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The 5 Most Common Fitness And Nutrition Pitfalls Keeping You From Reaching Your Goals · Your Strongest Body

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: You are listening to your strongest body.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Betsy Foster, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and certified nutrition coach.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I've worked as a personal trainer for over a decade, helping people build strength, speed, muscles, as well as a deep appreciation for their bodies and confidence that helps them live their life to the fullest.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness, nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being here.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: As always, we're hopping back into episodes.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you, january has been just an adventure a series of obstacles popping out of nowhere, but that is real life.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: That is real life and it is a mini lesson in terms of our health and fitness.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: There is so much of our day to day, of what it is to be a human being, interacting with systems, interacting with people and relationships, interacting with the environment all of those things that create so much uncertainty that we have to do our best to control the controllables.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Control what you can control and let the rest go.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: So much easier said than done, and I say that as both a business owner, as a mother, as a fitness enthusiast and as a trainer all of those areas of life.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: We have to just be flexible, go with the flow.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I have to say that I have, in the last few years, cultivated more skills to do that I really have, and maybe that is a necessity of parenthood or something like that.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I couldn't exactly tell you.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Also, because it's like an intentionality that I am trying with my parenting, in that I'm trying to create as low stress or sort of low anxiety environment as possible for my children, because I think there's just going to be so much that will provide that for them in the future, and can we make our home some place where that isn't the case?
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: So it's forced me in a lot of ways to be okay with going with the flow and controlling what I can control.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: So one of the things that I could control in the month of January was the podcast is not going to get done.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: The podcast amidst the travel, amidst the birthdays, amidst the school closings, amidst the sickness, is just not going to get done.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And I am looking forward to getting more in as these months roll on and being a little bit more proactive and reactive when it comes to my recording, getting guests on and things like that.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: But it is also about realizing that we have limits as human beings.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: So I'm happy you're here.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I share all of that.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Just to say I think it can be helpful in all aspects of our lives to take stock of when we manage the unpredictable well and kind of pack yourself on the back and then, if it didn't go very well, figure out ways in which you can change it for the future.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: So that is my update.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Other than that, things are going super well and I'm excited to chat with you.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: The point of today's episode is kind of helping to identify for you the five most common pit falls I see in people who struggle to achieve their goals.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I've been a trainer for almost 14 years, coming up on my 14th anniversary here this summer Thank you, lisa At.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: In those 14 years there are trends that I have been able to see.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Now I want to acknowledge that everyone is their own individual person with their own individual needs, challenges, goals, experiences, lived experiences that they bring to the training environment.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: And so while there aren't Well, I don't want to neglect that I want to acknowledge that there are patterns and if we sort of look at the patterns of if these things, if we're falling into these traps, we are likely either not going to succeed at reaching our goals or we're making it so much harder for ourselves.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: There are people who achieve goals, but it takes longer, it is Stressful, it beats you down, it makes you feel as though is this really worth it?
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: You're questioning that constantly.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: So I'm I Sort of thought through my experiences with clients and those I've seen From outside, because what I'll say is I've had people who've come to work with me and then maybe stopped, or I'll have people who have thought about it but didn't decide to commit, and the things I see Amongst those groups who also haven't Sort of followed through with their coaching is that they, they didn't have an opportunity to have someone tell them One of these things or help them work through one of these challenges, these pitfalls.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: So let's get into it.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give you five of these pitfalls and Explain each one of them.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Number one is one that I talk about at nauseam, but this is there's a reason for that.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: There is a reason for that because it is, I believe, the number one reason People are unsuccessful with their feet reaching their fitness goals, and that is the all-or-nothing mindset.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: The all-or-nothing mindset 100% ensures failure.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: It Insures failure 100% because 100% of the time, you will not be able to give it your all.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: There's no way.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: There's absolutely no way now.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Life goes in phases, in Cycles.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I think in a lot of ways, there's a very cyclical nature to our lives, and there are moments in time where you are able to Be more successful.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: There are moments in time when you are able to dedicate more time, dedicate more energy, have the opportunity to make things happen more often, and then there are times in life where you have less of those capabilities, and it is out of necessity.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: It is out of necessity because there is not one person Whose only priority in life is their fitness goals.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Even those folks who are paid to Achieve their fitness goals, they still have to pay rent, they still have to feed themselves, they still have to interact with people, maintain relationships.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: There are lots of things in life that require our energy, that require our focus and probably the the biggest currency.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: They require our time, and so you will not be able to give your workouts or your nutrition or your rest 100% of yourself all the time.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: There is no way of that now.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: If you acknowledge that early and you adopt a mindset that that is both Challenging yourself, asking yourself to do a little bit more.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: With the Acknowledgement and the constant recognition that anything is more than nothing, that anything that you can do is going to move the dial in some way, and the kind of grace to allow yourself moments where you cannot get exactly what you had done planned, those folks are successful.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Those folks are successful 10 out of 10 times because they keep going, because the all or nothing mindset Creates interruptions, it creates stagnation, it creates lulls in which nothing is getting done.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: That's the whole problem with it.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: When you can't do all, you do nothing.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: And nothing is a, in so many ways, a net negative.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: It's almost it's taking away.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: It's taking away because it's taking you out of rhythm.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: It's taking you out of flow.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: It is creating greater resistance to getting started again.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: How do we overcome this all or nothing?
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: We do a lot of things.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: We accept that it's not going to be perfect.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: All the time we try to think through things ahead of time and I'm going to get into that a little later sort of this a little bit more of a proactive mindset.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: We create options ahead of time that can be a lower barrier to entry for ourselves, so that we can just sometimes check the boxes.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: So we could talk about that for a long time and I've talked about it probably in many episodes.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: But if you are falling prey to the all or nothing mindset, you are sabotaging yourself.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: The second pitfall pitfall I don't know why I keep saying like I'm going to say pitfall pitfall Too little sleep, too little sleep.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: We are just from a societal standpoint.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: We have created an untenable that's the correct word, I think, untenable recovery experience.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: We have made a life that is go, go, go, go, go, go go, that we are burning ourselves out and not taking advantage of the one thing that is going to make our lives so much better.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that I am perfect in this area too, because I don't know about you, but I am a succumb to my phone at night person.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: It feels like the first time of the day and listen, I'm on my phone all the time for work, but it feels like the first time of the day that I have my own time.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I think that's poor perception on my part, because I do have time and because I am getting, I am being, my cup is being filled with all the other things I have during the day and with my relationships with my husband, with my kids, with my friends, with things other than that hour of tuning out.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: But I still fall prey to it and I still get to bed later than I want and I probably prioritize sleep a little bit better than the average person too and I say that less as a judgment and just more of like for context.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: If I'm struggling with it and I'm still doing a little bit better than the average person, I want you to know that if you are struggling with it, everybody in some way, shape or form might be struggling with it.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: If you aren't, congrats and you are doing yourself a huge favor.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: But by stealing from ourselves that sleep, by pushing our waking hours longer and longer, just for a few extra minutes, just for you know, I don't know the instant gratification that sometimes comes with that staying up a little bit later, we're taking away from our ability to make progress during the day.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: And make progress during the day is not just have a good workout, it's mental clarity, it's general like body feel less achy.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: It's better nutrition decisions, because they're not decisions out of out of you know triage.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: You are not triaging an issue with your nutrition to keep yourself awake.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: You are.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: You can make decisions that better support yourself from a lot of different standpoints, and I think some people are working so hard and and putting in so much effort to their goals, they are missing the sleep part, and they are.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: It is as if they are filling up their cup and then putting a little pin in it and letting it drain all night long because they aren't getting enough sleep, and so then they have to work twice as hard the next day to fill that back up because it drained while they were, while it was overnight.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know that that's a perfect, you know, metaphor, but it's what came to my brain right now.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Sometimes people are sacrificing sleep for their workouts and we have to decide when that is an appropriate decision, and I did a post about it a while ago, but like once in a while, sure, constantly, we got to take a look at sleep, and sleep is going to more sleep, more quality sleep is going to be better in our health bank and our results bank than not having sleep.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Let's go to number three, because if you, if sleep is a thing now you know, and we got to work on it.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Third pitfall shiny object syndrome.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Shiny object syndrome is really common in fitness and nutrition because people want results immediately.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: People want results immediately and so they jump ship too early, they try something new too early.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: They don't give themselves enough time to really see if something's working, and this is going to be very dissatisfying to hear it takes so much longer than you think it's going to take, especially the kind of if you're looking for transformation, if you're looking for long term success, it is going to take a long time.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: What I will say is there are ways in which we can see and feel the progress of results and we can start to see change in the more immediate.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: But immediate is not two weeks, immediate is not two weeks.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: There's like a little like Instagram or TikTok video going around and it kind of cycles like every three months.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: It's on the fitness side of these apps and it's always like in two weeks you'll feel better, in four weeks you'll see a difference and in eight weeks your friends will notice.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And it's such BS I'm sorry, like one, we can't predict that.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I think in two weeks you can feel different.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: But let me tell you what feels different.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: It is more about self-efficacy.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: If you have stuck with it for two weeks, what you feel is success in your ability to keep going and that's a win and that's not.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: That isn't like, oh, so that's not worth it.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: That is 100% worth it.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: That is 100% worth it.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: When we're looking at six weeks, but more often 12 weeks, then you are probably 100% feeling a change.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Now, if we put our results on somebody else, seeing a change as a metric for ourselves, we are getting ourselves really stuck because one people are not observant.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Two people, hopefully, are not paying attention to your body so much so that they have a comment to make in 12 weeks.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: And three that's like one of the things that my eldest daughter, who's working through sort of like just sort of relational development in school, when she gets upset at someone for something that they do, I have to kind of remind her and it is a very useful lesson for myself as well that we can't control somebody else.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: The only person that we can control in any situation is ourselves.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: So if you're waiting for someone to tell you that you look different, you are waiting to control somebody else.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: You can only control yourself.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: So that's where I say like, if we're jumping ship because nobody's noticed anything about our bodies yet, if we're jumping ship after two weeks because we're not wearing a different size clothes.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: If we're jumping ship after two weeks because it's not hard enough for us to accomplish yet we are, we're actually setting ourselves back farther because we need that time.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: And the most interesting new exercise, the most interesting new program, the most interesting new diet, no matter what any of those are, the more fad they are, the more they'll promise results quickly, and that tends to be what people run to.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: But in any of these cases they still take time themselves too.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: So you're probably just not giving anything enough time, anything enough time.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I would say that the greatest change in myself it has in measurable difference for myself and for my clients is always about a year long.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: About a year long, and that means like from year to year too.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: So you know, in a four year span I've had a lot of change.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I don't look much at the difference shorter than a year, which is wild, right, but if we think about those interruptions in our life, if we think about all those sort of things that get in the way, it makes sense If I took my month of January and just counted on that to be the most six, like I need to see how things change from January 1st to January 31st.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I better consider that I had a trip and I had to take a week off of workouts and I was eating differently and all of this stuff.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: So, yes, you can look at that in the immediate and if you have a stretch of six weeks where you're able to do everything exactly as planned, you might be able to measure progress and feel like, okay, if it's not going well, what can I do?
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: But really, if we're being realistic and if we're being considerate of the fact we want things to be more long-term, long-lasting, it is going to take longer than you think and you've got to stick with something longer.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: My rule of thumb is 12 weeks for sure.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: 12 weeks Because we can make something happen in 12 weeks.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: But people are jumping ship at one one week.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: They get to Friday and they're like nothing has changed.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to either give up or I'm going to get on some ridiculous, extremely sort of extreme, extremely extreme.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: I did say that Diet or program, so we got to let it have time.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Number four I only have five of these.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I know I'm taking a long time, but there's so much to each one of these nuggets that I've been taking a long time.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: But number four, reactive nutrition.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: That is a big pitfall.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Reactive nutrition Meaning we are not.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: We are waiting too long to decide what to eat, too long to decide when we're going to eat.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: We are waiting beyond when it is helpful for us to make decisions that are going to be beneficial for our training.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Now, when I say proactive nutrition which is going to be a better and with reactive nutrition, we allow ourselves the opportunity to fall into old patterns, because reactive is going to rely on what has worked for us before.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Now, if you love your nutrition and that works well for you, that is fine.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: But if you're looking to change something, if you're looking to change either a pattern or an approach to the food choices that you're making or the amount that you're consuming or anything like that, you've got to be proactive about it, because if it was natural to you already, you would be doing it already.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Being proactive means being prepared ahead of time.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean being perfect.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean being rigid necessarily.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I think we think that about being proactive.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I think the first thing you go to is like this idea of meal prepping and then never eating anything interesting again or never falling off the plan.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Proactive doesn't even mean there has to be a plan to fall off of.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: It means being prepared.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: It means thinking through options.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: It means setting yourself up for success.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: It means having opportunities to make a choice that feels better, versus leaving yourself to make a choice that you're disappointed with later.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: It means packing.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: It means preparing.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: It means being more aware, more in tune.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: It doesn't necessarily mean rigid, but again, people struggle because they hope that their idea of what they want to do is going to save them in moments when there is stress or they can't find anything or they're in a place that they haven't thought through the food on.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: And if that were the case, you'd already be doing it.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: If we're thinking about creating change, we have to realize that whatever we're doing now is going to lead to the exact same result.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: So if we want to make a change, we have to set ourselves up to make a different decision, and that just means being more ahead of the game.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: More ahead of the game.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I am very anti-rigidity in nutrition and fitness.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've picked up on that yet, but I am very proactive and I think those people who are being proactive are going to be the most successful.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Thank you, because even if one time it doesn't go where they planned, they will be proactive about the next time.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Lastly and this one is one of those where I was going to try to like couch it in something else, but there's no way to put it any other way alcohol, alcohol consumption, is a pitfall for many people, and let's talk about why.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Now, as an individual who consumes alcohol, this is not meant as a judgment.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: What it is meant as is an opportunity to determine where you want to place priorities and what's most important for you.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: So we know that kind of all the literature and sort of maybe media that kind of existed at one point about sort of extolling some of the benefits of alcohol, of alcohol consumption, like you know, benefits of red wine consumption.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: We've sort of, at this point, proven the opposite, that in the amounts that someone is going to consume, you're not getting those benefits, and there are so many more disadvantages to consuming alcohol than benefits of consuming alcohol.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: It is really something that detracts from what you're doing.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Does that mean that you have to stop completely?
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know you.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know what you need.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I will not pretend to make that call for you, nor is it my place or anybody else's place, and you have to speak to a medical professional if you feel like you need help in that area.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: But what I will say is that we know that it causes sleep disruption.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: We know it can impede your ability to train at high levels, causes fatigue, causes digestive disruption, even just causes changes in the way you would hydrate or the way you would make food choices, sometimes in the immediate around or the days post-alcohol consumption.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: There are just so many ways in which it is an obstacle that you're putting.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: It is an obstacle that you're choosing to put in your way.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: If you decide to choose it in a way that works well for your timeline and your training and your fitness goals, that is an option.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: But if you feel like you are constantly, if it is something that is not important to you or not, if you're looking at it and weighing how it impacts your fitness and it doesn't feel worth it, you may be onto something.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: You may be onto something.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: So there are just again, what I see people fall prey to is sort of forgetting what kind of an impact it can make or not being informed on what an impact it can make.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: When I talk about it as a pitfall.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: People are not taking it into account when they think about their health and fitness goals, and it is very much a part of the bigger picture if it's something that you're choosing to do, if it's something that's interesting to people.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I could talk about that more at length, but I just think it's a very common pitfall that is societally for so many years, has just been weaved into our culture without a lot of sort of I don't know critical curiosity around it.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Again, as someone who consumes in a way that I'm sort of considering it around my training, it's not a judgment, it's merely an observation.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: All right, this one is getting a little long, so I'm going to wrap it up by just summarizing these five common pitfalls that get in the way of people reaching results.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Number one was that all or nothing mindset.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Number two was too little sleep.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Number three was shiny object syndrome, so changing it up too frequently and too soon.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Number four was reactive nutrition, so not being proactive in terms of setting yourself up to have the best options, make the choices that align with your health and fitness goals.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: And the last one.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: The fifth one, was alcohol consumption and sort of lack of critical awareness or even proactive thinking in terms of alcohol consumption and its effects on training, nutrition and sleep.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's it for today.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I am so happy to be back.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I absolutely love this medium because I love being able to share this with you.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: I hope it helps.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: If it does, you can slide your fingers down on that Apple podcast and leave a rating and review.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: That is so helpful, I think it just in a lot of ways.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: When someone stumbles on the podcast and they see that someone else has liked it, they'll see that someone else has something to say about it.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: It lets them know.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, maybe I can listen to this too.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: People love that comfort of knowing someone else has done the work of testing this out for me.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: All right, well, hopefully we're back on a regular schedule.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: You'll have a new episode out on Thursday.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Thank you, as always, for listening and until next time, go build your strongest body.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: See you soon.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Bye.