00:00

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):
I’m going to give it to you straight, and I want to go over 10 sucky truths you need to own. If you really want to see results, and I say own because we need to really assess what we’re being faced with. If we want the smoothest journey forward, there are still going to be mishaps, blips, mistakes, setbacks. But the more we oversell that negative to ourselves, the more we prepare ourself for the hard, it’s like marching into battle. You want the armor on, you want to have the weapons at hand. You don’t want to just go into battle, not prepare at all, because then you’re probably going to get s soldered. Things aren’t going to go the way you really want. So we want to be as armed and ready as we possibly can when making a change, when seeking a new result, because that’s going to make the process that much smoother.

(01:09):
The more we oversell the negative, the more we prepare for it. The more we recognize the struggles we’ve had in the past, that might face us again. The more we recognize our mindsets, the more we can really make sure that we’re making changes based on knowing these things will pop up. Knowing the downsides, knowing what might hold us back to overcome it better. Because when we don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s a lot harder to plan forward. It’s a lot harder to manage it, especially with a lot going on. So 10 sucky truths. Number one, the habit changes we need the most are often the ones we fight against the hardest. And the reason we fight against these things is because they’re generally the most uncomfortable. It’s why we haven’t made them. It’s why they’re going to make such a difference if we truly embrace them.

(01:50):
Think about a lot of times what hard you’ve hit that you’ve turned back from. What habit or lifestyle changes have you avoided making? Have you avoided tracking macros because it seemed too difficult? Have you avoided doing a set workout progression on your own because it seemed too challenging? What are hard changes that you have avoided? Then think, why have I avoided these? A lot of times we come up with reasons. We’ve even researched to find reasons. Oh, well, you don’t utilize more than X amount of protein in a meal, therefore, what’s the point of increasing protein? Or I’ve heard it’s bad for your kidneys, or we search out any reason why not to do something. Instead of saying, Hey, maybe the reason I haven’t seen the results I want is because I’m not embracing this hard change. Why might someone constantly be telling me to do this?

(02:32):
Why might I have encountered a lot of programs that are telling me to do this? Where could this benefit me? And the more we can find the benefits to then embrace that experiment and set a time that we’re going to truly try to do something new, the more we can help ourselves move forward. But I can tell you that the more you find yourself resisting a change, the more you probably need it. And you want to even assess what current trajectory am I on? What trajectory have my habits that I’m doing right now put me on? Am I doing habits that will move me forward towards my goals? Or am I repeating the same old habits that are leading me far, far away from my goals and never going to hit that outcome no matter how hard I work? A lot of times, again, going back to that hard habit that we don’t want to embrace, that usually is the habit that is going to set us on the course to get the results that we want.

(03:15):
So assess why rebelling against it, why you’re doing all this research to prove that it is not something you need to do. And then recognize if you’re doing all that to resist it, it’s probably the habit change you need the most. Next, change is hard, plain and simple. As much as some of us might say, oh, I like change. We don’t like change. We like doing what’s comfortable and what we’re comfortable doing is what we’ve always done and the changes we do like are changes that we are willing to make that we see the benefit of. So if we’re going to make a hard change, a lot of times the more we can explain to ourselves why this will be beneficial, the more we’re going to embrace it, but also the more we recognize that change is simply hard because we’re unlearning old habits as we’re learning new ones, the more we’re going to embrace small steps forward, the more we’re going to lower those mental barriers.

(03:58):
Because a lot of times it isn’t even the physical routine that’s hard. It’s the mental resistance to it. So if you’ve tried to make some changes and you’re finding yourself sort of pulling back against them, realize that you are defaulting back into the safe. You know what the outcome of that is, even if the outcome isn’t something that’s moving you forward, so you’re going to pull back every time you hit that same hard, and we might try and look for a different way around it. Maybe you try keto one time and then you go paleo, and then you go vegan. You’re trying the same restriction just labeled in different ways, and by doing that, you’re always turning back at the same hard instead of recognizing that change is hard. And at some point you have to push past that point. You don’t want to push past.

(04:35):
Number three, we stand in our own way. All too often we quit before results have added up. It’s not that we need a perfect macro ratio. It’s not that we need a perfect workout. We simply need to realize that we are holding ourselves back from embracing the new lifestyle. We aren’t embracing the new identity. We’re even telling ourselves that things aren’t possible. How do you know it’s not possible? Have you tried it before? Okay, maybe you did try it a long time ago, but what in your lifestyle was different? Well, your mindset was different. What might have been different that didn’t allow that to happen then? Or was it simply that you got six weeks in and you gave up? A lot of times we can’t know what is possible until we try and prove it possible, and we really give ourselves a chance, an opportunity to stick with the habits long enough so we hold ourselves back, we hit the hard, we turn around.

(05:20):
It is very, very hard to push our comfort zone. It is one of the most challenging things we can do. And again, we try all these different things. We hit that same hard. Yes, it might be this part of the comfort zone circle versus this other part, but we’re always turning back to the same hard. And you might even recognize it’s always at 30 days. It’s always at six weeks. It’s always at nine weeks. It’s always at a specific time of year. But you’re going to recognize that you are hitting that same hard point and always turning around instead of saying, Hey, why have I hit this hard? What can I double down on that’s working and keep pushing through? Because a lot of times it’s just not quitting that ultimately bust us out of the change loop and it helps us see results. Number four, success is failure.

(05:58):
Have you ever noticed when you’re watching a movie, a TV show, a podcast, whatever else, that when you’re listening to someone who has really succeeded at a goal, they talk about all of their failures, they should tell us something. Success is failure. The more successful a person is, the more I hear them talking about their failures and not only what they learned from them, but just the fact that they had more of them. And success isn’t the absence of those things. Really seeing the result we want isn’t not having a hard making a mistake isn’t not failing to some extent. I mean, the only failure is giving up, but it’s always having those learning experiences. The key is just picking yourself up and moving forward after them. But the more failures you have had, the more successes you’re going to have had because you’re going to learn from them as long as you keep moving forward.

(06:45):
So I would really have you question yourself if you’ve been like, oh, I’ve failed every other time. You just haven’t kept moving forward. That might be the issue over the mistakes themselves, because everything we encounter, every deviation, every hiccup, every even good experience is a learning experience if we choose to see it that way. The key is stepping back at points in our journey to assess what is and isn’t working to double down on things that are working to assess why something might not be working and if we’re even optimizing it. And then if it isn’t working, get rid of it to do more of what is working or to experiment with something else that might be more in line with what is working. But just recognize success is failure. The more successful you want to be, the more you’re going to have to embrace failures along the way.

(07:24):
Then nothing works forever. Over the course of your year, your lifestyle changes more than you even recognize. A lot of times January to May, we can have certain habits. We’re really motivated from the new year that maybe we’re motivated for the upcoming summer and then all of a sudden the summer hits and we’re traveling more kids are off of school, our lifestyle changes and what habits might’ve been perfect for January to may not be so perfect for May to even September, and then the holidays hit and new habits are even needed. The more we try and force a mold from one time a year onto another time a year, the more we ultimately sabotage our own success. You might notice you get really great results until about May, and then over the summer things start to sort of slide, but you ignore those 1% deviations.

(08:06):
It’s okay enough and all of a sudden the holiday season comes, you gain weight and you feel like you’re starting over in January instead of repeating the same cycle, forcing the same habits that worked in January on your summer, on your holiday season, why not assess what other habits you might need, what focuses you might need? Yes, sure, maybe you want to lose more weight, but maybe the summer isn’t the time to focus on that. Maybe you just want to maintain your previous results. Maybe during the holiday season you’re even struggling to maintain, so you’re like, okay, I just want to gain less than I usually have. So I go into this January better off. Too often we get focused on one week, one day, one month even. Instead of saying, Hey, what about the years? How can I go into next January better off to then go into the next January better off and make 1% improvements over the season?

(08:45):
So not only does our year look different from month to month, but as we get older, our body needs and goals change. We’ve been training for longer, we’ve been dieting for longer, we’ve done more good things and more bad things, and we have to account for all these things to constantly evolve. Even our mindset, our work schedule, all these different things will impact what we need. And one macro ratio that worked for you at one point may not work with the lifestyle changes you have now. One way of prepping may not work for you in the lifestyle changes you have now. So constantly assessing what you need, and if you haven’t been doing a lot of the things you feel like you need to be doing, instead of trying to force a mold, say, Hey, what does my current lifestyle look like? Just track that for a week.

(09:24):
Don’t make any changes because even in seeing that, you’ll see room for opportunity and growth that meets you where you’re at and the best changes meet us where we’re at to move us forward. And it’s those 1% improvements that we almost can sneak in without even noticing that we’re making those changes that build that momentum, that build that motivation, that build that success mindset that moves us forward. So just recognize that nothing works forever and we constantly have to be reassessing where we are right now to meet ourselves there, whether it’s setting new goals, new focuses, new habits, just so that we can keep moving forward and see those results snowball, recognizing that sometimes even maintaining previous progress leads to better results faster than we even recognize. Number six, effort doesn’t equal outcome. I’ve been guilty of it. I know most of us have been the being like, I’m working so hard.

(10:09):
I feel like the results aren’t what I deserve. I deserve better. Effort is not actually action. It relates to a feeling. And I bring this up, especially after following up with the nothing works forever because what might not feel like a lot of effort, a habit that you’re doing six days a week of training or a specific macro breakdown might not feel like a lot of effort when you’re really motivated during a specific time of year and then all of a sudden you’re traveling, the holidays are calm, whatever else is going on, stresses at work and what didn’t feel like a lot of effort to do something then may all of a sudden the same habit feel like a lot more effort. The habit didn’t change, just the feeling of effort because the habit was mismatched to the time of year to the stressors. Everything else going on now made it feel like a lot of effort.

(10:53):
We’re not going to get better results from doing the same thing just because it feels harder, but we feel like we deserve more. So we have to recognize that effort is a feeling. Working hard is a feeling, and you can even be working really hard in the wrong direction, not doing habits that are going to pay off. So you need to assess why do I feel like I’m working really hard? Why do I feel like I’m giving all this effort and the results aren’t paying off? Am I actually being as diligent in the habits as I think I am? Sometimes stepping back, we realize there’s a lot of room for opportunity and growth in those habits still. Or sometimes we recognize, hey, these habits clearly aren’t matching what I need. Or we’re saying, Hey, I’m doing good habits, but they are too much for the other stress that I have going on.

(11:29):
Because all stress goes in one bucket, and if we’re putting too much stress in that bucket, it’s going to overflow. So we have to find ways to reduce the amount of stress that goes into that bucket at times, which might mean that a habit that worked really well at one time a year does not work so well. Maybe you go from a full macro breakdown to a protein minimum. Maybe you go from six days a week of training to three days a week. But sometimes you have to adjust those habits so they don’t feel like so much effort so you can get consistent in still doing something. Because so much of this relates back to our mindset. Are we putting ourselves in a success mindset or a failure mindset? Are we giving ourself motivation to move forward or are we leading to that negative spiral where we do more of nothing?

(12:05):
So we have to assess that because sometimes doing less ultimately makes us feel more successful, makes us get re-motivated quicker to do more, versus if we fail at doing what we think we should do perfectly, that is just too much and giving too much effort, we’re going to ultimately do a whole lot of nothing and then we’re definitely not going to see our results snowball. So really honestly, assess or where that feeling of effort is coming from and recognizing that effort doesn’t guarantee an outcome because it is a feeling. It is not that we’re making more changes necessarily. And also I want to throw out if something’s felt hard in the past, if you’ve been avoiding the hard, maybe this is why you haven’t created true change. So if you feel like something is a lot of effort and you’ve avoided doing it or sticking with it long term, it goes back to what I mentioned at the very beginning.

(12:49):
Often the habit changes we need the most are the ones that are the hardest and the ones we try and avoid as hard as possible. So really assess, hey, if I haven’t been uncomfortable in things, am I really doing things that are outside my comfort zone that will build the new me, that will embrace the new habits, that will see the new results that I want? Number seven, someone always has it easier and it doesn’t matter. And I bring this up because I don’t think that we won’t compare. I think we are creatures of comparison and we need to own this instead of saying, well, don’t compare to others because I think it’s natural too. But that comparison can be positive or can be negative. It can be us saying, Hey, what are they doing? What do they have? How can I use this to my advantage?

(13:27):
Or it can be, oh, well they had it easier. They didn’t have the struggle. It can be a negative thing where we end up putting ourselves down or writing ourselves off, but ultimately what someone else succeeds with or what they achieve has no impact on you except as potentially a learning experience to use their struggles. They’re overcoming of those different things to your advantage to learn from, but you got to focus on your growth and your improvement. And that’s why I also think it’s so cute. We go back to finding what our current status is will work for you in the past. Who cares? Even focus right now on where you’re at and what you need to move forward based on little habit changes from there. Because I do think even not even comparing to somebody else, we compare to our past selves. I used to be so in shape.

(14:08):
I used to be able to run marathons. I used to be able to list X weight. I used to be able to do this type of meal prep. I used to have abs, I used to have. It doesn’t matter what you used to have, what matters is where you’re right now to move forward. Because the more we compare, the more we hold ourselves back, the more we try and do what matched us then versus really meeting ourselves where we’re at to move forward. Number eight, there’s no one best thing. Nothing works forever and we have to let go of a habit even sometimes that really worked for us in the past, loved intermittent fasting, great, but maybe it doesn’t match your needs and goals right now. Did one thing to lose weight, great. That’s not what we’re going to do to maintain those results. It’s not what we’re going to do to build muscle.

(14:44):
A lot of times when we clinging to previous dieting workout practices, we hold ourselves back from seeing the opportunity and learning something new. And I can tell you I’m constantly trying to tweak and evolve in. I firmly believe there’s something better out there. There’s something more I can optimize and that allows me to constantly move forward and ultimately make improvements. And I still go back to stuff that I used in the past because it did really work. But I don’t feel like there’s one best thing because I know that so much is changing constantly in my lifestyle. And the more I can really match whatever I need right now and let go of any tactics or tools and not see them as the be all and end all and not tie my identity to them, the better off I’m going to be. Because what you even use, if you keto worked really well for you at one point, hey, maybe that doesn’t work for you.

(15:24):
Now with the lifestyle you have, maybe it did work to lose the weight, but now you want to add back in carbs. So you need to let go of that identity to evolve. The more we tie our identity in those tools and tactics, the more we hold ourselves back. But there is no one best thing. It’s all about the systems working together. You’re not going to find a magic move, a magic macro ratio. It’s about how do these macros match my lifestyle right now, match my activity level, match how my hormones have changed, match everything else going on, even my mindset. What does my mindset say in terms of the foods I want to include in the lifestyle balance I want? Then you have to think outside the gym and outside your plate. So I think a lot of times, and I focus a lot on what we do in our training and what we do in our nutrition, because those are often the easiest things to control, but we have to think outside of both the workouts and the nutrition component if we really want to see results.

(16:11):
Because you can only train as hard as you can recover from. And a lot of times seeing a lot of soreness not recovering in the way that you want, not seeing the results that you want from your nutrition is because something is out of line. We are not recovering well enough, which might mean we’re not giving ourselves enough mobility work. We’re not sleeping well enough. We’re trying to do too much in our training. We’re trying to under fuel. So it does relate to our plate and what we’re doing in the gym, but we have to really see all the lifestyle balance too, to see how everything’s going to work together. Because if we don’t assess our lifestyle and even our mindset and the balance that’s right for us, we’re not going to create our training in a way that really meets us where we’re at.

(16:44):
We’re not going to create our nutrition in something that’s sustainable based on what we need right now. And saying that not everything feels sustainable and easy to start, but we have to assess, okay, if I’m doing something for this end goal, how realistic is this for me longterm? Okay, maybe it’s not realistic, but I know it will help me see better results faster. How can I create this off of a foundation which allows me to then steer into more of a sustainable lifestyle balance? It’s why no matter if someone’s doing keto, vegetarian, vegan, whatever else it is, I like them to focus on macros because if they do decide to cut out specific foods for a period, at least they know the macro breakdown that that restriction is creating. So if you’re doing keto and you realize you’re cutting out specific food groups, well, hey, if you’re cutting out those carbs, what carb ratio are you actually including?

(17:29):
Because just even by learning that, you can then work back in those foods. But think about not only the foods, not only the gym workouts, but how your sleeping, what your lifestyle balances, even your mindsets. I can tell you that mindset matters most when it comes to achieving results. Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you are right. And you might be thinking, well, I’m still doing the habits even though I don’t believe in them. You are doing yourself a doubt. You are not optimizing the things that you are doing. You’re not embracing them as potentially a new identity, stepping into this new habit, this new routine, and therefore you’re not going to replicate it longterm. You’re also going to find ways to do the minimum of some of these things instead of optimizing these things. And again, it goes back to trying to force ourselves into a mold where ultimately we end up feeling not successful with that, and we start to have that failure mindset and then we start to do less and fall off of all those things versus saying, Hey, what are small changes I can make to my sleep, to my lifestyle, to meeting myself where I’m at, to changing my mindset and how I even view these things to feel more successful and want to add on more changes.

(18:26):
But mindset truly matters most, and it even goes back to seeing yourself and the possibilities there because we hold ourselves back. We quit when we hit the hard seeing where we’re encountering the hard and wanting to turn back all that, assessing our mindset, assessing our self-awareness. And I can tell you one of the things I love the most about coaching isn’t giving macro ratios. It isn’t giving workouts. It’s about helping someone build better self-awareness. The more we are constantly assessing where we are at and our responses to things, the habits that are so unconscious, we repeat them and we have to really unlearn them first before we can even implement new habits. The more we learn about ourselves and those patterns we’re repeating, the mindsets we have, the more we can move forward and constantly be evolving as we need. And finally, the hardest one, but the cold hard truth that we need to own the most is that sometimes we need to do it anyway.

(19:17):
You don’t want to make that change. You don’t want to adjust your weekend eating. You still want to go out with friends. Well, you know what? Sometimes to reach a goal, you have to shift from what eventually you want to do that feels sustainable, and what ultimately feels sustainable may not feel sustainable right now. So sometimes you have to say, suck it on buttercup. Do it anyway. Do the workout anyway. Even though you don’t feel like it, Hey, maybe I can’t fit in that hour. Do five minutes anyway. Even if it feels like, oh, what is this really worth it? Something is better than nothing because you got to do it anyway. Because sometimes pushing yourself to go through that hard and do something anyway, when you would usually turn back to not have something on Friday night when you usually given over the weekends to say, Hey, I want to have this other balance on vacation or whatever else.

(19:56):
Sometimes you have to do a little bit more in order to create a new balance that is better for you, that really is allowing you to pursue what matters most to you. Because a lot of the things that we don’t want to do, we’re holding onto because they’re part of our old identity or they’re part of how we even think other peoples view us versus really being related to what we want for ourselves. So sometimes you have to say, Hey, this is hard, but I’m going to do it anyway, and at another point, I can make a different choice. Maybe I don’t have to do it then, but right now I’m choosing to do this and doing it anyway because it’s going to move me forward towards my goals a little bit faster. So sometimes you got to tell yourself, do it anyway. I hope these sometimes sucky, but truths really help you own what you need to do to see results and help you really assess your mindset when making changes. Because as I said, so much relates back to how we’re perceiving things, how we’re questioning ourselves, how much self-awareness we really have in order to create the habit changes unlearn old habits as we learn new ones that really meet us where we’re at to move forward.

(20:59):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free 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