FHP 417 – Q&A With Cori (PLus A Special Guest)

FHP 417 – Q&A With Cori (PLus A Special Guest)

What is your favorite exercise? 

Sumo Barbell Deadlift

What is your personal mantra?

Act As If

What is your favorite cheat day food?

Carne Asada Burritos and chips and guacamole (all of those at once is ideal)

What is your favorite desert?

Rice krispy treats with frosting

What is your favorite alcoholic beverage?

A Margarita – any kind

What is your favorite vacation spot? 

Palm Springs

What is your favorite movie?

I Feel Pretty – Love watching this when I work

What is the most unexpected piece of advice you ever received?

Your passion is a double edged sword was the gist of what Dave, my GM at the first gym I worked at told me. It was an eye opening moment. And I credit it with making me more self aware to realize how my passion needs to be harnessed.

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

Step into your fears and face them. You don’t know what will or won’t work until you’ve tried so be willing to embrace outside perspectives as opportunities. BE OPEN!

What is one item on your bucket list?

Honestly I don’t have a bucket list as I could never predict what life has already thrown at me. I just want to see where it goes.

What quote most resonates with you?

Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right.

What is your general outlook on life?

You get out of life what you put in. Nothing will ever go as you expected so embrace the journey and be willing to take risks.

What brings you the most joy?

When I see something with diet and exercise just CLICK for a client….that and drinking margaritas with Ryan anywhere near the beach.

If you could learn one skill instantly, what would it be? 

MMA

If you could eliminate one word from the English language, what would it be?

Can’t

What is your favorite simple pleasure?

That pump from a really good glute burner. No joke.

What is an unpopular opinion you hold?

We can always move forward and improve no matter what. I believe we are ultimately in control. Stuff happens of course that we can’t control, but we still always have a choice in our perspective and how we take actions.

What do you believe is underrated?

Macros. And being open. 

What do you believe is overrated?

Healthy foods – clean eating

What is your favorite thing about yourself?

My awkwardness. And odd decision making skill to live with what I’ve chosen.

What is the oddest way you ever accidentally hurt yourself?

Slipping on a puddle I was trying to jump over in the street in Palm Springs.

What is one trend you wish would come back in style?

Low rise leggings. I have a short torso. High waisted pants go up to my bra.

What is your favorite kind of weather? 

Hot. Sunny. 90 degrees. Basically I don’t mind sweating.

What is your favorite pump up song

Lizzo – Like A Girl But previously Fort Minor Remember The Name (I’ll always love this)

What is your favorite tv show?

The Office 

What is your favorite childhood memory

I honestly don’t know…It’s those in between moments I feel are so special that you remember but they’re not really stories.

Like when my mom told me I had to walk home if I beat her at tennis. She was joking but I think it did make me nervous.

Or like random moments just making meals together. Or car trips to tennis tournaments with my mom when we would just talk about random things.

Those moments that aren’t truly special but just have that FEELING when you think back on them. 

What is your favorite type of workout

Picking up heavy shizzle

What is your favorite food to cook

Uhm…one that is cooked for me!? 3 ingredient peanut butter hershey kiss cookies.

What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten

Probably something at this sushi tasting in Japan, but I wouldn’t know because they served us whatever they wanted.

What movie or tv quote do you repeat the most

Inappropriately – that’s what she said.

Also inappropriately – “I don’t give a flying fart in space” which I couldn’t remember even where that came from.

Eat MORE And LOSE Fat?! Here’s How

Eat MORE And LOSE Fat?! Here’s How

I know we’ve always heard calories in vs calories out is all that matters. And that you need to eat less and create that calorie deficit if you want to lose weight.

However, more is not better when it comes to a deficit, and trying to eat less and create a bigger deficit may backfire if we want to achieve sustainable fat loss results and our ideal lean aesthetic.

Because as much as your goal may be weight loss, you want fat loss. And fat loss can’t be rushed by eating less.

Actually forcing an extreme deficit may be why we’re even GAINING weight while under eating not to mention losing muscle instead of just focusing on fat loss.

I’m going to break down what happens when we undereat and why cycling ratios over cutting calories is key! And then I’m going to go into how to create the appropriate deficit for your needs and goals and why we may have to RE-TRAIN your body to eat more before we can focus on cutting!

Our Body Fights Weight Loss

The reason we need a deficit to lose weight is because we need to force our body to use its own energy stores to fuel. When we have less energy coming in than we need to fuel our activity and survival, we utilize stored energy. This is how we lose weight by using stored glycogen and mobilizing fat stores to fuel!

However, our body wants to maintain balance, even if the balance isn’t necessarily healthy or ideal. And the longer we’ve been at a certain weight, or above our ideal, the more our body doesn’t want to change from that point.

Our body wants to resist change and protect its fuel stores and avoid “starving” which is what it is so to speak “scared of” when you go into a deficit and start consuming less. It’s why our body resists losing weight.

And this is even when we do it in a HEALTHY way with a small deficit, nutrient dense foods and macro ratios matched to our needs and goals.

 Now…What Happens In An Extreme Deficit? Why Can It Backfire?

When you try to create a more extreme deficit and slash your calories extra low, you may see results faster to start initially. Your body immediately is depleted and needs to tap into stored energy.

However, your body adapts as quickly as it can to avoid this extreme deprivation impacting overall survival. While annoying for our weight loss efforts, this is a natural protection response.

When our body is continually under fed, ghrelin increases, which is the hormone that triggers hunger, particularly for sweet and fatty foods while leptin decreases, which is the hormone that regulates energy intake by telling the brain to stop eating. 

We also start to expend less energy to conserve our stores. So even if you’re trying to train harder to lose weight, you may find your workouts suffer and your output decreases.

Even if you do manage to train hard and push through, our bodies compensate by actually starting to burn fewer calories at rest.

Not to mention, underfueling especially if you aren’t conscious at all of macros, very quickly will lead to muscle loss. 

And losing muscle only further slows our resting metabolic rate.

If we’re under fueling and over training, our basal metabolic rate drops and non-exercise thermogenesis, or the calories burned from things like fidgeting decreases. 

Basically, we suffer from metabolic adaptations that allow us to function on the reduced calories. Which ultimately means that us starving ourselves with 900 calories a day becomes all our body thinks it needs to survive as it regulates all other functioning to match the intake you’re giving it. 

It leads to us NOT losing weight while under eating and feeling the need to slash our calories lower to get results. It also leads to us feeling extra hungry.

And when we then do overeat, we ultimately store this energy as fat because our body doesn’t “need” it to fuel. It’s adapted to the lower calories despite the hunger signals!

Have You Destroyed Your Metabolism?

The short answer is…not permanently. Yes you’ve created metabolic adaptations, BUT these can be reversed.

Will it take time and be uncomfortable and require you to sometimes go backward with your results before you move forward? 

Unfortunately, yes.

But if you don’t take time to reverse these adaptations, you’re going to keep undereating and still gaining. Your going to keep perpetuating the same cycle and not be moving forward anyway. 

While it’s hard to go against things we’ve been taught, like eat less to weigh less, you’ve got to step back and EAT MORE to reverse the metabolic “damage”

It’s the only way. 

And yes, it may lead to you gaining weight to start.

But A. This can be muscle you actually are starting to gain, which will ultimately HELP your metabolic rate and lead to better results faster.

And B. You’ve got to allow your body time to return to hormonal balance to then move forward if you ever want to see progress, and maintain those results long term.

So as sucky as it is to honestly take actions you know may move you further away from your goal to start, it’s the only way ultimately to truly move forward and see results.

So how do you get yourself out of this cycle of starvation and re-train your body to eat more?

Step Back – Re-Train Your Body To Eat More!

Variations of this retraining process are called Reverse Dieting.

Depending on your mindset with it all and how many big changes you feel you can handle at once, you may start by adjusting your macros before changing and increasing your calories.

First track what you’re currently doing no matter what. This allows you to make accurate adjustments based on your needs.

One way to approach first making changes is to adjust macros at your current calories, increasing protein, and then, as you dial in that ratio, start to slowly increase calories, 100 calories at a time.

A lucky few actually see weight loss during this, especially with the ratio change. But most, will see weight steadily creep on, even multiple pounds in the first few days, with the calorie bumps.

This will slow. 

Most of the time you should seek to increase by at least 500 calories from your starting point, maintain that for a week or two before considering re-creating a deficit. 

Adjusting your macros, and using specific higher protien ratios as you increase calories, helps use this extra fuel to build muscle and balance out your hormones. With the higher protein ratios, you will benefit from the thermic effect of that macro as much as possible to avoid you gaining any more fat than necessary.

Once you’ve gone through this process to train your body to use more calories, you will start to do small deficit adjustments, often only 100 calories lower than where you’ve built to. You will also adjust macros to more weight loss focused ratios to help kickstart those results.

Now occasionally if you’re super ready to just embrace the gain and risk more coming on quickly to help be able to jump back into losing faster, you can do a fast bump up right away. This also works out better if you’ve tracked in the past and are willing to potentially go higher protein or make a more dramatic macro change as well.

The downside, is your body doesn’t like change and this can lead to bloating or energy shifts and such. These can go away quickly BUT it’s something to be aware of.

This will often also lead to massive jumps on the scale to start but also a quicker leveling off. 

Neither one is really wrong, part of it is mentally what makes us feel best with the process, how far we have to go to really re-train our body and also appetite and activity level. 

The more active and hungrier we feel, the easier it is often to increase calories quickly.

If you have less of an appetite and are less active, it can be harder to increase calories dramatically all at once, making the slower increases more beneficial.

You need to be aware that it WILL feel like taking a step back at first and that often you feel like you’re losing ground, even having to start over so that you can ultimately progress forward.

Now Don’t Say You’re Too Old…

Often this whole process actually becomes more important to do the older we get, and especially during menopause.

As much as re-training our bodies is hard and uncomfortable and will especially lead to weight gain to start during menopause, we need to do it NOW to set ourselves up for long term success.

During menopause our apettite may also already increase as our metabolic rate slows. Throw in under fueling and overtraining in our attempt to reverse the menopausal weight gain and we have a recipe for disaster.

So as hard as it can be when you already see the scale increasing, it’s increasingly important you embrace learning to eat more!

Eating more and dialing in those macros will preserve your lean muscle mass and even help you build muscle. This is essential as we get older as it becomes harder to build and retain lean muscle, which is part of why our metabolism slows with age.

If you under fuel, you put yourself at great risk for muscle mass loss which can not only impact your quality of life and lead to a whole host of other issues including great risk for fracture, but it can make the weight loss process more and more of a struggle as you get older.

So do what you can as soon as you can. And realize that with getting older, learning to fuel correctly and eat more is even more key!

If you want help with this process to create a sustainable plan, click the link below to learn more about my 3-Step Recipe For Results!

–> The Simple Recipe For Results (note I didn’t say “easy”)

FHP 416 – You Don’t Have To Deal With…

FHP 416 – You Don’t Have To Deal With…

I know I’ve personally been guilty of this even…

The comparing where you see someone else’s success in, well, really any aspect of life and you think…

“Yea well they didn’t have to deal with (insert thing you think is holding you back).”

But that is a self-limiting belief.

And honestly not beneficial as a thought in any way, shape or form.

It does nothing to move us forward and only reinforces the belief we are somehow unable to find a way forward.

But the simple fact of the matter is, life involves sacrifices no matter your situation.

And we each have our own priorities and values.

If we CHOOSE to bring something into our life, if we CHOOSE to make something a priority, we have to understand how it will impact other things.

And this isn’t a bad thing. There is no right or wrong to what we should or shouldn’t value or prioritize.

But each time we do put something first, we do automatically push other goals by the wayside.

And we can’t BLAME those things.

Instead we need to identify what truly matters to us and find ways to work around or balance the things we want.

We need to find ways to even adapt our values.

Often I hear…

“Well you don’t work 8 hours a day and then have to go home and cook for a family.”

A. You never truly know someone else’s situation to compare.

B. Ok so if you feel that work and family are priorities in your life and you WILL always put them first, instead of blaming them, what is something you can do to work AROUND them?

Sure you may have to sacrifice gym sessions at times. But then how can you steer into that and plan out something quick at home?

We have to remember we’ve CHOSEN what we value. What is a priority to us.

And to ever move forward with other goals lower in that list, we need to find a way to make them matter to the things we value most so we still find a way forward. And we even need to find ways to do the MINIMUM when these other things need to come first!

So how can we stop making the excuse that someone else doesn’t have to deal with something and instead embrace the priorities we’ve set and work around them to move forward?

#1: Focus on small changes.

Too often I think we believe we need these sweeping changes to get results when small changes really add up. Focus on the easiest changes first too to build momentum.

Like maybe you chance one meal that doesn’t at all impact your family dishes. Or you just set 5 minutes to roll out before bed.

But small changes build momentum.

They allow us to build around what we value and want to prioritize. They can even help us realize changes aren’t that hard or can fit in our lifestyle.

They can make it feel like our whole ecosystem doesn’t have to be changed.

#2: Tie your new goals into your current values.

If you want to lose weight, how can you tie this into the fact that your family is your priority?

Will this allow you to do more things with them? Keep you strong to chase after grandkids? Inspire your kids to love their bodies too or realize their own strength and abilities?

Can you get them involved in making fun new macro friendly meals? Test out new desserts or breakfast recipes?

Can you get them doing more activities to get moving? Like maybe catch in the backyard or evening walks with the dog? Pull ups on the playground as they play?

Could you even be watching TV with everyone and try some commercial workout breaks?

#3: Think in terms of minimums.

Too often we think about all we have to do over setting a minimum to get consistent. Sure maybe you like to usually get to the gym 6 days a week, but if you’re struggling with consistency due to your new job?

Instead of saying “Well I can’t get in my usual training sessions because of my new hours so I won’t be able to get results” so that you give up, set a minimum to make it through this time and at least maintain your results.

Too often we believe we need this ideal, to do MORE, to get results, when less is more because of the consistency it creates even during the toughest times. Small changes during tough times, when life works against us, really add up!

Even just make one small tweak to one meal you’re eating. Make one dietary change instead of thinking you have to go from doing nothing to everything.

Seriously even just tracking alone makes you more accountable!

#4: Assess if your priorities will change…

I think sometimes it even boils down to us realizing this IS our life. This IS what we value. Those ARE our priorities.

And if this is the reality, we need to stop blaming it.

We need to assess if this other success we are jealous of is really something we want. We have to recognize that there is sacrifice any time you prioritize something as something else has to fall by the wayside.

So you need to assess and OWN your priorities.

And then find ways to do something to achieve other goals knowing that they aren’t as valued to you. This may mean knowing that weight loss will be slower as you’re doing the minimum.

It may mean that you need to switch your workout routine.

Stop focusing on someone else’s ideal, someone else’s journey, someone else’s priorities.

Stop blaming your own values.

We’ve chosen what matters to us and the only way forward is to find ways to strike the balance right for us.

So stay focused on what YOU need to succeed.

15 FAT LOSS TIPS That Changed My Life

15 FAT LOSS TIPS That Changed My Life

Struggling to lose weight? Need that little tip to kickstart your results?

Well let me save you a lot of wasted time and effort experimenting to find what works and share 15 tips I’ve found to make all the difference in my results.

CHECK OUT THE FULL VIDDEO BLOG BELOW:

1: Working In Foods You Love First

For me this is dessert.

Often the thing we love most is the least healthy for us so we cut it out first. But we need to do the opposite and actually PLAN IT IN FIRST to work everything else around it and create a lifestyle balance.

When we cut out the foods we love, we sabotage ourselves. Restricting them just leads to us wanting them more and ultimately binging on them and falling off our plan.

Work in the foods you love so you want to stay consistent with the healthy lifestyle you are building!

2: Quality Does, And Doesn’t, Matter

Obviously whole natural foods are best for our health.

But you can STILL overeat healthy foods.

If you’ve been frustrated not seeing weight loss results while thinking “My diet is healthy and clean,” realize that your portions could still be off.

And we also need to stop making ourselves feel guilty for enjoying some not so quality foods as we strike the balance right for us.

Follow the 80/20 rule, consuming whole, natural, nutrient dense foods 80% of the time while still enjoying the not as quality foods you love.

And remember, portions still really matter!

3: It’s Not Forever

Nothing works forever.

While we want to make true habit and lifestyle changes, we need to realize that our needs and goals will change with time and our diet and exercise routines will need to adjust and adapt as well.

You’re building a foundation with the changes you’re making but you can’t get so tied to something you aren’t willing to adjust with time.

Focus on truly LEARNING the fundamentals and basics so you understand how things work for you so you can adjust as you need when your lifestyle and goals change.

4: Keep It Simple, Butthead

It’s so easy to get caught up in all of the options out there. And it isn’t stupid to want to overcomplicate things.

But we do need to keep it SIMPLE if we want the best results. As the more details we add all at once, the more our attention gets divided and the harder we make it on ourselves to dial in the big picture plan, which matters most.

We’re being a butthead, and I mean that as a slight term of endearment, if we start worrying about details like meal timing and supplements and best foods for fat loss before we first simply get consistent with our workout routine while dialing in our overall macros and calories for the day.

So set a few big picture things to start with and get consistent with before you worry about anything else!

5: Stop Overcorrecting

We’re human.

There will be days that don’t go as planned, days we just aren’t motivated, days that we just “mess up.”

But instead of feeling guilty, instead of trying to do more the next day to make up for it, we just need to get right back to those habits.

We need to do what we can as soon as we can to just MOVE FORWARD.

It’s like if we get a flat tire, we don’t slash the other three! Nope. We fix the flat or call a tow truck so we can get moving forward as fast as possible. Don’t make the situation worse.

Don’t try to do more to correct it as that will also often backfire.

Just move forward.

6: Focus On Strength Training Over Cardio

Our workouts should be about more than just burning calories. So while we may burn more calories in a single cardio session over a strength session, this shouldn’t really be our focus.

Training is about becoming functional stronger and moving our best.

And if we want to really improve our weight loss efforts, we need to focus less on how many calories we burn in a single session and more on how we can increase our lean muscle mass to raise our metabolic rate and burn more calories even at rest.

So focus on strength training to actually see better results faster, especially as we get older. Since it becomes harder to build and retain lean muscle, we want to do everything we can to promote better muscle hypertrophy!

7: You Can’t Just Listen To Your Body

We wouldn’t be struggling to lose weight if we could just eat intuitively. Intuitive eating needs to be learned.

So if you’re trying to achieve body recomposition, you won’t be able to just listen to your body and eat according to its cues.

Our body don’t like change and they believe the state they’ve been in, the weight you’ve been at, is normal. So your body will resist any weight loss efforts.

You’ll feel hungry.

There will be mental struggles as you make changes to habits you’ve always done.

But change requires change.

8: There’s No Quick Fix

Plain and simple, change doesn’t happen overnight. And even expecting to reverse 10 years of weight gain in a single year, is truly overnight results.

The longer we’ve had the weight on, the longer we’ve been repeating habits that don’t work, the longer it will take to see changes.

And often the closer we get to our goal, the slower the progress will be especially if we are trying to see true fat loss and not just quickly lose weight on the scale through glycogen depletion and water weight being lost!

So get ready to focus on consistency over doing more to get results faster. We can’t out exercise or out diet time!

9: Recovery Is Key

Often we try to do more by training longer and harder and cutting out more from our diet.

But often the MORE we really need is more rest and recovery.

Those “easy” recovery sessions, when we relax and sleep and de-stress, that is when we are actually repairing and seeing the benefits of our hard training sessions and changes in macro ratios.

Without recovery time, you are just going to keep beating yourself down instead of ever allowing your results to build up!

So prioritize sleep. Plan in rest days. Do that rehab work! It may not “feel” beneficial but it is truly what makes your hard work add up!

10: Avoid Restriction

Often we cut out more in an attempt to get results faster. But all this does is make our habits unsustainable.

It’s what makes us feel like we just don’t have the discipline, self control or willpower to see the results we want.

When really we just aren’t being realistic. We aren’t basing things off of our needs and goals.

Don’t focus on cutting out. First focus on small swaps that feel like the smallest changes and realize there can be a balance.

Even start by doing the MINIMUM, knowing results will snowball.

11: Be Active

The more you do, the more you do. And when we stay active, we often want to do more things that keep us moving in a positive direction.

It’s much easier to get lazy and eat extra crap when you’re just lazing around.

So get moving.

Go out for walks. They’re a great way to burn more fat and get in more movement without stressing your body.

But get active and stay.

Especially the leaner you get and closer to your goal you get, as you’ve been in a deficit for longer, the more your body may actually move less to conserve energy.

Be conscious of this and make sure to make an effort to stay active throughout the day!

12: Macros Over Calories

Macros matter most for sustainable results. The ratio you use may impact the calories right for you and impact how full you feel.

And higher protein ratios can help prevent unwanted fat gain if you are in a surplus while helping aid in muscle mass retention during a deficit.

Actually high protein ratios are the only ones shown to even help you build muscle while in a deficit.

So let your macros then dictate how you dial in your calories. Don’t just focus on calories in vs. calories out!

13: You’re Not An All Or Nothing Person

Often we think if we can’t do everything at once, there is no point in doing anything.

This not only gives us an excuse not to start but it makes us feel like we’ve failed if one thing doesn’t go as planned.

But results don’t happen because of what we do when we are perfect. From doing more for a week.

They happen because we stick with the minimum consistently day after day.

Remember that small changes build. And that the more we can ingrain one habit, the easier it becomes to replicate even on days we don’t feel like it.

So focus on those small changes and set some minimums you know you can hit so results can snowball.

14: Stop Doing More

The simple fact of the matter is, you can’t out exercise or out diet time.

And often the more we try to rush results, the more we simple deplete our self control and willpower so we can’t stay consistent long term.

Many of us have repeated this restriction, binge, guilt cycle.

We do so much, burn ourselves out with the restriction, end up binging, feel guilty, fall off, then can’t get back on track for a bit and even dig ourselves more of a hole to crawl out of.

Focus on small sustainable changes. Realize results simply take time and get ready for the long haul celebrating those daily habits as wins themselves.

And I saved the best for last…

15: Tracking

I know people hate on tracking for being restrictive, tedious, boring, annoying, time consuming, frustrating.

But what we measure, we can manage.

Tracking gives you an accurate picture of what you’re doing both diet-wise and in your workouts so you can make accurate adjustments.

If you want to create the right portion sizes for you without having to cut out the foods you love, you need to track.

If you want to make sure you’re getting stronger and progressing in your workouts, you need to track.

So as unsexy and annoying as it is to start, it truly is the best way to avoid wasting time and know what is and isn’t working!

SUMMARY:

So if you’ve been struggling to see results, start with even just one of these tips as your focus and BUILD. Because the hardest part is getting started and the more you do, the more you’ll want to do.

We just often need to get that ball rolling!

Ready to create your own recipe for results?

–> The 3-Step Recipe For Fabulous Fat Loss Results

FHP 415 – Why Change Is Such A CHallenge

FHP 415 – Why Change Is Such A CHallenge

I definitely come at this from a personal perspective and one of a person who really freaking hated change growing up.

My mom loves to tell stories about how I wouldn’t sleep like a month before school started because I was so nervous about the new year.

And I went from this person who sooooo didn’t like change to a person forced to constantly change it seems like on a daily basis.

I still don’t like it. I like routines and consistency and doing things the way I’ve always done them.

But I also don’t fight change any more.

And I attribute the fact that I have just learned to go with it because I’ve realized why it was such a challenge.

I also own up to my own dislike of it vs trying to downplay it.

But I’ve realized that change is such a challenge because it isn’t really the actions that have to change but the MINDSETS.

And part of making a change is sort of admitting we are currently WRONG in something we are doing even.

The more tied to something we are, the more we view things as right and wrong, good or bad, the harder it becomes to embrace something new.

It becomes hard to shift those very binary mindsets.

It becomes a process of not only embracing new actions, but also new mindsets.

And that means UNLEARNING THE OLD as we LEARN THE NEW.

It’s that unlearning and retraining process of not only the body to some extent but also the mind that is hard.

That’s why I wanted to share a few things I feel have changed my perspective on change and made me a bit more easily adaptable even though I still don’t like it haha

#1: Realize It’s Not Part Of Your Identity

So if you think about what is often hardest to change, it’s things most tied to our identity.

The more we think something reflects on our worth, how smart we are, how people really perceive us, the harder it is often to make a change to it.

The more we perceive something to be part of our worth and identity, the harder it is to change.

But so much of what we act like is who and what we are…well…it really isn’t.

I know it’s why often even diets become religion.

We start to fall into a camp and define ourselves by that camp instead of seeing opportunity in other perspectives.

But the honest truth for most of us is…these are just phases in our life.

We will join many camps. Go through many groups on our journey to self discover.

Most of what we do and the habits we implement aren’t truly who we are, they are different outfits we wear.

So realize that these beliefs, while yes some are your identity, many you shouldn’t hold on to so tightly but embrace as part of your life now, being even WILLING to allow them to change as you learn.

But the more you find that solid identity and realize the other things are just a part of this current situation, the easier it is to shed the things that ultimately don’t serve you best.

The easier it is to unlearn the old while embracing the new!

#2: Realize Things Really AREN’T So Binary – Life is truly an annoying continuum

The most annoying answer when someone asks a question, that I also oddly love giving is, it depends.

And it’s because many things really do depend on so many factors.

Change is also easier when we realize that there isn’t a true right or wrong, good or bad.

There is opportunity in options!

The more we embrace that and see things as an experiment the better off we’ll be.

#3: Set End Dates To Create Change

Too many of us start things thinking THEY WILL BE THE LIFESTYLE we’ve been looking for.

I start things now thinking, “Well this will be a fun experiment. Let’s see how it goes.”

Everything in my opinion now has an end date. A date at which I assess what does and doesn’t work.

Not only does it help me actually better whole-heartedly implement the plan BUT it also helps me embrace that something may need to change or that it may not be the right thing.

And if it does work out?

Then I fully embrace the change as something new and move on to the next experiment. I slowly build and add pieces even to my identity that match…also realizing there will probably be another experiment along the way that tests them.

SUMMARY:

So much in our life evolves and our priorities will shift.

It’s a good thing.

But we have to realize that we need to be fluid and embrace changes. It doesn’t mean that we don’t take a stand with things. That we don’t have solid beliefs.

We will always filter things through a lease.

But it just means we need to be open to new perspectives.

Because the more we fight changes, and feel like changing a habit is changing our identity, the less likely we are to truly see growth!