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#145 - Creating Motivation, Best Foods For Fat Loss & More
24 Plays13 days ago
If you want practical tips on fat loss, muscle building, or motivation, this Q and A episode is a rapid fire reset with simple answers you can actually use this week.
- Good foods to eat for fat loss so you feel full, hit your protein, and stop guessing what “healthy” even means
- Filling low calorie foods that actually taste good so you can stay in a deficit without feeling like you’re dieting
- Best workout splits when you’re short on time so you still make progress even with a busy schedule
- Getting stronger and building muscle once you’ve hit a plateau with the simplest levers to pull 1st
- Steps or cardio for faster fat loss and how to use it without burning yourself out
- What to do when motivation is lacking so you can stay consistent even when you don’t feel like it
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Transcript
Introduction to the Fit-ish Project Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host Lathan Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We got the weekly episode for you. Before I get into that, if you can and have not yet left a review, continue to do that to get this out to people who need it the most. Continue to share this with people you think could get some value from it. I do appreciate that. Looking to grow this podcast a little bit more in the new year. And just continue to help people feel better, look better, live longer, more fulfilled lives through health and fitness. That is the goal. So I appreciate your help in all of that.
Q&A Session Overview
00:00:38
Speaker
With the topic this week, it is time for a Q&A episode. So I have six questions this week from you guys, questions that I get from clients, questions that I get from people that I'm just having conversations with in person.
00:00:52
Speaker
The questions that I'm going to get into this week, good foods to eat for fat loss. filling and low calorie foods that actually taste good. So another one that will be helpful with fat loss.
00:01:03
Speaker
Best workout splits when short on time, getting stronger and building muscle once you've hit a plateau and how to overcome that. Whether steps or cardio are better for faster fat loss and some strategies when motivation is lacking.
What are quick meal ideas for those who dislike cooking?
00:01:18
Speaker
Let's get right into it Question number one, what meals and snacks should I focus on if I hate cooking or I don't have a lot of time to cook? Great question because this is me. I like to eat, but I do not like to spend a lot of time cooking. The simple fact of like, it can take you 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour to cook like a really good meal. And it takes me about three minutes to eat that meal. And that is why I don't really like to spend a lot of time cooking. I would much rather spend my time doing other things. So, I don't spend a ton of time in the kitchen. I've found ways to either like get already pre-made meals, snacks, or just find ways to cook that don't take a lot of my time. And so I'm going share some of my best tips with you.
00:01:59
Speaker
One of the first things that I would mention is to find really quick meal options. So for example, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, I have certain things that I can go to that I know that I can make in under five minutes. So for breakfast, protein oats is one of my go-tos. I will just use protein powder. I'll use oats and just like water or almond milk. And that's something that you can make in literally three minutes, high protein, low calorie.
00:02:25
Speaker
Greek yogurt bowls are another one. So Greek yogurt with a little bit of protein powder, maybe throw some frozen fruit in there, a banana, something like that. That is another really good one. You can make it in about three minutes. Protein shakes with fruit have also been one of my go-tos. So anytime that I'm not trying to spend any amount of time cooking and I need something really quick, those are some of my go-to breakfast options. When it comes to lunch and dinner,
00:02:49
Speaker
There's a lot of things that you can buy now that that are already pre-made. So like you can get pre-made chicken, you can get pre-made steak bites, pork bites, you can use tuna, you can get things like microwavable rice, frozen or canned veggies are something that I use a lot. You could use things like baked potatoes that take a few minutes to just make in the microwave. You can find a lot of ways to create meals and simple ways to Make some really quality meals that are going to help you stay aligned with your goals that don't take tons of time. And so, for example, if I'm really in a pinch, like a can of vegetables, some tuna and some sauce, and then maybe some microwavable rice is something that I can whip up in less than five minutes. And I have high protein meal, low calorie, and it's something that I actually enjoy and that actually tastes good.
00:03:35
Speaker
When you're in a real pinch, like let's say you're on a road on the road or you just don't
What are healthier fast food options when on the go?
00:03:40
Speaker
have any time to prepare anything at home, you can always go for fast food options trying to stick to things that are going to be a little bit healthier. So like Chick-fil-A or anything that has like higher protein or higher veggie kind of meals.
00:03:54
Speaker
So things like grilled chicken or veggie heavy options are always good. So like I said, Chick-fil-A, maybe like a Poncheros or Chipotle, something like that, where you can get a ton of veggies and a ton of protein without getting a ton of extra stuff on the side.
00:04:08
Speaker
You don't always know exactly what you're getting in these things. Portion sizes are sometimes off, but those are better options than going for something that's going to be a lot higher calorie and things that are not really going to be as aligned with your goals.
00:04:20
Speaker
When it comes to quicker snack options, this is one of my go-to's as well. So anything that is high in protein or fruit are typically the things that I like to reach for first. So when it comes to high protein, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, any kind of like beef jerky or jerky sticks, protein shakes, and protein bars are probably my most commonly used foods. And these are great because you can take them on the go. You don't have to do any type of preparation with these things. And so You're not spending any amount of time cooking. And then a fruit is another good one. So you can take that on the go with you. Any kind of fruit works. I don't really stress over the types of fruit. if you're getting fruit, those are really good options. If you do like vegetables, like if you're a person who likes to eat raw vegetables, you can also throw that in there as really good quick snack options. But mixing and matching any of those things can work.
00:05:09
Speaker
in a pinch as well. And you can even use those for meals. Like a meal doesn't have to be some big extravagant thing. Like you can grab a couple high protein snacks. Maybe you grab a Greek yogurt and a couple pieces of fruit and that acts as your meal. Is it the best option? Probably not because it's not going to fill you up quite as much as maybe a whole meal would, but you're still getting some protein. You're keeping the calories low. You're staying line with your goals. So it's super helpful in that way.
How to meal prep efficiently and snack healthily?
00:05:33
Speaker
The third thing that I would leave you with is to just meal prep. And there's ways that you can meal prep so it doesn't take your entire day and you can do things really quickly. Getting kitchen appliances that help out with this has made meal prepping and just cooking in general much more enjoyable for me. And so crock pot is a huge thing that I use multiple times per week because you can make entire meals or you can make huge batches of protein that you just keep in your refrigerator and use throughout the week.
00:06:00
Speaker
Things like an air fryer make things a little bit quicker. I have an Instapot that I use for rice and sometimes other things as well. So having some of those kitchen appliances makes cooking a lot quicker. So for example, for a crock pot, I might throw in a meal that takes me three minutes to throw all the ingredients in there. I'll turn that on in the morning and then I'll have that meal ready to go when I come back for dinner that night. And not only is it for that night, now I have dinner for the next three nights or I have three or four extra meals with that. So using crockpots as a way to make entire meals for the week is super clutch.
00:06:37
Speaker
Or if you want to just make a bunch of protein at one time, And you don't necessarily want to have the same meal back to back to back to back. I'm not a person who minds eating the same thing over and over, but I know some people don't necessarily like that. So what you can do is use a crock pot, throw some sort of protein in there, whether that be some sort of beef or pork or chicken, and then you have a big batch of protein. And now you can mix and match that for different meals. So for example, you throw a bunch of chicken in there. One night, you're going to use that chicken on a salad. The next night you're going to have a chicken sandwich with barbecue sauce and some pickles on there. And then the next night you're going to have a chicken quesadilla or some sort of like chicken taco bowl. So you can mix and match sauces and flavors and different things like that.
00:07:22
Speaker
But you're still saving yourself a ton of time because you're not having to prepare that chicken every single night. So you're still able to whip up a really quick, simple meal that stays in alignment with your goals in five to 10 minutes. So those are some of my favorite things to do and just some quick takeaways because I know that was a lot.
00:07:38
Speaker
Find meals and snacks that you really like and eat those on repeat during the week when you are the busiest. That has worked really well for me. I eat the same things throughout the week, Monday through Friday, pretty much every single week.
00:07:50
Speaker
And then on the weekends, if I want to have something that's a little bit more flexible, then I'll have that. Like if I want to go out to eat, I'll do that sometimes. If I want to have some desserts, I'll do that sometimes. So it allows you to still have that that social life and still have that feeling of eating different things and having variety. So it doesn't always feel like you're eating the same things while still allowing you to stay in alignment with those goals that you have.
00:08:13
Speaker
Second tip that I would say is just spend an hour on Sunday or sometime throughout the week just meal prepping some of your meals or at the very least just proteins or just foods in general that you have that you can go to when you are busy or when you are stressed so that when things tend to happen throughout the week, which they always do, you have this plan ready to go.
00:08:32
Speaker
And then the last thing is just to have some quick go to meals when you are in a pinch. So as I mentioned at the beginning, like protein oats, Greek yogurt bowls, having some sort of like meals that you can turn to that you can make when you have nothing on the menu and you don't really have any idea. You don't want to put a lot of thought into it, a lot of effort into it. You have these quick go to meals that you can always fall back on.
00:08:54
Speaker
Question number two, what are the most filling low calorie foods that
What is volume eating for fat loss?
00:08:58
Speaker
actually taste good? So this is a really good follow up question to the one before. And this is what you would call volume eating. So if you are like myself and you like to eat bigger portions of food, this is a big thing.
00:09:11
Speaker
I'm not a person who wants to eat tiny little portions and trying to do that, it's just not satisfying to me. I would much rather eat a very big filling meal, even if it's not like the most tastiest thing. And there is plenty of ways that you can make basic things and big volume meals taste good.
00:09:27
Speaker
But I think that sometimes people want to eat these super extravagant things. And when you're trying to get like crazy tasty meals, a lot of those things taste really good because it's a they're very high calorie, like they're high in sugar or salt or carbs or fat or a combination of these things. And so they can get to be super high calorie. And so having that kind of stuff all the time. you're going to tend to not only eat more calories, but when it's super tasty like that, you're going to just tend to overeat in general. So now you're eating high calorie things and you're eating too much of these high calorie things. And that's not going to be a very good combination if you have goals around fat loss or even just maintaining. And so when it comes to volume eating things you want to think about lean proteins fruits vegetables and some carb sources are really good for volume eating as well so when we think about lean proteins things like chicken breasts things like leaner ground beef so like 93 7 if you think about ground turkey 93 7 pork loin tuna egg whites leaner cuts of beef fish some shrimp some non-fat dairy items those are all very high in protein and lower in calories
00:10:33
Speaker
When you think about fruits, most fruits are pretty good. You're not going to go crazy on fruits. If you're really trying to like stick to the lower calorie ones, berries are always a really good option. But in general, I don't stress over fruit because I don't think anybody's getting fat on fruit. So I don't make a big deal out of that. Vegetables, any vegetable is good. Don't stress that either. And vegetables are awesome because they are a crazy low calorie. Like you can eat huge salads or you can eat things like an entire bag of broccoli for 150 calories you can eat. entire cans of vegetables for 100 calories. So you can really quickly start to build up your meals and have a big quantity of food where it's actually filling you up by using things like fruits and vegetables and lean proteins.
00:11:13
Speaker
When it comes to some carb sources, potatoes are one of the best things that you can eat because they are extremely satiating and filling. Oats are another really good one. Beans, popcorn. Those are all really good things to add in when you're trying to increase the volume and just feel like you're actually eating a good amount of food and feeling like you're getting some substance.
00:11:34
Speaker
There's actually a list known as the satiety food list. So it's basically ranking foods in order of like how filling they are. And so I thought that I would just rattle off some of these. So these are some of like the top 10 to 15 foods that are most filling and satiating. So just trying to incorporate more of these foods is obviously going to be helpful if you have goals around fat loss and you still want to eat good amounts of food. And a lot of these will be things that I already just mentioned, but there might be a couple in there that I haven't mentioned so far. So Starting off the top of this list are potatoes.
00:12:04
Speaker
Non-fat Greek yogurt is up there. Low-fat cottage cheese is up there. Oatmeal is up there. Beans and lentils are up there. Eggs, leaner types of fish, lean meats.
00:12:15
Speaker
soups that are more broth-based. So you have different types of soups. If you get things that are like heavy cream, these are going to be much higher calorie, but things that are like broth-based are going to be a little bit lower or things like even chili, higher protein, lower calorie. Apples, oranges, berries, popcorn, and then any kind of vegetables are gonna be good here. And then a bonus that I would throw in there is anything that's typically higher in fiber are going to be good here. So things that have whole grains or have higher in fiber are typically going to be things that are also going to fill you up. And so the take home message here is try to eat more of these foods if you don't want to feel like you are restricting yourself so much. And this was an absolute game changer for me because I like to eat a lot of food.
00:12:57
Speaker
Incorporating these types of things into my meals has made it much more sustainable for the long term. And so when you're thinking about putting a meal together, you want to have at least two of these things on your plate or in your bowl whenever you're eating and you're going to be more full and satiated. Try to get some sort of lean protein and then try to either get like a fruit or vegetable or something that's really high in fiber and you're going to be in good shape. High fiber, high protein is always going to be helpful whenever the goal is fat loss and you don't want to feel like you're starving all the time.
How to find a sustainable workout split?
00:13:25
Speaker
Question number three. What's the best workout split if I'm busy and struggle with being consistent? So if you're struggling with being consistent in the gym, I would say you got to peel it back and try to figure out what's actually going to be sustainable consistently. Because if you're not consistent with the gym, like if you're in there one day, one week, Then you're in there zero days the next week. Then you're in there four days, one week. Then you're in there two days the next week. It's going to be hard to not only just see good progress, but and to get into any kind of schedule or routine. So I always like to start on the low end and then build up that. And then once you get consistent with whatever that is, if you can add to it without taking away from other areas of your life or getting overwhelmed or falling off track or things like that, then that's a good option. Starting with two days per week, and you really can get awesome progress if you are consistent with two days per week and you're really pushing your workouts.
00:14:19
Speaker
So if you're starting with two days per week, I would just go full body. Anytime you're like doing these lower number of days in the week per gym, I'd probably opt for full body, especially if inconsistency has been something that you struggled in. Because if you're doing a split where it's like a body part split, or you're even doing like an upper or lower, but like, sometimes you're in the gym one time per week, then another time you're three times week, and then another time you're zero times per week.
00:14:44
Speaker
you're not hitting all parts of the body equally whereas when you're doing a full body workout you're not worried about that because you're hitting full body every single workout and now you're not having where you might go three weeks without ever hitting a lower body lift or three weeks without ever hitting this certain muscle group because you're all over the place with your consistency but when you do full body you don't have to worry about that so if you do happen to have a week where Maybe you don't get in the gym as many days as you want to, or you just don't get in the gym at all. You're not finding like yourself with these imbalances and the the muscles that you're hitting and the workouts that you're hitting and things like that. So I would start with two days per week, just go full body.
00:15:22
Speaker
eventually trying to work up to three or four days per week. When you get to three or four days per week, if you're being really consistent, there's a lot of different ways that you can split it up. Three days per week if you can still go full body. That's still a good option. Or you could do something like a upper body day, a lower body day than a full body day. But again, if you're not, if you're not being consistent with that three days per week, then I would just stick with that full body approach. And then when you get up into four days per week, you can really start to play with this split in a number of different ways upper body lower body is probably my favorite for four day splits so two upper body days two lower body days but you could also do a full body with this if you're smart about the programming you could do something like a body part split if you are really consistent with four days per week so it really just depends on where you're at and what you're trying to get out of your training and what you actually enjoy doing too i think that's a part
00:16:08
Speaker
that a lot of people miss when it comes to their workouts is finding some sort of split that you actually enjoy so if you enjoy the upper lower split then doing that you're going to work a little bit harder you're going be more consistent you're going to want to stay on track with that so finding the style that you actually like is also important when it comes to the actual individual workouts within these days let's say you're starting with those two days per week You wanna be in the gym at least 30 minutes, I would say. Obviously, something is always gonna be better than nothing. That's something I always say. But ideally, if you can get at least 30 minutes in the gym, you can get a really solid workout in.
00:16:43
Speaker
Somewhere between that 30 to 60 minutes is going to be average for most people, sometimes up to that 75 minutes. But if you're in the gym a lot longer than 75 minutes for most people, especially if working out has been a struggle and like being consistent has been a struggle, staying in the gym or going in the gym for... an hour and a half or longer than an hour and 15 minutes, you're probably not getting as much out of that as you would if you were just more consistent with shorter workouts. So typically in that 30 to 60 minute range is good.
00:17:12
Speaker
With the exercises, you're going to want somewhere between like four to five to like eight to nine exercises per workout. When you start getting more than that, which I've seen this with some clients that I've worked with where they were doing programs where they were doing more than 10, 12 exercises at a time. As you start to get in those exercises later in the workout, you're just not getting as much out of those because you're fatigued, you're focused, you just don't want to be in there anymore and you're just tired of doing a bunch of different stuff. So keeping that to a good amount where you're actually able to hit those exercises hard and really bring the right focus and effort and intensity to those is going to be better. And then when it comes to these exercises, you want to pick exercises that feel good on your body, exercises that you actually enjoy, not that you have to like and love every single exercises, but you should enjoy some of the exercises you are doing. And then exercises that you can progress and get stronger at over time are going to be good choices.
00:18:05
Speaker
two to four sets per exercise, and then somewhere in the range of about five to 15 reps per exercise. Sometimes you can go a little bit lower if you're really trying to work on your or top end strength. And sometimes you can go a little bit higher than 15 reps, all just depending on the exercise, what you're trying to get out of it, what style of training you like. So there's so many different ways you can play with training, but I think those general recommendations are really good for most people. And then the overall goal, if you're really wanting to maximize just getting stronger, building muscle, feeling good, all that stuff is to just focus on progressive overload over time. So you're lifting more weight for more reps with better technique over time.
00:18:41
Speaker
And if you do those things and you're just consistent with it and start with that two days per week and work your way up, you can get really, really good results over time. Question number four.
How to overcome strength plateaus?
00:18:52
Speaker
Why am i no longer getting stronger and building muscle, even though I'm working hard? The first thing and that I would ask you is, how do you know you're not getting stronger or building muscle? Sometimes people have this idea that they aren't getting stronger or aren't building muscle because they're not seeing progress at the rate that they once were or that they want to see it at.
00:19:13
Speaker
And if you don't have numbers to actually show for this, or you don't have progress pictures or just data to back this up, how do you actually know that you are not getting stronger? So that's the first thing that I want to ask you is track your workouts. And over time, you should see yourself trending up. So you should see you doing more weight or more reps or the technique is improving.
00:19:34
Speaker
Things like that where you know that you are making progress in the gym. So track your workouts would be number one. Look at your numbers, look at your data so you can actually see. And then if you're not, then I would ask you some of these questions about why you're not seeing that kind of progress. One thing you need to understand.
00:19:50
Speaker
Strength can vary a lot on a day to day basis. So you could come in one day and you could be able to hit a top set, hit a PR. And then the next time that you come in and repeat that exercise, let's say you come in that next week, your strength could be down anywhere from 10 20% on given day. and so you could be 20 30 40 pounds less on a certain exercise maxing out or getting close to that top end set on what you did the week before and so when you look at it from that small little snapshot it seems like you're not making any progress at all you're getting weaker and you're actually getting worse but that's typical like that happens when you are consistently training you're gonna have days when you come in and you don't feel great and your strength doesn't feel good And you can't lift a lot. That's just part of the process. This could be based on a number of different things. So if you didn't get good night of sleep, if your diet's a little off, if you're not eating enough, you didn't have enough carbs, if you're crazy stressed out, if your recovery hasn't been good, if you've been sick, if your training load has been too much, there's so many different factors that play onto this. And so what you want to do rather than looking at these smaller snapshots is to actually just look at trends over time. especially as you become more experienced, you want to start to look at a weekly basis and honestly more of a monthly basis to see whether or not you're making progress. Because from day to day, after your newbie gains wear off, you're not to make progress every day. Sometimes even on a weekly basis, you're not even going to see progress. So you could be doing the same exercise with the same weight and hitting a very similar number of reps for multiple weeks in a row before you start to break through a certain plateau.
00:21:23
Speaker
I've been trying to work on my bench press and get that back up to where I once had it when I was in college or right after college. And it's taken a really long time to start to see progress and see strength gains in my bench press because I have been lifting for a really long time. I've been consistent. And so those gains, those strength gains, and even muscle building gains, they slow down a lot once you've been in the gym. And it really takes a lot of stimulus. It takes a lot for your body to start to change and start to see big improvements in strength. So it may be a month, two months, three months for me to see a five to 10 pound increase on my bench and I know that like I expect that that's something that I don't stress out too much but if you have skewed expectations about what this looks like it can be really easy to get frustrated or think that you need to change your training or that you're doing something wrong and there could be areas where you could improve and help yourself out but a lot of times people just have the wrong expectations about what it's actually going to take to get stronger and build muscle
00:22:20
Speaker
The other thing that I would ask you is how consistently are you training and then how intense is your training? So the obvious thing is if you're not consistently training, like if you're not getting in the gym three to four times per week, you're probably not going to see the top level strength or muscle building gains that you could. So that is number one, make sure you're actually getting in the gym on a consistent basis, three to four times per week, ideally to really maximize those muscle building and strength building gains.
00:22:48
Speaker
Then I would say within those workouts, are you actually pushing yourself? Are you getting close to failure to give your body a stimulus to actually change and to grow? Lots of people fall into this trap too, where you just kind of get used to going through the motions. And especially as you get stronger, it's hard sometimes to go in there and load up a bunch of weight and really push it because it's it's just difficult. Like it's hard to get in there and load up a bunch of weight on a squat or a bench press or whatever. whatever the exercise may be and really push yourself because that doesn't always feel good and you don't always feel like it and you don't always feel strong and things don't always feel as good as you want them to. Maybe you have little aches and pains here or there, but if you really want to see those changes over time, you really do have to push the intensity and give your body a reason to change. And that just isn't going to happen the way that it does when you first get in the gym because, You get this illusion when you first start, you have these newbie gains and literally anything that you do, you see progress. So you could be doing high reps, low reps. You could be so far away from failure. But as long as you're consistent and you're doing something, you're going to see those changes. You're going build muscle very easily. You're going to get stronger very easily. But then that starts to level off. And as you start to...
00:23:54
Speaker
Train harder and just get more consistent and get in the gym for longer periods of time. It takes more to get progress. So I would say make sure that you're training intensely. So you're pushing your sets close to failure, getting within one to two reps shy to make sure that you are really maximizing those results.
00:24:12
Speaker
And then the last thing that I would say about that, too, is. really test yourself sometimes. Like it's a good thing to take your sets to complete failure as long as you're doing it in a safe way, because so often we underestimate how strong we actually are.
00:24:26
Speaker
There was this study that they did for bench press where they had people come in, they put on a certain weight and they had the people estimate how many reps they would get for their 10 rep max. And for a majority of these people, they would end up doing multiple reps more than what they guess they could do. Sometimes even as much as like five, six, seven reps more than what they thought they could do.
00:24:47
Speaker
And you'll notice this too, like as you start to test yourself and really push things to failure, as long as you're doing it safely, like you have a spotter or you're doing it with dumbbells or you're doing it on a machine where it's super safe to do it and you go to complete failure, you will surprise yourself and hit reps or hit weights that you didn't think that you can do by simply pushing it to a really high intensity. So it's important to actually test that every once in a while, because if you don't test, you don't know. So don't be afraid to every couple of sets or every couple of workouts you just to occasionally just push it all the way to failure just to see where you're at and you can get a good picture.
00:25:23
Speaker
And if you do find that you are using a weight that you thought you could only get for, let's say, five reps and then you push it all the way to failure and you get eight, nine, 10 reps, well, you obviously know that you could be pushing it a little bit more on your working sets in the future.
Are steps or cardio better for fat loss?
00:25:38
Speaker
Question number five, I think this one is, what's better for fat loss, steps or cardio sessions? This is a really good question and I like this. It made me think a little bit. So when it comes to fat loss, diet will always be the biggest driver.
00:25:52
Speaker
The reason being, you could turn down, let's say a piece of cake that's 500 calories and that takes literally five seconds to not eat that cake. Or you could go and do 45 minutes of hard cardio to burn 500 calories. So simply trying to trade exercise for calories when it comes to diet is not a really good use of your time. So I always think about dr like diet is going to be that main driver. Any kind of exercise is going to be a bonus, but you definitely do want to exercise if you are trying to lose weight and even just maintain your weight because people who lose weight and keep it off, they tend to exercise, which no surprise, right? Like being fit and active and healthy is going to help you maintain a healthy weight. So it's important to exercise as well. But I think of everything with exercise as a bonus. When it comes to practically trying to decide what's going to be a better use of your time, like steps or cardio,
00:26:46
Speaker
I break it down in this way. So let's take the 10,000 step goal and let's take 30 minutes of cardio. If you are doing 10,000 steps in your day and let's say you're doing 30 minutes of like lower intensity cardio, you're more than likely going to burn more calories from getting 10,000 steps throughout your day than you are in that 30 minutes of low intensity cardio.
00:27:08
Speaker
Now, let's say you're doing like really hard, intense cardio for 30 minutes or you're doing lower intensity cardio for longer. You could end up burning more calories than you would in that 10,000 steps throughout the day.
00:27:20
Speaker
But here's where I get to the practicality of all this, because most people aren't doing cardio every day and they're especially not doing super high intense cardio every single day. So steps is going to be something that I would typically recommend first because to get 10,000 steps in a day, that is much more doable for somebody than trying to do 30 to 60 minutes of higher intensity cardio every single day to get more calorie burn. So from that perspective, I would choose walking first and then layer in some cardio if that's something that you want to do if you're trying to burn some extra calories.
00:27:56
Speaker
The other thing about walking too is like to go and hype yourself up to do a bunch of cardio that's harder for most people than it is to just go and get 10,000 steps in a day because with the 10,000 steps, you don't have to like hype yourself up you can spread it out throughout the day. It's much easier and it's a much simpler task to take on than trying to commit to doing hard cardio every single day. So for that reason, I would pick steps. And the other thing with that about walking as well that I know that I've mentioned before is when you're thinking about walking and when you're really trying to
00:28:28
Speaker
develop that habit of just getting a good amount of steps within your day, it's also going to help to just reinforce that identity around trying to be somebody who prioritizes their health and fitness because you're thinking throughout the day, like I need to be getting my steps and I need to take a few extra steps here, I need to do this. And that also is going to carry over into other healthy habits. So with your eating habits, with your sleeping habits, with Managing stress with getting your workouts in with all that different stuff. It's going to just help to think about health and fitness and make that more of a priority by focusing on this thing that is walking. So for all those reasons, again, I say walking would be the first thing that I suggest. And then if you want to do some extra cardio on top of that.
00:29:08
Speaker
as a way to burn a few extra calories or just get the cardio benefits, then by all means do that. But I think walking for a very large majority of people is going to be the better one to start with and really build that habit in.
00:29:22
Speaker
Last question of this podcast, what do I do when motivation is gone and I'm tired afterward?
How to maintain workout motivation?
00:29:29
Speaker
work I get questions about motivation quite a bit. The first thing that I would say is your expectations around motivation have to change.
00:29:39
Speaker
Some people think that they need motivation to work out and that's ultimately setting yourself up for failure because motivation is unreliable. It's extremely nice when it's there and a lot of times when we start new goals or we're hyped up about something or we're just excited.
00:29:56
Speaker
Motivation will be there in the beginning, but then we know life happens. Things get busy. You have obligations and commitments outside of just fitness. And it'd be nice if we could just completely focus on our fitness goals, but that's not how life works. We have all these other things going on, all these moving parts. And so there's lots of days where you are not going to be motivated.
00:30:14
Speaker
So you have to expect that and understand that right away that you're not always going to be motivated. So you have to learn to show up when you aren't motivated. I think about exercise just as important as things like taking care of your hygiene or working or sleeping. It's just something that I have to do because I know the extreme benefits that I get when I exercise.
00:30:35
Speaker
Exercise has so many benefits from a health standpoint, from a mental health standpoint, from a longevity standpoint. And it's just one of those things that we should be doing like point blank period, everybody should exercise because of the benefits that you get from exercise. Like if you shower on a regular basis, if you eat on a regular basis, if you sleep on a regular basis, exercise should be right up there with those same things and should be thought about in the same way of just like brushing your teeth is something that you should do.
00:31:03
Speaker
And so having that as that expectation, And thinking about it in that way, I think, can be helpful and to help you show up anyway when you don't really feel like showing up and help you to build better discipline just around doing things that you don't always want to do. Right. Like you don't always want to go to work, but you do it because, you know, it's important. You don't always want to do your chores around the house or clean up or do certain things, but you do them because you know they're important.
00:31:27
Speaker
Think about exercise in that same way. The second thing that I would tell you is when it comes to building any sort of habit in for exercise, I know this is one that a lot of people struggle with.
00:31:37
Speaker
I think about how can i set myself up to make this more likely to happen and to put that in simpler terms, how do I make this easier? In this situation, this person said, I'm not motivated after work and I'm tired. Well, let's take a step back and look at what things can we do to make this easier. So rather than trying to work out after work, when you're tired,
00:31:58
Speaker
Maybe we could work out in the morning, knock that thing out right away when motivation is a little bit higher, when you don't have to worry about distractions, when you haven't had a long day of work, that could be an option. Maybe it's because you're not getting very good sleep the night before. So maybe we need to dial in some things to get our sleep better. And then when we sleep better, our day at work is better. We have more energy. We're able to actually hit that workout and feel good about it.
00:32:21
Speaker
Maybe instead of going home after work, we just go straight to the gym. We pack our gym bag. We take it with us to work and we go straight to the gym and just start to build that better habit. Maybe instead of trying to go into the gym and just figure things out on the fly, we have an app or we have somebody telling us exactly what we should be doing within that workout. Maybe we have a training partner that we're meeting there or a coach or a group so that we have a little bit of extra accountability.
00:32:47
Speaker
All these things are just reducing friction to help you make that choice an easier choice. The more friction that we add, the more likely that you are not going to do this certain thing. And I know it sounds very basic and very simple like,
00:33:01
Speaker
I know that I should work out, so I just should work out. But there's all these little things that go into that, that if you can start to make these things a little bit simpler and make it easier on yourself, you're just more likely to do it. I've said it so many times, but humans, we are creatures who just love convenience. We love it. That's the way our brains are wired to save energy and to take the easier road. We're just wired to do those things.
00:33:21
Speaker
When you can set up these things and make them easier to do, you're going to be more successful in the long run. And there's so many little ways that you can do that. A lot of those things that I just listed, but really take a look, like take a step back and figure out little things that you can do that 1% better mindset that's going to make you be more successful with this thing.
00:33:39
Speaker
The third thing that I would say about this is make it more appealing. So this is something that when you start to learn about habits, they call it temptation bundling. But again, it's just in simple terms, you're just making it not suck. So for example, let's say we're taking this idea about going to the gym well make sure first that you're actually going to a gym that's fairly close to your house and it's a gym that you actually like or maybe there's somebody there that you enjoy seeing or you like the community around there you could do something like maybe you're just doing cardio or you're getting in the habit of walking on the treadmill you could have a show that you watch on your phone or a tablet or an ipad or something like that while you're actually walking so now you are pairing up something that you don't necessarily love right now, you're pairing that with something that you actually enjoy so that you can start to build that habit.
00:34:27
Speaker
Or maybe you really like podcasts. So you listen to your favorite podcast while you're on the cardio bike or while you're doing your workout, or there's a music playlist that you really like. So you set that up and you have that ready to go. So when you work out, you get to listen to your favorite music.
00:34:41
Speaker
Or maybe there's even like a protein shake within your gym or somewhere around your gym that you go and you treat yourself to after the workout. All these things are just making that workout that much more appealing. And so you're actually able to build that habit. And then once you have that habit established, now you can start to improve things and you don't always need all these things.
00:35:00
Speaker
But especially when you're starting, when you're really trying to get over that hump, doing some of these little things can make a really big difference. And the last thing that I would say about this is just start to reframe the way that you think about it.
00:35:12
Speaker
And this has a fancy term. It's called cognitive reappraisal, like from a science term. But all that this means is that think about the things that you are getting or benefiting from doing this thing. So I'll give you the example of running.
00:35:26
Speaker
I hated running my entire life. Like, I hated it. I mean, I was a chubby kid. i was always a big guy. Like, so for running, it just didn't mix with who I was and what I like to do. Like, it was always difficult. I did not like it. And I just hated it for a really long time.
00:35:39
Speaker
Then a couple of years ago, I got into running because I came up with the bright idea that I wanted to run a marathon. And so I signed up for it. And again, I hated running for the first couple of months. But as I started to do it more, I started to notice some of the benefits that I was getting.
00:35:53
Speaker
And I started to think about what are the things that I actually like about running? Like, why is this becoming something that's actually enjoyable to me? Well, for one, i get to be outside. I like being outside. I like getting some sun. I like getting some fresh air. I like getting on the trails and just being out in nature. Two, I really liked the time that it gave me to clear my head.
00:36:12
Speaker
There's not a lot of time now with just distractions and phones and screens and work and friends and social life and all these different things where you just get some time to yourself to really just think. Like we don't get a lot of that anymore. And this time running, like I'm not scrolling on my phone, I'm not doing anything else. I might be listening to some music, but it's really some time with just me and my thoughts and just to clear my head. And I felt good when I could get out and run and do these things.
00:36:35
Speaker
I get to listen to good music or listen to my favorite podcasts. I love both of those things. I really like listening to podcasts and learning new things. I really like listening to music. So running was another chance for me to do some of that. I get healthier, which is a huge value of mine and something that I really prioritize because I feel better. I look better. i burn a few extra calories. All those things made it more appealing.
00:36:57
Speaker
I get to see progress. I'm super motivated on seeing like faster times or running longer distances or getting better at things. And so running was another way that I could do this. And more than anything, I just really like when I'm able to overcome and do hard things that I didn't necessarily want to do.
00:37:14
Speaker
i've had a lot of things where it's been a certain thing that like i wanted to do or i said i had this goal or i should work out or i should do this or i should do that and then when i don't do those things i don't feel good about myself like i feel guilty i don't like that feeling just as much as i think about the benefits and a lot of the positive things which i do like to focus on it's also part of this of where i just don't want to be that person who says they're going to do certain things and they don't do them And that shows up a lot within yourself. Like other people might not know that, you know, you said you were going to do these things and you don't do them. But ultimately, you know, like you can't lie to yourself. And if you want to do certain things, if you want to build confidence, if you want to build this belief in yourself, if you want to be somebody that you can actually trust, you need to say and then follow through on those things that you're going to actually do those things and and really show up for yourself. And so for all those reasons,
00:38:04
Speaker
If you can start to reframe these things and really think about the things that you want out of this activity, that doesn't mean that you're gonna love every workout. You're going to love every run. You're going to love to always make the healthier decision. But in the long run, you're liking all the things that making that decision is giving to you. And that can be enough to get you over that hump to actually get you to doing these things more often.
00:38:25
Speaker
And with that, that is the six questions. As always, if you have questions in the future, you can always send those to me. Hopefully you got some good insight out of one or multiple of these questions and you found something that you can apply. The quicker that you can find one of these things and apply it, the better that it's going to stick. So I always urge you to find at least one thing that you found useful and then try to put that into use right away because you're much more likely to make that stick if you can do it that way.
00:38:53
Speaker
I appreciate you listening. If you're interested in one-on-one coaching, you can find that link in the show notes, but I appreciate you and we will see you next