13 Ways to Make Moving Your Body Consistently EASY Part 2
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Welcome back to 13 ways to make moving your body consistently EASY part 2, if you haven’t yet listen to part 1 I highly recommend going back and listening to that episode either before or after this one.
Moving your body consistently can be hard…whether you’re just not motivated or you don’t have the energy, or life just feels way to busy. Whatever the reason may be, I have a BUNCH of ways to help you make it easier.
In part 1, I discussed:
Finding movement you love doing
Creating a schedule.
Treating your workouts like appointments or work meetings.
Having a plan.
Setting yourself up for success.
Having a back up plan
What I discuss:
7. Don’t overcommit
Be realistic about what you can actually do weekly and daily. Don’t set an expectation for yourself to workout 6 days a week for 60 minutes if you haven’t been working out at all.
8. Be open minded about movement.
Movement isn’t just going to the gym, movement can mean ANYTHING and honoring your body with any kind of movement daily will change your relationship with fitness!
9. Find a way to hold yourself accountable.
Get an accountability buddy or a workout partner, or ask your significant other or your best friend to help hold you accountable.
10. Track your progress
Sometimes we can’t see the changes in the mirror every single day and we think we aren’t making any progress when if fact, we are making LOTS of progress. That’s why I think it’s so important to track your progress so you can see that your hard work is in fact paying off.
11. Track your consistency
See how many days and weeks you can go honoring your body with movement. You’re going to become so motivated to not break your streak!
12. Set specific and actionable goals for yourself
It’s also hard to stay consistent when you don’t know what you’re working towards. So figure out WHAT you are working towards EXACTLY.
13Focus on the process not the results.
If you focus on the results ONLY you’re going to struggle to see results.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Episode 267: 13 Ways to Make Moving Your Body Consistently EASY Part 1
Episode 256: 5 Ways To Monitor Your Progress Without The Scale
If you want more from me, be sure to check out:
Instagram: @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
Free ebook: www.juliealedbetter.com/free-ebook
Amazon storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer-6bda1ca8?ref=cm_sw_em_r_inf_pub_influencer-6bda1ca8_dp_DgsIam9salgfi
Transcript:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get hugs, girl. Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Your podcast. I am so grateful that you are here spending some time with me today. So we are talking all about ways to make moving your body consistently easy. This is part two, so if you haven't gone and listened to part one, I highly recommend you go back and listen to that episode. Right now it's episode 267, so you can just click out of this and then scroll down to episodes and you should see it or one episode and you should see it. 13 Ways to Make Moving Your Body Consistently Easy, Part 1.
In Part one, I discussed the following. So number one, finding movement that you love. Number two, creating a schedule. Number three, treating your workouts like appointments or work meetings. Number four, having a plan. Number five, setting yourself up for success. And number six, having a backup plan. So in today's Part two, we are going to be sharing the remaining seven ways to make moving your body consistently easy.
Before I dove in, I had to share this review. It comes from barmoue. She gave a five star review and said, “My new favorite. Listen, I found this podcast when I set out to increase my steps and needed a new listen. Julie is a breath of fresh air and it feels like you're sitting on a porch having a good conversation with a friend. Thank you for all the wisdom and knowledge.”
I love this so much. I wish that I could sit on a porch or go to a coffee shop with every single one of you guys, or better yet, get a good sweat in which hopefully will be coming in the next few months. And hopefully by next year we'll be able to all be in a place and sweat together. That would be so fine. So that is definitely something in the works. But for now, I am so grateful that you found this podcast and I'm so thankful that you are loving all of the content on it. If you haven't already rated interviewed the podcast, it really does help us. It blesses this show more than you now, and it also allows us to know kind of what is helping you as well as other people who stumble upon the podcast, whether they hear it from a friend or they're just kind of browsing the charts on podcasts. It helps them understand if this is a podcast that would be worth listening to. So if you could scootch over to Apple Podcasts and tape and embrace your role again, that would really, really bless us and it would help us so much. So thank you in advance for doing that. I appreciate you so much.
Let's dove into part two. So number seven, don't overcommit. You have to be realistic about what you can actually do on a weekly and daily basis. Do not set an expectation for yourself to work out six days a week for 60 minutes if you haven't been working out at all, or if your schedule is just jam packed. Because what happens when you overcommit is that you actually set yourself up for failure. And you don't want that. You want the exact opposite, you want to follow through, you want to see results. You want to set yourself up for success. And so what I encourage you to do is to start small and then work your way up from there. So if you haven't been honoring your body with movement consistently lately, then maybe you just commit to three days a week for 30 minutes. Start there. Start very, very small. Almost to the point where you're like, I know I could do more, but I want to show myself that I can actually follow through on this. And after a week or two weeks or three weeks of being consistent with that, then you can bump it up. You can bump in up to four days a week, maybe 30 to 45 minutes, or just keep it where it's at and stay consistent there. I just want to make sure that you're not adding too much again to the point where you're overcommitting and you're setting yourself up for failure. Be realistic right now about what is actually attainable in this season of life, and don't beat yourself up about it. Don't say, man, I wish I could do X, Y and Z or in this season of life. I did. You know, I did five times a week or six times a week for 60 minutes. And why can't I just do that now? Just know, again, life goes in ebbs and flows. We have different seasons of life and that is okay. Do not beat yourself up for not being able to achieve a goal that's just not realistic or attainable for you right now.
Number eight Be open minded about movement. I personally used to think that the only workouts that counted was me actually going into a gym setting and using the gym machines. And if I didn't do that, I didn't actually workout, which is crazy. Like, I know that it sounds wild, but I'm sure some of you guys lazy and you think that if you didn't get a structured workout in like it actually doesn't count as a workout. And I'm telling you that that mindset again will set you up for failure. For me, I found because I did not think that any movement outside of the gym was a workout, I found myself in this funk, so much so that I was me. I was like beating myself up so hard if I couldn't get to the gym. And then I got to the point where I wasn't motivated at all. And so I wasn't driving to the gym. I wasn't staying consistent with my workouts, and that's when everything changed. Like that's kind of the birthing story of where movement, which really came from when my dad was moving from California. From Colorado to California, and he had from £10 to £40 dumbbells. So he had ten, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40s. And he was like, Hey, do you need dumbbells? And this was pre-COVID. So before dumbbells were a hot commodity, and I was like, I mean, maybe like, it would be nice to have them, but in my mind, I was still saying, you know, if I didn't get a workout in at the gym with gym equipment and it was a structured workout, like I didn't work out basically is what I thought. And so we ended up taking the dumbbells, but they ended up staying in our garage for a good I think it was like a year before we even started using them. They just were collecting dust. And my husband, Josh, is very OCD when it comes to like, he's just a clean freak and I am not a clean freak. I've gotten a little better since we've been married over the last almost eight years, which is crazy. But I was like he said, okay, if you're not going to use these dumbbells, like I'm just going to sell them because they are just collecting dust and they are taking up a ton of space in the garage. And I said, No, I want to commit to learning how to use them. So we put them downstairs in the basement and now if you follow me on movement with Julie or if you're inside movement with Julie, you guys know that we film all of our workouts in our unfinished basement, which is so insane and so fun and also just real. I mean, heck, I'm on the embrace a real page. I, I tell you guys all the time to live authentically to who you are. And this is just your sign to remind you that the world wants the real authentic you. They want to know you. They want you to be real and raw. And I've built a very awesome business by just being real and showing up in my unfinished basement and providing value to these women. And so kind of a side tangent, but just be real, be authentic and don't be insecure. I mean, I remember the first couple of videos that I filmed in my unfinished basement. I was like, This is so embarrassing. Like, I don't have a studio, I don't have any of these things to look polished. And the fact of the matter is, I really think that this is why this whole movement of women who are committing to dumbbell workouts inside movement, which really is kind of exploding, is because of that aspect. So many women have told me on a weekly basis like, thank you for showing up and showing me that I can use my unfinished basement too. I never even thought about that. And I'm like, Man, it is so cool to be able to show people that. But all that to say, I then took kind of just what I learned and when I taught myself of just, okay, I want to learn how to get a good killer workout in with a few pair of dumbbells in a small space. And that's exactly what I've done over the last three and a half years. And I can now tell you, like, my mindset around movement is so different. It's so different. I have switched my mindset from now, thinking that I had to drive to a gym workout at gym equipment in order for me to get a workout in. And now, I mean, I look at every form of movement as a workout. I'm honoring my body with movement. And if I do that, if I can commit to that 30 minutes a day, whether that's dancing or cleaning or walking or jogging or cycling or playing Frisbee or whatever it is that is movement and that is a workout. And I am going to be proud of that. And so I just want to encourage you to kind of step outside of what you maybe have normally only looked at a specific movement as a workout and just know that there are so many different types of movement and be open minded about that. Sure, resistance training is going to expedite and help you see the results that you want, but moving your body in any way, shape or form is going to help you get back on track. And that's what's going to keep you feeling both physically and mentally healthy. Number nine, find a way to hold yourself accountable. Now, accountability is everything. Do not underestimate the power that it has in your results. If you're struggling to get yourself to move your body, it's time to find some ways to hold yourself accountable. Here's kind of a few of my favorites and also what I see many, many women do on a weekly basis inside my group. Ask for accountability. Get an accountability partner, find someone who knows and also wants to honor their body with movement and encourage you to do the same and stick to your guys's goals. Maybe send each other a sweaty selfie every time you work out. This is something that so many people do just inside the Facebook group, Inside Movement with Julie. If they don't have a specific accountability body, they have the accountability group as a whole. And I can't tell you to see the hundreds and hundreds of sweaty selfies on a daily basis inside the Facebook group is so fun. Also, I love seeing the Instagram tags. I also have recently been seeing people stitch and do kind of a side by side on Tik Tok with the workout and I'm like, This is awesome. Like it really, truly makes me feel like I'm working out with you guys. And for those of you guys, you don't know all the workouts that. Are programed on a weekly basis inside movement, would you say? Those are the exact workouts that I do on a weekly basis? And so just knowing that we're doing it alongside thousands of women on a weekly basis all over the world is awesome. But whether it's a group like that or finding an accountability person, whether that's in-person or that someone virtually that you can connect with, that's really important. That's one great, great way to get kind of accountability and hold yourself accountable. Another way, ways to ask your significant other to hold you accountable. Like tell them your plan for the week and ask them to help you follow through. So maybe this means that they need to watch the kids or cook dinner, or maybe that means that they're going to help make sure that you get up in the morning to get after it, whatever it is. When they hold you accountable, though, don't get mad at them like they're actually trying to hold you accountable. And that is one thing that I always just remind people, like when you ask someone to hold you accountable and they start actually holding you accountable. Don't push them away. Yes, there might be moments where your instant reaction is like, oh, stop asking me or stop telling me that. That is just you're like you wanting to hold yourself in a comfortable place. That's your homeostasis of like your body saying like we were way we wait. You're doing what you're waking up. How early to get this workout in? This is not what we've been doing. And remember that your body is always trying to get you back to a place of homeostasis. And so when you start to feel uncomfortable immediately inside your mind and inside your body, it's going to be like resistance. Resistance. No, no, no, no, no. But you have to remind yourself and tell yourself, like, hey, I asked for this and they're doing this out of love and they love me so much that they're actually following through on what I asked them to do. And so don't get mad at them for trying to help you. Don't get mad at them for holding you accountable and just know that there's going to be that period of time where it does feel uncomfortable. But I can promise you that your body is adaptable, which is amazing. And so once you start to do it more consistently, your body starts to realize, Oh, this is actually something good for us and I'm not going to resist it anymore.
Number ten Track your progress. Sometimes we just need the small wins to help us stay consistent. Sometimes we can't see the changes in the mirror every single day, and we think we aren't making any progress when in fact we are making a lot of progress. That's why I think it's so important to track your progress so that you can see the hard work that is in fact paying off for you, following through. And I know if you're like me, you don't like tracking your progress by getting on the scale. There are tons of ways to track your progress that do not include your weight whatsoever. Actually talk about this in episode 256 and I will link that in the show notes below. But it's five ways to monitor your progress without a scale. And a few of those include taking progress photos every few weeks, keeping track about how much weight you're lifting in your workouts or how your energy levels are, or how your happiness levels are or how you're sleeping is all of those things. Remember, all of those things are progress and all of those things deserve to be celebrated. So don't just think that you have to track your progress by the scale. In fact, I think that's honestly one of the worst ways for you to track your progress as a main way to track your progress, because there are so many factors that go into play with the scale fluctuating.
And so I highly recommend you tune in to Episode 256 Five Ways to Monitor Your Progress. Again, I will link that in the show notes that you can easily go listen to that next number 11 track your consistency. So this one tends to be a hard one for many people to hear, but consistency is the most important thing when it comes to success and especially building the body that you want. If you don't step on a scale or take a single measurement, but you track how consistently you've been following your plan and hitting that consistency rate to at least 80%. I promise you you will see progress. It's not if it's when you will. You definitely will see progress. There is no way for you to not see progress if you are that consistent with nourishing your body with what it needs and moving your body. So instead of tracking your weight, track, your consistency. How many days have you gone honoring your body in a row? No, not working out every day, but moving every day. Really switch that in your mindset. Like not every day. Should there be a grueling, hard killer workout some days? Absolutely. There's a time and place for that, but that is not every day move your body every day, commit to honoring your body with movement for at least 30 minutes every day. So ask yourself, how many days in a row have you been conscious about nourishing your body, hitting your macros or hitting your protein goal? It doesn't have to be perfect, but it needs to be consistent. Remember that consistent and perfect action leads to results. So I encourage you to grab a calendar and every. Day that you stay on plan market with an X at the end of the month, you should see at least 80% of the calendar covered with access. Now, if you do this for three months, it is going to be inevitable that you will see progress in your body. If you are noticing that you're only earning about the X about 50% of the time, that's a clear indicator that something needs to change. So again, you don't have to track your weight. You don't have to check your measurements. Just track consistency because consistency at the end of the day, that's going to be key to see results.
Number 12 Set specific and actionable goals for yourself. It's also hard to stay consistent when you don't really know what you're working towards. Like, it's also hard to work towards a goal that's not even that specific. Like, how do you know if you reached it or not, if you haven't really gotten specific with what you're working towards? So here's what you need to do. You need to figure out what you're working towards. Exactly. Don't say I want to lose weight. Instead, say I want to work out four days a week for 45 minutes and I will be doing X, Y and Z workouts on this day. Or if you want to go more into the data, you can say, I want to make sure that I'm eating X amount of protein every single day and I'm going to stay consistent with that. Or I want to set a goal of lifting this much weight for a specific lift. So on this day, on this month, I want to be lifting X amount of pounds for bicep curls for ten wraps or X amount of pounds for squats, for eight reps or whatever it is. This is specific and this is actionable. And when you know exactly what your goal is and you know exactly what you need to do to reach that goal, then you will actually be able to see results. I know so many people and this was me for a decade of my life. I kept saying, I need to lose weight, I need to do X, Y and Z. Like I just need to work out more. That's not a specific goal. So if that's but you've been kind of finding yourself saying, like, I need to lose weight or I just need to work out more, I need to eat better. Those are not specific and those are not actionable. Thus you're not going to know what you're working towards and it's going to be impossible for you to see results.
And number 13, focus on the process, not results. There are a few reasons why this is super important. So number one, remember that real change takes time. It's a process. There are literally no shortcuts in life. I wish we lived in an Amazon Prime delivery kind of way when it comes to health and fitness, but that's just not the case. You don't see Amazon Prime results overnight. So when we focus on the results instead of the process, that's when we become impatient. We want to see results instantly. We want to see results overnight. And when we don't, we get discouraged. But if we focus more on the process and stay consistent with the process, the results will come. You just need to be patient. And number two, when we're so focused on the results, we become blind to the results. It's like watching paint dry. If you're staring at yourself waiting to see results, you won't see the results. Here's a simple way to do this. Let go of the results and instead focus on the process. Focus on taking photos of progress, photos of yourself once a month. Focus on tracking your weight consistently that you are lifting in your workouts. Focus on your consistency with the acts on the calendar, all of those things. And when you do that, when you do that consistently, you're actually going to enjoy the process so much more because you're going to see and appreciate your results.
So there you have it. That is part two of 13 Ways to Make Moving Your Body Consistently Easy. Part two Here is what I discussed in case you need a quick recap. Like me, I love a good list and I love just kind of a good like overall recap so that I remember. Number seven Don't overcommit. Be realistic about what you can and can't do on a weekly and daily basis. Number eight Be open minded about movement. Remember that movement isn't just getting a structured workout in or going to the gym. It can mean anything. Just honoring your body with any kind of movement daily that truly will change your relationship with movement and fitness in general. Number nine find a way to hold yourself accountable, whether that's getting an accountability partner or workout partner, or even asking your significant other or your best friend to help hold you accountable. Number ten Track your progress. Remember that sometimes we can't see the changes in the mirror every single day and we think we aren't making progress when in fact we are making a lot of progress. So it's really important that you are tracking your progress so that you can see the hard work that the hard work that you're doing is, in fact, paying off.
Number 11, track your consistency. So again, getting out that calendar and tracking within X the amount of days and weeks and months that you are staying consistent with, honoring your body with movement and nourishing your body with what it needs.
Number 12 Set specific and actionable goals for yourself. Again, remember that it's hard to stay consistent if you. No what you're actually working towards. So figure out what are you working towards exactly. Get very, very specific.
And number 13, focus on the process, not the results. If you focus on the results only, you're going to struggle to see results. And a bonus tip for making staying consistent super easy is to truly get a plan, like get a plan and follow a plan. I can't tell you how many people have told me. I went from random workouts that I was doing on Pinterest or Instagram or TikTok to actually following a plan. And I can't even tell you the difference that it's making, not only in my results, but also my consistency because I'm not even thinking about it. It's taking the complete guesswork out of it.
So every single week inside Move With Julie if you are looking for some dumbbell workouts that are programed for you, you have five new workouts that are released every single Saturday at 12 p.m. Mountain Standard Time inside the app, just right there waiting for you. There's two different workouts every day. So whether you're low on time and you can only do the 30 minute variation or the standard workout, which takes, you know, 45 to 55 minutes, it doesn't matter. Each workout is effectively programed, it's time efficient. And you are not only going to get in and out with a killer workout, but you're actually going to see results because you're more likely to stay consistent because you're actually following a plan. It's super easy. You just literally open up the app and you follow along. There's video demonstrations for every single movement I prescribe to you the sets, the reps, all of those things it is go at your own pace, which is awesome for so many people because they have told me that they love that format, that they're not rushed, they don't feel like they're rushing or that they're behind in the follow along workouts, which many people struggle with.
So if you want to learn more about that and join, I do have a 50% off code that is embedded on this page. So be sure to go to this page and you can click on the Join Monthly. It's $10 off your first month, so the first month is only ten bucks for you as a new subscriber. So go to sale. That's sales.movementwithjulie.com. I will link that in the show notes below so that you can easily go check that out. And also the two episodes that I talked about in today's episode are episode 256 Five Ways to Monitor Your Progress Without the Scale, and also to 67, which is part one of this. So 13 Ways to Make Moving Your Body Consistently Easy Part one. So definitely tune in to those. If you have a friend, a coworker or someone in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this specific episode, I just ask that you share it out with them. You can copy the link and send it to them in a text message. You can also screenshot this and post it up on your Instagram story. Be sure to give us a tag. We love connecting with you guys, whether that's on the @movementwithjulie account, the embrace your account or my main account, @juliealedbetter. Yes, I have three accounts, but you feel free to tag whatever one or all three of them it totally up to you. I just love connecting with you guys and I love seeing your Aha moments from each episode. All right, that is it. I will talk to you in the next episode. I love you so much.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, @juliealedbetter. Yes, it’s with an a in the middle for that daily posts about real talk. Healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember, that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.