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#87 - Motivation Meets Consistency: The Power of the 3R Framework
31 Plays3 months ago
Consistency and motivation are the keys to reaching your fitness goals, but that doesn't mean you must be perfect.
In this episode, I explain the keys to improving consistency and creating your own motivation.
I’ll share my 3R Framework—Reps, Reflect, Refine. It’s a simple way to build better habits, stay on track, and keep improving without getting overwhelmed.
You’ll learn how to make a plan, check in on your progress, and tweak things to keep moving forward so you reach your ultimate goal of feeling, looking, and living at your best. If you’re tired of starting over, this episode is for you!
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Transcript
Introduction to The Fit-ish Project
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome back to The Fit-ish 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 ah before getting into that. If you can leave a review, if you have not done that, really appreciate that. Continue to get this out to the people who need it the most.
Challenges of Motivation and Consistency
00:00:24
Speaker
But the topic for this week, so I wanted to talk a little bit about how to increase motivation and increase consistency because I have conversations a lot with people around just changing their habits and getting it more into fitness, making it a priority and things like that. And two of the biggest things that I hear is like
00:00:45
Speaker
struggling with motivation and then obviously struggling with consistency and consistency is the name of the game, right? Like if you're not consistent, you're never really going to see the progress that you want to see and so finding ways to get more consistent is really important.
Criticism of Generic Fitness Advice
00:01:00
Speaker
So when it comes to like fitness and health, there's a lot of generic information out there and there's a lot of like sayings and different approaches and things like that and it's not really that helpful at times. So like you'll hear things in the fitness space like eat less, move more or no days off in the gym or like you have to cut out all carbs and a lot of this stuff is just very just generic plain advice and it doesn't really give you any kind of framework. It doesn't teach you about why maybe you want to use these certain methods or use these certain tactics and it ends up hurting people because they try these things or they hear this advice and they try to put it into play but then it's not really sustainable. They don't really understand why they're doing what they're doing.
00:01:40
Speaker
And then ultimately they end up either falling off or not being able to stick to certain habits and things like that. So one of the things that I really try to do is break down this information and try to make it as practical as possible. Cut out all the BS because there is a lot of BS out there. Simplify it. Make it easy for you to act on. And so when it comes to motivation and consistency, I've thought about this a little bit more in Just with my own personal journey and then now with working with a lot of different clients, like what are ways that we can put these things into a practical framework so that you can use these things right away in order to help you increase those consistency and increase your motivation versus just like telling somebody you need to try harder or you need to be more disciplined or you need to be
00:02:27
Speaker
Just you you just want it more like yes, all that stuff is true But like what how can we break this down and make this tactical and make this practical?
Introducing a Three-Step Framework
00:02:34
Speaker
So that we can actually start to put these things in play and start to see some momentum Start to see some progress and get moving in the right direction. So that is exactly what I'm going to do in this episode I'm gonna talk about this three-step framework that I just kind of put together on my long runs I like to think about What are different ways that I can put these ideas into a simple format and get it out to you guys to help you use it. And just thinking about this a little bit and how I came up with this, um a lot of it was through a book. So just reading different things, reading different materials, seeing what other people talk about, learning a little bit about the psychology around motivation, about consistency, things like that.
00:03:13
Speaker
And then also just having the real world experience with my own personal journeys of like running a marathon and losing a hundred pounds and getting into better shape, like all those things, required motivation, required consistency. And now working with clients and helping to teach them how to use some of these tactics. I've kind of boiled this down into a three step framework that you can use so that you can increase the consistency, increase the motivation so that you can get the results that you want to get because we all want to look our best. We all want to feel our best.
00:03:43
Speaker
We all want to be able to live life on our own terms and do all the things we want to do and not be held back by our health and fitness or being.
Defining Consistency in Fitness
00:03:50
Speaker
low energy or low confidence and all those things. So it's really hard to live your best life if you're not really prioritizing your health, prioritizing your your fitness. So getting into this, before we get into the actual framework, I think it's important that we just define a little bit like what consistency is, what motivation is and what they are not. So when we think about consistency, there are some characteristics of consistency that we want to focus on. So when you think about consistency, you have regularity. So this just means performing actions
00:04:20
Speaker
at a predictable frequency. So for example, maybe you have some things that you like to do on a daily basis. Maybe it's get your 8,000 steps, 10,000 steps. Maybe it's getting a certain amount of grams of protein in your day. Maybe it's a weekly thing where you want to get in three workouts per week, but it's predictable frequency that you know and that you are hitting on a regular basis to make you more consistent.
00:04:43
Speaker
When we think about consistency, we also think about sustainability. So adapting habits that can be maintained for the long-term. You're not just doing this now. You're not just doing some like 17 day fast, or you're not just doing some 30 day diet. These are things that we want to implement, not just now, but for years to come. Think about making this a lifestyle versus making this a temporary change, because we know the temporary changes, they don't really do a whole lot for us. So we want to think on a more long-term scale when we're thinking about consistency.
00:05:11
Speaker
And then the last part would be just the commitment. So showing up and making progress even when the results aren't immediate. And I think that fitness and health is a perfect testament to this because it's just the ultimate test of delayed gratification because you go out.
00:05:28
Speaker
into the gym or you go out on a run or you know you start a diet and you don't really see a lot of progress for sometimes months. And if you have bigger goals, sometimes those goals may take even years to achieve. I talk about this a lot, but like with my own personal journey, it took me an entire year to lose 60 pounds. And so like these things don't happen overnight. They take time and like you'll work out you know for a couple of weeks and you won't really see a lot of progress in the mirror. And so sometimes that can be discouraging. So just understanding that you're committed to this goal or being consistent with this goal, and you're not going to see those results right away. But as long as you continue to show up, you're going to start to see those
Balancing Efforts vs. Perfection
00:06:08
Speaker
things.
00:06:08
Speaker
And so when we're talking about consistency, those are kind of the things that we want to think about. And I think it's really important to mention that consistency is not perfection. And I think people often get these two things confused or they think of these things as like the same thing. Perfection means we're doing, we're spot on a hundred percent of the time. And that is not what consistency is. Consistency is like we're showing up.
00:06:30
Speaker
And we're continuing to do the things we want to do on a regular basis. You know, we're doing things that are sustainable. We're being committed to the process. But that doesn't mean that we don't have certain days where like we don't necessarily hit our goals. Like understanding that there's just different levels to consistency. So somebody who's just like completely out of shape.
00:06:48
Speaker
maybe very overweight, they've never really worked out before, like their level of consistency is probably going to be a lot lower than somebody who has some sort of foundation, some sort of routine, some sort of schedule. And so like for them to think that they're going to go from zero to 100% or 90% consistent right away is probably not very realistic. So being 50% consistent versus 0% consistent is going to start to get you much better results. You're going to be in a lot better place, even if you're only 50% consistent.
00:07:16
Speaker
And then as you start to work your way up, you start to build better habits, you start to build a better mindset, you the goal is to increase that consistency because we know as that consistency increases, we're going to see better results. And so I like to think of consistency as like this Goldilocks zone because again, we're not shooting for perfection. I don't want to be 100% consistent. I don't want to be a slave to my diet. I don't want to be a slave to my workout routine. I don't want to think about every single calorie that I'm eating 100% of the time. I don't want to be,
00:07:46
Speaker
thinking about how I have to get this workout in and skip all these other things and miss out on my social life and things like that. And if I'm trying to be 100% perfect, that is where I'm going to end up. like I don't want to be that. For people who want to do that, like more power to them. like If they want to you know live that lifestyle, no days off, 365, they're always on it. like go for it, but that is not something that I want to do. And I don't think that's most people that listen to this podcast because again, this is called the Fit-ish podcast for a reason. We want to make fitness and health a part of your life. We don't want to make it your whole life. So when you can shoot for that Goldilocks zone, that not too hot, not too cold type of zone, like that 80 to 85, maybe 90% kind of dependent on where you're at, you're you'll be in a really good sweet spot because then you can see really good progress and you can also enjoy a social life.
00:08:35
Speaker
you know do the all the things that you want to do and not feel like you're just always just so focused on just health and fitness and it just completely takes over your life. And so if we're thinking about consistency from like that sweet spot of like that 80% or so like that's kind of our target that we want to work up to on just a practical level like if you think about a weekly basis that's six out of seven days where you're kind of on target you're hitting all the things that you want to hit getting your workouts in you're eating in a solid way you're continuing to focus on healthy habits and you're doing that six out of the seven days of the week. Or if you think of it on like a monthly basis, 80% would be 24 out of 30 days in a month. So again, that provides you some opportunity to like not have to think about exercise or hell a third, you know, all those certain things.
00:09:25
Speaker
And it allows you to, you know, if you want to go out to eat, you can do that. If you want to take some days off, you can do that. Like, it doesn't have to be 100% of the time. And I think that that is much more realistic for a very large percent of the population. Just understanding like, hey, you don't have to be spot on 100% of the time to see results, to get fit, to hit your goals, to see all the things that we want to see and when you realize that I think it makes it much more sustainable for the long term because I know like for me when I first got into this and I think for a lot of people this is why they really struggle is their expectations around what this is going to be is just off completely like Yes, you definitely do have to prioritize these things you have to plan, you have to learn you're going to spend some time, like failing and really struggling through this to get to a point where you want to get, but that doesn't mean it's always going to be like that. And that doesn't mean that 100% of your focus and energy and time has to go into this health and fitness thing because
00:10:20
Speaker
where I'm at now versus where I used to be is completely different and now this stuff just kind of feels like it's just part of who I am and I don't really think about it but I promise you it was not that way all the time like I struggled just as much as the next person when it came to getting my workouts in when it came to eating in a certain way when it came to figuring out just how to eat and just learning proper education around food and exercise and lifestyle habits and all that different stuff but like fast forward now like I've put in those reps and I put in the time to really understand those things. And now it's like, it's just second nature to me. So understanding that, that you can get to that point, I think is really, really motivating and can keep you on track and make it so it doesn't seem so daunting as you start to take on some of these bigger fitness goals and start to make this more of a holistic lifestyle change versus just something that like you can only stick to for a short amount of time.
Understanding Motivation
00:11:12
Speaker
When we're thinking about motivation, so we have consistency and then we also have motivation that is part of this equation. so
00:11:19
Speaker
Motivation is simply just internal or external motivation that drives or compels you to just take action to achieve a certain goal. And so I think the misconception that a lot of people have when they think about motivation is they just think about that certain feeling that they have. So that like they think about like this feeling hits me and it's like, oh, I'm motivated. So like today I'm going to eat really well. I'm going to work out. I'm going to do all this stuff. And they think that that is what motivation is.
00:11:47
Speaker
And while yes, it's nice when those feelings come around, the fact is that's just not like what it's going to be every day. Like most days you're not going to have that feeling. You're not going to wake up and just be motivated and just be like, man, I'm really ready to get after it. Because there's so many different factors out there that influence your emotions, that influence what you have going on in your life, relationships with work, maybe you have kids, like ah spouse, a partner, like all that different stuff plays a role in how you're going to feel and what your motivation is going to feel like that day, what's your energy what your energy is going to feel like that day. And so thinking that you're always going to just wake up and just be motivated is just setting yourself up for failure. I think what's much more reliable and what more people need to understand.
00:12:31
Speaker
is that you have the ability to create your own motivation through different strategies. And I think it's much easier to do this when you truly value what you are going for. And what I mean by that is like, take some time to just really reflect on why or why not this is something that you want to do. Because there's been plenty of times where I've thought that I've wanted something, but then when I really just sit down and think about it, it's like,
00:12:56
Speaker
Do I want to get a six pack and be shredded? like Oh, that sounds kind of cool in theory, but do I want to do a ton more cardio? Do I want to restrict my diet? Do I want to cut out more foods that I enjoy? Do I want to never really go out to eat and not go and have some drinks on the weekends with my friends? like I don't want to do that. like It's not worth the trade off to me. So take some time to really think about, okay, what are my goals? What's it going to cost for me to get those goals? And is this something that I actually value?
00:13:23
Speaker
because Once you value those things, you're going to find a way to get those things done and motivation doesn't become such a big factor because you're not just looking for this feeling. It's something that you value. It's something that you're going to find a way to make happen because it's just that important to you. And and and if you really want to see like where your current priorities are, all you have to do is just look at how you're spending your time and look at how you're spending your money.
00:13:47
Speaker
If you're not spending your time and your money, two really valuable resources on these certain things that you say you really care about, well then that's probably not a current priority of yours. Because you can say that, hey, I really want to get fit. I really want to get healthy. And trust me, I hear it every single day. I have people coming to me telling me like, I want to get fit. I want to do all these things. Like I want to, you know, feel better. I want to look better. I want to lose weight. But then a majority of people don't really do those things because it's not a current priority. It doesn't mean enough to them right now and they don't value it quite enough.
00:14:18
Speaker
But once you get to a point where you're like, hey, I do value this, this is something that I really want to fix, then you take full responsibility for those things and you're going to find a way to get through those things. That doesn't mean that it's all going to be easy and like it's going to be super simple, but like if you make that decision to commit to this and that is something that you really want, like you're are going to figure this thing out.
00:14:39
Speaker
And then this framework that we're about to talk about is going to help you kind of navigate through that so you can save some time, same save some effort, maybe not be quite as frustrated and make this a little bit more practical and a little bit more tangible.
00:14:52
Speaker
So now that we kind of understand what consistency is, we understand what motivation is and why those two things are important, this is the framework that I use to help not only myself, but clients that I use as well. And these are just sort of little strategies, little tools that you can use. But once you start to understand how this process works, it's actually fairly simple. Because a lot of these goals that people have and a lot of goals that I've had in the past, like they're very big and they're daunting and they're scary and like they're very grandiose and like they can be hard to take on. But it's a big part of that is that we're just not really clear on what it's going to take to get there. And everybody who's achieved like really big goals like they all started at the same spot. But it's a matter of breaking those things down and making it
00:15:35
Speaker
Practical and making it so you can start to take action and get that momentum rolling and then once you understand that and you have these certain different tactics It makes it easier to start moving towards that goal and then eventually you look up and you're like, you know You're getting closer and closer you're getting to that point where you're like, okay This is something that I can actually do but none of that is ever gonna happen if you don't take action So the very first thing of this three are framework is what I call it.
Building on Success and Repetitions
00:16:00
Speaker
It's reps reflect refine So three different are so the very first part of this is the rep so repetitions It's one of my sayings that I always use is get your reps because we know that if you can get your reps, if you can continue to show up, if you can be consistent, like you're going to see progress, you're going to create momentum, you're going to be able to achieve those goals that you have, but nothing ever happens unless you take action. So the very first part of this is getting your reps in. But before we can do that, we have to first think about, okay, what is our plan for this? We need to have a clear plan. And so one thing that you can do when you're starting to create a plan for certain goals that you have,
00:16:35
Speaker
is to find places that you're already doing well and just build on those things. So like, this is just called finding bright spots. So for example, let's say that you have a certain fitness goal, you have a health goal, you're probably already walking within your day, right? Like I know everybody is walking out there, like you're getting steps in. It might not be as many steps as you want, but like you're already getting some walking in. And so how can we start to build on that simple habit of walking? Maybe right now you're only getting 3000 steps a day.
00:17:03
Speaker
and you want to work up towards that 8,000, that 10,000 step mark. Okay, so what's a simple way that we can add in two or 3,000 more steps per day that is going to help propel you towards that goal? Well, maybe we can start to go for a 10-minute walk after lunch and after breakfast. Well, bam, there's an extra 2,000 steps right there and you're well on your way to starting to progress. Or maybe you want to start to clean up your diet a little bit. well I'm going to go ahead and guess that you're eating some protein because you have to, otherwise you would die. So you're already eating some protein. So how can we up that protein and eat a little bit more in certain instances? Well, maybe we can add a protein bar, maybe we can add a protein supplement. Maybe we can start to add one or two protein snacks throughout the day or prioritize protein or just double our protein portion at our meal. Like simple, simple things that you're already doing where you can start to
00:17:53
Speaker
increase these things and start to see some progress and start to create some momentum. So that's a very simple way to start this whole process is just to find certain areas that you're already doing well and just build on those.
00:18:04
Speaker
The second part of this of like just creating a clear plan that you feel good about is actually mapping out what those critical moves are going to be because too many decisions leads to overwhelm and leads to people not taking action. I have learned this just from working with a lot of different people and being a teacher and things like that. Like if you give people just a huge amount of decisions like or you just tell them just very generically what to do like the likelihood of somebody doing those things when they're already confused is very very very slim like if you give somebody very specific directions now that they have this certain goal and you're kind of leading them and telling them okay this is step one this is step two this is step three they're much more likely to do those things
00:18:49
Speaker
If those moves are mapped out. And so what I've started to learn is that like sometimes people aren't just unmotivated or they're like, you know, not lazy or things like that. They just generally don't know what to do. And I think we all kind of have an idea of what we should be doing when it comes to health and fitness. But like, there's a million different things that you could be doing. There's tons of different diets. There's tons of different workout plans. But like,
00:19:11
Speaker
If you really just break it down, okay, what are the things that I want to do? I want to lose weight. Okay, so what is something super simple that I could do that I could start implementing that it's going to help me lose weight? Well, I could create a food list so that I know what foods I need to buy at the grocery store. I could create a meal plan so that I know what I'm going to actually cook throughout the week. I could actually prep those foods so that I don't have to cook every single night and I can save some time and I can just do all that at one time and now I just know exactly what to eat. When you break those things down in that form, in that fashion, it makes it much easier to take action on. Or maybe it's just you want to get in better shape so you know that working out is going to be a part of that. Well, if you just try to walk into the gym and just like do random stuff and you walk around and like
00:19:53
Speaker
You don't really have a plan. You don't really know what you're doing. You're not really recording anything. You don't really like have a certain goal. like Your workout's gonna be trash. And even me, like I've been in strength and conditioning. I've got my degree and all that stuff. I've taken tons of certifications. I've worked with college teams, high school teams. I've made hundreds of workouts at this point. like If I walk into a gym and I don't have a plan, if I don't have a workout, I know my workout is not gonna be as good as what it could be if I was following a,
00:20:22
Speaker
actual plan. And so like for the average person who doesn't care about this stuff, or is not interested in this stuff as much as I am to think they're just going to walk into a gym and be able to like, get a super solid workout and make the progress that they want to make is just not realistic. So like, how do we break that down? Well, super simple, figure out what your goals are. Okay, you want to build muscle, okay, find a good plan that you can build muscle on.
00:20:44
Speaker
download that plan on your phone, you go in the gym, you have that thing ready to go. Maybe it's something as simple as like taking five, 10 minutes at the beginning of the week to actually put a schedule and a routine together because like if you're just trying to make all these decisions in the moment, the likelihood that you make all the right decisions that you really want to make is slim to none because life gets busy, things get stressful. It's very easy to make certain decisions. But if you make those decisions prior to being in the situation, like you spend 10 minutes at the beginning of the week really planning out This is when I'm going to get my workouts in. This is when I'm going to have to eat for my meals. This is when I'm going to get my walk in. Like you do all those things ahead of time, it makes it much more likely that you're going to stick to that plan. And again, this isn't like rocket science, but like when you create that clarity for yourself, you're going to be much more successful when it comes to just being consistent and doing the things that you need to do.
00:21:35
Speaker
And then the last part of this, when it comes to just creating your plan is just to have an end goal in mind. So knowing where you wanna get to can be super helpful. And this is something that I'll also have clients do sometimes too, like when they first come to me, I have them think about, okay, where do you wanna be in six months? Because once you know where you want to be, it makes it a little bit easier for you to kind of reverse engineer how you're going to get there. So if I wanna lose, let's say 30 pounds in the next six months, okay, what are the things that I need to do and how can I reverse engineer that?
00:22:03
Speaker
so that I know what things I should be doing to get me to that point. And also at the same time, it can be super motivating to just kind of have that end goal in mind and know where you really want to get to. So it's something that kind of pulls you towards that goal as well.
00:22:16
Speaker
So once you have all that, like you have your plan, you feel good about it, you you know what moves you need to make, and you have a solid plan that you can put into place, well, you start to get your reps.
Reflecting and Adjusting Fitness Strategies
00:22:25
Speaker
Once you get your reps in, you're gonna find that things don't always go perfectly, no matter how good your plan is. like There's always gonna be things that come up, there's always gonna be things that you might need to tweak a little bit, and that's normal, that's part of the process. So the second part of this 3R framework is reflect, because if you don't have time to reflect, you don't have time to learn. That's something that,
00:22:45
Speaker
college professor told me a long time ago and it's always stuck with me and it's very very true like if you're just going through the motions and you're always going from the next thing to the next thing to the next thing without ever really reflecting and thinking about what things are working well maybe what things aren't working well it's really hard to learn because that's a big part of the learning process is just taking time to just think and just reflect on what things are going well and you can do this on a daily basis you can do this on a weekly basis you can do this on a monthly basis so for example like for me I have certain things that I want to do on a daily basis, I have certain things that I want to do on a weekly basis, and then even on a monthly basis, sometimes I'll check and see like, am I making the progress that I want to make? But if you're not checking in with yourself, you're not really holding yourself accountable, it makes it hard to know if you're heading in the right direction. So make sure you do take some time to reflect on the things and what you're doing and what's going well and maybe what's not going well. So once you're kind of doing this reflection, you just think to yourself, okay, like, am I being consistent with this plan?
00:23:43
Speaker
If the answer is yes, then just continue what you're doing. You don't need to change a bunch of things or add a bunch of things or be so quick to like try to just change everything up because I think people often get that way in fitness and health goals a lot because like it's always like the shiny new thing syndrome. Like you see something, you're like, oh, maybe I can do this. Maybe I can add this, but it's like the basics always work. And I think people get in a huge hurry because maybe they're not seeing that progress. You know, again, back to that delayed gratification, they're not seeing the progress that they want.
00:24:11
Speaker
And so they think they need to add all these things and then it starts to muddy up their plan a little bit. Maybe they can't be as consistent and they start to fall off and things like that. So if the plan is going well, if you're doing the actions that you need to do and you're being consistent, keep doing it. And maybe you can start to build on that a little bit, start to add a little bit more, but you don't need to be so quick to just like change everything up.
00:24:30
Speaker
If the plane is not going well, like maybe you're just struggling with motivation, you're struggling with consistency, like you're just kind of falling off and things aren't going well, now it's time to think about, okay, why is that? And then we have some strategies that we can start to use for that. So if it's if it's a consistency thing,
00:24:48
Speaker
We can think about, okay, what's not working with this plan? I'm not being consistent with getting my 10,000 steps and why is that? Okay, let's shrink it down a little bit. Let's simplify this. So if it's that walking thing, maybe we were a little bit overzealous and we thought that we could go from 3,000 steps to 12,000 steps and that's just not working out. That's not really realistic. That's not something that you can fit into your lifestyle right now.
00:25:12
Speaker
Okay, let's find a way where we can just shrink that down a little bit. So instead of trying to get 12,000 steps, let's just shoot for 6,000 for the next week and see if we can hit that if that's manageable. And then you can build on that. Maybe it's something with your food. So maybe you try to do all these different elaborate meals and different recipes and stuff like that. Well, how can we shrink that down and simplify that? How can we just make this much easier? Well, you could just eat the same snacks on repeat throughout the week. You get meal prep and cook a lot of the same foods to just simplify this and make it a little bit easier. From a workout standpoint, if you're a person who's like, I need to do a different workout every single day, like I need that different stimulation, I need that variety and things like that. Well, if you can't be consistent with it and you're not really seeing the results that you want to see, how can we shrink this down and simplify this a little bit?
00:26:01
Speaker
Well, you could follow a progressive overload type plan where you're doing the same workouts week after week for a while, you continue to build that up, you get stronger, you build muscle, all those different things. So you're not going in there and having to learn a bunch of new movements every single day. And it's just a little bit easier to stick to it and to do those things when you can simplify and make this a little bit easier.
00:26:22
Speaker
If it's a motivation thing, well then we can start to look at a couple other strategies. So one thing that I think a lot of people overlook is the role that identity plays when it comes to making change. Because if something is a part of your identity, you are going to be pulled to do that thing. And what I mean by that is if you think about like an athlete or you think about like a parent or you think about like just these certain parts of things that will be part of people's identities, they will start to behave in ways that Are in alignment with that identity so like an athlete is going to do things that an athlete does gonna work out because they feel compelled to work out and because their teammates are working out with their competitions working out they're gonna eat a certain way they're gonna do these certain habits a parent has they think a certain way they have certain habits that they do in order to take care of their kids so like when you start to think about how to make fitness and health part of your identity.
00:27:13
Speaker
It's definitely not something that happens overnight, but as you start to think about, okay, how can I become a more fit person? How can I become a more healthy person? How can I start to implement some of these things so that it just feels like a natural part of my life and it's something that I just feel like I have to do?
00:27:27
Speaker
It becomes much easier so you're not just like grinding your way through every single thing and everything doesn't feel like such a struggle when you can start to take on this identity of a more fit, more healthy, more health conscious type of person. And again, this does not happen overnight, but this is definitely something that you can start to do with little actions over time.
00:27:47
Speaker
And eventually you get to a point where again, it's just part of your natural lifestyle and it's just things that you do. So now when you don't work out for multiple days or you are eating kind of off or eating kind of crappy for multiple days, you just feel different. Like you just don't feel as good. It doesn't feel as good mentally. It doesn't feel as good physically. It just doesn't feel like it's in alignment with who you want to be. So start to look for ways where you can start to solidify that identity of being a healthy and fit person. And the last thing I would say is like,
00:28:15
Speaker
When it comes to motivation, a very powerful thing that you can do is start to link motivation to your emotions. And one simple strategy that I've talked about before on this podcast is something that's called future casting. And you can do this in a negative way. You can do it it in a positive way, but this is something that I'll use a lot for myself personally. And so like, for example, let's say one day I do not want to work out. Like I'm just really dragging, but I know I should work out. Like my body feels fine. I'm just like, I had a busy day. I had a stressful day, but I know I need to get that workout in.
00:28:44
Speaker
I start to just take myself out of the current situation. I think, how am I going to feel about this tomorrow? Like if I wake up tomorrow and I'm like, I didn't do my workout simply for the fact because I was just a little bit tired, maybe a little bit stressed and I decided not to do this workout. Well, I know for me, I've done that enough times. I've skipped the workout enough times to know I don't feel good about myself when I skip that workout.
00:29:05
Speaker
And when you extrapolate this out even further, maybe you're in a worse position or maybe you're like me who like, I was a hundred pounds overweight. I was you know struggling with these different things, just low confidence, not having great energy, like kind of on the verge of different health problems. Well, if I extrapolate this out and think about this long-term, okay, if I continue to make this decision of like skipping the workout, missing the workout just because I don't feel a hundred percent, what's going to happen? Well, I'm going to probably not lose this weight. I'm going to continue to be in this current situation and I don't want to do that.
00:29:35
Speaker
And that can be a really powerful tool to just kind of pull you out of where you're currently feeling, get you out of your mood, get you out of your emotions and think more long-term about what is actually important for you. And this doesn't just have to be like a negative thing either. You can do this in a positive way as well. So I did this a lot too. Once I really started to see progress within like losing weight and feeling better and building muscle and all those things, I started to see like those physical changes and also just like the mental changes about how good I was really feeling. And I started to think about,
00:30:02
Speaker
Man, if I continue to do these things, like I'm going to get to my goal and I'm going to feel so much better. Life is just going to be easier. I'm going to be happier. I'm going to look better. I'm going to have better energy. I'm not going to struggle with these certain habits. I'm going to have a better mindset around all this stuff. And that can be super motivating too. So find a way where you can link these certain goals to your emotions to help kind of motivate you a little bit.
00:30:26
Speaker
And then lastly, once we've had a chance to reflect a little bit and we have some of these tweaks in mind, maybe we want to, we have a couple of these strategies that we want to start
Refining Strategies for Better Results
00:30:36
Speaker
to use. Now comes the last part of this is where you refine. So we have our first part, we got our reps, we get our reps in, we get our plan, we start putting things into action. Second part, we reflect what's going well, what's not going well. And third, how can we ref refine this and put these things into action?
00:30:50
Speaker
So the first thing I would say is like you don't need to change a million things at once because that does not work very well for a large majority of people. Pick one to two things and make simple little tweaks and then see if those things continue to work, if they're helping, if they're not helping and then you can start to continue to just refine a little bit, reflect and refine because this thing, this like these goals, like this making this a lifestyle is a trial and error process and that's something that I tell to my clients all the time.
00:31:18
Speaker
Not everything that I do are going to be methods in things that you do. like There's a lot of different ways that you can approach this. like Yes, there's principles of like dieting and exercise and health that you should know, but there's tons and tons of different methods that you can use to get the results that you want to get. and so like Sometimes the slightest little tweaks can make all the difference. so To give you a couple examples, like I've had multiple clients now at this point who like Steps is one of the things that I focus on with a lot of people, like how can we get you moving more? How can we get more steps within your day? And these people both had very sedentary jobs where they sat at a computer most of their day.
00:31:56
Speaker
And so simple thing that we did, they both purchased a walking pad and now they're able to get more walking within their day. So it was just a slight little tweak of their environment and getting this walking pad in their house and now they have up their steps. They're not a sedentary, they're moving more and then they start to get all these benefits of walking. Maybe it's something where like you're really struggling with your diet and you're just like,
00:32:17
Speaker
you don't know what to eat, you're really struggling with like making choices and cooking and just not making the optimal choices to get you to where you want to get. Okay, maybe we can make the simple tweak. How about we just try meal prepping? Like, have you ever tried meal prepping? No. Okay, let's try that. That can be a simple way for you to start to make these positive improvements. Or maybe it's like,
00:32:37
Speaker
You took on too much and you're working out too much. Like you thought that you could get six days in per week, but that's just not really manageable with what you have going on in your routine right now. Well, let's scale that back a little bit. How about we just get three quality workouts in per week, make that little tweak. You feel better about it. You're able to actually hit those goals. Now you feel consistent. You're more motivated because of that.
00:32:59
Speaker
And now you just get that momentum rolling because a lot of people, what they do is they overthink these certain things and they have really unrealistic expectations about what change actually looks like. And they tend to compare themselves to like the fastest change or the biggest like success story that they can find. And this causes people to struggle a lot.
00:33:20
Speaker
So for example, like, let's say there's a person that they know they lost 50 pounds in like three months. So like now in their head, they're thinking, well, I'm trying to lose weight. Maybe I should be losing 50 pounds in three months. But it's like, the reality is people move at very different paces when it comes to progressing. And when it comes to reaching your goals.
00:33:38
Speaker
And I think the biggest things that people need to realize is that as long as you don't quit and you're making a little bit of progress every single day, you're eventually going to get to your goal and you're going to be in a better spot. Like if you make a little bit of progress for the entire next year, do you think you're going to be healthier? Do you think you're going to be more fit? Absolutely. What about if you do that for five years? If you do that for 10 years?
00:34:00
Speaker
you look up one day and you're a completely different person but people really start to judge themselves and have these unrealistic expectations which oftentimes leads them to being demotivated or quitting or falling off because they're not seeing the progress as fast as they want to see but as long as you're Number one, you
Adopting a Long-Term Mindset
00:34:19
Speaker
don't quit. And number two, you're continuing to get that 1% better that I always talk about. You're gonna you're gonna get there, like you're gonna continue to make progress, you're gonna be in a better spot. So maybe like right now, you're only walking 3000 steps a day. But if you continue to build that up, well, maybe over a year, you can get up to that 10,000 steps per day. Or maybe your diet isn't quite as good as you would like it to be. Well, you continue to refine that focus on that a year from now, you could be in a completely different spot.
00:34:43
Speaker
When I think about my own fitness journey, like I made a tweet about this the other day and I thought about day one versus day 365 of when I first started making fitness a priority and like really dove into my whole weight loss journey. My very first day, that day one, I could do zero pull ups. By the end of the year, I could do sets of 10.
00:35:04
Speaker
Day one, I hadn't lost a single pound, obviously. Day 365, I was down 60 pounds. Day one, not very healthy, not very happy, low confidence, like just not thriving in the areas that I wanted to be thriving in within my life.
00:35:20
Speaker
day 365 in a much, much better spot, believing that everything that I was doing was actually achievable was possible, I felt better, I was happier, I was better energy, more confident. And so like even just one single dedicated year, you could make so much progress as long as you continue to focus on just getting better and A big part of that is just understanding that this is a lifestyle thing. We want to be measuring in months and in years, not in days and not weeks because people often will overestimate what they can do like in a couple of weeks or in a couple of months, not really thinking about how much different things could be in a couple of years. like You could be a completely different person
00:36:00
Speaker
in the course of a year or two years. And so understand that, realize that like this is a lifestyle thing. You don't have to have it all figured out right now. Like as long as you're moving in the right direction, you're heading towards your goals and you're going to eventually get to the spots that you want to be.
00:36:16
Speaker
And so that's the three R framework that I use. Hopefully, you know, there was a nugget or two in there, a method in there or something that you could pull out of this where you can actually start to use right away. Because one thing that I know is as you start to gather in all this information, the quicker that you can use those things, the easier that it is to learn and implement those things, the more that it's going to stick with you. So if you struggle with motivation, if you struggle with consistency, try using this framework and see if it helps with you know what you're trying to do reps reflect refine understanding too that it it is a trial and error process so don't be discouraged with challenges or maybe slow progress because again
00:36:54
Speaker
stay on track, don't quit, continue to make progress. You're eventually going to get more fit, feel better, look better, all those different goals that we have. And then the last thing is just understanding that like change is 100% possible. It's not always easy, but it is 100% possible. It's just a matter of deciding that you really want to change and then two, just breaking it down into a way that you can actually make this possible. And hopefully with this framework, you have a little bit more idea of how you can do that.
Personalized Coaching with Latham Bass
00:37:20
Speaker
But with that being said, I know this was a ton of information and a lot coming at you. um So if this is something that you want help with, like if you want somebody who can guide you through this whole process, who can kind of hold you accountable, who can point these things out to you, you can always apply for one-on-one coaching.
00:37:37
Speaker
taking people on. I know with the new year coming up, going to have more inquiries about that. So if you're interested, you can always check that link out. We can have a conversation, see if you're a good fit. But for now, that is all I have. I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.