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#108 - You’ve Seen Before and After Pictures… But No One Talks About the Part You Need Most — Let’s Talk About It.
26 Plays27 days ago
Everyone shows the highlights. But the real transformation happens in the messy middle — the part people rarely prepare you for.
In this episode, I break down what that journey actually looks like so you can stop second-guessing yourself and avoid falling off.
What you’ll learn:
- The 3 stages of every fitness journey (and which one you're in)
- Why most people quit in the middle — and how not to be one of them
- What progress really looks like when chasing meaningful goals
- How to build a mindset and lifestyle that lasts
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Transcript
Introduction to Fitish Project
00:00:02
Speaker
welcome back to the fit ish project with your host as always lathan bass where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and i we got another weekly episode coming at you before i get into this episode if you can leave a review if you have done so already i greatly appreciate you but if you have not i would really appreciate that just continue to get this out to more of the people who really need this information But with that being said, this week's topic, I was thinking about this
Reflecting on Fitness Journey
00:00:31
Speaker
a little bit. And as I like to do on my walks throughout the day, I just like to think and ponder and reflect a little bit.
00:00:38
Speaker
And I started thinking about just my journey as a whole and just how many different stages that I've actually gone through with this whole thing, because I've been at this for around, I think just over 10 years now. I kind of, I started when I was like right around 21, 22, and I'm going to be 32 here in a couple of months. So I've been going at this thing for about a good solid 10 years. And when I look back at the different phases of life that I've been through along this journey,
Understanding the 'Messy Middle'
00:01:07
Speaker
it's changed a lot. And I think that one thing that a lot of people don't really see, like, with these fitness journeys is the middle, like they see the before picture, they see the after photo, but nobody really talks about the messy middle. And that's where 99% of everything takes place.
00:01:24
Speaker
And so I think it's important to just give people a realistic view of what that actually looks like and give people a little bit of an insight into just some of the details and some of the things to look out for, maybe some expectations you can have.
00:01:38
Speaker
Because one thing that I really, really dislike about the fitness industry is just how much emphasis they put on like all the good stuff. Nobody ever talks about like the hard stuff. They just show you their before and after transformation. You know, this is awesome. This is super motivating. This is inspiring.
Unrealistic Fitness Expectations
00:01:55
Speaker
But then they don't really talk about what happened in the middle and rarely is progress linear, especially the big things that are going on. Like most people that you see that have made some sort of bigger transformation, whether it be weight wise or fitness wise or change their body or ah mental transformation or whatever the case may be, have gone through different stages and it has not always been just this straight line up. Like they didn't just climb the mountain straight up. Like there's been some peaks, there's been some valleys.
00:02:22
Speaker
There's been some plateaus in there. There's been some struggles. There's been a lot of good things. There's been some things that maybe weren't so good. And so I wanted to talk through that a little bit today because I feel like the more that you can understand about this whole fitness journey and going into this and just really just digging into some of the details and then also giving you some practical steps and some advice about what you can expect and just warn you about some mistakes that maybe I made and hopefully you can avoid, I think is really, really helpful along this fitness journey because
00:02:53
Speaker
A lot of people get into this and they just don't have the right expectations. And I think unrealistic expectations around what fitness and health should look like holds a lot of
Fitness: A Lifelong Process
00:03:04
Speaker
people back from ever getting started. And for the people that do start, a lot of times they won't see the progress that they think they should be seeing based on social media or somebody that they know and who just had this crazy transformation. And that's because they don't actually know the whole story.
00:03:19
Speaker
And being that I've been through this and been on this journey for 10 years and now having the luxury to work with a lot of different people, I know that the messy middle, that's where all that transformation takes place. And that part of it is not just a straight line.
00:03:35
Speaker
It's not all easy. And so I think it's important to talk about both the good and maybe the not so good thing and the more difficult things. And so that is what I wanted to do with
Personal Milestones and Mindset
00:03:43
Speaker
this. So by the end of this pod, you have a little bit more Clarity about some things that you can expect some mistakes that you can avoid and As always give you a couple practical takeaways and hopefully just give you a new perspective on how to approach this whole thing because as I've said multiple times Fitness is a forever thing like it's a forever journey It's not something that you necessarily win like it's great to have goals and meet those goals, but
00:04:07
Speaker
A lot of times those goalposts are just going to keep moving, especially when it comes to just fitness, because like there's just so many different ways that you can get better at. And so I think having a better understanding of like, OK, this is something that I want to continue to do.
00:04:20
Speaker
for my entire life because I know how much better it makes me feel. I know how much better it makes me look, the confidence, the energy, like all these different things that fitness gives me and understanding that this is a forever thing, but just having the proper expectations going into this whole journey and just really looking at it with a more holistic view about like what this whole thing is going to entail and why I'm doing these things and just some mistakes to look out for and things like that. So that is kind of what I want to get into for this pod.
00:04:48
Speaker
So we're talking a little bit about just like where I've been, if you've listened to this podcast for any amount of time, I've done a couple like longer episodes just detailing my entire journey up to this point. So I won't get into all the nitty gritty details of that. But like I've gone through many different stages in this 10 year span. So when I started, I was up over 300 pounds.
00:05:08
Speaker
I dieted straight for 15 months and lost 75 pounds and hit my initial goal of getting to 225 pounds. When I started in this stage, I was super motivated. Like I had been bigger guy my entire life, always active, but like I just wanted to be leaner. I wanted to be healthier. I wanted to feel more confident and just better in my body, just feel better in my skin.
00:05:30
Speaker
And so when I was done with football, I was super excited to get into fitness and make this a lifestyle. And so like motivation was super high. I was just working out a ton, like honestly, six to seven days a week in the gym.
00:05:42
Speaker
I didn't know a ton about like diet and just nutrition and things like that. I just knew that I had to eat less. I had to eat in a calorie deficit. So that's what I did. I was a little bit more restrictive in my approach and just the things that I ate to lose that 75 pounds.
00:05:56
Speaker
But like I was just so motivated that it didn't matter. And I was seeing progress. And so I made that initial drop. Got down to that 225. And as what happens with a lot of people after I hit that initial goal, I kind of slowed up a little bit, got a little bit complacent, lost momentum. I didn't really focus like on
Sustainable Habits for Fitness
00:06:15
Speaker
the habits and the mindset and all those things that I try to talk about now with people to get them set up for success. I didn't really have that stuff. So like I knew some of the basics, but I was just really just working super hard and just making it work.
00:06:27
Speaker
But I got to this point, hit my goal, relaxed a little bit, end up gaining 20, 25, 30 pounds. Like I get up to like 240 ish, 250 ish. And so at the time, like looking back, I don't really remember like gaining this weight, like gaining this 20 to 30 pounds.
00:06:45
Speaker
But like when I look back on pictures, like it's super easy to see. I look very different in those pictures. Like I was definitely putting on some weight and like I was sliding back, but I didn't really know it at the time.
00:06:56
Speaker
And so this is why I'm such a proponent of doing things the right way and making sure that things are sustainable. Because I was in a phase where like, again, I was just super motivated. And like, I wasn't really focused on like building really great habits or like creating a good relationship with food or like getting a good understanding of like training and nutrition and all these basic principles that you need to have this journey be something that's sustainable and make your results sustainable. I was just focused on like, let's just do more and let's just get to this goal. And I didn't really have a plan after I got to this goal. So like,
00:07:30
Speaker
had some of the basics down but like i didn't really have a good foundation set to sustain this goal and so that's why i'm such a big proponent of doing this the right way and just making sure that you are being sustainable within your approach and once you have that foundation there is a time and a place where like you can just go super hard and you can just like really put the pedal to the metal like there's a season where you can just really focus in and just really put in a ton of effort But I think for a lot of people, sometimes in the beginning, in that like initial phase, they take on too much a little bit too soon. And they think that this motivation is going to last forever. And that's just how this whole process is going to be. And rarely is that the case. so
00:08:11
Speaker
One thing that I would say
Techniques for Accountability
00:08:13
Speaker
with just like a practical tip within this is like after you do hit that initial goal, one thing that I have found and something that's actually been shown in studies is that once you get to a certain initial goal, one of the things that people do who have been able to lose a significant amount of weight and keep it off is they do this one thing that's called self-monitoring.
00:08:35
Speaker
And so basically, this is just a way to say like they are tracking progress in some way to hold themselves accountable. And so like super simple, easy examples is like people who have lost a lot of weight, they will regularly weigh themselves. So like they're not obsessive about the scale, but if they're stepping on the scale two, three, four times a week and they have that number there, it's just something that they're keeping top of mind. So they're not like letting themselves stray and go way far off the path without ever realizing it. Because like I said, in my situation,
00:09:04
Speaker
I didn't even really realize that I was putting on this weight. I was just kind of living my life, doing my thing. And then when I look at pictures now, I'm like, yeah, it's clear as day. Like you obviously gained 30 pounds, like you're bigger and you look chubbier. And like, how did you not really realize that at the time? But like when you're in it, sometimes we just kind of slide and our habits aren't really...
00:09:23
Speaker
necessarily as in place as we'd like them to be. And you start eating more, maybe you start moving a little bit less and like these pounds start to creep back on. And so having something in place such as a self monitoring technique, whether it's tracking your weight, it could be taking a progress picture every couple of weeks or every couple of months.
00:09:41
Speaker
paying attention to how your clothes are fitting. Like if those jeans are fitting a little bit tighter, those those t shirts or different clothes are fitting a little bit tighter, that's probably a sign that you're putting on some weight or maybe you take your measurements every month or so.
00:09:53
Speaker
And this is not something that you have to be obsessive about, but it's just another tool to hold you accountable. And if you can do it more regularly, it's just something that's going to help to keep you where you want to be.
00:10:04
Speaker
Another easy way to do this is just to track your food periodically. So like I'm not somebody who thinks you need to track your food for your entire life. Like somebody some people like to do that and they just like knowing and they like tracking and they like that whole process.
00:10:17
Speaker
I don't think that's a majority of people. And so I think a lot of times tracking should be done when you have a specific goal. In order to just be more accountable and just actually be precise and be able to make better decisions and more accurate decisions, tracking food can be really, really helpful in those aspects.
00:10:34
Speaker
But when you're not
Importance of Maintenance Phases
00:10:35
Speaker
necessarily like you have some sort of like fat loss goal or weight loss goal, you don't always need to be tracking calories if you have good eating But with that being said, let's say that you're a person who you spent some time losing a substantial amount of weight and you notice that, okay, you're eating a little bit more. Maybe your proportion control isn't as dialed in as it was taking a period of like two weeks or so to just like start tracking your food again and just really like getting things focused in can be a super simple way to like dial yourself back in and just reinforce some of those really good habits. Because
00:11:07
Speaker
I've dieted multiple times. Like I've gone through tons of different phases at this point in this 10 year span, like dozens at this point of different cuts and fat loss cuts and losing weight. And I've spent a very long time just tracking food and things like that.
00:11:20
Speaker
But pretty much every single time that I go back and i'll I'll track food, if I haven't been doing it for like several months, I'm always a little bit surprised at like what certain portions look like and how much I'm eating and how much protein I'm getting and things like that. Because studies show us that like we think we are eating a certain amount, but people will overestimate how much activity they're getting and then they'll underestimate how much food they're actually eating, sometimes up to as much as 50%.
00:11:46
Speaker
So you might be thinking, okay, I'm only eating 2000 calories a day. And then you go and you track your food and you're actually eating 3000 calories a day. Well, you can probably guess how that's going to show up and why you might be putting on some extra pounds or maybe not seeing the progress that you want to see. And so having some sort of tool in place, like using one of these self-monitoring techniques can be a super good way to just help yourself get back on track or just make sure that you're staying accountable to your goals.
00:12:14
Speaker
So after i Balloon back up a little bit gain that 20 30 pounds. I was like, Alright, I need to dial it back in. And so like this time around, I was I was more conscious of the things that I needed to do. Like I had a better understanding around nutrition around training, things like that. I was more patient this time around, because I knew that I could lose the weight.
00:12:32
Speaker
I just had to do it in a little bit smarter way, which is exactly what I did this second time around. And so I dieted and I was just making sure that I was paying attention to the right things. It didn't feel like it was like something that was like super automatic, but I did feel like ah a little bit better going into this dieting phase because I had more experience. I knew what to do and I was approaching it with a little bit better.
00:12:53
Speaker
mindset and just having a little bit more patience with the process. And so I got back down to around 220-ish, a little bit below that initial goal of that 225. Felt pretty good here. And this was a place that I hovered around for a couple of years. And so I think a lot of times people will...
00:13:09
Speaker
think that like, if they have these big weight loss goals, sometimes they get so focused in to just like losing weight that they forget that most of your life is supposed to be spent in maintenance, like you're not supposed to spend your entire life every single year, multiple days out of every single year dieting,
Viewing Maintenance as Momentum
00:13:25
Speaker
most of your life is supposed to be spent in maintenance.
00:13:27
Speaker
And so realizing that and understanding like okay i don't always need to be dieting i don't always need to be like just crazy crazy dialed in and understanding that that maintaining like that maintenance is part of this whole process because maintaining your weight is important like if you have this goal and you get to this goal but you can't maintain it well then like what are we what are we doing this for, right? Like we wanna get to a point where like we're able to maintain this lifestyle and really live this lifestyle and keep those results that we want.
00:13:58
Speaker
And so understanding that like there's going to be some periods throughout this process, especially if you do have a lot of weight to lose, where you're just gonna be focused on maintaining. And I think that's something that I didn't really realize at first and something that I tried to explain to people and work with all my clients as well. Like if they have a substantial amount of weight to lose, like it's not a bad thing to just spend some time in a diet break or just spend some time maintaining that weight.
00:14:21
Speaker
And so understanding that and just realizing like just because you're maintaining or maybe you like are in this plateau, as a lot of people like to call it, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Because the last thing that you want to do is turn into one of these chronic dieters and a person that is literally just feels like they're dieting all the time because one that sucks mentally like dieting in itself like if you do it the right way it shouldn't be like this super crazy stressor.
00:14:45
Speaker
A lot of people don't do it the right way so it is a very big stressor on their body and just their mental health. But you still don't want to be dieting all year round. Like you don't want to be just focused on just losing weight all the time because that's not how life is supposed to be spent. Like you're supposed to just be able to enjoy yourself and not always just be 100% focused on food or dieting or weight loss or fat loss or things like that.
00:15:08
Speaker
And so realizing that like dieting is a stress on the body and if you're chronically always just dieting dieting dieting like it's going to have some negative effects not just on physical health but on mental health just on your quality of life and things like that so starting to just reframe that maintenance or even like you know this idea of a plateau and start thinking of those things as a necessary part of this process and something that is actually a good thing like You want to get to periods of maintenance because, again, the goal is not to diet forever. You want to just learn to maintain this
Trade-offs for a Lean Physique
00:15:40
Speaker
lifestyle. And so start to just shift that focus in your mind and and stop thinking of maintaining as such a bad thing because it's not a bad thing. Like I was in this stage for multiple years where I hovered around 210, 215, 220.
00:15:54
Speaker
Like for years, like I was still focused on building strength. out was focused on getting better with habits and getting more steps in and just adding some different things to my routine and trying some different things. But like I was in this same weight frame, this 210 to 220 ish range for a couple different years.
00:16:11
Speaker
And then eventually it got to a point where we hit COVID. ended up gaining some weight back again, you know, just a combination of not moving nearly as much and just being locked indoors and just eating more food, like gained weight. And again, this was another time where like, didn't really feel like I was gaining weight, but obviously the habits start to slip a little bit. And then I just remember taking a progress pic in the mirror and I was like, dang, I'm not really liking what I'm seeing here. I was like, I got up to around like two 30 ish and I was like, all right, time to dial it back in. Like time to, you know, get back after this. Let's, let's lock back in with the nutrition, with the training and stuff like that. And just really start to get to a point where like,
00:16:49
Speaker
I feel good about what I look like in the mirror and I can do all the things that I want to do physically. And so I got back to it, got back down to around like 210, 215, dieted again this time around. Now that I've gone through this cycle multiple times, I feel really comfortable about it. I know exactly what I'm doing.
00:17:06
Speaker
I have the knowledge to like do all these things. I'm building better habits. And so this was really easy for me this time around. And then eventually, like within the last couple of years, I've gotten to a place now where like It was just on autopilot. And I was like, well, I feel really good at this like 210, 215-ish range. But I kind of want to push myself a little bit and just see like where I can end up. And like if being more lean or or something along those lines or chasing some of these other goals, like if I'll actually feel better. And so within these last couple of years, I've dialed in my habits even a little bit more.
00:17:40
Speaker
And now I'm sitting around like 200 to ish. And that's been fairly easy for me now, too. And so like maintaining these different levels has become easier over time because my skills that I have around just like health, food, things like that have become a little bit better. My mindset is way better than when I started.
00:17:59
Speaker
My environment is better. Like I've just improved all these little things in different ways. And it's made being able to like stay fairly lean and like feel good and be healthy and be in the best shape I've ever been in.
00:18:11
Speaker
not super difficult.
Realistic Fitness Goals
00:18:13
Speaker
But I think one thing that a lot of people don't really discuss is like this idea of the cost of like being lean or hitting these certain goals. Because a lot of times people will have these certain goals, they'll they'll just pick these goals in their mind, they'll be like, I want to get to so-and-so so and so weight, like they just pick this number in their head, or they're like, I want to get this lean, or they have like this image of in their head of like, I want to have abs or like, I want to do this, or I want to do that.
00:18:38
Speaker
And I look at it a little differently, like having those things. I think about, OK, if I want this certain thing, what are the things that I have to do to get that certain thing? And there was this graphic that I came across quite a while ago ah through Precision Nutrition, which is a certification like a nutrition company.
00:18:54
Speaker
And they had this graphic and it was. these different stages of what it takes to be a certain amount of leanness. So like at the very top, it was like, you know, you track your food, you eat well, like 50% of the time you don't exercise a lot and your body fat is like, know,
00:19:09
Speaker
higher. And as you get lower and lower, it talked about the different things that you had to do and to stay lean. And so like, if you look at somebody who's like, got a six pack or is just chiseled all year round, well, that person probably doesn't eat out very often. If ever they prepare all their food, they don't really drink alcohol, they don't have excess calories, they probably track a very, very large amount of their meals, if not all their meals all year round.
00:19:33
Speaker
They probably do cardio multiple times per week to stay that lean. They're probably in the gym four or five times a week. They're doing these different things and they're making these trade-offs to be that lean.
00:19:45
Speaker
Because when you get to a certain level of leanness, And this varies a little bit from person to person, but the leaner that you get, the more difficult that it is to maintain. And that varies, again, just based on genetics and where you're starting and just the habits and skills that you have.
00:20:00
Speaker
But with that being said, like, I'm not really somebody right now, like, I don't want to have a six pack because I know what that entails. Like, I know I would have to literally... prepare every single one of my meals. I would rarely, if ever be able to eat out, I could do it. But like, I would just have to be so much more diligent about like tracking food and like being on my stuff and making sure that like, I'm never missing cardio. I'm getting certain amount of steps in every single day. And like, for me, where I'm at right now, like that's not a goal of mine.
00:20:27
Speaker
but like understanding that there's a certain cost to these things that you want and just looking and thinking about those things logically and objectively like not just whether or not you want to be at a certain weight or you want to look a certain way like are you willing to do those things and the more weight that you lose the leaner you get the stronger you want to get the more muscle you want to build the higher the cost of those things are and so just having that real conversation with yourself and just understanding okay I don't necessarily want to be ripped. And i I think that's most people like they don't need to be like they don't need a six pack. They don't need to be absolutely shredded to the bone.
Phases of a Fitness Journey
00:21:00
Speaker
They don't need to be like the the strongest person or things like that. And you can get a lot of hit a lot of those goals that most people have, like most the clients that I work with, the goals that I see, like my friends have and things like that. Like you can hit those things without being super extreme in nature.
00:21:16
Speaker
And just understanding, okay, I need to do some of the basic things. Like I need to you know track some my food and make sure that I'm hitting my calories. I need to learn to prepare some of my own food and eat fruits and vegetables. I need to hit my protein, get my steps in on a regular basis, like workout three to four times per week. Like it's really not a super crazy, long, exhaustive list to hit most of the goals that most people have. It's just a matter of just understanding what that entails and then just being consistent with those things.
00:21:43
Speaker
But I think it is important to bring those things up because sometimes people will tell me those, their certain goals, but I know that like the, the things that they think they have to do in order to achieve that, like they're, they aren't necessarily things that they're willing to do at this point in their life, or they don't just don't understand what those things entail.
00:22:01
Speaker
And so like, if you have questions about like what that might look like, just find people who have hit those goals and just talk to them, like see the things that they do look at the way that they live their life. And it's like,
00:22:12
Speaker
are those things that you could see yourself doing for the long term. And I think again, for a lot of people, just the basic goals, like you want to look a little bit better, you want to have more confidence, you want to lose some body fat, build some muscle, like you can do those things with a very base level foundation and just hitting some daily and weekly disciplines of just like I said, getting in the gym three to four days a week, hitting your protein, hitting your calories, getting some decent sleep, like you can hit a lot of those goals just by doing some very, very basic things.
00:22:39
Speaker
But if you do want to take it to like different levels, just understand that sometimes those things are going to take a little bit more consistency, a little bit more diligence, a little bit more discipline and just make that decision is that a trade-off that you're willing to make if you are awesome if you're not then don't continue to chase that goal because you're just gonna get yourself frustrated and you're just gonna look at it and you're just gonna wonder like why can't i do this thing or like it just makes the whole process just muddied up and so get very clear about your goal but also get very clear about what it takes to hit that goal and it makes this process much easier
00:23:15
Speaker
to stick with it makes it more clear and it makes it more realistic because like if you're not willing to do those things that it takes to get that goal like what's the point of just continuing to like chase that goal and so all that to say like there's going to be different seasons like that whole journey there that i just brought you through was like a 10 year span like i've just i've gone up and sometimes i've gone down in other ways like I built built different skills and things like that over time. But like not every season is going to be about like losing more weight.
00:23:45
Speaker
Some seasons are going to be about maintaining. Some are more about rebuilding. Some are just about living and enjoying yourself. Like there's periods within there where like I wasn't as dialed in with my nutrition or getting as much activity in. Maybe I wasn't as tight with my diet where like I was just more focused on just life in general and other things. And that's fine, too.
00:24:04
Speaker
And I think it's very similar to when you look at like a fitness journey, like you can have the things that you want. It's just very hard to do everything all
Stages in Fitness: Newcomer to Maintenance
00:24:12
Speaker
at once. And so like over my fitness journey, there's been times where I focused on more mobility and flexibility, which is kind of what I'm doing right now. There's been times where I focus more on like building a bunch of muscle and getting like as strong as possible. There's been other times where like I added in cardio.
00:24:26
Speaker
And so like you can go through these different phases. It's just really hard to do multiple things at one time and understanding that and just being okay with like, this is going to be a process. I'm, and I'm slowly going to just build on this process.
00:24:40
Speaker
And be okay with that is something that I think would help a lot of people to release some of those unrealistic expectations about like how you have to do everything all at once. Because if you try to do everything all at once, a lot of times you just end up doing nothing.
00:24:53
Speaker
And so when we think about just this journey in general, I kind of break it down into like three different stages. Like there's three different versions that you have to go through as you're going through these phases at different times. And it's not that like you go through these once and then like you never see them again. A lot of times it's like every time we go to level up or we start a new goal or we have a new focus, you kind of go through these different levels again. And so in the very beginning, you have like this newcomer stage, which is basically like you're beginner.
00:25:17
Speaker
A lot of times when you get into this stage, There's a lot of excitement. You see a lot of really fast wins. You are just strictly being fueled by motivation. As I stated a little bit in my story, like when you get started on a new goal, it's exciting, it's motivating.
00:25:30
Speaker
You're still kind of figuring out like the habits and routines and you're not really focused in on all that stuff. You're really just driven by motivation and you're showing up. The efforts there. This is kind of a fun stage because like you get into it and like you're excited, you're motivated. Things are cool. Like you're seeing progress. A lot of times you see some fast wins and this is really cool. But the issue with this stage is like a lot of people think this is what it's going to continue to be like. And they often just think that more is going to be better.
00:25:57
Speaker
a lot of people will do a lot in the very beginning, but then they can't really sustain that. And then they think, oh, since I can't sustain it, like I'm not motivated anymore, like maybe I shouldn't do it. And so practical tip, as you start to get into this is like, if you want to ride that wave and like really feel good about like, you know, starting this new journey and being super motivated, like, cool, I'm all for it. But understand like,
00:26:17
Speaker
have some daily or weekly disciplines and don't set those based on where you're at right now. Set those things on what you can do on your hard days because you don't want to set your expectations about what you can do on your very best day because not every day is going to be your best day.
Challenges of the Grinder Stage
00:26:32
Speaker
Like you're not going to be motivated every single day.
00:26:34
Speaker
You're not going to be stress-free every single day. You're not going to be this excited every single day. And so you want to think about what are the things that I can do on my hard days, on my stressful days, on my busy days and set that as the baseline And then anything that you do above that, awesome. That's a bonus. But that's just a really practical way that you can set yourself up for future success.
00:26:54
Speaker
So you don't just hit this lull as soon as that motivation wears off because it absolutely will wear off. This sort of reminds me back when I was playing college football, like every single season, we'd always be excited about getting into the new season. Like you have your off season, you train a bunch, like a bunch of early workouts, your conditioning and that part kind of blows. You're just, you're putting in all this work and you just like, you don't really get to play football. You don't really get to do the thing that you really want to do, but you're putting in all this like training and things like that. And like motivation isn't super high. And then
00:27:25
Speaker
you get closer and closer to the preseason and you're excited and you get to see your teammates as soon as that season starts. And like, we're all there. We're excited. We're amped up. And for the first couple of days, it's awesome.
00:27:36
Speaker
And then all of a sudden it starts to set in that motivation at the beginning, starts to wear off the grind kind of starts to happen. And you're like, all right, like, This is tough. Like where we have two a day practices, we're lifting, we're sore, we're tired, like in that newness kind of wears off like that, that initial excitement kind of wears off and then you start to get into like the real stuff and it turns into that grind or similar to like a relationship like they call it the honeymoon stage, like you meet somebody and you're super excited, you're super happy, like things are great, nothing can go wrong.
00:28:07
Speaker
everything's awesome. And then that wears off after a while. And then it's like, okay, time to get real again. And that happens with fitness as well. Like you're going to have that honeymoon stage at the beginning where like motivation is high, everything is going well, like you feel super motivated, but that doesn't last.
00:28:22
Speaker
And I think having that expectation and understanding that that's not how it's always going to be is important in taking you into the next phase, which is like the grinder stage. This is the part where like, A lot of really good things happen in this phase, but this is also the most difficult phase. This is what I think of as like the make or break for a lot of people because progress starts to slow down here and that motivation starts to wear it off.
00:28:47
Speaker
Things start to get a little bit more difficult. This is where a lot of those doubts start to creep in because you're not making progress as fast. You start thinking, is all this stuff worth it? Like, Am I doing enough? Do I need to change my plans? Because you're not really motivated. You're not really seeing that progress. You're starting to wonder and you're just starting to question yourself a lot. And everybody
Growth in Discomfort
00:29:05
Speaker
goes through this. Like every single person out there that you see that's had any sort of success, whether it's fitness or any other area, they go through this certain stage. Like they all have these feelings.
00:29:15
Speaker
And this is where you either quit, you change your plans or you start to lean in. And if you can start to lean into that discomfort, this is where you really start to build up a lot of that mental capacity, you start to build up that discipline, you start to build up that confidence and consistency. And again, this is where a ton of growth really happens. If you do lean into some of that discomfort,
00:29:36
Speaker
You just have to realize like this isn't going to last forever. And if I can continue to push through this, like on the other side of this, that's where even more progress is going to come. And that's where I'm going to really start to shift my identity and start to turn into this really confident person, this disciplined person, this person that I really wanted to be all along.
00:29:56
Speaker
And that's easier said than done at times, because again, discomfort, like nobody really loves to feel uncomfortable, but like this is the phase where like you feel a lot of that. It reminds me of this Hormozzi quote, Alex Hormozzi. He's a big entrepreneur, just really famous in like the business space and things like that. And he said like,
00:30:15
Speaker
A lot of people think about like the Rocky cut scene in the movie and it's like super cool and it's motivating and it's exciting. And like you see him training and grinding and doing all these things. You're like, man, that's super cool. Like, I want to do that. Like it pumps you up, you're motivated.
00:30:27
Speaker
But he says like this Rocky cut scene in the movie, it only lasts, you know, 60 seconds or a couple minutes or whatever the case may be. But like in real life, sometimes these grinder stages can last for multiple months, multiple years. And you might go through certain stages where like you don't necessarily like see tons of big changes.
00:30:44
Speaker
You don't necessarily like feel like you're making all that much progress. You might start to like motivation isn't super high and like you're just struggling at different times. And this is like this is that grinder stage. Like this is the stage that separates a lot of people from actually like breaking through the other side of that and making this a lifestyle, making this a reality and not making it a reality because they fall off or they quit or they don't want to continue to do this.
00:31:08
Speaker
And so like when you hit this stage, because you will, you absolutely will. If you're chasing something that's important to you, something that's difficult, which most things that are important are going to be difficult, you will hit this stage. And so when you hit this stage, just understanding like this is normal.
00:31:23
Speaker
This is what this is supposed to feel like and embrace that a little bit, like lean into it and realize that this doesn't last forever.
Momentum and Long-term Habits
00:31:31
Speaker
And then once you've kind of gone through like this real like big grinder stage, you get to the maintainer stage. So like this is like the maintenance stage. And I like to think of this a little bit more as like momentum. And because I think maintenance sometimes has a negative connotation to it, like I'm stagnant or i'm like I'm not really moving. And so I think just shifting that and thinking about the maintenance phase as more of a momentum phase.
00:31:53
Speaker
Because as you're going through this momentum phase, like you're still you're making progress, like you're putting in deposits in the bank for whenever you do want to chase a bigger goal. Like you're still refining things and you're getting better and you're building up better habits and you're shifting your identity and you're creating this mindset and you're making this a lifestyle.
00:32:10
Speaker
You're progressing in tons of different ways. Like this might be a phase where like you're not necessarily like losing weight or like. achieving or striving towards these crazy goals but like you might be building some strength like you might be adding some weight on your lifts in the gym you might be building better consistency you might be improving your diet in certain ways improving your mindset and so working on maybe like some lifestyle things like improving your sleep or like stress management or things like that and so you're still like getting better you're still getting that one percent better that i like to talk about so often you're just not necessarily like chasing these crazy goals and as i said this is where a lot of your life will be lived like you're not meant to always be dieting or like always be chasing 100 of the time like a lot of it just comes down to like this momentum stage where like you're just slowly building slowly building slowly building getting a little bit better over time
00:33:00
Speaker
and understanding that like this is important part of your journey. Because as I said a little bit earlier, especially in terms of like weight loss, most people who lose weight like who lose a significant amount of weight will gain most of that way back within three to five years and so that just goes to tell you weight loss in itself like a lot of people can lose weight a majority of people really struggle to maintain that weight and i think that is because like they just don't do it the right way like they don't have the right mindset they don't have the right habits they don't set up their environment they don't spend time actually doing these things the right way so when they get to this
00:33:34
Speaker
maintenance, when they get to this momentum phase, they really struggle to maintain.
Consistency and Self-monitoring
00:33:39
Speaker
And so if you can do these things the right way and start to shift what maintenance in this momentum phase actually means every single day of maintaining your weight or like keeping your strength levels up or showing up and doing the things that you need to do is a step in the right direction. Because the fact of the matter is most people, they don't keep the weight off. They don't keep doing this. They aren't consistent.
00:33:59
Speaker
So every single day that you add on that you are consistent, that's progress and so start to reframe this maintenance phase as more of a momentum phase and as a phase where you're still making some progress can be super powerful because people will often ask me like not so much anymore but like especially like when i was like when i had initially lost a bunch of weight and things like that people would ask me like if i was worried about gaining the weight back and at the time like when i first lost it like I don't know if I could give you the same answer that I give you now because like I just didn't understand it as much. I didn't have the habits in place. I didn't have the mindset in place. I didn't really approach this with the right outlook.
00:34:36
Speaker
Now, if you ask me that, like there's no chance, like there's no way that I would ever go back to being 300 pounds. And like, I don't have a single doubt in my mind that that would ever happen. Because I've spent so much time like solidifying this new identity and just building up who I am and the habits and the mindset and all that different stuff. And I have all the tools and the knowledge and everything that I try to give you guys through this podcast. You're like, I have all those things in place now. So I'm not worried about those things.
00:35:00
Speaker
And a lot of those things took place in this maintenance phase, like in this momentum phase, like spending the time just really like learning to live this lifestyle And so think of this phase as an important part of your journey because it really is.
00:35:15
Speaker
a simple little practical thing to think about too, when it comes to like maintenance and specifically like if weight loss is a goal or something that you have been striving for is to have some sort of a range around your maintenance where you can keep things kind of dialed in. And so what I mean by that is like, have like a five to 10 pound range of where you want to keep yourself. And then again, use one of those self-monitoring techniques to make sure that you are staying within that range, because it's a lot easier to stay in shape than to get in shape. That's just true. Like It's easier to ride that momentum than it is to like stop and start and stop and start and stop and start. So like if I was to gain 30 or 40 pounds, like dropping that would suck. Like I would not enjoy that. And that would be hard and difficult.
00:35:55
Speaker
And I would not want to do that because like it would just take longer. It would take more effort. And I don't want to do that.
Adapting to New Fitness Cycles
00:36:01
Speaker
But if I just have to lose five or 10 pounds, like if I you know go through a phase where like I'm not just as dialed in with my nutrition and things like that. And I have to go into a little mini cut and lose five to 10 pounds. Like that's not a problem at all because I have the tools and everything to do that.
00:36:15
Speaker
And so having this sort of range, like I'll let myself get five, 10 pounds heavier than maybe I want to be like my ideal weight. And I don't really fret about that because that allows me a little bit more flexibility. it allows me to focus on some other things. It allows me to live life, which again, I think is super important. I don't think everything should just completely revolve around fitness and health and things like that because We're achieving these goals so that we can live a better life. We're not just living life so that we can focus on our health 100% of the time.
00:36:42
Speaker
And so making sure that you allow yourself to be able to enjoy those things, i think is important. And this is a really easy way that you can do that is to just have some sort of range, like have some sort of version that like you want to stick around. So you're not just letting yourself completely slide off. You're not just throwing everything off out the window. You're not just...
00:36:59
Speaker
Going from zero or going from 100 to zero and just doing absolutely nothing like you still want to keep some of those solid habits in place, but allow yourself some some flexibility, allow yourself some leeway in order to like do the things you want to do and really enjoy yourself.
00:37:14
Speaker
Because once you have the tools in place, like once you have the mindset, once you have that identity shift, like once you really have a good understanding of just like nutrition and dieting and training and things like that, like you don't have to worry about going all the way back to square one because you have the tools in place. And so as you go through these different cycles, like you might come back through these three different stages multiple times. Like every time you have a new goal, you are going to start this whole phase over again. Like you're going to hit that newcomer, that beginner stage, you're going to go through that grinder stage, and then you're going to go through that maintainer stage. And you might be at that for a while. And then you decide, okay, I have this other goal that I really want to chase, like, want to build strength, or want to get more mobile, or I want to do this, or I want to do that.
00:37:54
Speaker
But now that like, you just have a little bit better realistic picture of what that looks like and things you can expect you can go into these things and really know okay this is what it's going to be like as i go through this i know when i hit that grinder stage there's going to be some moments where like you know i'm going to want to quit i'm going to want to just say screw it but like i don't want to do that like going to continue to push and then i'm go get in that maintenance phase and i'm not going to get discouraged because i know that this is also an important part of that phase i really want to solidify this and make this part of my lifestyle And I know in that newcomer, in that beginner stage, I'm going to be motivated, but I'm not going to take on too much too soon. I'm not going to expect this journey to be like this, this entire time. And just having those expectations going in, I think can go a long way.
Key Takeaways on Holistic Fitness
00:38:35
Speaker
And so hopefully it's been helpful to hear some of this and just give you some different perspective shifts and also just give you a couple of practical tools as you are working through some of these different things. And I think it's kind of leaving you with some big nuggets, like some of the big lessons from this that I really wanted to pull out is that big progress isn't always linear. Like those big milestones on the scale and like these big milestones that we have aren't often linear, but there's small wins that are happening everywhere. You just have to train yourself to look for those things.
00:39:04
Speaker
And the more that you can start to look for those things just in the day to day and just see those wins, whether it's consistency or whether it's just showing up or whether it's like, you know, getting a little bit better at this certain habit or hitting more protein or getting my steps and like seeing those small wins and really like seeking those out and celebrating those, I think can go a long way because all those small wins is what equals up to get you to those big wins. And so find those small wins, continue to celebrate those so you can continue to stay motivated.
00:39:32
Speaker
The second thing I would say is just understanding like maintenance is not a bad thing. Maintenance is more of momentum. It's not that you're like at a plateau. It's not that it's a bad thing. It's not that you're stagnant. Maintenance is part of this whole thing.
00:39:43
Speaker
And so looking at that a different way and just having a different perspective, I think can help a lot of people just understand what this whole process looks like. And then the last thing I would say, just kind of a general reminder is just like, you're not meant to diet for your entire life. Like we're doing these things, like we have these certain goals because we want to improve the quality of our life. And when you do this the right way, when you're able to move through these phases and have the right expectations and really know like what to be doing and like what your end outcome is and just the steps that you need to be taking to get to those things, this shouldn't feel like a struggle forever. We want to get to a point where like this is just part of our lifestyle.
00:40:22
Speaker
And as long as you're doing these things and as long as you're approaching this with the right mindset and just continuing to get that 1% better, that's exactly where you're going to get. And so I appreciate you listening to this podcast. I know this was actually a little bit longer of a podcast, kind of got going on some on some different topics and things. But again, I think this is an important thing to understand because the more that you can really have a good understanding of this, I think the better your chances are of really achieving the goals that you want to have and making this whole fitness and health thing a forever thing, which should ultimately be the goal because that's to allow you to
00:40:55
Speaker
live your best life. It's going to allow you to live a longer life. It's going to allow you to look the way you want, feel the way you want, have all the energy, do all the things you want. And so it's important to really embrace this whole thing and really look at this with a holistic
Considering Personal Coaching Services
00:41:07
Speaker
perspective. And so hopefully this podcast was able to give you a little bit of that.
00:41:11
Speaker
With that being said, just a couple of things before I hop off here. If you are somebody who is maybe going through some of these phases and you're just struggling and you just want a little bit of help. You want some accountability. You have some weight loss goals. Like you're just confused with this whole process. You want somebody to guide you along within that. That's exactly what I do with my one-on-one clients. If that's you, you can always check the show notes and hit that link.
00:41:33
Speaker
We can have a conversation, see if you're a good fit for the program. But with that being said, i appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.