Latest / Fit for Hiking / Ep. 120 Breaking the Cycle: Why You Keep Falling Off Your Fitness Routine (and How to Stop)
Transcript
- 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 guys? Welcome back to the fit for Hiking podcast. This is your host Brady. And today we are going to be digging into the topic of breaking cycles. Um, getting out of these like negative patterns and habits that we fall into that keep us from being consistent and really sticking with a fitness routine or the healthy habits that we want to ultimately really instill in our lives until they become second nature. So if you're someone who find yourself in these, like all or nothing on or off type of cycles with your fitness or health routines, this episode is for you. We're going to get to the bottom of it. But first, before we dig in. Wanted to give a quick shout out to our Black Friday deal that's going on within Mountain Metabolic Coaching. This is actually the only sale type of deal that we've run the entire year. Okay, so this is a big thing. Um, so basically this is going to start November 1st. We only have ten available spots for this. And you're going to get multiple free months of coaching if you sign up. It's pretty freaking awesome. So if you're someone who's been kind of like on the sidelines interested in coaching, maybe you just want to learn a little bit more, you're intrigued. Now is the time. Like jump on it because never again until maybe next year if we run the same thing again. Are you going to have access to a deal like this? So definitely take action now. Apply in the show notes. There's a link where you can go to our application process, and you're going to want to jump on it now, because we do have a bit of a waitlist. And like I said, it is first come, first serve. We only have ten spots available and this is officially starting on November 1st. So jump on it, apply now and we'll get the ball rolling so we can get you started and take advantage of the several free months of coaching. All right you guys, let's get into it. So did you guys know that 80% of people give up on their fitness new year's resolutions every year by mid February? That is kind of a crazy statistic. 80%. So why is that? Let's go through the main reasons why people are failing when it comes to actually sticking with these resolutions that they set for themselves with the best of intentions. Maybe they're like super motivated, you know, starting January 1st, really feeling like this is it. This is the year that I'm going to actually see this goal through. And yet they're failing by mid February. So why is this happening? One unrealistic goals. A lot of people are way too ambitious and they're like, I'm going to work out seven days a week. I'm going to lose £20 this month. And when the goal feels unattainable in the day to day, this is when there's a very quick drop off rate because it's just not realistic. This is why we are such big advocates for setting actually realistic, attainable and achievable goals within mountain metabolic coaching. Because when we try to just go too hard, too fast and we're doing like fasted cardio every morning and cutting carbs and doing all these things at once, you're not sticking with that. Sorry, it's not going to happen, especially if you are new to this and just trying to get, uh, you know, get something off the ground and start to form healthy habits. Doing too much too soon is one of the worst ways to go about it. Number two is lack of specific planning. A lot of people just do this vague like, oh, I'm going to get fit this year. I want to lose weight. I want to start working out. I want to start eating healthy. Those are such vague goals. So without a clear like, I want to achieve this by this time frame, this is the outcome that I want to see. And there's no tracking or measuring involved. You're going to be more likely to procrastinate because you don't have really a clear plan, or even a way to really see if you're doing the thing that you said you want to do. Because if you have a vague or ambiguous goal, like getting more fit, how do you even track that? Right? So I recommend setting Smart goals. Really something like, um, okay, I want to lose £10 in six months and this is how I'm going to do it. Here are my action steps. Here's my plan. And then you're going to be so much more likely to be able to execute. Other reasons include instant gratification being more of a focus versus the long term habits that will get you the results that you want. Number four emotional and lifestyle factors. So stress, work, family obligations, sleep deprivation. Maybe you have a little one at home like I do and like you're just not sleeping. Um, all of these things that pop up in life, life happens. And so if you're not ready for those challenges and you don't kind of have a plan of how you're going to mentally troubleshoot those so you can keep going, then yeah, those things are going to definitely throw you off. Number five lack of habit formation. So research suggests that it takes 2 to 3 months of consistent repetition to form a habit. So yeah, if you're not really focusing on that habit formation and giving yourself the time necessary to reroute those habits in your brain, then it's going to be easy to abandon those. And a lot of people quit, like at that mid-February mark, which is so frustrating because at that point, you're almost there. You're almost to the point where something could become a habit. So you just have to keep pushing a little bit longer. Um, Number six overreliance on motivation. This is a big one. So a lot of times we make these decisions based off of how we're feeling in the moment. Like if you look in the mirror, you're trying a pair of pants and you're so unhappy with what you see or with how your pants are fitting, so you make the snap decision to do this like extreme diet, or join this workout program that is, like not sustainable at all. And it's a motivational type of decision. However, once that motivation fades, you don't have really any substance behind that choice, right? You're just relying on feeling motivated to show up and do your workouts to continue being consistent with your nutrition or things like that. So really needing to have the habits and the mindset in place to stay consistent when you're not feeling motivated. Because let's be real, I've been working out for my whole life. Basically, never once have I had a week where I'm like, feeling motivated every single time that I go to the gym. It just doesn't happen. Sometimes you have to really just rely on your discipline, your grit, your underlying why and the habits that will keep you going. Um, number seven. Poor tracking and accountability. So without tracking workouts, nutrition progress, it's really hard to see improvement, which can then reduce your motivation and really feeling like it's worth it, right? If you don't have anything telling you that this is how far you've come. Sometimes it's easy to like kind of miss your signs of progress, especially if maybe the scale isn't reflecting what you want to see. If you're not taking measurements or any other form of progress, you might just get discouraged and then give up prematurely. And number eight having an all or nothing thinking. So missing one workout or eating one indulgent meal leads to just throwing in the towel entirely. This black and white mindset is a big reason why early slip ups tend to spiral into just saying, like, okay, well, I've already failed, so it's over, right? Ultimately, the biggest thing too is finding your deep why and staying anchored to that. Because if something matters enough to you, you're going to see it through. But sometimes it takes us getting to this breaking point or rock bottom place before it's really worth it to us, right? Like, sometimes you have to hit a point where you're like, Holy cow, I am so deeply unhappy with, like, what my life looks like, how I'm feeling, um, like the type of discipline that I am having lately, what my healthy habits do or don't look like. Um, you know, maybe you get really bad results at a doctor's visit, or you realize literally none of your clothes fit, or you go on a hike and you can't even keep up with the people that you're going with, whatever that looks like for you. Sometimes it really does take hitting that rock bottom moment to be like, okay, something has to change, and I have to just get focused and do this. Otherwise all I'm going to be is unhappy. In this exact same cycle, this time next year. And I don't want to be in that place. So finding your deep why that keeps you from staying in this cyclical behavior. Okay, so. If you're someone who really does great all week and then the weekend hits and it's like you, you're flipping a switch, and then you promise that you'll start again on Monday, then you need to just get frustrated enough with yourself that you're like, I am done with this cycle. Okay. So typically what this cycle looks like is motivation restriction or like taking drastic measures, then burnout and then guilt, and then give it a few days or a few weeks and you're back in it again. Okay. So let's talk about what to do and how to actually break these poor fitness and nutrition patterns for good. Okay, so why does this happen? Let's explain. Kind of like this habit loop. So typically there's some sort of cue that leads to a routine habit that you've already established sometime along the way. And then that leads to some sort of reward or something that makes you happy. Okay. So example you experience a stressor. That's the cue. Something has stressed you out. So then nighttime you have this routine of at the end of the day, just like snacking or kind of binging on whatever after dinner on the couch. And that provides the reward of comfort. Okay. It's comfort eating, right. It's a stress to comfort eating cycle. This is a very, very common one with like the women that I've worked with over the years, I've experienced this. It's a very, very normal response to stress. So how all or nothing thinking will fuel this inconsistency or just this pattern? If I can't do it perfectly, I might as well not do it at all. Okay, so that's like, okay, I'm experiencing stress. I'm feeling like I'm not being perfect. So then I'm just going to binge because I already had a snack after dinner, so I've already failed. And then the emotional reinforcement is that exercise or food often becomes a coping mechanism. Okay. So our brains prefer familiarity and patterns, even if they're unhealthy because they feel safe to us, they feel familiar. So that's why, even though you know that this habit isn't serving you, you know that you feel like crap after you binge and kind of throw away your healthy eating for the day with nighttime comfort eating. You still do it because it's a familiar pattern and our brains love the familiar, even if we're self-sabotaging. Okay, so that's why we tend to get stuck in these patterns. There's nothing wrong with you. This is actually extremely common and normal, but we got to figure out a way to break it. The right way has to come down to our mindset. That's why we can't just, like, slap a bandaid on things and say, I'm just going to do a juice cleanse and then hope for the best. That's not getting to the underlying reason that you're stuck in this pattern. So first we have to start with awareness. So identifying your habit triggers. So this is where I really encourage you to spend a couple of days tracking your habits and kind of your go to coping mechanisms. When stress happens when discomfort happens sadness happens. Anger happens whatever these triggers might be. So when do you, um, typically like skip your workouts? What creates this? Like, oh, I just can't go. I can't work out today. I'm too overwhelmed. What prompts that? Or what prompts intense cravings or binges? What emotions or situations are coming right before and then what story are you telling yourself in those moments of like, I'll just start later, this week's A wash because it's too busy. Or maybe I just am a failure. Like, what are these rhetorics that you're telling yourself in those moments that either justify or maybe are shaming you or guilting you? Like, what do you tend to do? Do you tend to pile on guilt, or do you tend to justify and give yourself a million excuses? So kind of look at what story you're telling yourself when those things come up. And now I want to really encourage you in those moments to pause and notice. So create space between the urge and the action. Okay. So we're going to bring a lot of awareness to this. Instead of just going through the motions and going through your patterns that you're so used to. They're just second nature. You don't even think about them. This week I want you to really just notice, do some of this work to actually look at, like, why are you reacting the way that you are? What do those reactions look like for you? What are these patterns that you fall into and pause. And notice the emotions around it. What led up to it? What were the triggers? What did that trigger lead to in terms of an unhealthy pattern that you don't want to do, or not doing a healthy behavior that you do want to do? And then what story are you telling yourself in that moment? Next, we're going to work on replacing instead of just like trying to restrict, because our brains don't do well with just cutting something out. Instead, we do so much better with a replacement. Trying to cut habits typically does not work out well for us long term. You need to replace it and routine and a reward to fill that gap okay. So examples would be replacing stress snacking with some sort of like ritual in the evening. So maybe you find that you really enjoy, like having a cup of tea and reading a book on the couch and listening to calming music, and that really helps bring your nervous system down after a stressful day, instead of just like eating whatever it is, that's typically your comfort food. Um, we're replacing late night scrolling with a podcast and a wind down ritual like your skincare. Taking a hot bath. Really setting aside some time without your phone to prepare your nervous system for sleep, instead of just scrolling and going into this dark hole of social media that keeps you so stimulated and tends to really hinder good sleep quality. Or maybe you replace a skipped workout with a walk, so it's not a well, I just can't do anything. I'm not going to the gym. It's not. It's not going to work. Instead, maybe you say, well, I don't think I'm going to be able to work out today, but I am going to go for a 20 minute walk. Okay. So you're getting some form of movement. So focus on replacement versus just cutting something out. You're going to be so much more successful in the long term. Also a tool that I love and I use with my clients is called habit stacking. So this is where if you're trying to more so focused on creating a new habit versus changing a current habit, you're wanting to make a new one. You're going to pair this new habit with something that you're already doing on a daily basis. So maybe you have a little stretch routine that you do while you brew your coffee. You're already making coffee in the morning, so you're just going to add that in. Or maybe you really like to read or listen to a podcast in the morning and like, sit and have your cup of coffee. What if you did that on a walk? You bring your coffee with you in it to go mug you listen to your favorite podcast, you call a friend, you listen to an audiobook or something like that, but you do it while in motion. Okay, so that is habit stacking. You're doing something that you already do that's already so second nature and ingrained. Like you don't have to think about it, right? Most people like you're making your coffee no matter what. Like this is a non-negotiable in your day. So what can you fit in? Maybe it's like a ten minute movement routine or something else that you can seamlessly add into that activity. Next we're going to focus on identity based change. So shifting from I'm trying to get fit to I'm someone who prioritizes my health. Think about who you want to be in one year in ten years, and then your habits, in your daily decisions need to reflect that identity that you're trying to step into. And you really have to kind of do a self audit of what are the things that I say I want to do, but nothing I'm doing is lining up with that person. I want to be that identity that I want to step into. Right. Reframing your daily actions as votes for the identity that you're building. Okay. If you say that you want to be someone who's healthy and vibrant and active and has this vitality about you, but then all you're doing is doom scrolling on your phone and sitting on your couch and binging on junk food. Right. If these are your habits on a daily Any basis that's not reflective of this identity that you're trying to build. So trying to take every little opportunity, these tiny micro decisions throughout the day that are boats towards the identity that you're building, it could be as simple as like instead of doom scrolling in the morning, you listen to a health or fitness podcast or a productivity podcast or something that's going to frame your mindset. One thing I've started doing is instead of being on my phone first thing in the morning, I do my Bible app devotional, and I've been listening to a podcast that's like a five minute morning devotional because it's so much better for my mental health and my spiritual health to start the day with God's Word, instead of just letting all this like cultural influence into my brain, first thing that's just going to add stress and comparison. It's it's not the type of stuff that I want in my brain first thing in the morning. And yet it's so easy to just, like, sit and zone out and scroll your phone and then you're starting the day stressed out already, feeling like you suck at life because somebody maybe posted like their 4 a.m. morning routine and you're sitting in bed at 7 a.m. scrolling your phone, right? So that is one little example of something that I've been doing that is a little action. Vote towards the woman that I want to be. I want to be calm and focused and productive and a good like godly example for my kids. So that tiny decision just sets me up for success in my day. So look for those micro decisions that you can start implementing that will really build this identity of who you want to be. And then affirmations that are going to reinforce consistency with this. So things like I don't need perfect days to be consistent okay. That's not realistic. You don't need to be perfect to be consistent. I move my body because it feels good, not as a punishment. And next we want to really work on breaking the start Over Monday mentality. I'm sure that you've probably said it before. I know back in my 20s when I was stuck in really unhealthy patterns, I would have this I'll start Monday mentality. So instead of looking at everything as failure or slip ups, um, we want to just look at that as feedback. This is learning as we go. Okay. This didn't work out well. I did not handle this situation well. What can I do differently instead of it just being like, oh well, I guess I have to start over Monday, the same way that you wouldn't like break every single glass in your kitchen because you accidentally drop and break one. You don't need to just self-sabotage every area of your health until next Monday because you failed to do one thing well yesterday or whatever. So really understanding that one off day, one off weekend, one off meal, one missed workout doesn't erase your progress. It's part of the process, and what you do most of the time will dictate your outcome. Like, think about expecting one salad to make you the picture of health, right? We don't do that. We understand that. That's not how it works. However, sometimes we expect one poor meal. It's going to completely ruin everything that we've been working towards. So similarly, how you can't expect one salad, one workout to change your health for the better overnight. You also can't expect yourself to be perfect and say that if you've had one negative meal or one missed workout, that you're just doomed and all of your progress is gone. I also encourage you to create a reset strategy. So if you do have an off weekend like personally, I just had like a pretty unhealthy weekend. I did not eat or live the healthiest life that I know that I could be, and that's the first time that that's happened in a while. Like, I just really had this icky feeling yesterday. I was like, oh, I just like have not been very healthy this weekend. So I did a bit of a reset. And for me, what that looked like was just picking up exactly what I know will help me feel good. So starting Sunday with a healthy breakfast, eating healthy meals all day, going for a hike, doing something active, not waiting until Monday. I didn't need to wait till Monday to start making healthier choices for my body again. And I also sat down and looked at like my daily routine and the things that made me not feel so good over the weekend or anything in my life. That is kind of a hindrance to that identity that I'm trying to build, and how I can build better habits and things that I can swap and replace. So kind of just doing a self audit of what are the things that are dragging me down right now versus the habits that are really helping me feel my absolute best. And so I have a little action challenge for you. I want you to think about this today. Maybe over the next few days, identify one habit, habit pattern that you'd like to break, something that's really important to you, that you're like, I know that this one thing is not helping me pursue this identity that I want. Write it down. Okay? Write down this, this thing, this habit pattern you want to break right down your trigger, write down a replacement behavior, and then a new identity statement that enforces being consistent with breaking this negative pattern that's holding you back. Okay. So writing down the habit pattern, the trigger the replacement behavior, and then a new identity statement that right there can completely shift and reset an area where you have been consistently feeling stuck. Sometimes all it takes is just a little bit of introspection. Writing some stuff down, being honest with yourself about where you're falling short, and then making a plan. Taking action is one of the most powerful things that we can do to move towards the person that we want to be. When we get stuck in this, like inaction and overthinking and overanalyzing comparison social media, that's where we just spiral and nothing helpful comes from that. So just stop what you're doing. Do this right now. Write it down, start to take some action. Send us a message on the Fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page and let us know what you're working towards. So remember, you don't need more motivation. You need to focus on your patterns. Our patterns are what shape our lives and how we show up in the world and ultimately our identity. So if you're not happy with your identity, if you're not happy with your health, if you're not happy with certain outcomes in your life, look at your patterns. Look at how you're spending your time. Look at the habits that show up for you the most. Um, I hope that this has been helpful. I think getting to the root of things and the mindset behind the why we do what we do on a daily basis is so, so powerful. And we have several other really great mindset podcast episodes you can go check out as well. Um, just a reminder if you're interested in learning more about what we're doing with metabolic coaching and really getting to the root of some of these things, you can work with one of us as your coach to get to the bottom of this, and we can help you create better patterns and move towards this identity and this life that you want as your healthiest self. So definitely check out the Black Friday deal that we have going on right now. Jump on it. Multiple free months of coaching. Pretty cool offer, so check out the application form in the show notes. Thank you so much for tuning in today, you guys. I hope that this has been motivating and challenging to you and that you get a lot out of today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. 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.