Latest / Fit for Hiking / How To Lose Weight Or Get Fit Without Becoming Obsessive
Transcript
- Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a longtime fitness professional in 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. 1s Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Fit for Hiking podcast. This is your host, Brady. I am super excited to record another episode with you guys today. I have just been honestly loving this project of taking on the podcast. I was kind of hesitant to do it for a while because I was thinking, you know, how am I going to have all these topics to discuss? And so far, honestly, I am enjoying it so much. It's been really fun to have some guests on the show and I'm not running out of topics at all. It turns out I have a lot I can talk about. So today we are going to be talking about how to get fit or pursue a weight loss goal without becoming obsessive, you know, a lot of people. I'll end up coming into my mountain metabolic coaching program. We're really drawn to the program that I've created because they like that. I'm not super obsessive about like living in the gym. I'm not probably your typical, like, fit gym girl aesthetic. I do a lot of my workouts at home outdoors. I do a lot of hiking for my workouts, and I've been surprised how many of you have resonated with that of just not wanting to feel like you have to live in the gym and live up to this standard of what a fit person should be doing in order to live a healthy life, remain relatively lean and feel good. So that's what I want to talk about today, is how to actually see fitness goals through or see weight loss progress without feeling like you no longer have a life, or you're somehow now a slave to your goals. We all know someone, I think, who becomes completely obsessed with their diet unless you know all about it, or the friend who never can indulge in, you know, whatever you're all indulging in at a at a friend gathering because of their latest weight loss efforts. And there's definitely a fine line between caring about your health and making it a priority and then becoming borderline obsessive. So how do you actually reach a goal? Or make your habits of priority priority most of the time without losing out on your quality of life or feeling isolated in social situations. That's definitely a big one, or even worse, letting it take over too much mental real estate to the point where it becomes all consuming and you just feel like this is all I can think about because my workout regimen and diet lifestyle is all consuming and takes up so much energy. So I just have a couple of tips for for you all today about how I do this and how I kind of approach this with my clients who feel the same way. They want to reach these goals, but they don't want it to be become something where they can no longer enjoy their life or they have to say no to every social situation. Some of these things that maybe we've done in the past in an unhealthy diet situation and we've realized I just don't want to do that anymore and we shouldn't have to. So let's talk about it. Tip number one is to approach your health pursuit from a healthy mindset. First, I know that this kind of gets thrown around a lot, and it sounds like it really doesn't mean a whole lot, but it truly is a crucial foundation to making any sort of lasting changes when it comes to weight loss. Your health, establishing a fitness routine. We have to start from a healthy mindset, because if you go at it from a place of self-hatred or wanting to change your body as fast as humanly possible, you're going to become more obsessive and then burn out. Inevitably. It's definitely not going to create healthy habits that you can keep up. So unfortunately, it creates a bit of a vicious cycle of jumping on some super extreme efforts, going really hard and then feeling like you failed when you can't keep that up for very long and then just giving up. And it's unfortunately just kind of a repeat cycle. So it's so important to approach these habits and starting a program. If you were to start something like mountain metabolic coaching, I always tell people when they're on calls with me interested in the program, this is not a quick fix. So if you're looking for a quick fix, you're in the wrong place because as most of us have seen, if we've ever gotten sucked into dieting cycles, it's probably going to take you longer to do things the right way, but you're not going to see that like quick loss and then gain it all back because nothing about what you were doing was doable long term. So it has to start from a healthy mindset first. And knowing that this is something that you're doing for the long haul, this isn't something where you need to pull out all the extremes for a short amount of time. This is why I don't love things. Diets with names, things like 75 hard or Whole30. I know that they can have good intentions and they can definitely help people get on the right track. But for a lot of people, they can create this like vicious cycle of going really hard in something that's not sustainable or even healthy. You know, 75 Hard encourages people to work out two times a day with no days off for 75 days. To me, that's like the epitome of not sustainable, not healthy at all. Like talk about increased inflammation levels and not recovering properly. And it's just kind of setting you up to feel like a failure when you can't keep that up. Even if you do make it the full 75 days, are you really going to keep doing two days for the rest of your life? Probably not. And then you feel kind of like you're not doing as well as you should have at after completing something like that. 1s The next is to set out to exercise a manageable amount for you in this current season. Okay. So you kind of have to be a little bit introspective and say what is actually realistic for me right now with young kids at home or in this crazy season of lots of travel for a lot of people 2 to 3 times a week is a really good amount. And I think we have it in our minds that if we're going to start on a health or fitness journey, that we have to be in the gym 4 to 6 times a week for it to even be worth it. And that's just not true. 2 to 3 times a week plus daily walks are amazing. Like if you're getting some good resistance training in on those gym sessions or even at home workouts 2 or 3 times a week, and then you're prioritizing your non exercise movement, You're going to see progress. And that's something that you can actually keep up for the rest of your life versus there's probably going to be seasons where you can't do 5 or 6 days a week. Most people can't, and that's okay. Um, and also knowing that it's going to ebb and flow at times. Like for me personally, I used to work at a fitness studio, so I had access to the gym and it was so easy for me to just do a workout on my lunch break or go a little bit early and work out right before I would clock in for the day. Now I live on top of a mountain. I work remote, I have a baby, I have a business. Things are so different for me and is not very realistic for me to go to the gym super often. That's okay. So now I do probably 3 to 4 days of working out a week. Oftentimes it's at home. It's not the same intensity as it used to be, but that's okay. I'm in a different season of my life and I have to really look at what's realistic and manageable for me right now. So this could even look like initiating friend walking meetups, getting out on long weekend hikes, playing active games with your family instead of always having to view exercise as something where you're going to the gym. Because just like we can kind of approach nutrition with all or nothing mindset, we can also tend to do this with exercise where we think, Well, if I can't, do you know what in my mind is like a valuable or good enough workout, then I'm just not going to do anything when in reality doing ten minutes randomly here or there, if you are working from home and have kids and that's the best thing that you can pull off, then that's amazing. You know, 20 minute workouts a few days a week is better than just doing absolutely nothing until you can get the the perfect schedule now because the perfect schedule doesn't exist, I'm sorry to say. All right. Number three is learn how to be in social settings without freaking out. This is a massive topic of conversation I have with my clients of them feeling this stress around going out to eat and being in social settings and how do I approach this when I'm trying to lose weight or I have a specific goal right now? And the reality is eating out and meeting up with friends for drinks are normal parts of life. They're always going to be there and it's just not realistic to never do these things in the name of health. And I would even argue that it's not super healthy to just say you're never going to meet up with friends in a restaurant setting or go out for a happy hour or whatever it may be. However, your goal is going to dictate your approach. So, for example, if you're only going out to eat like 1 to 2 times a month, that's really different than going out to eat or go in happy hour 3 to 4 times a week. So you have to really be honest with yourself. Like how often? How often am I doing this? And, you know, if you're only going out 1 to 2 times a month on average, then you're going to be able to indulge a little bit more. Those are going to be more kind of like special occasion type of meals versus if you're going out on a random Tuesday every week or you're going out 3 to 4 times a week, then you can't approach every single time you go out as a special occasion because it ends up being a lot of your meals throughout the week. So if you have a goal of eating healthfully or, you know, drinking a little bit less, losing weight, whatever it may be, then you have to think about that in line with your decisions to go out more frequently. And if you're doing that, then I would say you can't indulge in all the things every single time. So a tip that I give some of my clients is if you're going out to eat a lot, then you got to kind of take your pick on what you want to maybe focus on that meal. So if you're going to a place where you know that you love their, you know. Okay, so dip or whatever it might be. You love an app that they have. Then focus on enjoying the app in your meal and say no to alcohol and dessert. Or if you know that you love their spicy marg, then maybe you say no to the chips and salsa or chips and queso and you enjoy your meal and the marg and you say no to dessert and an app. So instead of indulging in apps, desserts, drinks, all the things, a massive meal that's already a pretty big portion size most of the time, take your pick and try to approach it with moderation and remember that you're there for the connection. You're not there for having the best meal of your life every single time, especially if you're going out to eat super frequently. Another thing around like the drinking topic, because this is definitely a tricky thing, especially if you're anywhere between 20 and even upwards of 40. Like going out to happy hours and having alcohol is a very common part of social socialization. So it can be tricky. And I would say, you know, if you notice that you don't feel great around the amount of alcohol that you're having, do a little bit of internal work on, like why do you feel like you have to have alcohol in every single social setting? How is that actually serving you and your goals and even just your mental clarity and how you're feeling? And is there a way that you could cut back? Do you need to have a drink at every single social setting that you find yourself in, or could you save it for more special occasions or maybe just one night a week instead of it turning into 4 or 5 nights a week, which it can definitely easily happen if you're a young person in a city. So just kind of looking at those things with honest eyes and saying like, okay, yes, I love being social, I love going out to eat, I love going out for drinks. But is this actually in line with my health goals to the extent that I'm doing it right now? And how can I moderate this and what's realistic for the rest of my life? Um, okay, so the next one, number four is to take a good, hard look at your unhealthy patterns. This is not the most fun thing to do, but I think that this is a really big part of becoming healthy long term and something that's really necessary. And it's kind of funny because a lot of the mountain metabolic clients will be a couple months in and they'll be like, I feel like the last few months I've just been like realizing the things that are really unhealthy in my life and having to, like, completely reframe my mindset around so many different things. And now I'm just finally like getting into the stuff that I thought I was going to be getting into right away. But it's so necessary to kind of uncover some of these things that end up being roadblocks when we know what to do, but we're not actually implementing and it's just not happening. If you find yourself in that boat where you're like constantly on the start and stop train or you know what to do, what you're not following through, there's some sort of roadblock there. And it's important to kind of uncover what's going on mentally, emotionally, or if you find that a certain situation creates a trigger for you to binge or to go towards some unhealthy habit that you're trying to kick, look at the root cause and really try to work through. Why is this my response? What is this unhealthy pattern that I need to change and what's a healthier habit that I could start to kind of replace that with a healthier coping mechanism? And this stuff doesn't happen overnight. And sometimes it even requires the help of a, you know, a coach or even a therapist. So just know that this is something that everyone has to work through. We all have our stuff when it comes to like our body image and relationship with food and relationship with some of these healthy habits. So it's really important to be able to look at those unhealthy patterns and uncover what's going on underneath. And trust me when I say that you will literally thank yourself for the rest of your life if you do not skip this step, it's easy to just like quickly cut out random things and say, I'll just cut out sugar or I'll cut out this or that. But if there's like underlying stuff that you need to work through around your body image or relationship with food or relationship with alcohol even, it's going to be almost impossible to just do these like, quick fix shortcuts and actually ever see progress. We have to start at the root. All right. Next number five is to create some non-negotiable habits that aren't extreme that you can start to just implement in your everyday life until they become second nature. So some examples of this would be having protein at every single meal, really making that a priority Fast food only on special occasions or eating out only on special occasions, maybe in bed by 10 p.m., taking the stairs whenever possible, getting out for a walk every single day, no exceptions. Strength training three times a week. ET cetera. So you can kind of choose what those might be for you. It's going to be different for everyone. But picking out, you know, maybe start small, 2 or 3 items that you start to implement and you just make them non-negotiable parts of your day. It will feel harder initially and then eventually they'll become second nature. And the final tip I have for you, number six, is to allow the ebb and flow of priorities, energy, motivation and goals. We are not static beings, so it's not normal for us to just be like robotic and on autopilot. Feeling the exact same way every day, always having the same amount of energy. Always being able to prioritize everything evenly and doing it all really well. It's just not possible. You can't and shouldn't live in, you know, for instance, a hard core fat loss fades perpetually. Some seasons you're going to be able to focus on certain things about your health a little bit more. And then other seasons you just won't be able to. The priorities shift. And that doesn't mean that you're just saying, okay, screw it, I'm not going to do anything. But that's when you lean on some of those non-negotiables. That's when you focus on the things that you can control. And maybe you're not so focused on working out five days a week. Like I said, I went through a big shift in so many areas of my life, which changed how much I could focus on fitness. And, you know, it's been pretty cool because even though I work out less than I used to, I work out less intensely than I used to. I'm not able to focus on my own health quite as much. I've just shifted my focus to make sure that I get out for a lot of walks, a lot of hikes. I am more focused on making sure I'm eating appropriate portions and always getting protein and eating less processed foods, having less alcohol, some of these things. And I don't feel like my health or fitness has suffered even though I can't focus on it the same way that I could in my early to mid 20s. So we just kind of have to be willing to shift things around instead of just giving up altogether when we expect the exact same like motivation and energy from ourselves 24 over seven year after year, we're really setting ourselves up to fail and ultimately feel kind of crappy about ourselves. This just isn't possible. Even if you look at the female cycle across a month, we're going to have a couple of weeks out of the month where we are in our inner spring and inner summer where we have a lot more energy. Things are flowing, we have more mental clarity, we are less susceptible to injury, all these different things. And then we're going to shift and have, you know, a couple of weeks out of the month when we enter the luteal phase and our menstruation phase where we are feeling tired when we feel like being a recluse, we don't have the same creative energy, we're more susceptible to stress and injury. So it's important to not. Put these boundaries on ourself. Oh, we have to, like, always, always show up with the exact same intensity, the exact same energy, even within the same month. Ladies, like, give yourself some grace. Go with the natural ebbs and flow of your body. Obviously, there's times when we aren't feeling it and we have to push through, But I think understanding when is the time to push through and when's the time to allow yourself grace and not feel like you have to do all the things all the time. So, so important. And it sets you up for a much healthier relationship with your health, your fitness goals, your body, all of these things. When we don't just try to like kind of push ourselves in a way that's unnecessary and not even healthy for our bodies. So all of that to be said, I hope that this is helpful in kind of uncovering how you can approach fitness goals, wanting to start healthy routines, weight loss, all of these different things that do require our attention. They require shifting of priorities, but we don't want to let them become number one. We don't want our relationships to suffer or our mental health to suffer any of these components. So I hope that these are all helpful tips and that you can take away quite a bit from this if you're needing some support from a weight loss standpoint or a mindset standpoint, you have these goals that you just find that you are in a rut and you're not really able to see things through or you're just not sure what the heck to do. I would love to chat with you about our mountain metabolic coaching. It is such an amazing holistic approach to female health as well as fat loss as well as hiking performance. So if if any of those are ringing a bell for you and resonating, then it's probably going to be the perfect program for you. And I would love to chat more. You can tap the link in the show notes for how to get started on the waitlist, and then we will reach out to schedule a call with you to chat more about your goals and just see if the program is right for you. So I hope this has been helpful. You guys let me know. As always, you can DM the fit for hiking Instagram page. Let us know what you want to hear about if there's a topic that you're just like dying to dive into, or if you're even interested in coming on the show and have a topic you want to talk about, let me know I am all ears Slide into my DMS at the fit underscore for hiking Instagram page and I will see you guys in the next episode. 1s Thanks for tuning in to 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 a trail happy and healthy trails.