78. How to Make Fitness Part of Your Daily Life

Now , what happened was that I have an episode ready to go and to be released tomorrow , but I woke up this morning with something on my mind and I thought that has to be this week's episode . I'm feeling like this is put on my heart for a reason and I need to share it . Somebody needs to hear this . This has to be the episode that goes out this week .

I'm feeling really passionate about it , for whatever reason , so I'm just going to go with it . So I decided to record this episode , get it all ready for release somehow all today , to be released tomorrow . I don't know , call me crazy , but I'm excited .

So , yeah , usually I'm just not this last minute , but I am just really feeling like somebody needs to hear this episode and I am going for it . So , like I said , of course I'm excited for this episode . We are going to be talking about how to actually make this a lifestyle .

I say that quite a bit that fitness needs to be a lifestyle , that this is my lifestyle and I'm pretty big on that term . I guess or like saying that phrase right , making it a lifestyle . It's like what does that mean ?

And I'm obviously you've heard that from other people than just me and I know it's nice to think about like , oh yeah , I guess I want this to be my lifestyle . I don't want it to be a quick fix , I want it to make sense and to fit into my life . But in reality I guess that's a little strange to think about .

Like when I actually say that , like what does that mean ? I think it sounds good and it's something that you know , maybe people term and just use on the internet , I don't know make it sound like it's not obviously a quick fix and the things that I mentioned . But it's like how do you do that technically or mentally ?

Like what is the mindset , what is your thought process need to look like to make this be a lifestyle . And I guess I woke up thinking about a couple of different conversations that I had last week . I don't honestly know when these things pop into my head . It's just like where did that even come from .

I can't even explain it , but I did have a couple of conversations last week about this and I think maybe they just really stuck with me and , for whatever reason , today I thought that we needed to talk about it .

So I had a client last week ask me like actually in a one-on-one call her like I think she said it I'm probably gonna butcher this , I'm sorry if you're listening to this . It was something to the effect of like will this ever feel like a lifestyle ? When will this become something ? That's not so hard ?

And I had another client this week that was like when is this gonna get easier ?

Like , I feel like this is still so hard Mind you , it's only been like four weeks , but it's just feeling so hard and like , yeah , I think that question like will this ever feel like a lifestyle really stuck with me and of course , I coached her through that question and gave her the answers and some of those I'm gonna talk about in this episode and I'm

gonna elaborate even more because I think this is not necessarily a question that I get all the time more often , but I think it is a thought that we all have definitely thought before , at least in terms of like , wow , this is a lot harder for me than I thought it would be , or it seems like this is a lot harder for me than you know someone else .

And so the answer to will this ever feel like a lifestyle ? Will this get easier ? Yes , this will feel like a lifestyle if you keep going and this will get easier . You have to remember , when you're starting something new , that it's going to be hard . Everything that you start is new . You don't know what you're doing and it feels hard .

You can I guess I would relate this to write a new job . Of course , when you're starting , you have no idea what you're doing . You have the training , you have all the experience , you figure it out along the way and then , eventually , your new job .

You know , however many months , years down the road , you feel like , okay , this is just what I do and it's so easy . Now , right , I don't need any help , I don't need any guidance , I got this . I can even think of like being a parent . Well , being a parent is always hard , it's always changing .

But I remember like bringing my very first newborn , like my daughter , home from the hospital and being like , wow , I have no idea what I'm doing . I am not responsible for this little tiny human .

I know nothing about her , I don't know anything about being a mom , and eventually you know within a couple of days I'm like , okay , I got this , I get to know it , it's now my , you know reality , this is my life now and that that for me just felt like so impossible , like I will never figure out how to take care of a baby right .

And then your next baby isn't the same as the first baby , so you still have to learn all that over again . But you can relate this to anything that you start . Everything is hard until it's not . I actually heard that quote yesterday on a podcast as well , and I was like it really resonated with me . Everything is hard until it's not .

Everything that you've ever thought like wow , this is so hard , I can't do this . I'm terrible at this . I don't know If you keep at it long enough , mostly because we have to um in a job or parenting situation . Some things aren't by choice that we get good at .

But everything is hard until it's not , and eventually it just becomes your new normal and you have to keep that in mind on this journey .

But you have to also remember that if you are committed to making this fitness when I say this , I mean fitness a lifestyle you have to stop starting and stopping going too hard , has to stop starting a new diet and then quitting it . Has to stop being too hard on yourself , has to stop . You have to stop beating yourself up . You have to stop restricting .

You have to stop making it like a six week thing . You have to stop doing a competition for 30 days . You have to stop those really small windows , those of things , restrictions or commitments or you know whatever you're doing like I'm committing to this for 30 days .

Well , stop doing that , because if you don't have a plan for after the 30 days , then then that is your lifestyle . So maybe currently your lifestyle is you always are starting and stopping on Monday and you can't seem to get your shit together on the weekends Like you have a lifestyle right now .

That is probably not getting you exactly to your goals , but that's your lifestyle . Like you've made whatever your life is looks like right now . Like that's your lifestyle . Is it easy every day ? No , but you're doing it . It , even if that means you're not doing anything fitness related , then that's your lifestyle . It's not doing anything fitness related .

If you want to make fitness your lifestyle , you have to keep doing it , but you have to start with the goal of making this a habit . So the only way that you make something a lifestyle is to make it a habit and realize that you're gonna have to do it long term .

There's no cute , pretty , fancy , sexy way for me to say this that you're gonna be like wow , christy , you're my favorite person . If you're saying this so gently , I'm sorry that there is no way for me to say if you want something to become a lifestyle , if you and what that really means is literally making it a habit right .

So for me , I want to be fit , I want to be healthy , I want to look how I look now and , or better , I want to eat how I eat now and or better , like that is my goal long term and what I was doing for me .

This is me , my own experience , talking when I was doing beach body workouts , when I was eating out of containers , when I was tracking every single thing that I put in my mouth , with the intention of being smaller , with the intention of being perfect , with the intention of right , not messing up and hitting exact goals , like I still do track my food , but in

a very forgiving , more like mindset instead of less mindset type of way . Eventually I got to a place where I'm like I can't keep doing these workout programs that are , one , not getting me to my goals and two make me feel like I'm going to die . I just hate feeling like I worked so goddamn hard and I'm so tired .

I don't even want to do it the next day because it's not fun . I don't want to eat out of containers , I don't want to feel restricted , I don't want to keep starting and stopping . I finally got to the place where , like , this is going to be my lifestyle if I keep this up .

That's not what I want had to reset my goals and it takes a while to figure out exactly what your goals are . It changes and exactly how to get there , but that's how it becomes a lifestyle . You do it without thinking so .

Whatever you do right now in your life , if it's give up , if it's not go to the gym , if it's do obsessive cardio , insert anything that you do habitually in your life . That's why it's your lifestyle , because you do it habitually , and this will roll into my next topic of self-sabotage that I'm going to talk about in upcoming podcast episodes .

It's just a habit . You do it without thinking . It's like old you versus new you , old you or current . You does these certain habits . That's making this a lifestyle for you , and if you don't change them , that's your lifestyle .

If you want to new you , you have to do new things , and so I will always like , as far as fitness I people are always like you brush your teeth , right , you need to work out and make it something that you don't have to think about . Like when you get up and you brush your teeth in the morning , you do it without thinking .

And when you do brush your teeth , you don't think , wow , good for me , I just prevented all the cavities from coming into my mouth in that one teeth brushing session . No , just like , when you get one workout accomplished , you're not like wow , I have this bang in body now , after one 45 minute workout , I look and feel amazing and goal body accomplished .

It doesn't happen instantly , but , and I should say , it also doesn't regress like instantly either .

So if you don't brush your teeth for one day , your teeth aren't going to fall out because of that one day of not brushing your teeth , just like , if you don't work out one day , if you're consistently working out and you don't work out one day , your body's not going to , you're not going to gain weight , you're not going to , like , fall apart .

You're not going to lose all your muscle mass in one day , but if you don't brush your teeth consistently , very bad things happen to your mouth and to your oral hygiene and , yes , your teeth will , by guess , probably fall out eventually .

If you don't work out consistently , then , yes , you do gain weight and you do lose muscle mass and you don't feel good and you don't look how you want to look . So , just like , doing something consistently will eventually get you to where you want to go , even though every day it's not like wow , this is amazing . I feel so freaking great .

I can really see a ton of progress in one day . No , also , on the other hand , not doing something every single day will add up to you not looking and feeling the way that you want to look , but it's very slow , right .

So you kind of quit and you think I'll start again on Monday , and then you don't , and you'll start again the next Monday and you don't , and so on and so forth , and then eventually , two years have gone by , you've gained 50 pounds and you're like what in the hell ? What is going on ? Because that became your lifestyle right .

So hitting your macros and getting your workouts in has to become such a part of your journey , so much so that it's not a question of whether it will get done , it's when it will get done , right . So it's not a question of Will I hit four or five workouts this week , it's what days will I get those workouts done on Period . End of story .

It will happen . Just what days out of this seven day week , which four or five days , will I get my workouts in ? That's it Not negotiable . It's not a matter of will I hit my macros ? You know X amount of days or on a seven day average . I'm not even going to say every single day . It's you know how will I ? What will I eat consistently this week ?

What are my protein ? What's my protein intake and what are my protein ? Go to foods this week that I will eat every single day or consistently . However , that looks for you to reach your seven day protein average , right . What are the things that will get me there ? It's not a question of whether , whether or not I will hit my protein goal .

It's which foods will I hit my protein goal with this week ? So it can't be optional . You have to focus on the daily tasks , not necessarily the outcome . Right , if you have 50 pounds to lose , you can't focus on that 50 pounds .

You have to look at like okay , these are the pounds I want to lose , this is the calorie deficit I need to be in , this is my protein goal . I have to do that . How am I going to make that work ? If I want body recomb , I'm going to have to lift heavy weights .

I'm going to have to do the same workouts pretty consistently so that I'm building muscle Makes it a lot easier to , by the way , to just get that progressive overload in if you are trying to build muscle . And then and then , along with building muscle , if you want body recomb , you have to hit your protein goal .

So you have to work on the daily habits that are going to get you there and you have to do those daily habits so consistently that it becomes your lifestyle .

So , yes , this will feel like a lifestyle and yes , you have to remember that everything is hard in the beginning and then one day it's not , but the only way that you can make that work for you is to know that you can't stop . This has to be something that you set up so that it's not something that you're going to quit .

And the way that you do that is the way that you don't ever feel like you have to quit is to make it fit so seamlessly in your life that you can do it . So this is kind of the last thing that I'll talk about is how to make this a lifestyle is to actually make it fit into your life . You don't rearrange your life to hit your fitness goals .

You rearrange your fitness goals to fit into your life . That's how it works . Yes , you'll need to make some definite changes as far as your habits and maybe give up things of your life . Right .

Like you maybe can't go to happy hour every single day after work , you are going to go to the gym a couple days a week , and maybe you're going to go to happy hour a couple days a week , but maybe going to happy hour a couple days a week is excessive .

I don't I don't take that verbatim , but what I'm trying to say is , if you are consistently saying I'm going to work out five to six days a week and , realistically , you can only work out three to four days a week . Stop setting yourself up for failure .

If , for the rest of your life , you think you can get in three to four workouts a week , perfect , do that . Because if you keep setting yourself up for failure , you keep trying to hit five , you only hit three and you think your failure week after week after week after week . And you're like why even bother ? I'm supposed to get five workouts in a week .

I can only get in three . I might as well not do this . No , just get three workouts in a week for the rest of your life right Life style . Instead of working on hitting protein , carbs and fats , stay in a calorie deficit and hit your fucking protein goal every single day . That's exactly like .

If you're like I cannot figure out my macros right now , this is too hard Get three workouts in a week , consistently , hit your protein goal consistently . That's it . And once you get really good at hitting your protein , getting those three workouts in a week , add something else that you can fit into your life .

You're like , oh my God , I'm doing so good at this . I've been hitting three workouts a week for six months . I've been hitting my protein goal five days a week for six months . Like what's next ? Like I got that in the bag , right .

And that feels hard at first , but when that becomes easier , then you can add on something else and that's exactly how you get better . I have a lot of clients that come to me and they're like I'm all or nothing , which this is self-sabotage , we'll talk about that soon . But I'm type A , I'm all or nothing I'm .

You know , I have this perfectionist mindset , which is all things that I think we say to kind of like . It's like a precursor for like good luck working with me , this is exactly what I'm like . And it's like these preconceived notions of like oh , I'm all or nothing , I'm a perfectionist .

I have said that so many times I can't even count them , but that was me kind of setting myself up for like , oh , it's okay if you fail , because you're a perfectionist , so you probably can't do it anyways , right ? So instead of kind of saying those things as far as like I'm all or nothing , I'm a perfectionist , like no , yeah .

Okay maybe you are all or nothing , but get in three workouts , that's your all right ? What is your all ? How can you give this your all right now ?

And it will definitely change throughout the seasons , but that's exactly how this becomes a lifestyle and I feel like I was going to talk about self-sabotage in this week's episode and I'm like you know , until we really settle on how this becomes a lifestyle and really just giving up that all or nothing , really giving up being so hard on ourselves , really giving

up setting ourselves up for failure , there's no sense in talking about self-sabotage because we haven't even really mastered what making this a lifestyle would look like . And I have a lot of clients , like I said , who I feel like are really like I do want to make this a lifestyle . I do want to figure out how to hit my macros with the foods I love .

I do want to figure out how to go to the gym and work out four days a week , like we really do want to be okay with doing less and doing all the things that I talk about in these episodes . I feel like most anyway are you listening to this ? Most of my ladies that come to me , they're like man .

That's what I really want and I feel like I'm so close to getting there . I just need a little bit of help to like help me understand .

But that's the number one thing is like really figuring out that , yes , it is hard it is so hard in the beginning everything is but eventually , if you kind of loosen up the reins , give yourself some grace and make everything that you need to do a habit , it will become a part of your life , which will , in turn , become a lifestyle .

And the last thing I want to say is that your fitness journey has nothing to do with your self-worth . I feel like a lot of times , when we're talking about making this a lifestyle , it's hard for us to see how having , you know , being attached to the scale like the scale a lot of times has a lot to do with our self-worth .

Like , oh , I'm not losing weight , or I'm overweight , and that makes me feel like shit and I feel like I'm not worth it . Or I set myself up for these big goals and I can't even hit my protein goal , and that affects your self-worth .

Or I said I was gonna work out today and I didn't , and that affects your confidence , which affects your self-worth , and so really separating your fitness journey from your self-worth and realizing that , whether you do or don't do any of the things that I'm talking about , you still are good enough . You still are worth it .

And so separating your fitness from your actual being , from your actual self-worth or from yourself in general , like when it doesn't become about how you're gonna look and like being perfect , it just becomes about these habits right . Then that's how it becomes a lifestyle too .

When I hit my macros and when I work out , it's not because , yeah , I mean , I'll feel like shit at the end of the day . If I don't , I'll be like okay , there was no reason you couldn't work out today . If it was supposed to be a workout , did .

And there's no reason , christy , you couldn't have swapped your whatever Oreos for your Greek yogurt and hit your protein goal . Like there's just no reason that I couldn't have done that . But I no longer say like , wow , you suck , or wow , you're terrible at this , or wow , you can't do this . It's like , well , I just didn't make great choices today .

We're gonna do better tomorrow , when you can disassociate what you do with who you are and your worth . Trust me , I know this is hard , but when you can do that and you just do the things habitually , not because of how you feel or what you think you're worth or because of how you look .

You just do the damn thing because it's part of your lifestyle and it's who you are . It's a part of who you are now . This is the person you are now . You do your protein goal , you do drink your water , you do get your steps in and you do workout four days a week , like that's period . That's who you are .

Then it just becomes easier to also have these be habits and to make this a lifestyle . So I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into my brain and to my world . Today , I really felt like this is for someone .

So if you're listening to this and you're like , yep , that's me , christy , that was for me , be sure to shoot me a message , a DM , on Instagram I love those from you and let me know that this was for you , because I just like to know that you're resonating and that I'm not exactly crazy .

Maybe on those mornings where I'm like , I really feel like I need to talk about this , someone needs to hear this . So I hope you enjoyed this episode . I hope you have an amazing rest of your week and I will talk to you next week .