(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 it 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. What are your goals? Let’s call your goals destination bte, because I want to talk about what it really takes to achieve the success we want and how we often get really focused on only our destination, only a perfect plan, only the habits we think we need to get there.

(00:47):
And we never assess what the journey actually will look like, how we’re stepping into that new identity. So part of reaching destination bte, reaching our goal means truly understanding where we’re starting from, yet we don’t often take a look at that yet. If you think about how you enter in to get directions from your GPS, you set not only the destination but your current location. Yet when we are really looking at destination B stat, we think, okay, this is my goal. I want to lose weight. I want to be here. And we think, okay, what’s the perfect plan for weight loss? Not, Hey, I have all these other things going on in my life right now. What’s a plan that actually fits my current location? So I want you to take a step back if you are setting goals and think, okay, destination bte. What is the roadmap to get there?

(01:33):
And where am I starting from? Currently, I call this assessment of where you are currently, the BTE origin story because you want to understand your hero’s origin story because you are your own hero, as cheesy as that sounds. You are becoming the bte, the hero of your story, and there’s someplace you’re starting from some struggle you’re overcoming. And the more we own the struggles we have, the more we own the priorities we have right now, the more we can overcome those excuses. And as weird as it sounds, we want to embrace the pain that we’re suffering from right now. And you might think, well, it’s not really that painful. I just have five vanity pounds, sls, okay? But there’s something that’s driving you to want to make a change to lose those five pounds. And generally even a goal we deem small or inconsequential because potentially someone else has told us it’s not that important or we feel vain in achieving it has farther reaching ramifications than we really realize and more pain attached to it, be it even just the pain that we feel like we haven’t been able to achieve something we really want.

(02:32):
We haven’t seen that strength to be able to overcome. And so we haven’t built that confidence, that strength and in overcoming a goal that might seem vain or silly or inconsequential in the grand scheme of all the amazing things that life has and all the horribleness or good things out there, we can build so much strength to even pursue more other things. I can tell you for me, as much as I sort of wrote off wanting to get abs like, oh, this is just a vain goal in achieving that goal, I found so much strength to overcome. I challenged myself to be uncomfortable in new ways, and that had such far reaching impact in what I believed I was capable of because I showed to myself that if I really wanted a goal, I was going to find a way to learn what I need to do to overcome the obstacles in the way.

(03:14):
So I want you to take a look at where you are right now. I want you to think about your origin story. What is the pain of staying stuck? Because the more you understand that pain of staying stuck, the more you can use that motivation to overcome the pain of change, but also even recognize when the pain of staying stuck doesn’t outweigh the pain of change and where you have to change the habits to meet you where you’re at. And I bring this up because in looking for a perfect plan to reach that goal that we have, and thinking about what plan is supposedly perfect for weight loss or gaining muscle or this or that, we don’t assess who and what we are. And so we do all these different things at once, and this is where we start to think tracking is restrictive. I can’t do macros.

(03:49):
I can’t work out for an hour six days a week. Instead of saying, okay, so that’s too painful a change for me to make right now instead of doing nothing, what is a change I can make that isn’t too painful? That might mean right now saying, Hey, I’m going to do three days a week, 15 minutes. Hey, I’m going to do three days a week, five minutes. Hey, right now tracking macros or even thinking about macros in general or tracking my food just feels like too much. I’m just going to add in vegetables to one meal or increase my protein at just one meal by adding one more ounce. Think about how you can change the habit to really fit you, because so often we get this very, this habit is good, this habit is bad, this is right and this is wrong. And this binary view doesn’t serve us because habits are, they’re able to be implemented in so many different ways to meet us where we’re at.

(04:36):
So really assess where am I currently? What is the pain that I am suffering from? What does my lifestyle truly look like? When am I waking up in the morning? How do I feel with how I’m waking up? Am I energized in the morning? How is my sleep? How do I feel with my workouts? How do I feel with my habits? How do all these different patterns and behaviors that I’m repeating truly make me feel? And then even think, where do I feel the pushback when I think about the perfect plans I’ve tried to implement in the past that have left me stuck? Where do I see myself running into the same hard that I’m running back from, that I’m turning around from? Because I think in assessing that, we start to realize we always hit the same hard point. It might be at six weeks, it might be after the January motivation wears off.

(05:18):
It might be with keto because we restricted carbs, but there’s some underlying thing below the surface value. And it’s that we’re always running into the same hard and we’re never continuing forward because we’re never doubling down and stepping back to pause and assess what hard we’re hitting and how we can overcome that, or how other priorities have shifted. In January, you might have the perfect time, but in February you might start to travel or work might start to pick up or something else starts to come into play. That by not assessing the evolution in your lifestyle, you’re hitting that hard and you’re turning back because you’re not evolving those habits. But the more you understand your current situation, your current lifestyle, where you’re starting from and the pain involved in that and the habits involved in that, the more you can plan out that roadmap and even have different paths forward.

(05:59):
It’s almost like you have that GPS that can tell you ways around the traffic. You want to find that same ability or way of giving yourself guidance in your own fitness journey. And so that means assessing where you are currently, not just where you want to go or the perfect plan for that. And I bring this up because I had someone email me and they were like, I really want to lose weight. I’m really struggling. And I asked them about their diet and they’re like, well, I love all these different carbs, and they go out for pizza and do all these different things. And so I’m like, okay, well, what do you think is a change that you might use? Or what program were you thinking about going with? And they’re like, well, I think I’m going to do keto. Everything they had outlined was processed food, more eating out, more carb heavy.

(06:38):
And I asked, I’m like, why are you going to do keto? And they said, because my friend did it and it really worked for them. And I’m like, well, do you think that’s realistic for your lifestyle? Well, I think I could cut these things out. And it’s like, but for how long are you forcing a mold that really doesn’t fit? Are you forcing a round peg into a square hole? And in really having her step back, she started to realize like, oh, this is why I haven’t seen the results, because I keep going after a perfect plan, something I think I can use short term. And not that we don’t use certain things short term, and what you do to reach a goal isn’t what you’ll do to maintain it. But there has to be some change in actual lifestyle habits, mindsets, the underlying actions we’re taking.

(07:15):
We have to find ways that we’re learning something about ourselves to move ourselves forward and create that discipline, not just forcing a mold that we can maybe willpower our way through for a little bit. And so in having her step back, she realized that keto wasn’t the way, and that by actually tracking what she’s currently doing, she could work those things in find evolutions in our habits that moved her forward and see sustainable results. Now, it’s not the overnight quick fix that some of these fad diets promise us and even give us, but it’s the lasting results because we don’t want to look good for just one day, and we don’t want to just lose 10 pounds to gain it back. We want to truly see changes, and we want to reach that destination B stat. So I would really urge you, as you’re setting goals, don’t just look at the goal.

(07:55):
Don’t just look at a perfect plan. Look at where you are right now to evolve habits to meet you where you’re at. And then recognize as you reach that goal, you’re stepping into a new identity. Think about what that lifestyle truly looks like to be there. Because I think even in assessing that, and when I questioned her more about the keto, I’m like, does your destination have that same lifestyle that you’re now trying to use to get there? And again, there’s evolution in it, but she realized, no, I wouldn’t be maintaining this long-term. Okay, well, what would you need to be maintaining long-term to maintain the results that you’ve built? And then assessing the actual lifestyle and not just the goal, not just having lost the 10 pounds, but what is the lifestyle that person’s leading to then maintain that loss? She started to see how we could sort of backtrack to her current location and make the habits that she needed now eventually evolve into the habits she would need to sustain.

(08:46):
So I would urge you, as you’re setting goals, take a look at your current location to meet yourself where you’re at, and do the habits you need right now to move you forward knowing that they can evolve over time. Don’t force a perfect plan. And then as you look at your goal, really assess the lifestyle you’ll be stepping into with that, because that’s what helps us connect all the dots and really have that GPS, that roadmap laid out in a way that moves us forward and moves us forward in sustainable ways. So I would really tell you reflect, don’t just seek a perfect plan. Don’t just seek to take action immediately and force yourself into all these habit changes. Really draw upon where you are right now and outline the lifestyle you’ll need to be living and assess what identity you’ll be embracing, because I think that will help you take a different perspective when you make changes this time and see the results that you actually deserve versus jumping from thing to thing, hitting the same, hard to only turn back. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout in 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 the life of someone you know

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

(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 it 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. Discomfort is where growth lives. This thought occurred to me at about 3:00 AM and it was right before we were going into our first day of the act as If retreat, and I wanted to start the weekend off with a great message and set the tone for everything.

(00:43):
And this thought occurred to me, discomfort is where growth lives. And with that, I was like, well, this weekend we’re going to make everybody really uncomfortable. And I kind of chuckled to myself because, yes, I know the actual word is uncomfortable, discomfort. It’s not uncomfortable. But then as I thought about this phrasing of it, we’re going to make ourselves uncomfortable. I liked it more and more because so often what happens is we hear uncomfortable and we get uncomfortable. We push back against wanting to make the change. But the second I phrased it as uncomfortable, all of a sudden it was kind of like, huh, okay, maybe I’m going to do this. There was a lower barrier to entry. There wasn’t that wall that went up. And we really need to find ways to help ourselves overcome that hurdle, overcome the resistance against the hard, the resistance against the change if we want to make a change and see the results we want.

(01:38):
Because being uncomfortable living in that discomfort is where we’re going to see that growth really happen because we’re pushing our comfort zone. We’re pushing yourself to have to overcome something. So I started thinking more and more about this, and especially with the holidays coming up and some of the challenges we’re going to have, but really at any time of year, we’re going to need to make a change. And so we’re going to have to embrace being a little uncomfortable, and we need to be almost grateful for it. The more we can be grateful for the challenges, the more we’re going to embrace making changes, the more we’re going to see that strength and confidence built, because we don’t just naturally have these things. These are something that are created through what we overcome. Yet so often, we do want to run from these struggles. We want to run from these challenges.

(02:23):
We don’t want to go back to being a beginner, to feeling foolish, to feeling bad at something. But it’s only when we actually are faced with obstacles that we learn something new, that we move forward towards our goals. We really don’t succeed when times are easy. We succeed because of the failures and the struggles that teach us different things. And I mean, if you really think about what failures are, they’re not moving forward. They’re just learning with frustration. Those are the things that ultimately catapult us into the new goals that we want. So I just wanted to have you have this perspective when you’re going into something new and you’re looking for that growth, instead of pushing back, push into the discomfort, even tell yourself, I’m going to be discomfort. Just so even mentally, your attitude slightly shifts around what you’re about to do, and you maybe have a little bit of amusement with it because that is where growth is going to happen.

(03:15):
You’re not going to get good at something by turning back every time you hit that hard, because that is what we often want to do. We hit the same hard, we go back, we try and find another way around it. Oh, this diet didn’t work for me because of X, Y, and Z thing. Let me find another way around instead of saying, Hey, why didn’t this really work? Okay, yes, maybe I tried a low carb diet, so I’m blaming it on the fact that I like carbs and I’m going low carb. But let’s take a deeper look at this. Is it really just the carbs? Is it the restriction? Is it that I tried to do too much? The more we can sort of see it as a why funnel, asking ourselves why getting more specific with really diagnosing the problem, really digging into it, even the emotional component that might be there, how different tools or tactics are tied to previous experiences.

(03:58):
And I bring that up because when we think about tracking, often that is something we are very comfortable with tracking. We don’t like to do it. We see it as hard. We see it as restrictive. If we ask ourselves why, we often learn, okay, well, I’ve always done tracking when I’ve had to cut out. And then because I’ve had to cut out things, I felt restricted and I felt miserable, and I felt hungry and I felt deprived, and then the results didn’t snowball the way I felt they should, and I didn’t see my effort being worth the outcome that I was getting. And so there’s all these other things that are actually tied to that tactic, that tool of tracking that if we don’t break down with the why and the why funnel sometimes is really narrowing it down to what it really is is uncomfortable in and of itself.

(04:38):
We’re never going to move forward. We so often run from what is uncomfortable. We run from the discomfort, and that really is what we need to embrace more of if we want to see results. So I would challenge you as you’re going to push into a new goal, to be grateful for this discomfort, to be grateful for your mistakes, to be grateful for your flaws, because that is what’s going to teach you the most. We always hear that change results happen outside our comfort zone, yet so often we aren’t willing to push it. And I do also say this, recognizing that there’s only so much discomfort we can really embrace at one time, and if we do too much, we’re going to rebel against it. That is Newton’s the third law. Every force has an equal and opposite reaction to it. And so the more we push into something, the more we’re going to get that push back.

(05:26):
So we need to recognize that and recognize that sometimes we have to sort of slowly push the edges of the comfort zone versus just busting through them and out of them. But there is going to be a little bit of uncomfortableness, uncomfortableness with it, but we want to try and see what we can do to really make it as easy as possible to make those changes. So I just urge you, instead of running from it, instead of pushing back, find a way to allow that attitude to embrace it, because that is where we’re going to see the best results happen. Stop running for the hard, be grateful for it. So again, discomfort is where growth lives. Find ways to make yourself comfortable and think of it in that term so that you lower that barrier against it just a little bit every time you have to push into it. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack 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 the life of someone you know.

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

Speaker 1 (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 work, 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 it 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. Your all or nothing attitude is why nothing has ever worked. And if you’re thinking right now is not the right time to start something you wrong, right now is the perfect time to start something because things aren’t necessarily going perfectly to plan or you have other priorities, and this is really the power of the 1%.

(00:48):
When we make changes, we wait for that perfect time. We think we need to do everything all at once, and this ultimately is what sabotages us because not only are we designing for an ideal time, which most of life isn’t really, but we’re also doing so much all at once. We ultimately overwhelm ourselves. It’s why we might’ve thought in the past, I just don’t have the willpower. Some of us have more willpower than I do. I’m just not disciplined. We never allowed that to actually build by meeting ourselves where we’re at. So we have to remember that small changes can yield big results when they snowball over time and we get good at what we consistently do. So in terms of the power of the 1%, if you’re thinking it’s not the right time, you have other priorities, own them. Assess what they really are, look at your lifestyle and break it down and then say, what is something so silly, simple, on the worst of worst days, I could do it because the more right now isn’t the right time to start.

(01:42):
It is the right time because you can plan for what life is really going to throw at you. You can make changes that you know can actually become disciplined with because they’re based on what you need and need right now. So often we do even get stuck in January making changes and then not assessing what we’ll need during the summer during the holidays next year. And that’s why we create habits that don’t work. We don’t allow them to even evolve even if they do work for a specific time of year. Because as our body, our needs and goals change not only over the years, but even over the course of a single year. The exact habits we do and how we implement them will need to shift and evolve. But the more we’ve created discipline through 1% changes off of where we are currently, the more we’ll have sort of that higher foundation, our lows will be less low.

(02:26):
So if right now feels like the wrong time, really look at on my worst of worst days, what can I do? Can I drink a little bit more water today? Can I track my protein and increase it by 10 grams at one meal just adding an egg into one meal? Can I do a five minute workout? I like to think of this approach even as the one minute change. What can I do for one minute that can have an impact? And while it might seem silly today, that one minute, if you think about it, if you do one minute for 365 days, that’s 365 minutes. That’s over six hours of change that you’ve done a lot of times through that one minute. We don’t stop at one minute. You don’t go wash your dishes and do one minute. You usually finish the entire dirty dishes in the sink.

(03:06):
You do everything that you should when you start that workout for one minute, most of the time you do a whole workout. You do everything that you outlined and the few times that you don’t, you still did one thing and you usually feel more successful for it. You want to do more the next day. So there’s really a build to it. But I want you to take the approach of what can I even do for one minute, even if it seems very simple right now? Because we have to remember that a lot of the power of change isn’t in the actual action we’re doing. It isn’t in the habit. And that singular instance, it’s the success mindset we’re creating. Because the more you do, the more you do, the more you feel successful, the more you want to do. As you see those results snowball, think about how motivating that is.

(03:45):
Think about even the workout. You didn’t want to do the one that you really, really just wanted to lay on the couch, not go do, and you did it anyway. You feel so good for overcoming that hard. So if you can get yourself to do one minute, not only will you do more, but you’ll make a change that can allow you to build. And the more we meet ourselves where we’re at, the more we’re going to create that discipline. Because discipline is really built off of doing things consistently. And what we can do consistently is something that does feel really easy to start. The more we try and just bust that comfort zone over pushing the limit slowly, the more we ultimately are relying on motivation and willpower, which are very fleeting. We’re relying on things going well, all of our priorities being in line with this specific goal, which really honestly isn’t most of life.

(04:29):
So the more you can sneak something in, almost feel like you’re not making that change, the more you do become disciplined with it because it already feels more natural. And as you feel that success build, you become more willing, there’s a less of a mental barrier against making bigger changes. You feel more comfortable being uncomfortable in more ways because you’ve seen that success and you feel yourself even becoming stronger and more confident in your ability to change. So I would really urge you if you’ve had that all or nothing attitude. If you’re at a time where you’re like, well, now it’s not the right time. Own the priorities you have. Own everything going on right now and plan for it instead of trying to wait for some perfect situation because that’s really what’s so often kept us stuck, spinning our wheels, feeling like nothing will ever work for us off of this.

(05:14):
I do want to announce my new 21 day challenges that are available through Cyber Monday. Shameless plug for them, but they are built off of the power of the 1% in those small changes done daily because the more we think, what’s one thing I can do today? How can I build off that tomorrow? And the more we do that, the more we’re going to unlearn old habits as we implement new ones and not just be relying on willpower. We’re going to see those changes truly snowball because we’re meeting ourselves where we’re at. So whether you want to improve your gut health or kickstart your metabolism or manage the symptoms of menopause, I really want you to check out my 21 day challenges that are available through Black Friday till Cyber Monday. They will not be available after that, but make sure to check them out and really get started building towards the that you want in a sustainable way, because we don’t want to look good, feel good for one day, we want those results to last forever. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack 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 the life of someone I.

(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 work, 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 it 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. Is your goal weight actually sabotaging your fat loss results, your body recomp success? The simple answer is maybe, and it’s something we don’t often think about, but seeking to see faster results on the scale is often what leads to us doing unsustainable habits and us not seeing the recomp we want and ultimately regaining the weight very quickly.

(00:54):
We also have to recognize where this goal weight is really coming from because it’s not only the fluctuations on the scale, but truly our goal weight that can hold us back. Because when you have that specific number you really want to drive towards, you are staring at the scoreboard versus focusing on the habits that you need to be doing or the play on the field that you need to have in order to get that scoreboard to change. And in staring at that, a lot of times we aren’t implementing a lot of the practices. We don’t realize what needs to change. And we get caught up so much in that that we ultimately either don’t make changes, get overwhelmed, stop, don’t keep doing the habits that we need or actually accurately adjust based on what’s going on. So we need to stop staring at the scoreboard.

(01:33):
We also need to recognize that that goal weight might not actually be what we really want and understand the whole ramification of that. Not to mention the fact that trying to see that happen faster often leads to us creating those unsustainable habits losing weight very quickly. But we’re not a controlling for whether or not we’re losing fat versus muscle. It’s why we don’t necessarily look leaner or achieve our full body recomp that we want. And it’s also why we end up regaining the weight very quickly or feeling like we can’t eat anything without the scale jumping 20 pounds. So I want to break down why it’s potentially important that we reassess what our goal weight should be and even let go of our goal weight and also the reason why the scale can change so often and how we can really change how we even use this device to our advantage.

(02:18):
So going to the goal weight, is it really that number that you want? And I say this because a lot of times we’ll say, I want X weight. This is the weight I should be at. Well, Y is that number so important to you, and I think this is a really key reflection we need to do because often that number really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all. The reason we have that number stuck in our head is because that was the number we were at at our wedding when we felt like our most fabulous and we loved the way the pictures look. It was the number we were at when we PRD in that race. It was the number we were at when we felt amazing, when we loved the way we looked, when we loved the photos, but it’s the feeling we’re after not the number.

(03:01):
And we need to separate that out because if you had all the things you had at that point, if you fit back into the clothes, if you loved how you looked in photos, if you had all the energy to PR in a race, would you really care if you hit that number? And the answer is truly no. That number has no relevance outside of it is a marker of that time. And in noticing that and in assessing that, we need to find all the other ways we can measure success to get back to that lifestyle, to own the habits that we had then and all the things we were doing to feel our most fabulous. Because a lot of times we’ve let those habits slide. We’ve let that lifestyle slide, those mindset slide. And so even now looking at photos as we’re in our journey forward, we don’t see the success of snowball because we don’t have the mindsets we had at that time.

(03:44):
We don’t have that feeling of confidence that we had built at that time. And so we need to assess what does that number represent in terms of these other factors to strive to act as if and also to measure progress in all these different ways to help us truly assess if we are or aren’t moving forward because the scale simply isn’t going to change quickly. And the more we try to, the more we sabotage our success from creating those unsustainable habits to creating metabolic adaptations to not really seeing recomp happen. Because we often say, oh, my results are slow. Well true fat loss is slow and it should be slow. You can’t out exercise around diet time as much as you want to. You got to put in the daily work and you got to put it in day after day after day for a lot longer than you want.

(04:26):
And a lot of what leads to the speed of our results is all the things we’ve done prior from the mindsets. We’re willing to embrace the discomfort we’re willing to embrace to even how long we’ve had the weight on because the longer you have it on, the longer it’s going to take to get it off. That’s why if you just gain it recently, it’s a lot easier sometimes. So it’s why you can’t judge someone else’s six week transformation to your own because we’re all starting at different points and everything we’ve done prior in our life really has an impact. But so in assessing how to navigate the scale, how to judge progress in other ways, you do want to track performance. You do want to track measurements, you do want to track progress pictures. All these things can help try on that outfit that you felt really fabulous in at that time.

(05:05):
How are you making progress towards that? But assess all the different lifestyle factors that you were even doing, not just your goal weight. And I say this too because even if you do want to drive towards a goal weight, it’s going to fluctuate daily and you’ve got to understand why it’s going to fluctuate daily. It’s going to fluctuate because of inflammation. If you’re stressed, if you’re not sleeping well, if you have more muscle tissue damage from tough workouts, yes, if you have a tough workout Friday night and you weigh in Saturday morning and there’s muscle tissue damage from that, guess what? You might see the scale increase. And it’s not from doing anything wrong. You did do everything right that week, but you see it go up because of that inflammation, that muscle tissue damage, potentially even storing more glycogen if you had carbs later at night.

(05:45):
And also because you need that to repair and with the glycogen storage. So if you have more carbs, you’re going to bring with that water weight and see the increase. So the scale is going to fluctuate, not for negative reasons all the time. It’s for recovery and repair. It’s potentially a negative reason that we’re stressed and inflamed from that, or lack of sleep. Maybe you didn’t poop yet. You can have a full bowel. But it’s a lot of different reasons that aren’t really fat loss. The scale is showing your weight in time on that moment. And so if you’ve even eaten food, if you’ve consumed water, that is going to increase your weight on the scale. If you go away right now, go eat some stuff or even go sweat out some stuff and dehydrate yourself and then go away again, your weight is going to change.

(06:26):
And that’s why we can’t base things only on this. And that’s why you have to understand the nuance to the scale and what it’s really telling you, which is just your weight, not muscle versus fat. And that’s why there’s other forms of measurement with the progress photos, the measurements, the using the clothing is so key, but then also recognizing the reasons why it fluctuates. And I even like to, when I’m deciding how to use the scale, because I do understand, and I even use goal weights to help set macros sometimes to get an estimate if we don’t know where someone’s starting from or even if someone’s maintenance is right now lower because they’re undereating and we want to boost it or just to give that estimation, you can use goal weight to do some different calorie calculations. However, I don’t like to get so focused on that, and I like to make sure that clients know how they can really use a pursuit of that to their advantage, whether it’s weighing once a week, whether maybe it’s not really weighing at all, and just using that check-in once in a while, whether or not it’s weighing daily.

(07:19):
But you have to understand then the fluctuations and the impact they have. So if you’re weighing once a week, you want to run through potentially the checklist of, Hey, hey, am I sore? Did I work out later at night? Did I have more sodium or eat out? Is there some other change? Did I sleep well? And you might want to track those things in a journal before you step on the scale to even see the impact, because that way if you don’t get the result you were thinking that you should have gotten, you can go back and assess was my consistency there and my macros was my consistency there and my workouts, and I also see that I was sore. I started a new progression. That might be why, but you can at least put it in its place. And if you are really impacted by that one fluctuation each week, you might have to weigh daily.

(07:54):
So we often say don’t weigh at all, which again, the scale is not the best indicator of body recomp. And if you are struggling with really being attached, that’s a goal weight. You might need to step off the scale and put it away for a while and only use measurements and again, those other things that represent that lifestyle. So you can get back to that feel that you had at that goal weight. But if you are really sensitive to those fluctuations, it can help you desensitize yourself by a little immersion therapy and actually weighing every single day, even multiple times a day to start just to see all the fluctuations and all the reasons why we don’t want to get so conditioned to want to do it or need to do it to watch, but at the same time, sometimes doing a little bit more to see how much it really varies can help us mentally separate from it as well.

(08:36):
But even with that too, if you know did the habits and you do that little journal and you celebrate, Hey, I have all these habits wins, maybe trying on the clothing to say, Hey, I have these clothing winds. I know the inches are going off. What does this weight then relate to all these different factors. You can then step on the scale. So I also do like to put it in its place like that. And what I mean by that is you celebrate all the different wins. You’re doing all the different habits. And so then you get the estimate of, Hey, what weight now represents this fabulousness? Because that’s how we can even find a way to use our weight for maintenance. When you reach your goal, when you’re feeling like you’re looking good, when you’re seeing those inches come off, assess what that weight is now for you at my most fabulous, what weight is that?

(09:17):
Instead of saying, oh, well, it’s not my goal weight, who cares? It’s what you weigh right now when you feel really fabulous, and that’s what your goal weight was based off of, and your goal weight is going to change as you gain more muscle as potentially you’re not in a deficit. So when you lose the weight, you might hit a little low and actually gain a couple pounds, but ultimately look leaner in that maintenance process a couple pounds up because you’re not deficient in anything. When you are depleted in a deficit, you’re not storing anything extra. And so just by storing so that you’re not depleted, you’re going to gain a couple pounds, but use that then that weight and the scale to help you understand, okay, this is what I weigh when I look the way I want to look now. So that’s another way to use it of I did the habits, I did the journal, what weight now represents how I want to look and feel.

(10:03):
So you can use then to set a new goal weight that way. But I think it’s really key just breaking down all the different nuance of things that we do understand what our goal rate really means, which again, it just relates back to getting back to a feeling we had. That is what we are ultimately searching for, the feeling of fabulousness that we had. And our goal weight is just the number that we might’ve weighed at that time. So we’ve got to assess the lifestyle, assess all the other components of it, all the other measurements of success that led to us feeling fabulous and that represented the fabulousness of that time. Used those not only as measurements of success, so the clothing that we wore that we’ll know when we fit back into that, we feel our best, the performance goals that we had, but also again, assessing the lifestyle habits and the mindsets we had to help us implement them.

(10:46):
Now, to act as if, to get back to that feeling of fabulousness, but then stepping either off the scale or knowing how to use the scale to our advantage, whether it’s weighing once a week, again, not using it, and using progress, pictures, measurements, all those things. Or even weighing daily and understanding the fluctuations. Even using that journaling of all the different reasons why the scale can change. And going through that list before we step onto it to understand what the number is really telling us while assessing our consistency and habit. And I think celebrating those wins before you step on the scale is so important because then you have that accurate reflection like, Hey, if you weren’t consistent with your macros, okay, that’s going to have an impact potentially when you step on the scale and you’ll own that. But the more, hey, these are the habit wins, or here are my areas for improvement, here’s my journaling on why the scale might be impacted or how I can interpret that number.

(11:31):
And then you step on it, that can give you information. And then as you feel fabulous seeing progress in the other forms of measurement, jumping into that lifestyle where you know, feel your best, you can then weigh on the scale to help you understand what weight will help you maintain all that fabulous then, and that will change over time. But I really hope this helps you get some perspective on the scale and not allow the scale to sabotage you. Because wanting to see it change faster, going after those fad diets where we’re trying to lose 10 pounds overnight, is ultimately what leads to us creating unsustainable habits, regaining the weight and repeating this yo-yo dieting cycle, and not losing fat any faster, but losing muscle, which then leads to metabolic adaptations, thus blaming our hormones more, even hormonal imbalances, which then make it harder to lose the weight later.

(12:16):
Make us blame our age, make us blame menopause, make us blame all these other things when really it’s poopy dieting practices and poopy training practices that have added up that we haven’t owned because we’re so caught up in the scale. So let go of the scale. And again, that doesn’t always mean not using it at all, but let go of the power the scale has and start to assess these outside factors and really understand what this tool is telling you. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, 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 the life of someone I.

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