Latest / Fit for Hiking / Ep. 141 Are These Fitness Mindsets Ruining Your Progress?
Transcript
- Are these fitness mindsets ruining your progress? Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for Hiking podcast. What's up you guys? Welcome back to the show. This is your host, Brady. Today we're going to be doing some rapid fire on mindsets that are blocking your results or keeping you ultimately stuck. And this is anything from like you're trying to pursue a fitness or performance style goal, a body composition goal, or even just as basic as like following through with general health habits that you know, that you've been neglecting, that you know in your gut, like you have to do something about this before it's too late. Before your health is really in a bad spot and you just are not following through. You're not consistent. Whatever that looks like for you. Okay, this is kind of just a big range of all of the things that I've experienced as a coach over the past ten plus years working in, in the, in the industry, in person and online, and also just my own personal struggles that blocked my own results for a really long time, because even as a coach, I still struggled with a lot of these. And by not figuring these out, I stayed stuck as far as my body composition and fitness goals. For years I was £25 heavier, very inflamed, not seeing the results that I wanted to see despite working really hard. Okay, so if that's you, if you're feeling stuck in some regard and you know that you want to get to a better place, it often stems from mindset. And I know that that's. Not the fun, exciting, quick fix type of answer that a lot of people are looking for. But it's the truth. If we don't address the mindset, oftentimes we tend to just stay in these vicious cycles. Okay, so let's get into it. I have ten mindsets for you that are potentially keeping you stuck. Number one is needing a new start date every few months. Okay, so what I mean by this is if you're the type of person that constantly is like, oh my gosh, I have so not been on top of things. I'll start again blank next month when I hire a coach, when it's the new year, when I have more time at the start of summer, whatever that looks like for you. Thinking that when life happens and things aren't going perfectly, that you just have to throw in the towel and start again, quote unquote, next time. This is probably the biggest mindset block that keeps people stuck, and I see it every single week. It's crazy how much we fall into this mindset of like, if I can't be perfect, then like, what's the point? And I'm failing and I gotta just throw in the towel and start again next time. And this type of thinking will keep you in a vicious cycle, because there is no perfect time to begin, something to follow through perfectly. There's always going to be hiccups, and the longer that you're on this earth, the more you'll realize that, like, it never gets easier. It doesn't get easier once you are an adult with a ton of responsibilities. Once you have kids, once you have a thriving career, once you are in this next location, whatever that looks like, there's always going to be obstacles. So waiting for this arbitrary start date every few months is going to keep you stuck. It's not going to be easier next time, okay? You just have to understand that the next time you set your sights on something, you're still going to have obstacles. They might look different than they do now, but you still will have them. Okay, so constantly putting it off and waiting until this next arbitrary time frame that you think things will be easier is going to just keep you waiting for the rest of your life. Number two is being afraid to progress your weights in the gym or lift heavier than you have in the past. And whether that's stemming from like, I don't want to get bulky type of mindset or you just never have before, so you kind of always gravitate towards the same weights. Either way, when we are wanting to change our physique in a serious way and actually see our body changing shapes, whether that's getting leaner, you know, getting a rounder booty, see more muscle tone. If you want to see muscle tone, you have to have muscle. You can't tone bone, right? You gotta have some muscle there. So in order to build muscle, in order to see that change in your physique, you have to be willing to do things that you haven't done before. And that looks like in the gym, actually progressing your weights, following a program that you're doing the same consistent lifts week after week so that you have a chance to progress. Okay. Um, and I hate that there's still like this fear around, um, weightlifting and getting bulky quote unquote. Unfortunately, that's kind of like cycled back into our gym culture in the last few months with this, like, skinny trending type of deal. Um, but I really feel like this myth just needs to be debunked. Like once and for all. Your eating is going to be the thing that will make you, quote unquote, bulky. So if you are not eating in a surplus, you're not going to get bulky from lifting weights. I've seen this time and time again with people in that I've worked with and with myself, like I used to have the same type of thoughts of like, oh my gosh, once I get leaner, once I lose the weight, then I'll lift weights heavy because then I won't have to worry about being bulky. And that actually kept me from seeing body composition changes for a really long time. Okay, so don't be afraid to progress your weights if you are hitting a plateau with your body composition or not seeing any muscle tone, that that's why you got to start progressing and pick up some heavier weights. Number three is thinking that you constantly need to change it up, or getting distracted by the next shiny thing that you see on social media. A lot of people are what I call program hoppers, meaning that they start something. They feel that excitement at the beginning of it, of it all, and then once the excitement and adrenaline kind of wear off and they have to just keep doing the same things consistently, they jump ship because it's not exciting anymore. And I hate to be the one to say this, but like seeing progress requires the mundane. It requires you to do the basic, boring things over and over and over again. So if you're constantly looking for excitement and these shiny things like you're not going to stay consistent and you're going to struggle to see results, sticking with the same program is actually a way bigger flex than like just trying everything that you see on social media or on YouTube or whatever, like stick with something for long enough to actually work and see the results. If you're not seeing results because you're a program hopper, you got to actually do something long enough for for it to work. Okay. Number four is worrying about calories burned or sweaty ness in workouts more than actually following an effective program. A lot of people equate calories burned or sweaty, or how exhausted. If you feel like you're going to puke at the end of the workout. With that being a good workout, that's actually not really indicating anything helpful. You have to think about what is the stimulus that I'm trying to create with this workout. And having that mindset shift changed everything for me when I stopped just trying to exhaust myself, be super sweaty, red in the face, burn calories. When I actually started asking the question, what stimulus am I after here? That's when my my workouts became more effective. Okay, so if the stimulus you're after is muscle tone, then you need to actually do a workout that will create muscle tone. Okay. And doing just these arbitrary workouts where you're just doing fast paced circuits, cycling classes, Pilates, all these things. Yes, activity is good, but if you have a specific result that you're after, you have to do the specific stimulus that will lead to that result. Okay. So you have to think about it in that terms instead of just, oh, I burned a ton of calories. Awesome. I was super sweaty. I was super sore. Okay, that does not equate to an effective workout okay. So either you're working out to stimulate muscle growth or you're working out to stimulate, you know, cardiovascular endurance. Um, but you don't want to just like, combine the two and have this kind of, like, crappy result that doesn't actually get you the specific results that you want. Okay? So worry less about the calories burned and and more about actually following an effective program that's challenging your muscles or challenging you cardiovascular if like you're training for some sort of, um, cardio based event. Okay, got to get a little bit more specific with it if you want to level up as far as your results. Number five is neglecting the compound effect because it feels insignificant. So the compound effect is basically looking at the small decisions that we make every single day that end up having massive effects on, like the trajectory that we end up in every single year. Okay, so for this particular example, think about someone who dedicates they decide in January, like I'm going to dedicate 20 minutes every single day for the rest of the year to just walking okay. They're like, yep, 20 minutes. Even if it's only 20, I'm doing it every single day versus someone who's like, oh, I just don't have time today. I'm too busy. It's not really worth it unless I'm going for a long walk. So they're only walking twice per week because they don't have that time. So they're doing two 40 minute walks every single week. Okay. That ends up adding up to 80 minutes a week versus the person who's doing it. 20 minutes every single day is doing 140 minutes per week. When you look at that, that's going to end up being. Like when you actually add that up throughout the year, that's 52 extra hours per year because it's 60 minutes per day. Okay, 52 extra hours every single year is going to equate to 3 to £5 of body fat loss just by walking 20 minutes a day. Okay, so that is the compound effect. It's actually looking at these tiny things that we do that add up day after day after day after day when it looks so small and insignificant. But it really does matter when you look at it over the span of a year. Okay. So having that mindset of like, oh, I just don't have time for a workout today because I can't go to the gym and do like a 60 minute deal, instead saying, okay, I have 20 minutes, what can I do? I'll go for a walk or I'll do like a bodyweight circuit at home, or I'll do a quick dumbbell workout here at my desk. Okay. Instead of having that limiting mindset of if I can't follow things perfectly, if I can't do it as long as I was hoping, then I'm just not going to do it at all. Think about the compound effect of what you're trying to accomplish and how much. Just infusing small amounts of movement in throughout your day, week after week, month after month will change your, you know, body fat percentage, your muscle tone, your overall health metrics over the course of the year. Um, number six is expecting progress to always be linear. Sometimes we think like once you start out on a health journey, you're just going to constantly see progress. And I think we need to reframe what progress actually looks like because it's going to appear differently in different seasons. Okay. So sometimes progress is simply maintaining your weight during a really busy time of life, travel, holidays, and in the past. Maybe you've always like, gained a bunch of weight because you didn't have the skills and the mindsets in place to handle those ups and downs, but now you're able to simply maintain. No, you maybe didn't see weight loss during that time, but it's still progress. Just simply being able to maintain instead of backslide. Okay, sometimes it's staying healthy during things like pregnancy where you're not going to see all these, you know, body composition changes from your workouts, but you're maintaining your muscle, you're helping your overall health throughout your pregnancy and setting yourself up for success postpartum. Okay, that is still progress, even though you can't really see it in the way that you maybe would like. Sometimes it's listening your body and resting more. Sometimes it's feeling stronger in your workouts and sometimes it is actually getting leaner and body composition changes. Okay, so kind of reframing like I'm not going to see what looks like, you know, weight loss progress or leaning out progress every single month of every single year. That's just not realistic. So reframing what progress can look like for you in the different seasons of life. Number seven is needing to follow strict meal plans or feeling like you're off the wagon. I am so not an advocate of meal plans, because they teach us that we have to be perfectly following this exact protocol. Otherwise we are quote unquote off the wagon and we don't know how to handle it. We don't know how to adapt or be flexible, or figure out portion sizes, or figure out what to eat in real time. If we're socializing, eating out, going to an environment where we couldn't prep it ourselves, whatever that looks like. I don't think that it's flexible enough for real life. Nobody's able to follow meal plans like that for very long. Okay. And then when you're thrown back into normal life, it's like a panic of, oh my gosh, how do I actually do this? Versus if you actually learn, how do I incorporate, you know, the amounts of protein and fiber that I need, proper macronutrient balance, getting the right amount of calories for my goals, things like that in real time with your busy workweek, with your vacations, with your socializing, so that you don't have to panic and you don't have to backslide every time these circumstances come up, that is really going to empower you to be able to do this long term, because you don't have to freak out when you go on a trip or when you go to somebody's house and they have a potluck, and it's like a bunch of random dishes that you have no say over. Okay, so really trying not to have this mindset of like, I have to eat, quote unquote, perfectly follow this strict thing. Otherwise I'm off plan and I cannot pursue my goals. Number eight, thinking that once you commit, everything will be smooth sailing and freaking out. Then when it's not. So what I mean by this is I see this sometimes in coaching. Like someone you know has had this on their mind. They've been wanting to make changes for a really long time. They finally commit. But then the reality of life still happening after they start, the program starts to seep in and they realize, oh crap. Like I still have the same hurdles that I had before. I still have these same tendencies, I still have these same mindsets. And all those things didn't just magically go away because you decided to step into something and commit. I've experienced this myself, with my own coaches and my own business mentors and things like that, where, you know, yes, taking that step is exciting, but then the reality sets in of crap. I still have to do the work around these obstacles. I still have to work through these mindset blocks that are keeping me stuck. And now I have someone to help me with that. But I still have to show up and do the work. And it's not just going to be smooth sailing because I decided to commit and jump in with two feet. Okay, so you can't freak out when life happens and you cannot, you know, perfectly follow everything and execute it all, even though you're like, stoked that you're finally committing to a program. Okay, you got to expect that you're still going to have the same life crap as before, but now you have someone to help you navigate it and you're actively working on how do I handle these things when XYZ obstacles pop up that have normally derailed me in the past? Number nine. This is a big one blaming genetics, hormones or metabolism before actually being honest and consistent with the basics for months. Okay, I see this one a lot, and it's so easy to fall into this mindset of like, oh my gosh, like so-and-so just has better genetics than me. Or like it's so easy for them. They just have like everything's perfect for them. They have a really fast metabolism where my hormones are just shot, when in reality we haven't been doing the things consistently enough to actually jump to that next conclusion. Okay, so what I mean by that is like if someone's saying, oh, it's my hormones, but they haven't actually tracked their intake super accurately, they haven't been hitting a protein goal. There haven't been lifting weights four times a week for months and months. They haven't been checking to see how much they're walking throughout the day, prioritizing sleep, doing all of these very foundational things for months on end. And then yet they're they're blaming the hormones, right? So do the foundational things before you assume that it's something higher level like that, because most of the time, like 99% of the time, it's just that we're not being as consistent as we think we are, and we're not really looking at the numbers. This is why I love within our client app, we have the ability to look at compliance percentages, and it humbles you quickly because you're like, oh my gosh, I've been eating so healthy. I've been working out, I've been paying attention to these things. But when you actually look at the week by week compliance, you're like, oh crap, I've only been hitting my calorie target 45% of the time. I've only been doing 60% of my workouts. I've only, you know, been eating my fruits and veggies 50% of the time. Right? When you really look at the percentages, it's it's a reality check and you're like, crap. Of course, I'm not seeing the results that I want. Of course I'm. Frustrated with this or that because I'm not actually being as consistent as I was thinking. Okay, so before you go down these mental rabbit holes and think that your body is broken or that you'll never see results. Be honest with yourself about how compliant and consistent your being, and have you been doing it for long enough? Okay, those are the two kind of parts of the equation. Consistent enough for long enough. And usually we are off in one of those categories and not really truly being honest with ourselves. And our final one, number ten, is expecting it to feel easy at a certain point. I think we see people who are like really advanced in their fitness. They've been doing this a really long time. They're super lean, they're super in shape, and we're like, oh, it's just easy for them now that is not true. I love the phrase new level, new devil because no matter where you're at in your journey, there's always going to be another level that creates new challenges. Maybe you're just in a really tough season mentally, or you are postpartum, or you have had a huge life change that threw you for a loop. And now all the things that you used to feel second nature and easy are no longer easy, or you just still have to really battle with yourself some weeks to get to the gym. Like you're not motivated all of the time. Okay, that's certainly how I feel. And someone might look at me from the outside and say, well, you've been doing this for, you know, 15 years. Of course, it's easy for you now, but in my own experience, no, it doesn't feel easy because I've had all of these new aspects of my life. Get thrown at me. Constant changes. Not feeling like I always have the support that I need. Having bad mental health days. All of these different things. So I have these new levels of complications, and we're always going to feel like it is challenging in some ways. Okay. So don't expect it to ever become easy. Yes, some things will become habitual. They'll become second nature. And in a lot of ways it will feel easier in certain moments. But you'll still have hard days, hard weeks where you have to really drag yourself to do the things that you know are important for your health. Even if you don't feel like it. And trust me, even at a certain point in your journey, you're not always going to feel like it. Okay? So that is a wrap on our list of ten of the biggest mindset blocks that I see for people in the fitness and health industry that keep us stuck, keep us from really progressing, and hopefully that you've had a few aha moments, maybe resonate with a couple of these. And a really big part of what we do in Mountain Metabolic coaching is working through those mindset blocks, actually having a coach to talk through it with you, not just throwing information at you, but really being with you as you are working through some of these things. Because that is the nitty gritty part of the journey that a lot of people want to bypass, but it actually is what leads to the biggest breakthroughs, the biggest results for long term success, and actually being able to do this on your own for years and years and years to come. So if that is something that you know that you need and you've kind of just been putting it off, putting it on the backburner, and you're trying to do it on your own and not succeeding time and time again, then I definitely encourage you to apply for our coaching program. The link for the application is in the show notes. You can check that out. We do have a bit of a waitlist right now as we are very full, but if you want to enroll for late spring heading into summer, check out that link and apply and I will be in touch with you. All right. Thanks guys for listening today. I hope that this has been a helpful episode and I will chat with you in the next one. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this. Be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at ponytail on Etrailer.com. Happy and healthy trails.