3 Reasons Why You Can’t Stay Consistent + What to Do About It
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I asked you ladies on my Instagram what your number one struggle was right now on your health and fitness journey and I had an overwhelming about of you respond saying you just can’t seem to stay consistent. I’ve been there, I know the frustration, but I’m now on the other side and I want to share some insight on how to get there. So in this episode of Embrace Your Real, I chat with you about what's stopping you from staying consistent and what you can do to change that.
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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 dish you 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 and let's go.
Hello and welcome back to Embrace Your Real podcast. I am so grateful that you are here spending some time with me today wherever you are tuning in. We have listeners all over the world. I'm just grateful, I'm thankful that you are choosing to show up, to prioritize yourself so that you can become the best possible version of yourself so that you can go out into this life and do the things that you love and serve the people that you love in your best capacity and in your best self. So thank you.
I asked you ladies on Instagram what your number one struggle was right now in your health and fitness journey and I had an overwhelming response of many people just saying that they can't seem to stay consistent. I have so many thoughts on this, which is why I wanted to put together an episode, because I've been there. I know the frustration. And now that I'm on the other side of it, I wanted to share some insight as to how to get there.
But before I do, I had to share the super sweet review. It comes from Tara Christine. She says, "A voice I needed to hear. As a busy mom of four, having a short, inspiring and poignant podcast is so helpful. I'm glad I found your voice. It's what I needed to start and not stop taking care of myself." That is so, so true, just like I had mentioned earlier, so that you can become your best self, so that you can serve those who you love, or in your case, Tara, being a busy mom of four, serving those kiddos in your best self, it's so important that you pour into your cup. So please don't forget that.
I appreciate every single one of you guys who leave a review. If you haven't or if you haven't in a while, you can scooch over to Apple Podcasts. There is a free podcast app on every single phone, whether it's an Apple device or an Android. So be sure to subscribe. But if you are on any Apple device, you can click on that Podcast app, type in Embrace Your Real, click subscribe, and then also, I would love for you to click that rate and review. It takes less than 30 seconds, but it helps the growth of the podcast out tremendously.
Okay, so let's dive into the three reasons why you can't stay consistent and what to do about it. Number one, you aren't adopting habits that are sustainable or are serving you. If your healthy nutrition habits or your healthy diet is too hard to maintain, then it's likely not healthy for you.
So let's chat about what a healthy diet actually even means. Let's talk about what it first doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that you're starving yourself all day. It doesn't mean that you're only eating to 1200 to 1400 calories per day. It doesn't mean that you're avoiding carbs or completely cutting out certain food groups. It also doesn't only mean that you're eating salads. It doesn't mean never allowing yourself to eat the foods that you love.
This is the reason why you can't stay consistent, because you are at least doing one of the above. So no wonder why you're struggling to stay consistent, because those things are not healthy to remain consistent with.
So what does eating healthy actually mean? It's different for every single person, but the basis of this is that it means that you're eating foods that make you feel good. It means that you're eating foods that make you feel energized. And it means that you're eating foods that make you feel happy.
So instead of beating yourself up for not staying consistent and getting mad at yourself for not being able to get back on track and being unbelievably frustrated about not being able to stay on track again, question why are you getting off track in the first place? There is a reason why you cannot stay consistent, and likely, it has nothing to do with willpower or self-control or lack thereof. I'm guessing it has to do with trying to hold yourself to unsustainable habits.
So I want to challenge you to create a new track that is actually sustainable, one that you can actually stay consistent with. If you can't see yourself sticking to these habits for three months or six months, or even three years, then those habits are likely not habits you should even strive to stick to now.
Number two, you aren't doing something that you enjoy. Here is the number one key to remaining consistent, you must enjoy the process. If you don't enjoy it, you're not going to remain consistent. That is plain and simple. If you hate doing your workouts and you dread them every single day, of course you're not going to stick with it. You can only force yourself to do something you hate so many times before you just quit altogether.
If you hate the foods that you're eating and never feel satisfied after eating, of course you're going to cave. You can only force yourself to eat foods you hate so many times.
So how do you solve this? Well, first, you have to experiment. Figure out what you do and don't like. There are tens of thousands of different ways to move your body. If you hate running on a treadmill, then don't do it. If you hate HIIT group workout classes, then don't do it. If you don't like lifting super heavy weights with a barbell, don't do it. No one is forcing you except for you.
For me personally, I found that I love working out at home and I love doing it with dumbbells. That brings me legitimate joy and I look forward to doing it, and I actually have fun while I'm doing it.
So keep experimenting for you with different workouts until you find something that brings you joy, that you look forward to doing and that you crave doing. Be patient. It's going to take a while, but I promise that you'll find it.
Testing new things isn't that expensive at all. For example, in my Movement With Julie app, you can test it out for seven days entirely free. You can do all the workouts, get a feel for what it's about without committing to the subscription. If you want to try it out, be sure to head over to movementwithjulie.com, and I will link that in the show notes.
But there's so many other ways that you can try out different things. Some people love following group workout classes. Other people don't like that. They like to be at their own pace. Again, it is up to you and no one should tell you what you should and shouldn't do, because at the end of the day, the best workout, and I will say this 10 times out of 10, the best workout that you can do is the one that you most enjoy doing and that you actually follow through on.
And as far as food, the same can be said there. There are countless different foods that you can eat that fit into your macros. Contrary to popular belief, you don't just need to eat salads, plain chicken, plain veggies, and plain rice to build the body that you want. You don't need to eat the same things daily, unless what you're eating is truly bringing you joy and you love it.
I want to encourage you to experiment with different foods, experiment with different recipes. I promise that there are so many delicious macro friendly meals that won't make you feel deprived and you're actually able to cook very easily. The options are literally endless.
If you're someone that just hates cooking or hates looking for recipes, I've got you because that's me. And that's why every single challenge, I come out with a new recipe guide that's filled with recipes that are super simple, because I know what it's like to look at a recipe that's complex and just feel like your head is spinning. So if you want to check that out, be sure to head over to my website, juliealedbetter. And if you click on the shop bar, you will be able to see recipe guides, or you can go over directly to the URL. It is www.juliealedbetter.com/recipe-guides, and you'll see there we have all of the previous challenge, recipe bundle guides there. If you want to get a bundle, you actually save 20 bucks, but you can purchase them individually.
And they are also filled, each one, with a jumpstart meal plan. And every single one of them has a seven day jumpstart meal plan, as well as a grocery list to make it super simple for you. But I'm telling you that the options are endless and it doesn't have to be so difficult.
Number three, you aren't finding balance. Many of us go into this healthy lifestyle with this all or nothing mentality. And trust me, that was me for so many years. Either you're going to eat 100% healthy and you're going to crush your workouts 100% of the time, or you're not going to do it at all.
The trick to stay consistent is to let go of your need, to do it perfectly. Remember that this is something that you're going to do for the rest of your life, so you cannot expect yourself to do it perfectly 100% of the time. You have to allow yourself room to eat the cookie, have the ice cream, the pizza, the chips, or whatever it is that you want to eat. You can't expect yourself to go the rest of your life without eating any of these things.
You need to allow yourself the room to have some off workouts or lazy workouts where you're putting in half effort and definitely have those rest and recovery days. You cannot expect yourself to crush every single workout at 100% capacity for the rest of your life. That's just not realistic. You have to learn balance, balance, balance.
You can eat the cookie for breakfast and the salad for lunch. That is okay. Eating a cookie for breakfast doesn't mean that it's over. It doesn't mean that it's time to let go of all the healthy habits you've adopted and skip your workout and eat more cookies all day. All it means is that you ate a dang cookie for breakfast because you wanted it, and now you're going to go back to you, regularly scheduled programming.
You've heard me say it a million times before and you're likely going to hear me say it a million times in the future, focus on consistent imperfect action instead of perfect inconsistent action. So find a healthy balance that you can sustain longterm. The more permission that you give yourself to just be human, the more consistent you'll find yourself with being. So I need to remind you, please throw out that all or nothing mindset because that is not going to serve you now, it's not going to serve you in a week, and it's definitely not going to serve you in three years.
Okay, so there you have it, the three reasons why you're likely struggling to remain consistent and what to do about it. Number one, you aren't adopting habits that are sustainable or serving you. If your healthy nutrition habits or your healthy diet is too hard to maintain, then it's not healthy. If you can't see yourself sticking to these habits for three days, three weeks, three months or three years, then these are likely habits that you should stop trying to stick to now.
Number two, you aren't doing something that you enjoy. Remember, you must enjoy the process. If you don't enjoy it, you will likely not remain consistent, plain and simple.
So I need you to go out there and find what you actually enjoy. And I wanted to make a note on this. I think oftentimes we think that when something is challenging, we almost use it as an excuse to give up. I want you to differentiate in your mind what is something that you enjoy, like you genuinely enjoy and it's challenging and it's hard work, and what you don't enjoy.
So for me, I love weightlifting. I love picking up dumbbells and just going after my workouts. And yes, it's hard. There are days where it's hard work, but that doesn't mean that I'm not enjoying it. So I need you to find that differentiation between something that you just plain and simple don't enjoy anymore or something that's just hard. Because I'm telling you, the only way that you're going to get results is if you put in the work, the hard work.
So find something you enjoy. And yes, there's going to be days and weeks and even months where it's hard, it's challenging work, but that shouldn't stop you from continuing to do it. But there are other things on the flip side that you have been battling that you just don't enjoy anymore, and let that go. Be okay. Find something new. Experiment.
Number three, you aren't finding balance. I need you to focus on consistent imperfect action instead of perfect inconsistent action. Remember, every single time that you continue to show up and commit to whatever it is that you're doing, even if it's not perfect, especially when it's not perfect, that is going to add up, instead of you getting to this place where you are constantly just giving up because you're striving for perfection when that shouldn't even be something that you're striving for because it's not realistic.
And I'm telling you, 10 times out of 10 when you strive for perfection, you're going to fall short every single time because it's just not in our nature to follow through perfect every single time. So give yourself grace and continue to show up, the real, the messy, and the raw and be consistent about it.
That is all that I have for today's episode. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. I hope that you found it helpful. I would love to know kind of what came from it. I would love to know what you are planning on implementing if you have been struggling with consistency. Maybe as you're hearing this, you hear something very loud and clear and you're like, "Okay, that is actually why I haven't been consistent."
I would love to know that. I would love to know what you're planning on doing. Be sure to screenshot this. Tag me, JulieALedbetter, tag EmbraceYourReal account. We love connecting with you guys. We love seeing your aha moments. And if you have a girlfriend or a friend or someone in your life that you feel like would just benefit from this, that you feel like would benefit from this podcast, I just ask that you share it out. You can send it to them in a text message. You can post it up on your story, like I said, and I appreciate you guys more than you know.
Also be sure to check out those [inaudible 00:14:57]. Also, don't forget to check out the links that I mentioned in today's podcast, the seven day free trial, which is www.movementwithjulie.com. You can check out all about the program, what it includes, and you can sign up for your seven day free trial there. And then also the macro friendly recipe guide, which is linked in the show notes, or you can go to the URL, juliealedbetter.com/recipe-guides, and all of the previous challenge guides are available to the public. You guys, there are so many delicious recipes, as well as protein batch recipes.
So if you're not familiar, I'm a huge protein batch person. I believe that there is so much potential when it comes to meal planning and prepping when you do batch proteins. So basically that is prepping big batches of a specific protein that you can use in multiple different dishes throughout the week. Not only is it time effective and efficient, but it helps save you moolah as well, which is always a fabulous thing.
I thank you so much again for tuning in and I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
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're not already following me on the Gram, be sure to do so, JulieALedbetter, Yes, it's with an A in and middle, for that daily post-workout 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.