71. Building Your Dream Body: 4 Non-Negotiable Steps

Today , I'm going to be talking to you about how to build the body you want . I'm going to be talking about how I built my dream body . I call my body my dream body . Do I want to improve on it ? Yes . Do I love it ? Yes , but do I want to be stronger ?

Of course , like I'm never just going to have this body and just be like , oh , good enough , I'm done working out or whatever . Like there's always improvements to be made , there's always things that I want to do to become healthier and maintain that health and my longevity , and all of that as I age and go through life .

Like I feel like I'm never just maybe that's just me , I'm just never like satisfied . That being said , I do love my body and I do call it like my dream body . Like when I first started working out , this is what I wanted to look like Like I did it . I'm here and I want to tell you how I did that so that you can do the same thing .

But before I do that , I want to talk a little bit about last week's episode , the episode right before this . I was talking about haters and how to deal with the negativity and negative people in your fitness journey and I'll be honest , sometimes the episodes that you guys love , I just don't . When I'm recording the episode , it's a topic that I love .

I've said this before . It's a topic that I love . It's a topic that I want to speak about . And another side note actually I recorded an episode earlier today and I was almost finished with it and I stopped after a sentence . I wasn't done , I just stopped and I was like no , I don't like this episode .

I got up , turned everything off and like , packed it up and was done . I just didn't like the episode . I wasn't vibing with it . I'm like , nope , I'll try again later . That is not it .

So I'm not kidding when I tell you it has to be something that I want to talk about , that I can feel like I can just sit here and vibe and just let it roll off my tongue . If I'm feeling like it's a challenge or I'm struggling , then I'm just taking that as a sign that it's not meant for you .

So , anyways , last week's episode all about the negativity that really , really resonated with you , a lot of you .

I got a lot of comments and DMs and messages and just a lot of conversations were started about how much you resonated with that and how you thanked me for bringing some of that stuff to the surface and for honestly making some of you feel like it's okay to not be the drinker at the party and to not fit in and fill your plate with refill after refill after

refill of food . And you know , I guess I gave you permission to do what you're doing and I think that's really important .

I'm sorry that you resonated with that episode , because that means that you do have some negativity , but we all do , and so I , yeah , I guess , when I recorded that episode it felt very aligned , like , like I said , it's something that , like , I wanted to talk about and I didn't have a lot of notes on it .

I had a few different situations that I , of course , talked about and kind of can just get going on those topics . That's how I know it's authentic . But yeah , and then when I was listening to that episode back like a week later to edit it , to get it ready to air the episode I was even getting worked up .

As I was listening to myself talk , I was like , wow , we just kind of popped off on this and this is going to be a good one . Like , this is spicy it's what I always say . Got a little spicy in that one . But thank you for the feedback on that .

It's a reminder that you guys love that real authentic , those real topics , and they need to be talked about . So if you have suggestions for other spicy topics , I am all in on that . Shoot me a DM , an Instagram or an email or whatever you can find me and shoot me a message and let me know your struggles or whatever .

I get a lot of inspiration from the conversations that I have with you behind the scenes . So thank you for that , thank you for reaching out , and let's give back to the topic of today , which is how to build the body you want . I again I'm going to talk about how I built my dream body at 42 years old . Yes , I'm 42 years old .

Yikes , that number sometimes is like what am I really 42 years old , because I don't feel like it . But it's not in this episode . I'm not going to be telling you exactly what workouts I do , exactly what workouts you should do , exactly what macros I had .

It's not gonna be those kinds of tangible yes , these are tangible tips , of course , but they're not that kind of tips .

It's not something you're gonna hear on someone else's podcast when they tell you exactly what to do to hit your goals , because if you're not in the place to execute those things , if you don't have a coach , if you don't have a plan , you don't understand why you're doing those things . Those things don't matter . How many times have you heard hit your macros ?

Do you work out , string your water and you're still Not doing those things ? It's because you have these other things in your way that I'm gonna talk about today . So last week I posted a real on my Instagram feed About this and it goes through these four .

It's very quick , it doesn't go into detail , but as I was creating that real , I thought this would be a great podcast episode To elaborate on those things , and so I'm gonna give a quick little rundown of what the real says . It literally says on the real how I built my dream body . And number one Decided what I want my body to look and to feel like .

Number two , I ignored everything the fitness industry influencers were saying . Number three , I made it fit into my schedule . And number four , I didn't fucking quit . That's it . That's what it says on the real and of course , I elaborate a little bit in in the caption of that real .

But I want to talk about this today On this platform , on my podcast , with you , where I can get real and raw and just explain it all and say exactly what I want to say . So this is how I built my body , my current body that I have . This is how you can build the body that you want and this is the fastest way .

If you don't do these things , you won't build the body you want probably ever and it will definitely take a hell of a lot longer if you don't do it this way . So this is the fastest way to build the body that you want .

So I'm gonna go into each of those four topics that I just said and kind of go into them in detail so that I can help you understand them , and I think you will understand the importance of not skipping these steps as I am going into them . So , number one I'm gonna talk about this in like the way that , how I built the body that I want .

So I'm gonna talk about this in like I did this . Not you need to do this . So the way that I built the body I have is I number one . I decided what I wanted my body to look like . That is number one . And feel like , look like and feel like that is number one .

I had to decide and I have to do this quite often , because there's still a lot of mumbo-jumbo , a still a lot of advertisements , flashy things that I see . There are still influencers that I see that I think , oh , wow , she's really , really lean . Maybe I should look like that . Or wow , she lifts really , really heavy . Maybe I should do that .

So I even see these . I call them shiny objects , but distractions that make me question whether what I should be doing . So the first step to this is deciding what I wanted my body to look and feel like . For me , that meant that I wanted to look like I have muscle on my body . I first and foremost want to look strong .

That's just what I've always wanted . I always have wanted that , but , like I've said earlier in the podcast early episodes , I just ran and ran and ran because I thought that's working out . I should eventually look like this . However , I wanted to look and it wasn't working , and so I had to really decide like what do I actually want to look and feel like ?

I want to look strong . I want to look like I have muscle on my body . I want to feel strong . I want to feel muscle on my body . So that's the first thing you have to do is decide what the hell do you want to look like ? Do you want to look strong or do you want to look skinny ? Because if you want to look strong , you have to lift weights .

If you want to look skinny , you have to lose weight . Okay , so they can be the same sort of , but you have to get very specific on what you want to look like , because , take it from me , if you want to look strong and you're following 21 Day Fix on Beachbody and you're eating very , very minimal , you're not going to look strong .

I looked very skinny when I did those programs . Maybe there's nothing wrong with those programs . However , you want to look at it , but they weren't getting me to where I wanted to go . They weren't aligned with my goals . So whether it's a good program or not doesn't matter if it's not going to get you the body that you want .

I did Beachbody programs till I was freaking blue in the face and I looked the exact same . I didn't look very strong , certainly didn't feel strong . I felt like I was exhausted . I didn't even like it .

So , deciding what you want to look like , what you want to feel like , how you want to eat Do you want to fix your relationship with food or do you want to restrict food ? Do you want to look really , really muscly or do you just want to look , you know , kind of muscly , or do you just want to look skinny ?

If you don't want to build muscle at all and you just want to look skinny , that's not very healthy . You are going to be injured as you go on and hear years of life . But if that's what you want , go for it . So number one is to . I had to decide what I wanted my body to look like and to feel like . I did that .

Number two I ignored everything that the fitness industry , that influencers , that my friends , whoever was telling me and I had a lot of people trying to tell me what I should do . Right , you should lift weights . You should run . You should do cardio . You should do yoga . You should do Pilates . You should all the things .

You should eat meat you should not eat meat . You should not eat eggs . You should not eat refined foods . You should measure your food . You should not measure your food right . All of the things you should take supplements you should not . They should be plant-based . They should be . Oh my God , it's insane .

So I had to decide what I wanted to look and feel like . I had to decide what aligned with that , and then I had to ignore everything that the fitness industry influencers , my friends , told me . That is huge .

All of these steps are really huge , but this one is really big because if you don't have a clear vision of where you're going , what you want to look like , and you see all these shiny objects and people are telling you things , you will be suckered in . All the time I have clients like do I need to fix my metabolism ? Do I need to take any magnesium ?

Do I need BCAAs ? I think I need more colostrum . I think I need collagen . It depends on what ad they're seeing right . I think I need greens , I think , and , yes , some of that stuff is very helpful for what . But what you need to do is decide what you actually want and then you can figure out what aligns with that .

But ignoring what people say and what people think and what people are doing , on the internet especially , is really really important , because if you get distracted by every ad and every person that is saying something to you , you will never stay on track right .

Once I decided what I wanted my body to look like and feel like , and I knew I wanted to be able to eat more food . I knew that I had to start eating more food . I had to trust that carbs were okay for me , because I needed carbs to gain the muscle to look like I wanted to look .

So once I knew all of that , I got very clear on what I would be eating , wouldn't be eating , what workouts I would be doing , what I wouldn't be doing , and I did not . I did not veer from that and I have not veered from that in a very long time . So that consistency really really matters .

Number three after you've decided what you want to look and feel like , after you've decided I am ignoring everything and everyone . That doesn't align with what I am doing . You have to make it fit in your schedule . I had to make it fit into my schedule so many times . I tried to get up first thing in the morning , or I , and work out .

Or I tried to work out in the evening because that worked for other people or for other schedules that we had going on at that time .

Or I tried to work out Monday through Friday and take the weekends off , or I tried to meal prep every single meal , which took all of my Sundays , and I realized I didn't want to give up my Sundays just to save a little bit of time during the week .

I was willing to buy a couple things already prepped so they didn't have to spend my entire Sunday schedule prepping food . I decided I was going to order groceries , have them ready for pickup .

To save my time getting groceries , I decided I would work out whatever time of day works for me , whether people thought that was good or not , whether people said , oh my god , I don't know how you get up at five o'clock in the morning . Well , I do . That's just it . I'm not going to get this workout in any other time of day . This is it .

If I don't do it now , it's not happening . So , making it fit in my schedule , that didn't look like someone else's schedule . That looked like me turning down things or events or scheduling my workouts on weird days . Right now I take Mondays and Fridays off typically for my workouts .

Well , the saying is you've heard the saying like don't miss a Monday , start Monday off on the right foot . I miss every single Monday with my workouts basically . So I'm going against the grain , but that's how it works for my schedule . So I have a little more flexibility on the weekends .

Now the baseball season is over , I have more flexibility on the weekends . I work out Saturday , sunday . I take Monday off . That works for me to kind of refresh after the weekend , especially like when the kids are in school . They go to school . I have Monday to kind of like chill . I don't have to work out Tuesday , wednesday , thursday .

I'm working out Friday . Who doesn't want to take a Friday off ? Like that's freaking cool . So I do that to get ready for the weekend workouts and that's what works for me .

I have ladies all the time that are like I have to move one of the workouts from one of the days that you scheduled it , christy , on the app that , and I'm like go , please do that . I want this to work for you . You do not have to work out Monday through Friday . You can pick any three , four , five days a week .

Whatever , talking about three to four to five days a week , that's something you can fit in your schedule too . I personally love to work out five days a week . If I only make four the last few weeks , if I've only made three , I don't care , I don't stress about it .

So as far as fitting it into your schedule , let's say you had the same goals that I did . I wanted to look fit , strong , I want to lift weights , all the things . If I could only work out three days a week , that's going to look like really , really smashing some heavy full body workouts three days a week , same with four days a week .

If I could only work out four days a week for my schedule , I'm going to alter my workouts to fit that schedule and I'm just going to grind and like just smash those workouts , right , I'm going to have to work really , really hard .

I work hard five days a week on my workouts , but I'm going to have to work out really hard , right , and be really mindful of what that looks like . But if I can only fit three or four workouts into my week to work out , then that's that's what it is . That's what I mean by make this fit in your schedule .

I literally mean whatever you have to do , however , you have to alter , and this is a great thing about having a coach , but this is a great thing about having me as a coach . I'll just plug myself , because I have tons of clients and my personal training clients . We alter their workouts for them .

I have a client right now , specifically , that we talk pretty much every Sunday and she tells me what days she's doing like yoga on her own and then I fill in the rest of the . You know the workouts for the week depending on yoga's full body . So I plug in the other workouts . On the weekend She'll do like a core workout that works for her schedule .

It took us a few weeks to figure that out , but that's what we're doing . I have other ladies that I'm like hey , workout five days a week . They're going to all be full body . If you miss one or two and you only hit three or four full bodies , that's perfect .

I have other ladies that we do two full bodies , an upper day and a lower day , a core workout on the weekend it's whatever works for them , because some of them have Pilates classes they go to . Some of them work out with their kids or their family or their friends and they don't want to not do that . So we alter what they need to do .

I figure out what workouts they need to do for their goals and I fit that into their schedule . If we don't do that , if you don't make it fit into your schedule , you'll quit . Plain and simple . If you can't fit it into your schedule , you won't do it . If it doesn't fit into your life , you won't do it . So make it fit into your life .

There is a way to alter your workouts and your eating and your water and your sleep and everything . Can you alter your schedule ? Absolutely . But in my life experience , my schedule alters itself based on the fact that I'm a mom , a wife and a business owner . So I have children who are in school sometimes , and now at summer they're not , so that's crazy .

They have sports Each of them , different days of the week , different times . That's crazy . I have a husband who travels for work sometimes , so that's always changing and then we want to do things together and I want to work around his schedule . Of course , sometimes we work out together , sometimes we don't . That's crazy .

I have my own business and I have certain work hours , certain things . This podcast needs to be released on a Tuesday , so I have to have it ready to be released on that Tuesday , no matter what . That can get a little crazy . I have one-on-one calls with clients that they schedule , so I work my schedule around that .

So , in my opinion , and how that has worked for me is I look at my schedule and I make my workouts fit . The only way I can make my workouts fit during the school year is to do them at 5 , 5.30 in the morning . Otherwise it's just not going to happen Right now . In summer it's a little bit different , but your schedule will change .

So if you have a fitness health workout routine that's also flexible and it's not so rigid , it's not restricting , it's not measuring everything , it's not hitting everything perfect , it's not 21 days nonstop workouts If you miss one , you feel like a failure and you have to start over . Make it fit your schedule and make it work for you .

That is absolutely crucial . I can't explain that enough . So . So let's backtrack and catch up . So , number one I had to decide what I wanted my body to look like and feel like . I had to pick my macros , my nutrition and my workouts to align with what I wanted my body to look and feel like .

Number two I had to ignore everything that the fitness industry , the influencers , the shiny objects I had to ignore them all . If it doesn't align with my goals , it's an absolute no . If it's not a hell , yes , it's a hell no . I've heard that before right . Number three I had to make it fit in my schedule . Once I did that .

And number four I almost said this is like the most important one , but I probably could say that about all of them Don't quit when your schedule gets crazy . Make your fitness a part of your schedule . Just don't give up .

It's going to take time to get used to your new workouts and your new nutrition and saying no to things and making it fit In your schedule and giving yourself some wiggle room and giving yourself some grace . It's going to take time . Don't quit . I'm telling you . I have been relentless with my fitness journey and not quitting for 15 years . I am so consistent .

I will never quit working out , even if I cry through the entire workout , I will still be out there and do a couple of squats at least while I'm crying . I will get it done no matter what , because it's so flexible that I don't mind doing it . I can do it consistently .

I don't have to do it perfectly , I don't have to show up every single day , but I won't quit , and that I know a few episodes back a while back , that was the number one thing that I said . To hit your goals Like what you have to do to hit your goals is not quit . That's the missing ingredient in most people's fitness journeys .

That's why most people fail is because they quit . Once you decide , once you start ignoring , once you make it fit your schedule , if you stick with that and you don't quit , it's a guaranteed success . So that is how I built my body with all of those things and not quitting . I don't give up .

There are days when I look in the mirror and I'm like , hmm , well , eat a little too much , or maybe you are really killing those squats and now your quads are massive .

There are days that I don't pick my body apart , but there are days that I do look in the mirror and I'm like , well , that wasn't really the goal that I had for my body , for my workouts , but apparently what I'm eating and the workouts that I'm doing have created this body . It's not a bad thing . Just make some little tweaks and keep going right .

Cut out a couple of things . Christy , you're eating way too many many eggs in the spring . You're eating way too many Oreos in the summer . Cut back a little bit . It's fine . Nothing's broken . Just make some little tweaks and move on right . So again , I constantly have to decide what do I want to look like , what do I want to feel like ?

Decide what I'm going to do that aligns with that . Ignore everything else . Make it fit into my day and go with it and just don't quit . Don't second guess that Once you have a handle on what you want and you're committed to that , then just don't quit . So I hope you enjoyed this episode . That is how you build the body you want .

That's how I built my body . It's more than just the workouts , the water , the macros . It's really deciding what you want . And that's what I do with my clients . Most of my clients come to me thinking they're going to tell me their goals and I'm just going to hand them some workouts and hand them macros and do your check-ins and some of your pictures .

No , I want you to decide with me what you want to look and feel like . What does that align with ? What does that look like in your life ? Let's make it fit . Here's what you're going to do and why . So you don't have to listen to that outside noise . And then we're not going to quit . We'll reassess in a couple weeks .

We'll make some changes , but this is what I essentially do for my clients is help them with these four steps , all while they're doing the correct workouts , they're trying to work towards hitting their macros , they're getting better sleep , they're taking the supplements that they need , they're drinking their water . So it all works together .

But you have to have these four things in line constantly to be able to get that body that you want to be able to look and feel the way that you want . You can build your dream body at any age . By the way you are , it's never too late to do this . So I hope you enjoyed this episode . I will talk to you next week .

Thanks for listening to today's show . Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and , of course , follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes , and I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at Christy Castillo fit . I will see you next time .