I appreciate you listening and we will see you next