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Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

(00:28):
The number one reason we don’t see results, it’s not that we don’t have a perfect macro ratio. It’s not that our workout routine isn’t hard enough or good enough. It’s not that our plan isn’t good, it’s simply often that we quit before results have a chance to snowball. That’s it. And I say this because we always keep ourselves stuck in this change loop, and it’s because we hit the same hard. So if you think about the pattern, you repeat for some of it’s 30 days, we’ve been able to do a 21 day program, but we hit that 30 day barrier and all of a sudden it’s like, Ugh, results aren’t happening fast enough. Is this really worth it? I feel like I’m working so hard not to see results snowball. I deserve more. For some of us, it’s maybe six weeks or nine weeks, or maybe it’s all of those different things that we hit that stick point.

(01:17):
And sometimes we can push through based on the time of year and sometimes we can’t. And I see it often with clients and I’ve seen it with myself. We hit that slight dead zone where we have been working hard enough for long enough and it feels like it’s just not adding up the way we feel we deserve. And so we hit that hard, we hit that comfort zone boundary. We get zapped by that electrical fence, so to speak, and we turn back to the comfort. We don’t keep pushing through the hard, but nothing changes if nothing changes. And so I wanted to bring this up because I do think we so often keep ourselves stuck because we hit that same hard point. Even if it’s sort of packaged in a different packaging, we hit that same hard point. We quit and that’s why we never see results snowball.

(01:55):
We get to day 30, but then we go back to day one. We never go to day 31 or day 32 or day 33. So I wanted to discuss what I think can help us get over this boundary. What can help us get out of what I see as the change loop? We start a new program, get really excited by the promise. We go all in, do all these different habits. We hit habit overload, which leads to emotional sabotage, which leads to I quit instead of us doubling down on what’s working. And I think it’s because, and this sounds very negative, but we’re not finding the restriction that we can tolerate. Again, sounds very negative, but what I mean by this is everything that we do is not going to be fun to reach a goal. There are downsides to every upside. And the more we own this, the more we own there are struggles, there are habits that we won’t like especially to start because they’re not within our comfort zone.

(02:43):
There’s going to be hard that we push through. The more we’re going to see the results that we deserve, and also realize that some of the downsides aren’t really as hard as we once thought they were or that they were a means to an end. Like tracking. I never like someone to say, tracking is not a lifestyle that I can do forever. And I say that because I think the mindset of, oh, it’s not sustainable, automatically holds us back from truly embracing it and seeing the opportunity in it. So we have to believe that some of the habits we’re going to be implementing are something we’re going to do for the rest of our life, even though they’re not. We don’t do one thing in one form forever and our body needs and goals, our lifestyle is constantly evolving and we’re going to change because of that.

(03:21):
But going into tracking, you need to think, okay, I’m going to do this for the rest of my life. You’re not going to do it in the same form. There’s going to be times you’re more intensive with your tracking. There’s times where you’re going to learn your portions and just keep going with it. There’s times you’re going to do minimums, there’s times you’re not going to track at all. But now a tool in your arsenal to keep you going. And I bring up tracking specifically because I think this is a key component of finding the restriction that you can tolerate. So you might say, well, I can really tolerate tracking Corey. Okay, but hear me out on why this tool, this downside is so valuable. So in terms of restriction, you might have a friend that was like, keto is it? It was perfect. I saw results.

(03:56):
I love it. It’s a lifestyle. And you’re like, Nope, nope, not for me. Nope. Can’t do it. And the thing is, that’s a restriction they can tolerate. They don’t mind cutting out those foods. Those foods might never have been important to them. But the one dilemma with this is that some point there’s going to be some hiccup in that they can’t just restrict those foods or they’re faced with something or maybe they don’t even have that same macro breakdown because of something else they want to include, but they don’t fully know why those restrictions worked for them. They think it’s just the food type, but it’s really underlying things, fundamentals that made it work. Food type and how a diet helps us dial in our macros varies from saying you can’t have these foods to include these foods to focus on these foods to get these different meal timings or only eat at certain times.

(04:41):
These things are always dialing in the fundamentals of calories and macros. So the more we track to see how those restrictions or how those limitations are really impacting our underlying macros, the more we give ourselves the power to adjust and embrace different restrictions at different times. Because I can also tell you what you do in January where you’re super motivated to reach a goal is not what you’re potentially going to do at a different time of year, even if you’re still working towards the same goal. And then as you shift from reaching a goal, you don’t go back to what you were doing, but you don’t keep doing the same habits in the exact same form that got you there. When you reach your weight loss goal, you don’t stay in a calorie deficit, but you can’t just go back. You have to retrain your body to eat more.

(05:18):
You have to embrace new macros. You have to keep some of the lifestyle factors, but they’re going to evolve. If you go into a muscle gaining phase, same thing, you’re going to evolve. Hormone levels change. We get older. Our lifestyle changes, we’re going to evolve. So tracking allows us to really identify why and what is working. So as you’re thinking about what restrictions you might be able to embrace, if you start ke and you’re like, okay, this feels really good, I can do this. Start to track what ratios are you hitting? What foods are you eliminating to do this? And what foods might you not be able to embrace the restriction of for long-term? If you do want to result faster, you might say, I’m not drinking at all, or I’m not doing any cheat days, or I’m cutting out X. And it might feel very sustainable.

(05:55):
You might embrace that restriction, but for how long? And if it’s something you can’t feel that you’ll embrace forever, identify what that’s truly doing to your lifestyle to help you move forward. And I say this because there are times a year where I don’t have cocktails as much as I love them, I will cut them out for a period or I won’t include a cheat day, and maybe I’ll do a little bit more on other days still hitting macros. But then on other days, I will have, or other times of year, I will have a complete cheat day where I won’t log and I won’t care. And I know I’m completely killing my macros and calories and whatever else, but I don’t care because I adjust the rest of the week for that. But I do different things at different times of year because there’s different restrictions I’m willing to embrace based on different goals, based on different lifestyle factors.

(06:33):
And so understanding what we’re truly willing to embrace and how it impacts us is the key component because otherwise we quit. We get to that same hard point. We think we are not getting results the way we want or we want to add something in and we don’t really have a strategy. We don’t have that exit plan. Also even say, and we don’t know what to double down on because we don’t know what’s working. And guys, we all hit that boundary. There’s always a time in our life we’re going to be pushing that comfort zone and you’re going to get zapped by it and your immediate response is going to be, I want to go back. But if you never push that hard, you’re never going to push that comfort zone and you’re never going to see changes really snowball. So often when we think, oh, I need something new.

(07:11):
This isn’t working. It’s really that we’re only measuring success in one way and viewing it as only one outcome when there’s all these other ways that results are snowballing and building. And we might be in a dead zone right now where things don’t feel like they’re adding up. But if we just keep going past the point, we usually want to quit. We’re going to see that success. So I would really encourage you to start tracking to understand what restrictions you are willing to embrace right now and what restrictions you might not embrace long-term and how they impact you. But then also realize when you hit that restriction hard, when you hit that point where you’re pushing it up against that comfort zone, it feels really uncomfortable. Take that step back and assess, why do I want to quit right now? What is truly going on?

(07:49):
And then double down on the things that are working. Again, this is where tracking your food can be so key because you might say, Hey, I’ve been too low a calorie for too long. I need to bump my calories up. I need to take that diet break. Or, Hey, this low carb worked for me, but I’m really missing X food. Let’s see how I can work it in. But by tracking, you have the power to make accurate adjustments versus you go from keto where you’re restricting to then paleo where you’re restricting to then vegetarian, where you’re restricting to then some other carnivore where you’re restricting and you’re doing this restriction, but you don’t know why you’re able to tolerate that restriction for so long or for so short or what actually works. But to some extent, it is just finding the downsides that we are willing to embrace for the upsides and realizing that we’re going to be willing to embrace more at times and make more sacrifices and then not embrace as much at other times.

(08:36):
And that’s okay. But truly knowing what we’re doing is key because that allows us to evolve. It allows us to say, Hey, these other priorities in life are taking precedent. And so this intensive macro tracking that I’ve been doing that’s been really successful for me, Hey, I can’t do it. Okay, instead of doing nothing and instead of feeling like, well, tracking just doesn’t work for me. Say, what minimums can I do? How can I modify this so that the downsides are worth it to keep doing? Because if one downside right now isn’t worth it, it doesn’t mean that this whole plan is not working for you. It just means that other things are taking priority. All stress goes in one bucket. So we might have to alleviate what we’re adding to that bucket so it doesn’t overflow. So instead of tracking as intensively, you set that calorie cap or you set that protein minimum or you say, Hey, I’m going to make a meal plan for myself that I’m going to follow, even though I usually like more diversity in food.

(09:21):
But it’s truly learning how we can embrace that restriction, find the restrictions that work for us that aren’t as painful for us, so we can bust out that change loop double down on things versus hitting that emotional sabotage where we say, I feel like I deserve more results for the effort that I’m putting in, and we end up quitting, right? Where we would truly see results snowball if we just kept pushing that comfort zone, pushing through because I quit truly is what often holds us back. It’s the mindset, not the habits I’ve seen people with, and I will say imperfect plans, all things working against them, doing the minimum see better results than somebody who had all the tools all the time at their disposal. Just because one kept going through it, all started at the wrong time, kept going and doing the minimum at the wrong time, did something over nothing, versus the person that went all in for a period but couldn’t maintain the restrictions because they never learned what really worked for them.

(10:12):
So off of that, guys, I do want to open it up to any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. I know that was a lot all at once, but I wanted to touch on this key mindset component just because I think so often we do just go and search for another macro ratio. We do just go and search for a new better move or a new workout plan instead of realizing that it comes back to that self-assessment and that self-awareness and constantly being willing to evolve knowing that one thing doesn’t work forever. We don’t do one workout program forever yet. So for some reason we started diet and we’re like, this is one thing forever. And again, I think we have to have the attitude of I can do these habits forever going in to help ourselves embrace them and make that change and even potentially go the other direction to correct some of the habits we have currently. But at the same time, we have to realize that the exact mold that we’re in right now is not the mold that we’ll use, the plan that we’ll use forever. So embracing that it is forever, but not forever. We’re not going back, put it that way.

(11:05):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life of someone.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript