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#116 - Why Fat Gets Harder As We Age (And What To Do About It)
17 Plays4 days ago
In this episode, I break down the real science behind metabolism, aging, and why most people are blaming the wrong thing.
I’ve coached everyone from middle schoolers to 70+ year olds — and the truth is, progress is possible at any age when you focus on what actually matters.
Here’s what we dive into:
- What the latest research really says about how metabolism changes with age
- Why gaining weight seems so easy as we age and how to stop it from happening
- How much the average American actually eats and moves and why you should know
- What to focus on instead to kickstart results and build a body you feel good in
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Transcript
Introduction to the Fit-ish Project Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, Lathan Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We got another weekly episode coming at you. As always, before I get into this, if you can leave a review, if you have not done that, continue to help me get this out to more people who need this information.
Challenges of Fitness in Your 20s and 30s
00:00:21
Speaker
For the topic this week, I wanted to talk a little bit about something that I hear quite often, a struggle that I hear from a lot of people It's typically the people that I work with and just a lot of my friends and people that come to me for help or ask me questions around fitness and health. They're in their mid to late 20s, in their 30s, people around my age. I mean, I'm going to 32 here in just a couple of days. And so I get the question a lot about age, like how come it seems so much harder to lose weight or lose fat or build muscle like things just don't seem as easy anymore as I'm aging.
00:00:57
Speaker
My body doesn't feel as good. I feel like I have less energy. Like what's going on here? And so I wanted to dive into this topic a little bit and get into why fat loss feels harder as we get older.
Impact of Age on Health and Fitness
00:01:07
Speaker
specifically like what's actually going on there are there things that are going on with our body is it just lifestyle factors and then talk about some of those issues and then ultimately how you can start to address some of those things and as always give you some practical tips moving forward so that it doesn't feel like such a struggle because there is a lot that you can do and you have a ton of control on how healthy you are what your body looks like how you feel your energy all that different stuff and so age definitely does play a factor But there's tons of things that you can be doing to help yourself out.
00:01:39
Speaker
I've coached so many different people at different ages from being an online trainer, what I do now, and also just being an in-person trainer for quite a while. helping college sports teams and strength and conditioning and things like that. So I've coached middle school athletes all the way up to some people in their seventies. And I've seen tons of different people from that low age all the way up to their seventies and everything in between make tons of really good progress, not just with fat loss, but with building muscle, building endurance, improving their energy, improving their confidence, just making progress in lots of different ways.
00:02:15
Speaker
And so I think just to be clear about it, age is not stopping you from
Metabolism Myths and Calorie Intake
00:02:20
Speaker
making progress. There is some factors that age does bring along with it, but we will get into those in the episode and ultimately we'll give you a plan to move forward so that you don't feel like age is the reason that you can't.
00:02:33
Speaker
feel great, look great, have great health, lose fat, build muscle, all that good stuff. And so getting into this first part, why does it feel so much harder as you age? And I think as we get into this, we have to break down some of the basics around fat loss. And so the obvious is you've heard it before. you need to eat less or eat fewer calories and you need to move a little bit more. You need to exercise, you need to be active.
00:02:55
Speaker
That is the basic way that you lose fat and that you lose weight. With that being said, the thing that happens as we age is actually the reverse. A lot of people will move less and they eat more. And a lot of times they're doing this without even realizing it. And so to give you a little bit of context and to really paint this picture for you, I wanted to go over some numbers that I did a little research on just to kind of show you what's really going on here and why so many people don't understand why they can't lose fat or why they are gaining weight or why they don't feel as good, why they're
00:03:28
Speaker
strength isn't as good as it used to be, or they don't feel that great. And so when we look at just Americans as a whole, on average, it's estimated that the average American eats somewhere around 34 to 3,500 calories.
00:03:41
Speaker
But when you ask them or when they self-report this data, like in these researches, they think they're eating closer to 2000 to 2500 calories, which would probably be a better amount for these people.
Processed Foods and the Role of Protein
00:03:53
Speaker
So you can see right there, instant red flag, if you think you're eating this lower amount of calories, but you're actually consuming 500 to 1000 more calories, that is going to prevent you from losing weight.
00:04:05
Speaker
And so that's problem number one, then we start to look at things like whole foods versus processed foods. in the us people eat around 50 60 70 percent of their food comes from highly processed things and it's not such an issue from the fact of like these processed foods are like super dangerous or they're like crazy terrible for you but i think we can all agree that if you eat more whole foods you eat more lean proteins more fruits more vegetables more natural type of things you're not only going to feel better
00:04:38
Speaker
But it's a much harder thing to do to eat 3,500 calories worth of whole minimally processed foods than it is to eat 3,500 calories of really ultra processed foods.
00:04:49
Speaker
really ultra processsed food And this is something that like if you follow bodybuilding at all, or like you see athletes who try to eat like really clean and just eat like whole foods, they struggle to get enough calories because it's just a lot of food volume to eat 3,500 calories of chicken and rice and vegetables and potatoes and healthy fats and complex carbs is a lot of food.
00:05:10
Speaker
But when you do that from a ultra processed food standpoint, it's extremely easy to eat that many calories. I mean, a piece of cheesecake could have 1200 calories, a pint of ice cream could easily have 1000. You go to a fast food place and get like a big burger or a large fry and like a large soda, that could easily be 1500 2000 calories.
00:05:30
Speaker
any of those snacks that are just really easy to eat, those things add up and it makes it more difficult to manage hunger. It makes it more difficult to stop eating because those things are really tasty. I mean, how many times have we had one of those snacks or some ice cream or something that's just super tasty and we find ourselves just crushing a whole bag or a whole box or eating way more than we wanted to because it's just hard to manage those things, um unlike with whole foods. And so Starting to make a switch like that where you're eating more whole foods can be a really easy place to start for a lot of people. And I think if they made just that one simple switch of instead of eating 60 to 70 percent of processed foods, if they could eat 60 to 70 percent of whole foods or even better yet would be around 80 percent.
Exercise, Activity Levels, and Health Guidelines
00:06:15
Speaker
as I always say, the 80-20 rule, that would solve tons of these issues right there because diet is always going to be something that plays a huge role in fat loss and just your overall health and how you feel. And so eating more whole foods is definitely something that causes people to struggle quite a bit.
00:06:34
Speaker
And then we break that down even further when you look at something like protein, which we know is also pretty important. the average American is getting somewhere around 80 grams per day, which is enough to not be in a insufficient state. So you're not like getting too little of protein, but that's also not getting enough protein to where you can really like thrive and really build a lot of muscle and really feel good. So starting to up that a little bit, get 120, 150, 200 grams of protein, kind of depending on where your size is and what your goals are, would be a lot better. But a lot of people really struggle to get enough
00:07:07
Speaker
protein. And again, that causes some problems with not feeling full with satiety, those sorts of things, which also ends up causing people to eat more because they're not eating that much protein. And so that's another issue that people struggle with. When we look at things like exercise or just activity in general, the average person gets around four to 5,000 steps per day, which is below that eight to 10,000 that I always talk about. And that a lot of health officials will tell you to strive for.
00:07:35
Speaker
that could be an extra 200, 250 calories per day just by upping your steps from 4,000 to 8,000. In the grand scheme of things, that ends up being quite a bit. If you're burning an extra 200 calories and you're doing that every single day, that's an extra 1,400 calories that you're burning.
00:07:51
Speaker
And so now you have a little bit more flexibility when it comes to food. When think about exercise, the average person gets less than 20 minutes per day. And only one in four Americans meet the U.S. guidelines for exercise, which if you don't know what those are, it's 150 minutes per week of exercise, which is two and a half hours.
00:08:11
Speaker
spread out throughout the week, and then two strength training sessions per week. And one out of five, pet or one out of four, excuse me, people are actually hitting those.
Lifestyle Choices vs. Metabolism in Fat Loss
00:08:21
Speaker
And so when you start thinking about all these things, it's not really a mystery as to why fat loss seems harder as we age, because we're eating more and we're moving less.
00:08:31
Speaker
But with that being said, that means that you have a lot of control over these things because these are things that you can improve. These are habits that you can start to build. And this is a lifestyle that you can start to cultivate so that being healthy, losing fat, building muscle, feeling good, looking good doesn't feel like it's such a hard thing to do. And it's not this big mystery.
00:08:50
Speaker
And one of the other points that I wanted to address too, because I know a lot of people think this as they get older, they think, well, my metabolism has just slowed down. But as I just told you there, it's not a matter of your metabolism because there was a study that had come out recently that got a ton of attention and it reframed the way that we think about metabolism. So we used to think that as you get older, your metabolism is slowly dropping over time and that's not actually what's going on. And so when they did this study, they found out that from zero to about 20 years old, your metabolism will steadily climb and it's higher. And so like in your teen years, your metabolism is actually a little bit higher because you're growing, you're building muscle, you're getting taller, you're gaining weight, all those different things.
00:09:35
Speaker
And so your metabolism is a little bit higher. But then from the ages of about 20 to 60, it doesn't really change all that much. And even after 60 years old, it starts to drop a little bit, but it's really not to a significant degree. And so When you're in your teens, your metabolism is a little bit higher, but it's not as crazy as people think. It's roughly around like 200 to 300 extra calories per day that you're burning.
00:09:57
Speaker
And so not a ton. It definitely does change a little bit. But again, this is not the issue here. It's not the fact that you're burning a little bit less calories. It's the fact that you are moving less and eating more as you start to get older.
00:10:12
Speaker
As I said, this is good news because this means that You have control over how easy or how hard fat loss is going to be and your health and how you feel and all those different factors that is going to just make life a little bit easier and more enjoyable.
00:10:26
Speaker
And so it's not that you have these issues with your metabolism or your body. It's not your genetics. It's not. these other factors for a very, very large majority of people who don't have these like major health issues that make losing weight harder.
Diet Fatigue and Sustainable Habits
00:10:40
Speaker
It just comes down to making better choices, building better habits, cultivating a better lifestyle so that you can make more optimal choices and see the results that you want to see.
00:10:50
Speaker
And so when we're thinking about aging, as I said, age does play a factor, but it's not like this huge thing that's going to stop you from being able to make progress. But there are some things that happen As we start to age, that can make fat loss and just being a little bit healthier in general more difficult. But these are lifestyle things. And so things like moving less, that typically happens as we get older. Because when you think back to when you're a kid, when you're a teen, you're just you're running all over the place. Maybe you're playing sports. You're always on the move.
00:11:21
Speaker
And so you're just more active typically when you are a teen. And that might not be the case anymore with just all the screens, the phones and computers and laptops and things like that. i don't know if kids get quite as much activity as we probably did when we were younger. But from our standpoint, we were typically a lot more active when we were middle schoolers, when we were teenagers, even young adults, we were just doing more things. But now as you get older,
00:11:47
Speaker
that activity starts to go down. Maybe you have a desk job now. You don't play sports anymore. You don't exercise as consistently. You're not walking different places. You're using vehicles and things like that. And so activity just in general typically starts to drop as we get older.
00:12:03
Speaker
Obviously, that is something that you can take control over and you can start to be a little bit more intentional about getting more activity in your day and tracking your steps and just finding ways to move throughout the day.
00:12:15
Speaker
But typically for most people, that's something that starts to go down as they get older, which again, if you're moving less, you're going to be burning less calories and you may be putting on some of that weight.
00:12:26
Speaker
Some other things that come along with aging is just life stress in general. So as I mentioned, you get a career, you have a job that brings along more time commitment and maybe some more stress just depending on your job title and what you do and the responsibilities and maybe the people you work with or your boss, like All that added stress and all that time that you put into work can take away from other things.
00:12:49
Speaker
if If you have kids, that's obviously a big commitment, a big time commitment, but also can bring about some extra stresses. Sleep might start to get a little bit affected. So you just have more responsibilities and you're spread a little bit more thin.
00:13:03
Speaker
And so you're not able to put as much time into these things like exercise, into diet. And those things are typically not the things that people will think about. at the forefront as they start to get older. And so, again, that's just something that you have to start making a conscious choice around as you get older and just putting a little bit more intentionality behind it so that you can start to build some better habits.
00:13:25
Speaker
When we think about things like recovery, I mentioned sleep. If you have kids, like that's obviously going to be affected, but when we're not sleeping as much, which if you look at the research around there, there's a lot of people that don't get enough sleep. If you're not getting that seven, maybe eight hours of sleep and not being able to really get rested and feel good, that's also going to make fat loss harder because we know that if your sleep is affected, you're typically going to have more cravings.
00:13:50
Speaker
You're going to make less optimal healthy choices. You're going to feel more hunger. you're going to have less satiety it can actually slow down your metabolism just a little bit and so not getting enough sleep is another factor that can play a role in why fat loss can seem harder another thing for some select group of people for people who have maybe tried some diets in the past is just what we call diet fatigue so there's a handful of people who have really been trying like they've been trying to lose weight for years and years like they got into adulthood
00:14:22
Speaker
They started putting on some weight. And so they tried to be a little bit more intentional about it and really put some time and effort into figuring out how they can stop this weight gain and start to feel better.
00:14:32
Speaker
And so they've tried different diets and they just feel like they can't lose weight. And this is what we call chronic dieting. So a lot of people, when they do these sorts of things, they'll try these fad diets or these detoxes, these six week programs, these quick fixes in order to lose weight. And they're really missing the forest for the trees here, because they're trying to do things that are not going to be sustainable. And as I've said a million different times on this podcast, if
Sustainable vs. Extreme Fitness Approaches
00:14:56
Speaker
you can't sustain the methods that you're using, if you can't sustain the habits that you're using, then the results are only going to be temporary.
00:15:04
Speaker
And so when you're doing this, you have to make sure that you are doing it the right way. Otherwise you end up like these people who feel like they've been dieting for years and they've been putting a lot of time and effort into these things, but they're not really seeing the results that they want to see. And that's a crappy place to be. Like when you're really putting in a lot of time, a lot of effort, but you're not actually seeing the results. And maybe you're seeing yourself go backwards or you're starting to get into those yo-yo cycles where like you lose some weight and you gain it back and you lose some weight and you gain it back.
00:15:31
Speaker
This is where a lot of people really start to believe that there is something wrong with their body. And like they, maybe it's their metabolism. Maybe they have some sort of genetic thing going on. Maybe they have some sort of health issue that's preventing them from losing weight.
00:15:44
Speaker
When in reality, they're just not going about this in the right way. They're not doing it in a sustainable way, in a way that maybe might take a little bit more time, but will get them to a place where they can actually see the results they wanna see and not just see them for a couple of weeks or a couple months, but actually get to a place where like you can lose the weight and keep that weight off for good.
00:16:03
Speaker
And this is something that a lot of people don't like to hear because if you're trying really hard at something and you're realizing that you're not really able to get the results that you wanna see, That's kind of frustrating. Like nobody wants to be in that place where you're really trying as hard as you can and you're really doing these things and really putting focus into these things, but you're not able to get the results that you want to see. That's a crappy place to be.
00:16:25
Speaker
And so trying to tell people that like, it's really your approach and it's your habits and these choices that you have been making over the years, your mindset that's really keeping you stuck in this ways is not something that a lot of people like to hear. But if it's you if it's something that you really want to figure out, if it's something that you really want to fix,
00:16:42
Speaker
You have to kind of step back a little bit, look at the whole picture and start to take a new approach to this, a more sustainable approach, approach that you can actually see yourself doing, not just for a couple of weeks, but four months. And it takes some time and effort and some learning and some unlearning of certain things to get to that place.
00:17:00
Speaker
But if it takes you a year, two years, maybe even three years to get to a place where you can now you've lost 20 pounds, 30 pounds, 40 pounds, you feel great. Your energy is better. You've built muscle.
00:17:12
Speaker
you like the way you look, you have more confidence. Well, to me, that's 100% worth it. Give up a couple years of really hard focused effort and just learning new things and learning a new style and really embracing that in order to live the next 30, 40, 50 years in that body and feeling really great.
00:17:28
Speaker
That seems like a pretty good trade off to me, but a lot of people will continue to chase those quick fixes, not realizing that they're just digging themselves in a further and further hole and less likely to get the results that they ultimately want to see.
00:17:41
Speaker
Which leads me into my next point about the whole mindset of all of this, because it's not just about training harder all the time. It's not just about doing more. It's about training smarter as you get older, because as I said, you have a lot more moving parts, there's a lot more things going on.
00:17:57
Speaker
The process of fat loss and really any sort of fitness goal, building muscle, losing weight, building endurance, like getting more fit is actually pretty simple.
00:18:08
Speaker
Like if I asked you how to do those things, I'm sure you could tell me exactly in general terms, how to do those things. But it comes down to doing it in a way that actually fits your lifestyle, in a way that actually fits your preferences and things that you're gonna be able to sustain and also get you to those goals. Because again, if you're doing things that you can't sustain, it doesn't matter, it's not going to last. And so you have to be smarter about this. It's not just about doing more sessions in the gym or eating as little as possible or trying the next fad diet or trying some like extreme
00:18:40
Speaker
eight week boot camp or like getting in the gym six to seven days a week like that's not your answer because that's not something that you're going to be able to sustain at this point in your life and so it's not about extremes anymore it's about sustainability and once you start to take that approach once you really start to embrace that this whole process becomes pretty simple and it becomes much more enjoyable but a lot of people have really skewed expectations just based on what they think is supposed to be happening and what they think fat loss is supposed to be like And if you just continue to just try to hammer and hammer and hammer and not do this in a smarter way, you're just going to keep running up against that wall.
00:19:17
Speaker
And so you just have to take a step back again, as I said, start thinking about like, how can I go from not just doing everything as hard as possible and trying to be perfect and doing as much as possible to how can I actually do this in a way where I can be consistent?
00:19:33
Speaker
And I think about this from an athletic standpoint, because a lot of the clients that i work with are people who have played sports in the past or they have worked out for a period of time or like they were in the gym and then they get to this certain point, maybe in their mid to late 20s and their 30s, where they kind of start to let themselves go and they gain weight and they fall off a little bit. They don't really exercise as consistently. They eat more and then they look up and they're 50 pounds overweight and they're wondering what went
Creating Fitness Habits That Fit Your Lifestyle
00:19:56
Speaker
wrong.
00:19:56
Speaker
And so they try to get back into it. And they try to go back to what they did when they were an athlete. So they try to get back in the gym five, six days a week. They try to go super strict with it. And when you're an athlete, like that kind of stuff worked because you had a ton of extra time and that was what you did. You were just used to that lifestyle. That was your whole identity was just being an athlete.
00:20:15
Speaker
eating like an athlete, training like an athlete, just pushing yourself really hard. But life looks a little bit different now. So you have to take a smarter approach about like, I'm no longer that person who has to do these strict diets or these crazy training protocols. I'm trying to do things that are going to actually fit into my life and work with me and not against me.
00:20:36
Speaker
And once you can start to do that, it makes this whole process a little bit easier. And so getting into like expectations and what that actually looks like, Here's some things that you can actually start to focus on. So like some clear tactical advice of some things that you can be doing and some things that you can kind of build your way up to. And these things that I'm going to list off here, they're not anything crazy and they're not anything extreme. And they may not seem like huge things that are going to bring you the progress.
00:21:03
Speaker
But we're using time here as our best friend because we want to do these things. in a way that makes sense and in a way that we can actually sustain. And we want to think about this long-term to where we can build these habits, to where time starts to work for us.
00:21:16
Speaker
And we're not just in that yo-yo cycle or this, I'm gonna start again on Monday, or I'm gonna wait till the first of the year and nothing ever actually changes. Talking about some of those things and some of those areas From the very beginning of the podcast that a lot of Americans are coming up short on, the first thing you can start to do is just focus on getting more steps within your day.
00:21:37
Speaker
And so if the average person is getting four to 5,000 steps, how can we start to increase that to a goal of maybe eight to 10,000 a day? Because as I said, you start to boost that up a little bit.
00:21:47
Speaker
You're not only going to start to burn some excess calories just from moving a little bit more But you're going to start to feel better because just moving your body in general is good for how you feel You start to get rid of some of those aches and pains and as i've said on some other podcasts when you start to prioritize something like walking it's just that little trigger in the back of your head where you're always thinking about how can i get a few more extra steps how can i be a little bit more active and that starts to spill over into other habits where you're like okay i'm walking a decent amount i'm really trying to keep that top of mind so now you're starting to make healthier choices you're starting to drink more water you're starting to be more consistent in the gym and it has this snowball effect on other habits within your life so walking can be a really good place to start so making it a goal to build your way up to eight to ten thousand steps a day and this might not be something that you can nail
00:22:36
Speaker
right away, like if you're only getting 2000 3000 steps a day and you work a really sedentary job, then maybe it doesn't make a ton of sense to go straight up to that 10,000 number and maybe your first goal is going to be five or 6000.
00:22:48
Speaker
Make it something that's doable because with all of these things, if you try to go too extreme with it, it just typically doesn't last. I've seen it too many times with different people who have come to me for help. I've seen it just with New Year's resolutions. I've seen it with so many different people, they go all in, they go extreme.
00:23:04
Speaker
only to fall off a couple months later. I'm not worried about what you can do in a couple of weeks or a couple of months. I'm worried about where you're going to be at in the next couple of years because sustainability, that's what's actually impressive.
00:23:15
Speaker
Losing a bunch of weight or getting fast results doesn't impress me and it doesn't, shouldn't really matter because in the grand scheme of things, like who cares if you can do something for a couple of months, that's not going to make your life better two years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now.
00:23:29
Speaker
want to start to build that solid foundation to where you can do these things for the long term. And so steps is a really good place to start. Strength training is another really big one.
00:23:40
Speaker
And so getting in the gym anywhere between two, three, four times per week with a good structured plan focused on building muscle, building strength. Because as I've said many of times, we know the importance of building muscle with increasing your metabolism, for being able to do all the things that you wanna do, for looking good, like building muscle and getting in the gym two, three, four times a week is a really good thing to do. And it's such a high leverage thing to where like, even if you're only getting in the gym, let's say two times per week for a solid 45 minute workout each time, you can get a lot of really, really good benefits from doing that.
00:24:15
Speaker
And again, I think this is where people's expectations kind of get thrown off a little bit because they think if I can't be in the gym five times a week and going super hard and being super intense, like, am I actually getting enough out of it?
00:24:27
Speaker
And the answer is yes, you can get tons of really good benefits in a lot of different areas just by being in the gym twice per week and focusing on some really good structured
Practical Health Improvement Tips
00:24:39
Speaker
workouts. And so strength training would be another thing that you can start to implement.
00:24:44
Speaker
Prioritizing high protein meals. As I said, that's a critical role in protein, but that's also going to help you with just feeling more full, more satiated, eating less calories overall.
00:24:54
Speaker
And so starting to Get some protein at every single meal, maybe mixing in a high protein snack or two throughout the day, just really starting to build your diet and your meals around protein can be a nice place to start.
00:25:07
Speaker
And then you start adding in some whole foods around that, some fruits and vegetables. And pretty soon you'll notice that you're eating less and less of that processed stuff. And you actually start to crave more of these whole foods because you like the way that it makes you feel.
00:25:20
Speaker
You feel more full and satiated. Your energy is better. You're getting more nutrients. And you'll start to notice that your body starts to change because you're now eating less calories. Your workouts are getting better. You're starting to look the way that you want to look. You're feeling great. Your joints are feeling better. And so, again, this is a nice thing that you can start to focus on that's going to continue to move you in the right direction. So a high protein diet would be another thing.
00:25:43
Speaker
Sleeping seven hours a night. I know this is a tough one for a lot of people, especially if you have kids with getting enough sleep. But as I mentioned a little bit earlier in the podcast, there's just so much research now about the importance of sleep. And it's one of those foundational things that has an effect on literally everything that you do.
00:26:02
Speaker
It plays a role in how you handle your relationships, your emotions, how much you eat, your body composition, like whether you're losing more fat or losing more muscle, how much energy you have, your focus, your mood, your clarity, your mental health, literally everything. Sleep plays a role in so much. And so it's one of those things that like, if you have to find some ways where you can prioritize getting enough sleep, whether that be like trying to set a bedtime alarm and getting into a good routine or whatever the case may be, like just figuring out ways where you can prioritize a good amount of quality sleep and being consistent with that sleep schedule can help a lot.
00:26:44
Speaker
And then the last thing that I would say, this is less of a tactical type of tip or advice like those previous things, but just to set realistic goals and commit to this for a longer period of time.
00:26:56
Speaker
As I said, a lot of people have expectations about like, I want to do this 30 day challenge or I want to do this eight week transformation. But like we want to think on a longer time horizon so that we can actually get results that are going to last. If you're focused on the quick fix,
00:27:11
Speaker
Your results are going to be quick and temporary. If you do this in a sustainable way, focus on the long term, then your results are going to be
Setting Realistic Fitness Goals
00:27:18
Speaker
sustainable. They're going to be long term. Our goal here is to focus on building habits because when we can build the right habits over time and we can start to build the right system, this becomes easy to do. And then we're no longer feeling like we're trying to white knuckle our way through or we need to rely on motivation. It's just this thing that we do naturally. So like getting in the gym three times per week just becomes part of your routine.
00:27:41
Speaker
Getting 8,000 steps in your day just becomes part of your routine and you barely think about it. Building your meals around protein and fruits and vegetables just becomes something that you do naturally. And this isn't to say that like you don't ever go out to eat or you don't enjoy yourself or you're like so regimented that you can never step out of routine.
00:27:59
Speaker
Because i know that when I started this and for a lot of my clients, when they start to implement these things, it's a lot different than the lifestyle that you're used to living. But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing, because you can absolutely do both where you include these things, and you incorporate these things, and you start to live a more healthy, conscious fitness type of lifestyle.
00:28:18
Speaker
And you'll notice that once you start to find that good balance, that life just overall becomes better. And you don't feel like trash all the time, you don't wake up and, and feel just like low energy, low mood, you don't look in the mirror and not like what you see, like when you can start to implement these things and you really start to see those changes, you start to feel better, you start to look better.
00:28:37
Speaker
Life in general, both from a health perspective and just from a life perspective, becomes so much better. And so this isn't like you're just completely overhauling your life overnight and you're now David Goggins or you're now this like bodybuilder or you're now this like professional athlete where this is the only thing you think about.
00:28:55
Speaker
start to just take on these things slowly, start to build that good foundation, start to implement that 1% better mindset. And over time, as you start to do these things, it will just become part of who you are and it will just become part of your lifestyle.
00:29:07
Speaker
And once it becomes part of your lifestyle, the stuff is easy. Like it's doesn't mean that there's not days where you don't want to work out or maybe you don't want to make the healthier choice and there's not struggles.
00:29:18
Speaker
Like I still have those days too, but compared to when I started, A lot of this stuff really does just seem like it's on autopilot now because I've been doing it for so long. And I think that's the point that we all want to build up to.
00:29:29
Speaker
But if you don't do it in a way that is slow and methodical and makes sense and is something that you can sustain, it's not actually going to last. So hopefully this was helpful and you got a couple of practical tips there. You have a little bit better understanding of just this process as a whole, because I think the first step to really making these changes is understanding what's actually going on.
00:29:50
Speaker
and really looking at it from a bigger picture because I'm big on educating for that reason. Because if I don't know the why, then I don't really want to do something. Like I'm not going to put as much effort into it. I'm not going to be as consistent with it.
00:30:02
Speaker
So I always try to educate first and really give you the reasons why that you you should know these things and why it's important to understand these things. And then after we understand it, then we can start to break this down and we start to give you some steps. We start to give you some practical things that you can actually do. And when you can do those things and do it in a way that actually makes sense,
00:30:20
Speaker
And in a way that actually seems practical, that's when you start to see those results
Closing and Coaching Offer
00:30:25
Speaker
that you want to see. As long as you're not in a hurry and you don't do stupid stuff and you don't look for the quick fixes, you can change these things over time and you can get all those results that you want to get. and So hopefully this was episode was helpful in terms of those things.
00:30:40
Speaker
Before I hop off here, If any of those things seems like too much or you're just like, i would rather just have somebody help me with this stuff or I want somebody who's already done these things and can kind of guide me along this this whole path and this whole process, lose some weight, build some muscle, feel better, look better, start to just build that overall healthy lifestyle. That's exactly what I do with people one-on-one in my coaching program. And so you can always check the show notes for the link.
00:31:06
Speaker
for that. But with that being said, i appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.